friends,
many people ask me if it's hot in thailand. my answer is yes, but it doesn't bother me. my favorite rejoinder is to say "yes, its warm. but no big deal. I mean, you wouldn't want to be digging ditches, but otherwise it's just nice and warm". so what am i doing now?
digging a ditch.
we're moving the grey-water drain from the bathroom so it drains out to the pond by the road, instead of to the field out back. which means digging up the old pipe, and trenching for the new line. it hasn't rained in days, and the sun has been out everyday, which means the temp is up to 35C today - that's the 95F for yall in USA. you dig a 3 foot row in the clay soil, sun bearing down, you are soaked with sweat. drink liters of water, never goto restroom. the locals do this kind of work for 4 dollars a day. jeez.
else, they finished grading the new road to the house behind ours, now there's a big expanse of red gravel/dirt along the house. going to be interesting when it rains on this stuff the first time. and the monster machine is gnawing away at the roadsides - clearing the brush, small trees and surface vegitation. the BIG ROAD is coming. that will be, um, different. it's going to be four lane divided highway, with motorbike lanes on each side. we will have to go south for a few hundred meters to the U-Turn break in order to go north to the town. most of the people coming round the house don't seem fazed by the road expansion at all. some grumbling because each family or group that has a driveway has to purchase the big round concrete drainpipe that will go in the ditch under their drives. the pipes are 1200 baht each - (36 USD) which is substantial for most people. but if there are several families using the same drive, they can split the cost of the piping. otherwise, everyone seems to be quite relaxed about the whole thing.
there's a few new photos in the thai country life gallery enjoy. comments welcome.
onward!
nu and tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070521
070521 Thaikarl - bangkok visa run and shopping
friends,
tok and i bussed down to bangkok. hoped to hook up with a friend of mine i met in cambodia two years ago, but he escaped back to cambodia again... but we had some shopping to do - looking for an ordinary wet/dry vacuum cleaner. you know the kind you can buy anywhere in the usa for as low as $25.00. not so here. they don't seem to exist... the ones that do, like the ones we say them using in the hotel they tell us cost 10,000 baht! that's $298 USD! can't believe.... jeez, maybe i should be importing wet/dry vacs to thailand. and i noticed some brass 1/2 water valves in the hardware store, selling for 60 baht - only 2.00 USD. the same things in brass are like 15.00 in the states. i should be exporting brass valves to the united states... hmmm. reason we're looking ofr a vac is the huge amount of dust the construction is leaving in the house. cement and sand dust everywhere, and we have to clean it off the floors . Tok is a bit sensitive to dust, she'll break out in hives if there is too much of it, so i'm looking for a vacuum so she can filter it out and not just sweep it back into the air all the time.
whilst we are here, i went to the immigration office and got a 30 day extension for my visa. giving me a total of 90 days, without having to make a visa run out of the country. only 1900 baht for the visa - cheaper than making a visa run to cambodia or laos. not too much hassle either, fill out the forms, attach a photo, go to the right line, wait. done.
we stayed at the white lodge last night. but the room was just ordinary and big, so we moved to a new hotel we found last time. a few baht more, but nice room with satellite TV! which means TV in english. woo hoo! making the rounds of bookshops also, but the pickings are slim. seems the best used book market is at chatujeck, which is on the weekends only - so we missed that.
been nice and sunny last couple of days. warmer in bangkok. might go see spiderman 3 at the cinema tonight.
onward
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
tok and i bussed down to bangkok. hoped to hook up with a friend of mine i met in cambodia two years ago, but he escaped back to cambodia again... but we had some shopping to do - looking for an ordinary wet/dry vacuum cleaner. you know the kind you can buy anywhere in the usa for as low as $25.00. not so here. they don't seem to exist... the ones that do, like the ones we say them using in the hotel they tell us cost 10,000 baht! that's $298 USD! can't believe.... jeez, maybe i should be importing wet/dry vacs to thailand. and i noticed some brass 1/2 water valves in the hardware store, selling for 60 baht - only 2.00 USD. the same things in brass are like 15.00 in the states. i should be exporting brass valves to the united states... hmmm. reason we're looking ofr a vac is the huge amount of dust the construction is leaving in the house. cement and sand dust everywhere, and we have to clean it off the floors . Tok is a bit sensitive to dust, she'll break out in hives if there is too much of it, so i'm looking for a vacuum so she can filter it out and not just sweep it back into the air all the time.
