120126 Thaikarl - 10 Shots

We popped into the shooting range at the Sweet Tamarind Fair and took some shots

that was fun!

120117 Thaikarl - days rolling by like summer

friends,

when i was a kid in grade school, the beginning of june was an exciting time.  school would let out for summer!  we had three months of freedom.  it felt like i had forever to be out playing in the sun, staying up late, hanging with my friends.  right about the beginning of august, the stores would start putting out "back to school" displays. oh no!  it didn't make sense.  summer still had a whole month to go, and the best weather yet.  but the shades of impending return to structure, rules, disipline and teachers telling us what to do had started to fall on me. as those last weeks sped by, i felt an anxiety for fun-not-had, explorations-not-done, and then it was "back to the real world".

i have a similar feeling now.  nearly half way to running out of visa time.  we've been busy.  i've been more interested in doing life here than writing about it.  we've had some fun adventures, went to our house in Ban Chang, went scuba diving with a friend from seattle, saw a lot of cool temples.  i've been helping tok around the house, fixing things i can, cleaning up the yard.  her tamarind business is starting to happen, the sour tamarind is just getting ripe, and i get to be the one to buy the fruit from people when the come to the house and tok is gone to the factory or seeing her processing workers.  Mama got a flu, and they put her in the hospital for a week to mind her care, so Tok spent most days and nights at the hospital.  we do errands, go shopping, take care of business.  normal things of life.  but this is life unlike any other i have know before i started coming here.

i have the kind of mind that likes to compare and contrast, i notice differences, similarities, what works here vrs what works there, how it's done here, how it's done over there.  living in thailand after living most of my life in america provides a rich environment for my comparative mind.  since i'm abysmally slow at learning even the simplest thai language, i can't ask about things, i have to observe, and guess.  often the only thing i can say is "amazing thailand"  to my wife, everything is "normal life", so she's not up for answering a thousand questions about such ordinary things.  when we go to the temple for Tam Bun (make merit) she sometimes has me repeat the words after her.  which i try to do, mangling the pronunciation pretty badly.  i asked her what we were saying.  she said she doesn't know.  the words it turns out, are in Pali language, which is the language that buddist canonical texts were written in.  similar to the way the old catholic church used to say mass in latin, like they did when i was a kid.  i'm almost certain that they teach the meaning of the words in schools and such, but like the meaning of the latin i learned as an alterboy, it's just words you say when you are devoting.

i drive her to distraction sometimes with my fascinations.  she's up in the tree whacking away at the diseased branches with a big knife, and i'm taking pictures of the hoards of ants we've disturbed, instead of pulling away the cut branches.  meanwhile, those same ants (red weaver ants)  i'm so fascinated with are biting her ankles, arms and neck, crawling up underneath her cloths before they open their jaws an bite down on her flesh.  she's totally focused on getting the job done and getting out of the tree, i'm wondering where the ants are going to live now.  btw, they harvest the larvae from these ants nests and sell them at the market.  very tasty!

i brought a Nook e-book reader with me this time.  an entire library of reading in one device. so i'm reading jack london's "The Sea Devil" now.  i'm an evangelist for these devices.  since i've had a nasty cold the past few day's i haven't been doing much besides reading.  and web-surfing.  mama isn't feeling too good. tok took her to the hospital today but they don't have any blood to tranfuse for her.  she started coughing up blood, so tok took her back this evening. so it's just me and you tonight folks. hope yall in seattle are enjoying the snow.

cares to you all
อนุกูล

120101 Thaikarl - New Years Day visit to a beautiful temple

friends,

we visit a lot of temples.  they are everywhere in thailand.  even the smallest village will have at least one.  some are more magnificent than others.  on new years day, Tok says "we're going to the beautiful temple in the mountains"  cool!

we took the motorbike, because Tok said there would be a lot of cars on the road, which turned out to be very true.  many cars from bangkok (the origin of the car is named on the license plates.)  of course it was a pleasant day, warm and sunny.  i miss riding the motorbike.  since Tok got her pick-up truck, we take the car more often. the road up the mountain isn't too steep, but our little motorbike burned nearly a tank of gas getting up there - which is a couple of liters.  it hasn't rained since i've been here, so the forests are turning brown, and very dry.  but still beautiful on the drive up.

