friends,
the days roll by quickly here. time is relative, fluid and driven by activity or the lack of it. out here in the country, days are very much driven by the sun. rises at 5:30am, dark by 7pm. after dark, there is not much to do. we don't work under flood lights. the chickens start squawking and crowing early. the relative cool of the night begins to slip away as the sun starts to heat everything up. Tok usually gets up before me, as she has to make food for teri before she goes to school. mama is up early also. i lay in bed for a while, half awake, listening to the sounds of the neighborhood. when Tok or mama starts pounding chilies in the motoar and pestles, the knock knock knocking penetrates even the deepest doze.
i lose track of days. teri will still be her in the morning when i get up and i am surprised. well, it's saturday - no school. oh. or we will be coming back from town and the weekly market is set up beside the road a few km out of the town. wow, it's monday? it is? the workers show up around 8am, siesta during the hot part of the day around 2pm, and leave around 5. or 4, or when they feel like it.
i have my list of projects. i try to work on the rockery for the waterfall twice a day. if i make cement and set rocks in the morning, the cement will be set and i can make another layer in the evening. yesterday, Tok and i went to her uncles house and cut a piece of green bamboo. inch and a half thick and 25 feet long. we used that as a support pole for adding some corrugated tin to extend the roof out back. wee needed to cover the area of the new sink, and the space beside that where mama cooks on her little 3 corner wood stove. somedays i am busy all day, other days it's off and on. if we goto town to buy food or for appointments, it puts a big hole in the day. when the sky is overcast, it is cooler and we tend to work outside more. clear sunny days means heat and sweating. you move slower, drink lots of water.
yesterday, the sky grew dark, the wind came up, and the sky dumped rain. and i mean dumped. the roar of the water pounding the roof required raising your voice to say anything. rivers of water appeared in the yard, flowing under the new room and off to the fields out back. there is a 24 gallon jar behind the house where a eight foot piece of gutter empties into. the jar was one quarter full when the rain started, overflowing when it ended. i like to take my showers outside using the rainwater from this jar. normally we shower with well water. the water from the well is very hard- when it drys there are deposits of minerals left behind. the rain lasted only half and hour, the sun came back out, and we went back to work on the roof. i can only imagine what the 'rainy season' is like. thats in late july to september. i haven't been here for that time. yet. the soil here is very silted clay, so after a rain the ground turns to sucking, sticking goo that adheres to the bottom of your shoes til you can hardly walk from the weight.
progress on the new room is being made nearly everyday. they have put the roof on. i held out to get these brilliant metallic blue battens for the new roof. looks beautiful - but the only place you can see it is from up on the big road, as the crown of the roof points to the west, along the property length. someday we'll have too re-roof the rest of the house with the same tiles so you can really see it. the overhanging roof for the balcony will run north-south, facing the big road, so you will be able to see the beautiful tiles from there. one of Toks massage customers has a furniture and construction shop. she got us a good deal on new windows and a door for the new room. we also contracted with her for painting the house inside and out. no more dull cement walls!
the budget is looking rather squeezed. Tok told me last night, that we haven't accounted for building a stairs and roofing for the stairs to get to the new room. we may have too use a ladder to get up there until i get get some more money together. that will be rather weird... but oh well. typical for a re-model and new building project eh?
i asked Tok what Lom Sak - the name of the town nearby - means. she said "lom" means like when you are stuck in the dirt and can't move, as when your car gets stuck in the sand and the wheels just spin. "Sak" is a tree they grow here for house building - it's very strong, grows straight up with few branches. so Lom Sak means "tree that is stuck in the dirt and can't move". or something like that. I also asked about Dong Khwang, our village name. "Dong" means 'Woods' and "Khwang" means 'can't go in' so the village name means "Impenetrable Woods". and of course i have to add - or something like that.
more photos: bugs, and working on the house, and country life
amazing thailand!
Onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070616
070616 greetings from phetchabun
friends,
we took a little break from all the building to drive the motorbike down to phetchabun - a larger city 35 km to the south of lom sak. looking for a pump for the waterfall pond we are building. bought a large Ganesh statue and a pot instead. i see the link to the local land plot didn't make it into the email. the link is here.
we have to hustle to get back - it's getting dark, and i'm carrying a 30 pound statue on my lap. on the back of the motorbike.
onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
we took a little break from all the building to drive the motorbike down to phetchabun - a larger city 35 km to the south of lom sak. looking for a pump for the waterfall pond we are building. bought a large Ganesh statue and a pot instead. i see the link to the local land plot didn't make it into the email. the link is here.
we have to hustle to get back - it's getting dark, and i'm carrying a 30 pound statue on my lap. on the back of the motorbike.
onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070613
070613 Thaiakarl - the house story
friends,
last year in 2006 i was here in thailand for 5 months, i spent most of my time here in the village at Toks house. one day Tok mentioned that the people who lived in the house behind hers wanted to sell their house. The house is where Gam (pronounced to sound like 'Game'), a young boy lives. there is a mother and father, and another brother who lives there, be we always call it "Gam's house" or "Gams mothers house". The plot of land the house is on used to be part of Toks fields, but she sold it to gams mother. they brought in dirt to raise the ground above the fields and they built a house on the land. Tok took the money from the sale of the land and added to her existing house.
i was quite interested in this house for sale. buying it would give me a house of my own (sorta - foreigners cannot own property or houses in thailand. but there are ways to deal with that), and it would restore the land back to what Tok inherited from her father. we went over to talk to them about it. they wanted 500,000 baht. flat. and they wanted the money in december 2006, which was some six months away at the time. 500k baht, at that time was 13,500 USD. not a lot for a house and land eh?
refer to the overview image at the picasa gallery: overview of the land layout.
when i returned to the states, i began selling off assets. i sold my three triumph motorcycles - which was painful, but i can't take them to thailand. i cashed in some stock, took payouts on other things, sold more stuff, and saved money from working. i also decided to give up my apartment to save the rent and utilities, but it worked out in trade with my room mate, that i lived there until i left for this trip, but paid basically no rent or utilities for the last 5 months before i left for thailand. i wire-transferred over to an account Tok set up for the house a couple thousand dollars here, couple thousand there.... meanwhile, the dollar was falling against the Thai Baht. which mean that by march 2007, the 500,000 Baht price for the house was now $15,225 USD.
Games family had re-set the sale date to march 2007. at that time, I had only 8,000 USD in the account. Then Tok told me that the sale was off. i wasn't too disappointed - the only thing that would be a drag would be if they sold the house to someone else and we had new neighbors that were party people or something otherwise obnoxious. i still had the money in the bank, i was a ton or two lighter in the possessions i carried and was that much further along to my objective of living in with Tok in thailand.
there was something funny about the deal that didn't make it thru the translation to me. know i know what it was. seems that the family had changed their minds about selling the house quite some time ago. that's okay, it's their house, if they don't want to sell it, or if they do, it's up to them. but they neglected to mention this to us, and let Tok continue to think the deal was on. Tok heard from another person in town that they weren't going to sell the house. why they just didn't say so a long time ago is a mystery to me. the only real aggrivation was that i could have come here earlier in the year, and been back in seattle for the summer when there is more work for me. instead i was compiling money for the purchase, and delayed coming here until the end of april.
so, Tok told them that they would have to go with the original plotting of the land when Tok sold it to them. since the land was the back section of a long plot of land, Tok had to yield a narrow public access-way along side her property to the part she sold, so that games family would be able to get from their property out to the big road. up until now, they have been driving along between the mango trees and Toks house, which is a straight path from the driveway by the big road, back to their property. but, they are supposed to be using a 2.5 meter section that borders Toks land back to their place. Tok told them they had to build a road and start using it. the mango trees had to be cut down, and games family cut down a large tree on the corner of their property to allow for the cut in from the access road to their land. a man on a grader pushed around the existing dirt, and trucks brought in a dirt/rock mix that doesn't turn to solid mud when it rains. this he graded to make a track where the access road is, and we paid for our own load of dirt/rock mix to improve the area next to our house.