whilst we are here, i went to the immigration office and got a 30 day extension for my visa. giving me a total of 90 days, without having to make a visa run out of the country. only 1900 baht for the visa - cheaper than making a visa run to cambodia or laos. not too much hassle either, fill out the forms, attach a photo, go to the right line, wait. done.
we stayed at the white lodge last night. but the room was just ordinary and big, so we moved to a new hotel we found last time. a few baht more, but nice room with satellite TV! which means TV in english. woo hoo! making the rounds of bookshops also, but the pickings are slim. seems the best used book market is at chatujeck, which is on the weekends only - so we missed that.
been nice and sunny last couple of days. warmer in bangkok. might go see spiderman 3 at the cinema tonight.
onward
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070518
070515 Thaikarl - days in the house and about town
friends,
I was sitting under the mango tree playing my guitar, and a moth the size of my thumb landed on the branch above my head.
how many of you can say that?
it is just such an experience that makes travel and living away from the homeland such a worthy adventure. but truth is, you could be sitting under any tree, doing anything, and have any insect land on a branch above you, and have it be a worthy experience. but somehow, sitting under a pine tree, cleaning your fingernails and watching a fly land on a branch doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it?
since the shower room is all tore up for cementing and taking out thee tank, we get to take showers outside behind the house. now, that's fun! last night i took my shower before bed in the rain, throwing bowels of water on myself from the big jar. in the morning, you wrap a cloth around you, and shower with it on so as to not excite the neighbors. much.
last night teri gave me a beautiful bug. on a string. i had heard of this - tying a big flying beetle on the end of a string and using it as a flying toy, but up until now i hadn't seen it. i spent a half hour trying to remove the string from the insect without cutting off it's legs or squishing it in the process. it was a most beautiful iridescent green color, with red iridescent streaks on either side of it's head and wing cases. i finally managed to free it, and i crawled all over me for a while. dinner time came and softy me took the bug out to the flower bush and released it back into the wild, since it seemed to be still quite lively. then tok told me this morning that she had never ever seen this kind of bug before. so it's rather rare. drat. it's gone now. but i did take photo's, which i've posted to my Picasa web album.
it's a bit disrupted here, with all the work going on, so our normal things to do are somewhat shifted. but, we still go into town nearly everyday, go shopping for food at the market, stop and look at tile patterns at the home marts. tok occasionally gets a call from a massage customer of hers and we dash into town so she can work. i get the bangkok post newspaper, which is in english from the bookstore in town nearly everyday. i read the paper in the mornings, tok brings me out fresh made espresso from the stovetop espresso maker i brought with me. after a while, eggs, pork, toast and tomatoes magically appear before me on a plate. with butter and green custard ("green stuff" we call it) for the toast. then another cup of coffee appears, i have a few smokes, scratch the kitties heads, and consider the possibility of doing something today. i've been getting up a little after tok most days, which means i'm u anywhere between 6:30am and 8:00am. which is quite extra-ordinary for me. my dear older sister suggested that my circadian cycles are easier reset to mornings, the closer i am to the equator. so this means that i get to bed, and sleep anywhere from 8:00pm to midnight. still easy for me to be awake at night, but there's not much todo - tok mama and teri go to bed, the TV only has 3 stations - all in thai, and there's no internet... so i get in bed and read by little flashlight for a while. if there is one single mosquito inside the mosquito netting, It will have it's meal of me. sometimes i just turn off the light and lay in the dark warmth next to tok, listening to the sounds of the night. frogs calling, gecko's chirping, the cars, trucks and motorbikes that go by on the big road. occasional the Tokay will sing his territorial song loudly, near the back of the house. sometimes that rain comes, drips at on the tin roofs at first, but frequently it turns into a mighty roar as a tropical shower passes over. then there is a long period where the water running off everything makes intermittent splats, slowly decreasing in frequency, until only the frogs and the road is sounding.
