On A Back Road

One late afternoon,  IngSong and I took a bike ride on a back road within a stone's throw of our house.  The small roadway took us past a small village and along Mae Lao River, and eventually led us to a spectacular view of the setting sun over the vast sky and big river.

We crossed over the floodgate to the other side, and found the end of the concrete pathway.  It was not inviting to go on beyond that point, as IngSong has a fixed gear bike or a city bike which is not good on the dirt path.  We turned back and decided on what seemed to be a smaller road on the other side of the river. 

The small road led us on to what appeared to be very plain, yet with plenty of Spanish Needles on the side.  

Then, ..... came a big surprise!  

A huge patch of purple wild flowers.

And corn field .......

And ... sweeping stretches of wide open lovely fields ....

It just took our breath away.  

It was absolutely stunning.   Lush green rice paddies!  Great big blue sky!   In the midst of that wide openness and the living colors, everything was so alive and it made me feel so very ...  RICH!  

Exuberant!

Yes, indeed!!

Linger, linger on!

That was what I died to do, but the evening was closing on us way too soon.

Move on!

"Mom, it is getting dark.  Should we move on?"

That was it!

We did just that.

But, God was so gracious and lovingly kind.

For no special reason, 

the extraordinary sunlight brightly shone through.

LIGHT .... gave us the sight, did it not!

\

All things came to us in a much better view.

Marvelous sights and scenes.

Another 'waterway' on the right side of the road began to get my attention, after ignoring IngSong's comment on, 'Look there was a body of water on the other side,' for quite sometime.

Light gave us extra courage and time to enjoy the moment.  We took another break, and had a special visit with the scenery and a local farmer who was on his way home from his field.

LIGHT & WATER

What a magic could these two do to LIFE!

While the previous sight and scene of the green field made me feel like dancing,  but the turn of the scenery to abundant water and the green somehow made me ......  SMILE.

LIVELY!

That was it!

We stood there to savor the view and all signs of full life. We noticed the interesting looking shapes of instruments hung in the farmer's shed.  They were made of bamboo for catching fish.

Happy time flew by rather fast.

Our special light grew dim too soon.

We had to once again hurry on, following what seemed to be a small waterway that turned out to be another small river which we figured that it was the very one that runs right by our house. 

Not long afterward, another village came into our view.   We ventured on .... rather hastily.... 

Yet, just as the road took its turn, from the corner of my eye I could see in the dim light that the bigger waterway, Mae Lao River,  did make back its appearance on our right hand side.  Now, we were sandwiched by the first river that we had followed and the smaller one that we discovered later on. 

WOW...

What a finding for the evening!

I hurriedly took a photo while riding!!!  And, that was the end of our venture on the little roadway.  It passed through the village  and merged onto a main road.  A friendly villager directed where the main road would lead to.

Another surprise!

The main road would take us to the highway and the landmark which told us how far we were from home.  It dawned on me right there and then that we would have to ride up and down hill over 10 kilometer to get home.

Now what!!!!

Should we back tracking or venture on?

Backtracking!  That was what IngSong decided for us.  I turned back and quickly got myself on the small road again, but rather speedily this time.

Rode on and rode on!

It was getting dark, darker and darker.

From dusk to dark, 

and

eventually semi-darkness enveloped us.

Though we were right on the same path, things looked way different without the light.  I led the way.  IngSong brought up the rear, which was my delight for being sure who was behind me.  It was queer to be out in the middle of nowhere alone at nightfall.

And, another surprise!

Millions of insects or bugs or little flying little things were coming against me!!!!  I never imagined there were so many of them in the air.  I wished I had my glasses to protect my eyes and thus held my breath for fear that I would breath them in.  IngSong called over for me not to speak, or I would have gulped them down otherwise.  

I could not believe I would have such much strength to power me through those fields.  The street light from a far distance eventually came into view.  It was most welcome than ever.

Finally, we made it back to where our adventure began, the Mae Lao River.  I breathed a sign of relief while taking a split of a second break, and also for IngSong to capture the moment of the last light of our beautiful Chiang Rai sky.

We arrived home safely.  Our hearts sang.  We were most thankful for a marvelous time.