After talking with Tok, we decided to improve the existing house. it is made from cinderblock, with a wood built upstairs. Tok wanted to have stucco cement applied over the cinderblock, paint the house, and varnish the wood parts. i kept telling her i could do the work, and she kept telling me i was basically crazy. she had a contractor lined up to come and do the work. Boon and his crew of guys showed up with tools and ordered in a truckload of sand and rock...and so it began. Once they got started, it became obvious why Tok didn't think i could do the job. these guys start at 8 in the morning, and have the labor divided up so that someone is mixing concrete and filling buckets, and two or three guys are applying it to the walls. amazing how they are able to get a nice flat application of concrete. construction workers make 167 baht ($4.87 USD) PER DAY. so, i'll work on the fountain and other detail things and let them do the big stuff. then, it was suggested that we put a meter-wide concrete border all around the house, so that when it rains, the roof run-off doesn't splash dirt on the the newly painted house. So they started on that. then i decided that whilst they were here doing concrete, we should enlarge the front porch a bit, and put a concrete floor on the dirt floored section in the back of the house, beside the kitchen. so that's working also. Tok had asked me if i could build a small waterfall pond beside the house, perhaps under the big mango tree. but then she had a brilliant idea to put the pond alongside the porch, which developed into the pond being integrated into the expanded porch on the east side, behind which is a jasmine flower bush, and we would put a big round tank behind that to use as another pond for water lilies and fish.
I was outside looking around the front of the house one day, and suddenly had a big idea - if we can't buy another house, why not make a new one?
i was looking at all the different houses around here, from the 'shacks' up to the elegant thai traditional style mansions, and i decided that what we didn't have, but i really like, was a house on stilts. up in the air, with dry space underneath. up where there is something to see out the windows. i dragged Tok outside and with much arm waving and long-stepping about, described my idea for a new bedroom for us. I envisioned a big room, high on stilts that sat towards the back of our lot, with a wide balcony that ran across the west side towards the big road. because there used to be an old toilet beside the existing house, they tell me that you cannot build a new room over an old toilet - your house will be 'broken' if you do - we have to offset the new room to the north, leaving a space between the existing house and the new room. which means that they will have to build a set of stairs inside the house, that goes up thru the roof of the back part of the house, across a bridge to the balcony of the new room. of course, Tok decided she wanted aircon in this room, which means the room will have to be built with a ceiling and double walls to keep the cool in. unlike the rest of the house, which is open framing under the roof an, and eves.
see my rough google sketchup picture of the new room in the picassa gallery.
Boon and his guys were now to be employed for a couple of months. we are going through all the usual disruptions of having major remodeling and construction going on - noise, dust and debris everywhere. but when it is all finished, we will have a much nicer house to live in. Flat walls, painted inside and out, stained woodwork on the upper part of the old house and a big 15 foot square new bedroom with a large balcony. we've also re-routed the drainage pipe for grey water to run alongside the property line, west to the pond, with side drains for the big water jars, a dish washing sink, and the washing machine. and we have a cement floor in the kitchen porch, which used to be dirt, fixed a leak in the roof, put tile in the bathroom, took the old built in water tank out of the bathroom so the room is bigger, extended the porch a bit, and we'll have a waterfall garden pond next to the front porch. i'll be able to sit up on the high balcony for coffee in the mornings when the sun is on the east side of the house, and can sit on the porch near the waterfall in the afternoons when the sun is in the west.
all in all, the whole thing has worked out better than the original idea to buy gams mothers house. if that had happened, i would have two houses that need fixing up, and no funds do do it. now, we will have one house, with a nice addition, and overall improvements to the whole property.
and as an added bonus, the new room blocks off the annoying porch-light that gams family leaves on at night, so our yard is dark when we want it to be, like when we take the mat outside and lay on the ground together and look at the stars and the sky.
onward!!!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
last year in 2006 i was here in thailand for 5 months, i spent most of my time here in the village at Toks house. one day Tok mentioned that the people who lived in the house behind hers wanted to sell their house. The house is where Gam (pronounced to sound like 'Game'), a young boy lives. there is a mother and father, and another brother who lives there, be we always call it "Gam's house" or "Gams mothers house". The plot of land the house is on used to be part of Toks fields, but she sold it to gams mother. they brought in dirt to raise the ground above the fields and they built a house on the land. Tok took the money from the sale of the land and added to her existing house.