Bak, the female cat i know from last year had three kittens the other day. we had to make sure that all the windows are blocked at night, else the male cat will come in and kill the kittens. that is what happens in free-range country cat life. males make sure that cats they didn't sire don't live to compete. i'm in favor of taking both Bak and Niki, the other calico cat to the vet for spaying. only costs 50 baht or so - about 1.5 USD.
i just finished reading "House of Sand and Fog". very good book. i saw the movie a few years ago. very intense character stories. the movie closely follows the story in the book, so the reading fills out the story of the film. i have only one book in English left, and i'm half way through it. after that...??? i should have brought more books!
by the way, i do have a mobile phone here. to call from the united states dial: 011 66 83 161 7558. overseas long distance is pretty pricey, but i can call you back. and if you really want, i can give you the numbers so you could call me on a calling card i have, but you have to ask me. when you use a calling card, you have to dial something like 36 numbers.
and i have a mailing address:
Anukhun
167 Moo 11
Namshun Lomsak
Phetchaboon 67110
Thailand
International priority mail gets here in about a week. regular mail takes 3 - 4 weeks. one of the things i forgot when i left was to copy my postal address list. so if you want a postcard, i need addresses.
photo links:
assorted pix - including the new shower room
thai bugs - some of the interesting ones....
working on the house the never ending project :-)
i just got an email from a friend i met in cambodia two years ago. he's in bangkok, so we might take the bus down for a couple of days and see if i can hook up with aaron, and do some shopping.
ONward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
I was sitting under the mango tree playing my guitar, and a moth the size of my thumb landed on the branch above my head.
how many of you can say that?
it is just such an experience that makes travel and living away from the homeland such a worthy adventure. but truth is, you could be sitting under any tree, doing anything, and have any insect land on a branch above you, and have it be a worthy experience. but somehow, sitting under a pine tree, cleaning your fingernails and watching a fly land on a branch doesn't quite have the same ring to it, does it?
since the shower room is all tore up for cementing and taking out thee tank, we get to take showers outside behind the house. now, that's fun! last night i took my shower before bed in the rain, throwing bowels of water on myself from the big jar. in the morning, you wrap a cloth around you, and shower with it on so as to not excite the neighbors. much.
last night teri gave me a beautiful bug. on a string. i had heard of this - tying a big flying beetle on the end of a string and using it as a flying toy, but up until now i hadn't seen it. i spent a half hour trying to remove the string from the insect without cutting off it's legs or squishing it in the process. it was a most beautiful iridescent green color, with red iridescent streaks on either side of it's head and wing cases. i finally managed to free it, and i crawled all over me for a while. dinner time came and softy me took the bug out to the flower bush and released it back into the wild, since it seemed to be still quite lively. then tok told me this morning that she had never ever seen this kind of bug before. so it's rather rare. drat. it's gone now. but i did take photo's, which i've posted to my Picasa web album.
it's a bit disrupted here, with all the work going on, so our normal things to do are somewhat shifted. but, we still go into town nearly everyday, go shopping for food at the market, stop and look at tile patterns at the home marts. tok occasionally gets a call from a massage customer of hers and we dash into town so she can work. i get the bangkok post newspaper, which is in english from the bookstore in town nearly everyday. i read the paper in the mornings, tok brings me out fresh made espresso from the stovetop espresso maker i brought with me. after a while, eggs, pork, toast and tomatoes magically appear before me on a plate. with butter and green custard ("green stuff" we call it) for the toast. then another cup of coffee appears, i have a few smokes, scratch the kitties heads, and consider the possibility of doing something today. i've been getting up a little after tok most days, which means i'm u anywhere between 6:30am and 8:00am. which is quite extra-ordinary for me. my dear older sister suggested that my circadian cycles are easier reset to mornings, the closer i am to the equator. so this means that i get to bed, and sleep anywhere from 8:00pm to midnight. still easy for me to be awake at night, but there's not much todo - tok mama and teri go to bed, the TV only has 3 stations - all in thai, and there's no internet... so i get in bed and read by little flashlight for a while. if there is one single mosquito inside the mosquito netting, It will have it's meal of me. sometimes i just turn off the light and lay in the dark warmth next to tok, listening to the sounds of the night. frogs calling, gecko's chirping, the cars, trucks and motorbikes that go by on the big road. occasional the Tokay will sing his territorial song loudly, near the back of the house. sometimes that rain comes, drips at on the tin roofs at first, but frequently it turns into a mighty roar as a tropical shower passes over. then there is a long period where the water running off everything makes intermittent splats, slowly decreasing in frequency, until only the frogs and the road is sounding.
