Over the years, during my many travels, I've made friends with several young, professional Thai women. I met Aom five years ago. At that time she was studying to be a lab technician at Chiang Mai University. Today she works at a public hospital, has married a gentle man, and has a darling baby daughter who calls me "Grandma."

Recently Aom invited me on an overnight visit to her natal rice-farming village, a three-hour drive northeast of Chiang Mai.

The whole family picked me up in their truck in the early morning of a Buddhist holiday. We broke up the long drive through the mountains with a breakfast stop (fried rice noodles and vegetables) and a temple visit.

We arrived at our destination in mid afternoon. Before heading to the village we stopped at the family's rice paddies where Mom, Dad, and cousins sloshed around planting rice. There would be no holiday for these dedicated rice farmers. Aom and I carefully walked along the narrow dikes to where her mother toiled. The planters took a short break to give me a smile, and then returned to their backbreaking task of tucking individual rice sprouts into the mud.

When we arrived at the recently renovated two-story house, Aom showed me to my room, one of only two bedrooms, yet seldom used. Thais often sleep together and in this case Mom, Dad, and a nephew slept in the same bedroom. Aom and her husband and baby would sleep in the family room.

Just off the family room was a large bathroom. I was impressed, and relieved. Rarely does one find an indoor, upstairs bathroom in a Thai village home.

The village water is turned off at 8 p.m. and I wanted to shower before everyone came back from the paddies.

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First Published: Oct 28, 2006