i was quite interested in this house for sale. buying it would give me a house of my own (sorta - foreigners cannot own property or houses in thailand. but there are ways to deal with that), and it would restore the land back to what Tok inherited from her father. we went over to talk to them about it. they wanted 500,000 baht. flat. and they wanted the money in december 2006, which was some six months away at the time. 500k baht, at that time was 13,500 USD. not a lot for a house and land eh?
refer to the overview image at the picasa gallery: overview of the land layout.
when i returned to the states, i began selling off assets. i sold my three triumph motorcycles - which was painful, but i can't take them to thailand. i cashed in some stock, took payouts on other things, sold more stuff, and saved money from working. i also decided to give up my apartment to save the rent and utilities, but it worked out in trade with my room mate, that i lived there until i left for this trip, but paid basically no rent or utilities for the last 5 months before i left for thailand. i wire-transferred over to an account Tok set up for the house a couple thousand dollars here, couple thousand there.... meanwhile, the dollar was falling against the Thai Baht. which mean that by march 2007, the 500,000 Baht price for the house was now $15,225 USD.
Games family had re-set the sale date to march 2007. at that time, I had only 8,000 USD in the account. Then Tok told me that the sale was off. i wasn't too disappointed - the only thing that would be a drag would be if they sold the house to someone else and we had new neighbors that were party people or something otherwise obnoxious. i still had the money in the bank, i was a ton or two lighter in the possessions i carried and was that much further along to my objective of living in with Tok in thailand.
there was something funny about the deal that didn't make it thru the translation to me. know i know what it was. seems that the family had changed their minds about selling the house quite some time ago. that's okay, it's their house, if they don't want to sell it, or if they do, it's up to them. but they neglected to mention this to us, and let Tok continue to think the deal was on. Tok heard from another person in town that they weren't going to sell the house. why they just didn't say so a long time ago is a mystery to me. the only real aggrivation was that i could have come here earlier in the year, and been back in seattle for the summer when there is more work for me. instead i was compiling money for the purchase, and delayed coming here until the end of april.
so, Tok told them that they would have to go with the original plotting of the land when Tok sold it to them. since the land was the back section of a long plot of land, Tok had to yield a narrow public access-way along side her property to the part she sold, so that games family would be able to get from their property out to the big road. up until now, they have been driving along between the mango trees and Toks house, which is a straight path from the driveway by the big road, back to their property. but, they are supposed to be using a 2.5 meter section that borders Toks land back to their place. Tok told them they had to build a road and start using it. the mango trees had to be cut down, and games family cut down a large tree on the corner of their property to allow for the cut in from the access road to their land. a man on a grader pushed around the existing dirt, and trucks brought in a dirt/rock mix that doesn't turn to solid mud when it rains. this he graded to make a track where the access road is, and we paid for our own load of dirt/rock mix to improve the area next to our house.
After talking with Tok, we decided to improve the existing house. it is made from cinderblock, with a wood built upstairs. Tok wanted to have stucco cement applied over the cinderblock, paint the house, and varnish the wood parts. i kept telling her i could do the work, and she kept telling me i was basically crazy. she had a contractor lined up to come and do the work. Boon and his crew of guys showed up with tools and ordered in a truckload of sand and rock...and so it began. Once they got started, it became obvious why Tok didn't think i could do the job. these guys start at 8 in the morning, and have the labor divided up so that someone is mixing concrete and filling buckets, and two or three guys are applying it to the walls. amazing how they are able to get a nice flat application of concrete. construction workers make 167 baht ($4.87 USD) PER DAY. so, i'll work on the fountain and other detail things and let them do the big stuff. then, it was suggested that we put a meter-wide concrete border all around the house, so that when it rains, the roof run-off doesn't splash dirt on the the newly painted house. So they started on that. then i decided that whilst they were here doing concrete, we should enlarge the front porch a bit, and put a concrete floor on the dirt floored section in the back of the house, beside the kitchen. so that's working also. Tok had asked me if i could build a small waterfall pond beside the house, perhaps under the big mango tree. but then she had a brilliant idea to put the pond alongside the porch, which developed into the pond being integrated into the expanded porch on the east side, behind which is a jasmine flower bush, and we would put a big round tank behind that to use as another pond for water lilies and fish.