Bak, the female cat i know from last year had three kittens the other day. we had to make sure that all the windows are blocked at night, else the male cat will come in and kill the kittens. that is what happens in free-range country cat life. males make sure that cats they didn't sire don't live to compete. i'm in favor of taking both Bak and Niki, the other calico cat to the vet for spaying. only costs 50 baht or so - about 1.5 USD.
i just finished reading "House of Sand and Fog". very good book. i saw the movie a few years ago. very intense character stories. the movie closely follows the story in the book, so the reading fills out the story of the film. i have only one book in English left, and i'm half way through it. after that...??? i should have brought more books!
by the way, i do have a mobile phone here. to call from the united states dial: 011 66 83 161 7558. overseas long distance is pretty pricey, but i can call you back. and if you really want, i can give you the numbers so you could call me on a calling card i have, but you have to ask me. when you use a calling card, you have to dial something like 36 numbers.
and i have a mailing address:
Anukhun
167 Moo 11
Namshun Lomsak
Phetchaboon 67110
Thailand
International priority mail gets here in about a week. regular mail takes 3 - 4 weeks. one of the things i forgot when i left was to copy my postal address list. so if you want a postcard, i need addresses.
photo links:
assorted pix - including the new shower room
thai bugs - some of the interesting ones....
working on the house the never ending project :-)
i just got an email from a friend i met in cambodia two years ago. he's in bangkok, so we might take the bus down for a couple of days and see if i can hook up with aaron, and do some shopping.
ONward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070517
070517 Thaikarl - lanquid days in Lomsak
friends,
the days have been lanquid here in lomsak. the workmen are all over the house, everything is tore up, misplaced, dusty, splashed with concrete, and the calls for "more cement", "more sand", "roofing materials" etc etc are draining the accounts. anybody who has redone their house knows what i mean, you just keep throwing money at it and hope it sticks. and there's the "well, gee, while the workman are here, and doing all this stuff already, why don't we go ahead and have them ____________?" syndrome that you get into. throw more money. someday it will be finished. (NOT) someday this phase will be finished. but it's all very worth it, as the house will look so much nicer and be more comfortable to live in.
still hoping to have enough left over to goto vietnam, or at least down south do do a little scuba diving. wull cee...
onward!!!!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
the days have been lanquid here in lomsak. the workmen are all over the house, everything is tore up, misplaced, dusty, splashed with concrete, and the calls for "more cement", "more sand", "roofing materials" etc etc are draining the accounts. anybody who has redone their house knows what i mean, you just keep throwing money at it and hope it sticks. and there's the "well, gee, while the workman are here, and doing all this stuff already, why don't we go ahead and have them ____________?" syndrome that you get into. throw more money. someday it will be finished. (NOT) someday this phase will be finished. but it's all very worth it, as the house will look so much nicer and be more comfortable to live in.
still hoping to have enough left over to goto vietnam, or at least down south do do a little scuba diving. wull cee...
onward!!!!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070513
070513 Thaikarl - ROAR! Swooooooooooooosh! Yippie! ROCKETS!!!
friends,
what a cool fun day! we got up early and took a sam lowe to the park. all the vendors were getting set up. under awnings, the rocket teams were preparing the rockets. these things are BiG! the rocket body is 10 feet long, made from PVC pipe. it is attached to a long tapering tail, made from numerous layers of bamboo. they stuff 120 kg of rocket fuel in there, pack it in and 10 guys carry it out to the gantries. they also have much smaller rockets, with 10 foot tails and engines that are 2 feet long - but the little ones go like mad!