the temple was extraordinary.  the entire thing was covered in mosaic.  tiles, broken dishes, glass, jewels, ornate plates; and the top was mirror glazed gold tiles.  and they are far from finished.  the upper floors were still cement walls inside.  and they are building another temple near by that will be covered in cut-glass diamonds.  millions of them.  there is a hospital at the bottom of the hill, for people who come to tam bun (make merit) at the temple and need medical care.  in the surrounding hills were resort buildings where you can spend the night.  Tok said they were in Burmese style.

we had visited this site a couple of years ago, when just the concrete shell was under construction.  amazing what they have accomplished since then.  we both wondered how they designed all the elements- was it all planned out as to color, shape and style before hand, or was a rough drawing made and the individual artists allowed to fill the space to in their own design?  however it was done, it took a lot of careful though and devotion to harmony, color and detail to accomplish.  just gathering the materials was a huge job in itself.  someone had to buy the pottery and dishes and tile, and someone had to break things into little pieces to mosaic with.  we recognized bits that were parts from  colonnades, pots, floor tiles, and cups and dishes commonly sold in the markets in thailand.

 

there were many people there due to the holiday.  we'll go back again another day when it's not so crowded and look at the details a little more.  Tok told me there had been some local resistance to building a temple there, but the Kings daughter interceded and requested it be constructed.

when my sister and i went to Europe some years ago, we went to major cathedrals in every town we went to.  there were some very impressive ones, especially the one in Koln Germany.  European cathedrals were of course, built for a different purpose, and in a different time.  i find the Thai temples much more resonant with my own spirit.  the cathedrals just felt like interesting old buildings.  Temples feel like devotion and self directed calm, and the artwork is much more impressive to me.  but i am obviously biased.

There is a gallery of many photos we took that day in picassa.  and there is a panoramic view in my Photosynth gallery.  enjoy.

onward!  Nu

120101 - Thaikarl Calendar says it's a new year

friends,

it's new years day here in thailand - new years eve still for yall.  we're always in the future.  Tok and i have had some marvelous adventures and a lot of ordinary daily life here in the land of perpetual summer.  obviously i've spent more time doing things than typing them out. 

we went out for dinner at a nice karaoke restaurant last night.  Mama is still sick in hospital with some bug, so Tok, Teri, and Toks good friend Malee and i had an excellent dinner.  There was no place with a newyears "countdown" so Tok took Teri and me back home, and she went back to stay at the hospital with MaMa.  The neighbors were setting off fireworks and had their stereo cranked up to 10 playing karaoke songs.  This went on ALL night.  they didn't' shut down until 9:00am this morning.  so aside from lonely sleep because Tok wasn't there, i had boom boom boom BANG! dreams.  I woke up to the usual rooster choir, stereo still blasting Midi music and people singing sorta close to the song, and the zooming traffic on the big road, sun blazing thru the east window.  and there is no place else i'd rather be.

for all of you, a good year.

111211 Thaikarl - The winds of home keep me unstill

friends,

i've received a few emails asking "whats happening over there? where are the postings"  i have to admit, posting about life here, reminds me of life there, and i'd rather just be here.  but, my postings are as much for me as for yall, as it keeps a record of my experiences  and travels.  so here's the ketchup, and i'll post some of the details accounts on the website and send links to them.

my 23 hour layover in korea was wonderful.  i like korea.  even though i've only seen a small part of Seoul, the vibe there is very pleasant.  but it was cold!  i spent the night in the jjimjillbang, which was amazing.  if you fly korean air to asia, look for the schedule that gives you that 23 hour layover.  you can exit the airport, bus or train into the city, and have a free day in korea.

arrived in bangkok late in the evening and couldn't find Tok,  my mobile phone didn't work, so i had to figure out the pay-phones.  finally discovered you have to dial a leading "0" to get through.  she was waiting way down at the other end of the terminal.  i'd delayed my departure a week to let the flood waters go down some, and she had a room at our favorite hotel all booked and ready to go.  the sky-train  boards right at the airport - unlike the light rail in seattle, which boards a thousand yards away, terrorists you know, can't have them taking the train right to the airport- we have to make them walk in like the rest of us. the sky train takes us to victory monument station, where it's a short walk to Hotel 99.