I was outside looking around the front of the house one day, and suddenly had a big idea - if we can't buy another house, why not make a new one?
i was looking at all the different houses around here, from the 'shacks' up to the elegant thai traditional style mansions, and i decided that what we didn't have, but i really like, was a house on stilts. up in the air, with dry space underneath. up where there is something to see out the windows. i dragged Tok outside and with much arm waving and long-stepping about, described my idea for a new bedroom for us. I envisioned a big room, high on stilts that sat towards the back of our lot, with a wide balcony that ran across the west side towards the big road. because there used to be an old toilet beside the existing house, they tell me that you cannot build a new room over an old toilet - your house will be 'broken' if you do - we have to offset the new room to the north, leaving a space between the existing house and the new room. which means that they will have to build a set of stairs inside the house, that goes up thru the roof of the back part of the house, across a bridge to the balcony of the new room. of course, Tok decided she wanted aircon in this room, which means the room will have to be built with a ceiling and double walls to keep the cool in. unlike the rest of the house, which is open framing under the roof an, and eves.
see my rough google sketchup picture of the new room in the picassa gallery.
Boon and his guys were now to be employed for a couple of months. we are going through all the usual disruptions of having major remodeling and construction going on - noise, dust and debris everywhere. but when it is all finished, we will have a much nicer house to live in. Flat walls, painted inside and out, stained woodwork on the upper part of the old house and a big 15 foot square new bedroom with a large balcony. we've also re-routed the drainage pipe for grey water to run alongside the property line, west to the pond, with side drains for the big water jars, a dish washing sink, and the washing machine. and we have a cement floor in the kitchen porch, which used to be dirt, fixed a leak in the roof, put tile in the bathroom, took the old built in water tank out of the bathroom so the room is bigger, extended the porch a bit, and we'll have a waterfall garden pond next to the front porch. i'll be able to sit up on the high balcony for coffee in the mornings when the sun is on the east side of the house, and can sit on the porch near the waterfall in the afternoons when the sun is in the west.
all in all, the whole thing has worked out better than the original idea to buy gams mothers house. if that had happened, i would have two houses that need fixing up, and no funds do do it. now, we will have one house, with a nice addition, and overall improvements to the whole property.
and as an added bonus, the new room blocks off the annoying porch-light that gams family leaves on at night, so our yard is dark when we want it to be, like when we take the mat outside and lay on the ground together and look at the stars and the sky.
onward!!!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070611
070611 Thaikarl - what a mess... everywhere it seems
friends,
they started putting up the upright beams on the new room today! Boon and his helper have been spending the last 4 days planing down each board with a hand power plane, and cutting the notches for beams and braces. Pix are in the house building gallery.
and a new bug in the gallery. and just some prettyness after the rain last evening.
i've been slowed down with some intestinal bug last few days. nothing major, just weakens me and keeps me near the ban nam (water room) there is lots for me to do, electrical, concrete, waterfall building, ... some list. it will all get done.
meanwhile, everything is a mess, everywhere. there is lumber and tools all over the yard, paper cement sacks, debris, concrete tailing's, and pretty much the same inside the house also. by the time it's all done, i'll have to come back to USA to get back to work again!! oh well.
today Tok has a few massage clients in town. she came in before me on the motorbike. i put a Tee in the 2 inch drain pipe behind the house and fit a side pipe to the new concrete drain pad we made. now we have a place to put our new sink. we didn't like the store-bought sink stands, so we bought a plastic sink basin, with a drain-hose and stopper. we took that to a man in the village who makes things from metal, and he welded up a simple four-legged stand, with a frame to drop the sink basin into. cost 200 baht ($6.00) for the frame. then tok and i took scrap strips of wood from the stack and make a drainboard next to the sink, and two slatted shelves underneath for pots and mortars. the whole thing came out much better than the store bought one, and we saved more than a thousand baht. when i got the Tee in place, i showered and dressed up and took the Car into town. There are orange pickup trucks with two rows of seats in the bed that go back and forth all day between Lomsak and Phetchabun. kind of a local shuttle service. they just call it "taking a car" even tho they are trucks. they call them Song theow which means Two Row (of seats). 15 baht (50cents) gets me from the house to lomsak which is about 8 km. so i've got to spend a little time in the Internet shop today.
now we are going to the burning of a person who died at the temple. a friend of Toks husband i think. so i had to dress up today.
onward!