the main crowds of people are dispersed a few hundred meters away for the launch area, but it didn't take me long to find the path out to the "danger zone" - there was a sign in thai and english that said just that. when the big rockets fire off, there is a deafening roar, lots of smoke and fire, and then the thing takes off and roars into the sky. early in the day there was 100 percent cloud cover, so the big ones would disappear into the grey cotton sky. going into the clouds was a big thing - the launch team who's rocket did this whooped and hollered and jumped around all happy.
meanwhile, over at the small gantry, they would launch the smaller rockets as fast as people got get them rigged up. these rockets had parachutes deploy, hopefully somewhere after apogee. not necessarily to recover the rocket, but to mark a successful flight. some never got off the pad, and spewed smoke and fire, going nowhere. those teams went into the mud. a few others kind of went crazy after launch, heading off in some random direction, not exactly any where near straight up. you have to keep your head up and eyes open. none of the rocket's fell into anywhere there were people that i witnessed.
we stayed until after 3 in the afternoon. there were tens of big rockets, and many more small rockets launched. and of course, a "veritable plethora" (as my friend ross used to say) of 'consumer' rockets being launched constantly. vendors were all over the park, selling food, umbrella's, shoes, sunglasses - the works. and more normal sized bottle rockets. and of course, there were the usual stacks of loudspeakers blasting out music and announcements and i don't know what. loud. bring earplugs. and tolerance.
i shot and hour and a half of video, and took a bunch of photo's. bandwidth is low at this shop, so i had to downsize the photos.
Link to a few Bang Fai photos
Tomorrow we bus back to Lom Sak.
amazing thailand!
onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
what a cool fun day! we got up early and took a sam lowe to the park. all the vendors were getting set up. under awnings, the rocket teams were preparing the rockets. these things are BiG! the rocket body is 10 feet long, made from PVC pipe. it is attached to a long tapering tail, made from numerous layers of bamboo. they stuff 120 kg of rocket fuel in there, pack it in and 10 guys carry it out to the gantries. they also have much smaller rockets, with 10 foot tails and engines that are 2 feet long - but the little ones go like mad!
the main crowds of people are dispersed a few hundred meters away for the launch area, but it didn't take me long to find the path out to the "danger zone" - there was a sign in thai and english that said just that. when the big rockets fire off, there is a deafening roar, lots of smoke and fire, and then the thing takes off and roars into the sky. early in the day there was 100 percent cloud cover, so the big ones would disappear into the grey cotton sky. going into the clouds was a big thing - the launch team who's rocket did this whooped and hollered and jumped around all happy.
meanwhile, over at the small gantry, they would launch the smaller rockets as fast as people got get them rigged up. these rockets had parachutes deploy, hopefully somewhere after apogee. not necessarily to recover the rocket, but to mark a successful flight. some never got off the pad, and spewed smoke and fire, going nowhere. those teams went into the mud. a few others kind of went crazy after launch, heading off in some random direction, not exactly any where near straight up. you have to keep your head up and eyes open. none of the rocket's fell into anywhere there were people that i witnessed.
we stayed until after 3 in the afternoon. there were tens of big rockets, and many more small rockets launched. and of course, a "veritable plethora" (as my friend ross used to say) of 'consumer' rockets being launched constantly. vendors were all over the park, selling food, umbrella's, shoes, sunglasses - the works. and more normal sized bottle rockets. and of course, there were the usual stacks of loudspeakers blasting out music and announcements and i don't know what. loud. bring earplugs. and tolerance.
i shot and hour and a half of video, and took a bunch of photo's. bandwidth is low at this shop, so i had to downsize the photos.
Link to a few Bang Fai photos
Tomorrow we bus back to Lom Sak.
amazing thailand!
onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070512
070512 Thaikarl - Bang Fai in Yasathon! rockets!
friends,
ROCKET FESTIVAL! Yee ha! half a days journey by bus(s) and we are in Yasothon thailand. over in the lower northeast of thailand. tok spotted a hotel from the bus as we were pulling into town. only 250 baht for an aircon room. ($7.65). we walked up the road towards all the sound and lights.