we spend a couple of days in bangkok.  picking up things we can't get up north.  bangkok shopping is an assault on the senses.  there is so much stuff, so many little shops and kiosks.  strange thing is, if you are just walking around looking at everything you will find all sorts of things you didn't know you needed.  but if you go looking for a specific thing - like a 14V DC power adapter, you'll go crazy cause nobody has one.  there were piles of sandbags everywhere, and many of the shops had sudden cinder block dams built around the entrances.  Tok told me that at the height of things, people were charging as high as 400 baht (12.97$) per sandbag.  normal price about 50 cents.  there's probably whole beaches with no sand on them anymore.   my favorite guitar shop had nothing on the racks.  the owner moved everything upstairs in case the water came as far as his shop, luckily it didn't.

we took the bus from Mochit station home to Lom Sak. along the way, just outside of bangkok, we could see there were large areas still underwater.  acres and acres of factories and homes flooded.  fortunately, most of the major roads in thailand are built on raised berms, so traffic still moves, but there were a couple of times the bus had to cross sections a foot deep in water.

from the time we got home, we've been going going going, like little energizer bunnies.  went to the tamarind factory, went to a singing contest that Toks daughter danced in, visiting people, getting supplies, shopping for food and things i need, getting the car fixed, getting supplies for the construction workers.  hardly any time sitting on the porch reading my book and sipping espresso.  my wife had saved up some money, put it down on a toyota pickup truck, and contracted to have the dirt area under our bedroom house paved with concrete.  the people who sold her the truck changed their minds and wanted the rest of the money at once, so they could buy another car, so we ran around trying to find another truck - Tok finally made arrangements with another family in the village to pay off the first people and carry the loan for her.  on and on and on.  only quieted down in the last couple of days.

i just love it here.  it's warm and sunny everyday.  it's the dry season now, so no rain for a couple months and cool at night.

Weather for Phitsanulok, Thailand  (in the mountains 130 km away from us, a little warmer where we are.)

79°F | °C

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Scattered Clouds

Wind: E at 4 mph

Humidity: 47%

81°

59°

84°

61°

86°

61°

86°

66°

last night, i took a shower in my outside shower, and looked up and enjoyed the total eclipse of the moon, the bright point of jupiter, the shadow of palm trees against the night sky.  sublime.

(20 second exposure)

onward!  Nu

111207 Thaikarl Getting ready

slumber party at our house last night.  my wife's daughter and her friends are in a dancing show this morning.
everybody was up *before* dawn so Tok could do their make-up.


amazing thailand!

111129 Thaikarl - moving quickly with muddy feet

friends,

landed at the airport in bangkok a few days ago and havn't stopped moving since.  went everywhere shopping and looking in BKK, took the bus home to Dong Khwang, our village. lots of changes around here - new houses here and there, trees and bushes have grown up, my sweet wife has been busy making improvements to the house and property.

you know how there's always something you forget to bring when you travel?  i forgot to pack the netbook that i bought specifically for traveling.  it's small, light, easy to transport and it works.  the two notebook computers we have at the house here are very old, slow and generally messed up.  only got this one working late this afternoon... is why i haven't been posting anything since i got back.

but it's wonderful to be here, its certainly a thrill, waking up at 5:30 am to the howling roosters next door, the blazing sun rise that turns the bedroom house into an easy-bake oven within an hour; cars, trucks and motorbikes roaring by intermittently on the big road out front, people talking in words i can barely make out and can't understand, the wack wack wack sound of someone pulverizing chilies and herbs in a stone mortar, and oh yeah, when you are at the edge of the road wanting to cross, look the other way, cause cars are driven on the left side. 

and i'm happy as can be to be home.

more... when i get the computer crap worked out.

cares, Nu

(for the folks new to this list, my thai given name is Anukhun - which means "good person to all people".  they shorten names here, or have pet/nick names they go by.  most every one around our area calls me 'nukhun'  sounds like "noo-koon".  my wife is a little more familiar and she calls me just "Nu".  it sounds like a big "N" sound with a very short, clipped "uw" right behind it.  most thai's have a hard time pronouncing "Karl" so many years ago we went to see the monks to get my proper thai name.)