20070606
070606 Thaikarl - the new room dedication
friends,
and auspicious day today. this morning the first pole of the new room went in the ground. apparently you have to do this right, with ceremony and observance. an old man came to do the blessings. mama prepared some baskets from banana tree skins. into each basket they put sweets, leaves, candles, food, rice a ball of dirt and other things. when it was time, the old man came out and sat on a mat next to the middle pole, saying prayers. around him were more offerings - whiskey, money, candles, water, cigarettes. they had tied a palm plant to the pole, and a small model of a fish catching basket, and a wooden stand for a bowel. with more words and muttering, they men hoisted the pole on their shoulders with ropes, and flipped it into the prepared hole in the ground. the blessing man went around and placed the banana skin baskets at each corner of the construction, and sprinkled water from a bowl at all the significant spots. i of course, was wandering around wondering the significance of each bit, and taking pictures and video of everything.
when all the ceremony was done, the men proceeded to put the other five poles in the ground, and square them up. you can really get a much better sense of what is going to be built here, now that the poles define the area. i'm really jazzed. it's going to be nice to have our own room, up in the air, with a balcony and windows that look out to the fields. games family inadvertently improved our view by cutting down two of the trees on the north side of their lot. they didn't do it to improve the view, they have to to make room to get their car in and out of their land now that they are confined to the narrow public road out to the big road.
so many things to decide - when you are building from scratch. what for the roof? what color? what wood? where to save money and where not? what kind of windows? railings? and there is always somebody walking up with a little bit of paper with some thai characters on it with numbers and figures - and a figure at the bottom to be paid. bags of cement, poles, dirt, sand, rocks, wood all magically appear in the yard, then disappear when they get used.
they finished off redoing the rooms upstairs. nice it is. they took what was a bedroom and a balcony and made it into two rooms, one a little larger than the other, and a balcony space 1/2 the size it used to be at the top of the stairs. these will be for mama and teri - who now share the same bed downstairs. their old sleeping area wasn't even a room, it was an area blocked off by a large long cabinet, a dresser and a chunk of plywood. this will all be open space when every one moves into their new rooms.
i'm afraid i'll run out of money before the project is finished, so we'll have to go with sheet tin for the room over the stairs, and maybe put the railing on the balcony later and all that. that's a classic scenario isn't it? more plans than cash?
else, i've been busy around the house, digging the hole for the water/fall pond, supervising the workers (ha ha ha). haven't been into the internet shop much in the last couple of weeks, so pardon the quiet time. i'm composing a more detailed longer piece about the house i was going to buy, and the improvements to this house that we are doing instead. with drawings and photos and some back-fill on the story.
otherwise, things are doing wonderful. i am constantly facinated by how-things-work here. and noticing the plants and bugs. saw a moth that was bigger than the span of my fingers sitting under the leaf of a tree. havent' been spending much time at the internet shop last couple of weeks, so pardon the quiet period. we've had some cloudy weather move in, which is nice as its a bit cooler, and occasional rains to wet things down
i've posted more pictures to the picasa gallery..
inward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
and auspicious day today. this morning the first pole of the new room went in the ground. apparently you have to do this right, with ceremony and observance. an old man came to do the blessings. mama prepared some baskets from banana tree skins. into each basket they put sweets, leaves, candles, food, rice a ball of dirt and other things. when it was time, the old man came out and sat on a mat next to the middle pole, saying prayers. around him were more offerings - whiskey, money, candles, water, cigarettes. they had tied a palm plant to the pole, and a small model of a fish catching basket, and a wooden stand for a bowel. with more words and muttering, they men hoisted the pole on their shoulders with ropes, and flipped it into the prepared hole in the ground. the blessing man went around and placed the banana skin baskets at each corner of the construction, and sprinkled water from a bowl at all the significant spots. i of course, was wandering around wondering the significance of each bit, and taking pictures and video of everything.
