Interview with Mara at the end of our trip (age 9)
Q: First question Mara, do you like living/being in Thailand?
Mara: Yes. It’s nice, but I think 6 months is enough time to be here. It was an amazing time there.
Q: What do you like most about Thailand?
Mara: Just seeing a different culture. There are elephants and green plants. And everything is cheap. I like seeing the ladies from the Hill Tribes selling things in the market especially the croaking frogs. I loved the food-go-round and the sushi.
Q: What do you think about the food here?
Mara: It’s yummy. It’s cheap, it’s mostly fast. And it’s just a different way of making stuff – different flavors, different tastes, different ingredients and different styles of cooking. I’ve liked trying the different foods. I’ll miss the good sushi and the yummy corn on the cob I get at the markets. I’m also going to miss the coconuts, the good smoothies, the crepes, and the ice cream bars from the ice cream vendors. I’ve also really enjoyed going to the “food-go-round” place. I’m going to miss Nic’s, Yummy Pizza, Art Cafe, and The Dukes.
Q: What have been your favorite experiences?
Mara:
- The Take Care of your Own Elephant for a Day experience. I loved my elephant. I think I grew a good friendship with her even if it was just for a day. I’ll miss her a lot. Her name was MaeKwan.
- Cooking school! I got to make my own food like coconut soup, mixed vegetables, and pumpkin custard. It was SO MUCH FUN! And the food was excellent! SO GOOD!
- The markets were outstanding. They have a lot of stuff, they have food sections and it’s just fun to go, even if you get nothing.
- The Yee Peng festival was so pretty and it looked like stars up there. It was just so magical and pretty.
- I liked 3D Art Museum too. It didn’t look that real in real-life but in the pictures it does. But some stuff was just awesome.
- I totally loved the Maesa Elephant Camp. Elephants painted. We could see a 3 week old elephant – it was SO CUTE! It’s trunk was only 1’ long and SO SO SO SO CUTE!
- FISH SPA!!! It tickled so much! And its AWE-SOME!
- KIDZANIA!!! TOTALLY TOTALLY AWE-SOME! You got to try out so many different jobs. We got to take a real wheel off a real car. And they had a spy thing which was so cool. Oh and I loved being the mail person because then I got to carry around a little cart full of packages. And I got to be a judge. I loved being a firefighter – you got to put out a fire with real water! I loved making my own Coke, making my own McDonald’s burger and making sushi.
Q: Any experiences you didn’t like?
Mara:
- Getting a foot massage.
- The White Temple was a little bit of a bummer. I expected it to be different.
- I didn’t like the Monkey Cave because the monkeys were surrounding us and it was scary.
- Squat toilets. I did not like squatting AT ALL.
- Black House was so yucky because it had all these skins and bones and eeeggghhh. Yucko.
- Driving to Myanmar for our border runs.
- The different language because you can’t communicate very well.
Q: What will you miss the most?
Mara: I’ll miss the driving because it’s full of stuff you never see in the USA. Like 20-30 people in the back of a truck. I’m going to miss the culture and the yummy sushi. I’m going to miss tuk tuks and songtaews.
Q: Last question, what have you missed the most from the US?
Mara: English speakers. I’ve also missed being able to make friends because the kids don’t speak English here.