incredible. the street is lined on both sides with stages - every hundred feet or so -- and on every stage is dancers or people or bands, and everyone is cranking out music at 120 decibels. we're talking like 25 stages! vendors along the sidewalks, many people walking around looking, families, kids, men women, young and old. what a celebration. that was last night (friday)
today, saturday was the parade. long troups of dancers, each representing a Bang Fai (rocket) team paraded down the road. they stop in front of a judging stand, and perform a long dance, to the music and singers on the judges stand. there are these huge, superbly ornate floats - all covered with gold painted traditional thai art forms, flowers and statures that come down the road. each float has a dragons head at the front up top. there is a man who is twisting a handle from below, so the dragon head tosses and turns, spraying water from it's mouth. so cool!
it's quite warm today, humid, and a little rain brought out all the umbrella's. tomorrow i am hoping for clear weather, because there are going to be 90 rockets launched. these things are huge bottle rockets, and will go many meters into the sky. i'm all excited to see these launches. i saw this rocket festival on a little news clip on tv about 7 years ago, and i have wanted to see this ever since. pictures will be forthcoming.
but for now, we are going to take a cyclo (Tok just corrected me - cyclo is what they call 3 wheel taxi biks in cambodia and vietnam. here in thailand they are called Sam Low - which means "three wheels") to the park where all the floats are staged and there is a party going on!
woo hoo!!!
onwards!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
ROCKET FESTIVAL! Yee ha! half a days journey by bus(s) and we are in Yasothon thailand. over in the lower northeast of thailand. tok spotted a hotel from the bus as we were pulling into town. only 250 baht for an aircon room. ($7.65). we walked up the road towards all the sound and lights.
incredible. the street is lined on both sides with stages - every hundred feet or so -- and on every stage is dancers or people or bands, and everyone is cranking out music at 120 decibels. we're talking like 25 stages! vendors along the sidewalks, many people walking around looking, families, kids, men women, young and old. what a celebration. that was last night (friday)
today, saturday was the parade. long troups of dancers, each representing a Bang Fai (rocket) team paraded down the road. they stop in front of a judging stand, and perform a long dance, to the music and singers on the judges stand. there are these huge, superbly ornate floats - all covered with gold painted traditional thai art forms, flowers and statures that come down the road. each float has a dragons head at the front up top. there is a man who is twisting a handle from below, so the dragon head tosses and turns, spraying water from it's mouth. so cool!
it's quite warm today, humid, and a little rain brought out all the umbrella's. tomorrow i am hoping for clear weather, because there are going to be 90 rockets launched. these things are huge bottle rockets, and will go many meters into the sky. i'm all excited to see these launches. i saw this rocket festival on a little news clip on tv about 7 years ago, and i have wanted to see this ever since. pictures will be forthcoming.
but for now, we are going to take a cyclo (Tok just corrected me - cyclo is what they call 3 wheel taxi biks in cambodia and vietnam. here in thailand they are called Sam Low - which means "three wheels") to the park where all the floats are staged and there is a party going on!
woo hoo!!!
onwards!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070511
070510 Thaikarl - around the house
friends,
lots of activity around the homestead today. the contractors have been here to stucco cement the walls of the house. four guys, 30 bags of concrete, 1/2 truck sand, 2 cement mixing bins and a few hand tools and away they go. when they bang on the walls to chip off the high spots, the whole cinder block wall shakes. they are going to be at the job all week.
one of the joys of my working so hard prior to my departure is to be able to provide things for the family. improving the house, fixing things, upgrading equipment- all benefits i can provide. of course, it helps that the wage scale and materials prices are so much lower in thailand. the bid for the whole job, including materials is around 600 USD. the same job in the states would be more like 6000 USD, maybe twice that. they are going to apply cement to the whole house, inside and out, fix a leak in the roof and a small list of other things for that price. the house will certainly look different when they get done. and then i get to paint the whole house. which is a job Tok feels confident that _I_ can do. on the other hand, at these labor rates, maybe i'll just go ahead and have the guys do it. doing this stucco job would take me a month, and probably not look nearly as nice.
there is significant exchange in my direction also. i never have to cook. the meals i get here we would pay 40 USD a day for. there are always clean cloths for me to wear. i have a sweet and caring companion, an endearing grandmother and a very low maintenance teenager in company. since mama and teri don't speak any english, i don't have a lot of talking to or from them, so not a big load for me!
my sister had been hoping to come to thailand whilst i am here, but her 'temporary' job turned into a permant one, so she will come another time. means tok and i will have a little money to holiday some. i'd like to go down south to the ocean, maybe do some scuba diving. we'll see.
onward!
