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120123 Thaikarl - a trip to Pitsanulok

friends,

we made a day trip to Pitsanulok a little while ago.  My mother-in-law has had some health issues for a while now, so we went to the BIG hospital in Pitsanulok to have some scans read.  we took the roof of the cargo rack to a man in the village, to get some aluminum skin applied to the top, and tied on some netting to the sides to cut down the wind in the back.  Mama and two of her sisters, my wifes aunts, piled in the back with mats and food and drink.  i got to drive.


Pitsanulok is a fairly large city up in a broad valley in the mountains west of where we live.  the road would thru the mountain area, and came down to a flat plain, covered in farm fields.  we've had a little rain in the past weeks, so the mountains were sprouting some fresh green color, where there had been only dry brown grass and brush before.


the hospital was a busy busy place. there were people everywhere, it was like an active station.  there were people camping out in their pickups in the parking lots, and visitors napping on mats in the grassy areas.  hospital staff came out the doors to greet us, and brought out a wheel chair for mama to get around in.  there was lots of running around, getting papers stamped, copied, signed and noted, then upstairs to wait with the hundreds of other people there.  i went out to the pickup in the parking garage (30 baht/hr - 1$ for parking) and read my nook book and had a little nap even though it was pretty warm.  i didn't want to take a seat inside the hospital since there were many people standing, waiting to get seen.  after a few hours everybody came back out to the car, we went around the front and collected Mama, and started back for Lom Sak.

we stopped to visit a couple of chinese temples on the side of a mountain on the way out.  very beautiful, with lots of statuary and decorations.  i wanted to get a photo of a giant jelly fish constructed out of PET water bottles i saw on the way up.  it was outside of a resort restaurant.  i went inside to have a look around - there were tables right in the jungle trees out back.  my friend Mr. Bo from denmark would love it, as he and I would go in search of "Jungle Bars" when i was hanging out with him in Phuket some years ago.


i'm still getting the hang of driving in thailand, and there would be a chorus of screams from the back of the truck whenever i did anything wonky - like back-up into the roadway with trucks on-coming.  nerve-wracking at times.


we have to go back to Pitsanulok in a few days to get my visa extended.  i hope we have time to look around some.

i've posted a few videos on my thaicountrylife Youtube channel
and created a thaicountrylife.tumblr.com  blog for quick posts and pictures  subscribe-rate-comment if you like please!  you can add the tumblr posts to an RSS feed and keep up to date on them.

there is a gallery of photos from the trip on picassa

later i learned the verdict of the doctors who read the scans of mama's lung.  the lump in there is probably cancer.

Onward!  Nu
 อนุกูล

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