Are You My Mother?

Shrine to the Queen in church
for Mother's Day

Mother's Day in Thailand is celebrated on the Queen's birthday, which is August 12th.  This also happens to be my friend, Mika's, birthday.  (She does have some royal qualities!)  Many of the schools have special programs to honor the students' mothers.  Her daughter's school had a program where all the mothers and daughters dressed in blue, and the children performed song and dance for their paparazzi parents.  The program lasted only an hour or two in the morning, then school was out for the day.  We decided to take advantage of Momo's free day by visiting the Pattaya Sheep Farm.

The Pattaya Sheep Farm is only about twenty minutes away, near the Regents International School where many Ford families send their kids.  Down a dusty dirt road, the farm is more tourist attraction than farm, with kitschy decorations like Shaun the Sheep soldiers, a windmill, Easter eggs (!) and Halloween decorations. Giant spray-painted hay bales are decorated as minions and Mike Wyzowski.

A few amusement park rides for little ones were tucked away at the back of the park.  The little train cars were painted like sheep... creepy sheep.  I am surprised children aren't afraid to ride it.  Momo was game, however, bravely and carefully choosing which car she would ride.  The ticket lady said the train wouldn't run without selling two tickets, so Mika bought one for herself.  But the lady stopped her from riding with Momo.  I guess it is a "children only, but we will happily take your money" policy.  At least it wasn't too expensive.

The main attractions here are the animals.  Not just sheep, but deer, pigs, ponies, turtles, guinea pigs, rabbits and birds.  Visitors can feed most of the animals by purchasing food from little stands, like milk for the baby pigs and some kind of plants for the sheep.  On a busy holiday weekend, I imagine the animals all get more than their fill.  Not a bad gig for the owners, letting people pay them to feed their animals.  The animals were very docile and we enjoyed petting the soft little lambs.

Mika's family had visited the farm before, and Momo was excited to have another pony ride.  She looked quite happy being walked around the paddock, with a worker leading her trusty steed and her mom walking along beside her.

At the far end of the park sits a large enclosure of birds.  Stepping through the double-doored entrance, we were surrounded by chickens, roosters, pheasants and peacocks, to name a few.  Some of the birds were nearly as tall as Momo, it seemed.  Mika bought a dish of food for Momo to feed to the birds, but as soon as the dish was in her a hand, a big rooster flew up on it and knocked it out of her hand.  She was rightfully startled and needed a lift out of the melee.  The worker gave her a chair to stand on, where she was able to toss the feed down to the birds on the ground from a safe distance.

A second enclosure, inside the first, housed some beautiful, brightly-colored parrots (or lorikeets?)  Here you pass through a second double set of doors, and can purchase a dish of sunflower seeds to feed these birds.  My companions were a bit uncomfortable with the aggressiveness of the birds, so it fell to me to man the dish.  It was a kick to have all these birds basically using me as a tree to get to their precious food.  I loved being up close with these beauties.

After all that excitement, we made our way to the Barn Steakhouse for some lunch.  Only a couple of tables were occupied, but the service was really slow.  We didn't mind too much as we were happy to be out of the heat.  Mika ordered a steak sandwich and I ordered a chicken wrap, but we both got steak sandwiches.  So instead of waiting for them to make a new one, I had the steak sandwich.  Mai Bpen Drai Ka  (no problem).  Khun Mick was waiting in the dusty parking lot to take us home.  Fun day!

My favorite shot of the day, courtesy of photographer Momo

The Mother's Day celebration in Thailand continued to the following Sunday, when a "Bike for Mom" ride was held.  Thousands of Thais in light-blue shirts showed their love and loyalty for the Queen and their own moms by participating in the ride that set a new world's record.

Sunday's Bike for Mom, led by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn and his daughter, Her Royal Highness Princess Bajrakitiyabha, in honour of Her Majesty the Queen, had 294,863 riders, the biggest such parade ever.  
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Even those who didn't ride showed their support by wearing their Bike for Mom shirts.

our driver and his wife

I was at the pool when the most senior mom of the condo, who has lived here with her husband for over thirty years, came down and was picking something from a plant next to the pool ladder.  She told me this was a pepper plant, grown wild from a seed that came from a bird's poo poo (her words, not mine).  She said these wild peppers are much better than the cultivated ones, and left a sampling on my pool chair, beautifully arranged, for me to try.  Hoo-wee, those babies are hot!