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070504
070504 Thaikarl todays problem: moving the TV
friends,
the days,weeks and months prior to my coming to thailand were like a kettle over a small flame. not much happening at first, but slowly, the activity increases until things start bubbling a little, mist arises, and finally,the water boils, the whistle goes off, steam billows out. normally someone comes and turns off heat, or removes the kettle. in my case, the last two weeks before departure i was still on the heat, boiling as fast as i could. finishing up paying jobs, selling things, trashing things, packing things, taking care of business. i left my apartment with a ton of things still there, extracting only those things i wanted to keep and leaving the rest. my room mate kindly offered to take care of all the left behinds as trade for things of mine she wanted to keep. my mother used to say i was "burning the candle at both ends". i kept telling myself i could relax when i got home to thailand. and that i am. i've spent my first four days here in ban dong khwang pretty much doing nothing. sleeping late,napping in the afternoon, reading the paper. just can't seem to get my motor started. there is a lot of things to be done around the house, but i have to get some energy going to get started. maybe tomorrow.
in 10 days is the Bang Fai festival in Yasothoon. parades, food, and on sunday ROCKETS! big fiery monsters made from bamboo or pvc pipe, with home made black powder propellant, launched to honor the rain gods. tok and i are going to take the bus out there. i've wanted to goto this thing every year, but haven't made it. finally, on my sixth trip to thailand, i'm here at the right time, before all the money is spent. got my camera and video ready. cool!
today's adventure was to take the TV into the shop in lomsak. of course it started raining as we were getting ready to go, so we had a slight rain delay. we decided to take the TV on the song theow - "two row" trucks that go back and forth on the big road. but, all the trucks were full, and passed by the tall white guy with a big tv wrapped in red plastic. so we went native. strapped, roped and bungee corded the TV to the back of the motorbike, and i drove it into town. Tok followed behind in the next song theow. easy. glad it didn't start raining hard when i was heading into town. so the TV is in the shop to get fixed, and the sun just came out.
amazing thailand!
onward!
Nu
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
the days,weeks and months prior to my coming to thailand were like a kettle over a small flame. not much happening at first, but slowly, the activity increases until things start bubbling a little, mist arises, and finally,the water boils, the whistle goes off, steam billows out. normally someone comes and turns off heat, or removes the kettle. in my case, the last two weeks before departure i was still on the heat, boiling as fast as i could. finishing up paying jobs, selling things, trashing things, packing things, taking care of business. i left my apartment with a ton of things still there, extracting only those things i wanted to keep and leaving the rest. my room mate kindly offered to take care of all the left behinds as trade for things of mine she wanted to keep. my mother used to say i was "burning the candle at both ends". i kept telling myself i could relax when i got home to thailand. and that i am. i've spent my first four days here in ban dong khwang pretty much doing nothing. sleeping late,napping in the afternoon, reading the paper. just can't seem to get my motor started. there is a lot of things to be done around the house, but i have to get some energy going to get started. maybe tomorrow.
in 10 days is the Bang Fai festival in Yasothoon. parades, food, and on sunday ROCKETS! big fiery monsters made from bamboo or pvc pipe, with home made black powder propellant, launched to honor the rain gods. tok and i are going to take the bus out there. i've wanted to goto this thing every year, but haven't made it. finally, on my sixth trip to thailand, i'm here at the right time, before all the money is spent. got my camera and video ready. cool!
today's adventure was to take the TV into the shop in lomsak. of course it started raining as we were getting ready to go, so we had a slight rain delay. we decided to take the TV on the song theow - "two row" trucks that go back and forth on the big road. but, all the trucks were full, and passed by the tall white guy with a big tv wrapped in red plastic. so we went native. strapped, roped and bungee corded the TV to the back of the motorbike, and i drove it into town. Tok followed behind in the next song theow. easy. glad it didn't start raining hard when i was heading into town. so the TV is in the shop to get fixed, and the sun just came out.
amazing thailand!
onward!
Nu
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
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