Friday June 18
We decided to take the bus to the Butterfly Farm. Samantha was excited to climb take the pedestrian bridge to cross over the highway – not as impressive as the bridges in Bang Na, Bangkok, but still a delight for Miss Three. She studied the ants at the bus stop, with Sean giving her a home school lesson on the life of ants and termites while we waited.

Then, as we boarded the bus, she saw the most beautiful sight she’d ever seen. The Back Seat! It was empty and it offered a birds eye view of everything. She ran straight back there and said, “I’m gonna sit here, Mum!” Who can argue with such enthusiasm?

Samantha was very excited about going to the Butterfly Farm, and told everyone we met, “We’re going to the Butterfly Pharmacy to play with the Butterflies and the dinosaurs. The Triceratops family is gonna be there.” The Triceratops family was also at the beach, staying at the hotel just down the road from us.

The bus driver dropped us in the middle of nowhere, and told us to wait for the 501. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Eventually we took a taxi, and discovered we could have walked the 1.5km to the Farm. I mean, Pharmacy.

Samantha was a little confused at the Farm, because there were no cows or sheep or horses or chickens. Just Butterflies and a few other exotic creatures. But she immediately wanted to hold them and play with them. She was extremely jealous of Mummy, because I was wearing a pink top, the colour of some of the flowers, and the butterflies kept landing on me. So, several times she tried to grab a butterfly and put it on her shoulder. Eventually I found a butterfly with a broken wing (so it could fly away), and I gently picked it up and put it on her shoulder. Happy Miss Three!

There’s a lovely little room at this Butterfly Farm where they house some other creatures. Big beetles, I mean BIG beetles! I was surprised at the size of some of them. A Preying Mantis that looks like an orchid. And a couple of huge tarantulas. These freaked Samantha out! You’ve seen photos of her playing with a dead wolf spider, right? Well, my fearless Rug Rat was shaking in her sandals! I tried to explain that the Black Widow she wanted to play with in California was more deadly that this big guy, but she just thought I was crazy. We also watched the scorpions fight in the Scorpion Pit. She enjoyed that.

Back to Baan Talay, and another perk of the Home Stay… when we arrived, KD, his wife and staff were having dinner. They invited us to join them. So, I put Timothy to bed and had a lovely vegetarian curry for dinner. Yum!