when all the ceremony was done, the men proceeded to put the other five poles in the ground, and square them up. you can really get a much better sense of what is going to be built here, now that the poles define the area. i'm really jazzed. it's going to be nice to have our own room, up in the air, with a balcony and windows that look out to the fields. games family inadvertently improved our view by cutting down two of the trees on the north side of their lot. they didn't do it to improve the view, they have to to make room to get their car in and out of their land now that they are confined to the narrow public road out to the big road.
so many things to decide - when you are building from scratch. what for the roof? what color? what wood? where to save money and where not? what kind of windows? railings? and there is always somebody walking up with a little bit of paper with some thai characters on it with numbers and figures - and a figure at the bottom to be paid. bags of cement, poles, dirt, sand, rocks, wood all magically appear in the yard, then disappear when they get used.
they finished off redoing the rooms upstairs. nice it is. they took what was a bedroom and a balcony and made it into two rooms, one a little larger than the other, and a balcony space 1/2 the size it used to be at the top of the stairs. these will be for mama and teri - who now share the same bed downstairs. their old sleeping area wasn't even a room, it was an area blocked off by a large long cabinet, a dresser and a chunk of plywood. this will all be open space when every one moves into their new rooms.
i'm afraid i'll run out of money before the project is finished, so we'll have to go with sheet tin for the room over the stairs, and maybe put the railing on the balcony later and all that. that's a classic scenario isn't it? more plans than cash?
else, i've been busy around the house, digging the hole for the water/fall pond, supervising the workers (ha ha ha). haven't been into the internet shop much in the last couple of weeks, so pardon the quiet time. i'm composing a more detailed longer piece about the house i was going to buy, and the improvements to this house that we are doing instead. with drawings and photos and some back-fill on the story.
otherwise, things are doing wonderful. i am constantly facinated by how-things-work here. and noticing the plants and bugs. saw a moth that was bigger than the span of my fingers sitting under the leaf of a tree. havent' been spending much time at the internet shop last couple of weeks, so pardon the quiet period. we've had some cloudy weather move in, which is nice as its a bit cooler, and occasional rains to wet things down
i've posted more pictures to the picasa gallery..
inward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070525
070525 Thaikarl - it's getting a little bit warm here...
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/
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/
20070430
070430 Thaikarl - Home again
friends,
it is so nice to be home! arrived at the house in lom sak around 8pm last night. teri (toks daughter) came running down the road to meet us, and mama came up the drive to hug me. mama kept saying 'n tur' which means "missed you". most everything looks the same. tok had windows installed around the house, the plants have grown some. the TV is broke - its constantly resetting itself. Kitty is gone (killed on the road a few months ago) but Bak is there, and there is a new cat i called "number 3", a calico sweet heart. the electric circuits and lamps i installed last year are still working. all is good.
this morning when i got up the crewe was out there - the kids from the neighborhood - Ah, Pet, Ai, Em, Game, and the neighbor Tai was waiting for me to say hi. a wonderful welcome. then everybody went away and i slept most of the morning. finally, i can relax! for a day or two anyway...
onward!
Nu
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
it is so nice to be home! arrived at the house in lom sak around 8pm last night. teri (toks daughter) came running down the road to meet us, and mama came up the drive to hug me. mama kept saying 'n tur' which means "missed you". most everything looks the same. tok had windows installed around the house, the plants have grown some. the TV is broke - its constantly resetting itself. Kitty is gone (killed on the road a few months ago) but Bak is there, and there is a new cat i called "number 3", a calico sweet heart. the electric circuits and lamps i installed last year are still working. all is good.
this morning when i got up the crewe was out there - the kids from the neighborhood - Ah, Pet, Ai, Em, Game, and the neighbor Tai was waiting for me to say hi. a wonderful welcome. then everybody went away and i slept most of the morning. finally, i can relax! for a day or two anyway...
onward!
Nu
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070428
070428 Thaikarl - one day in bangkok
friends,
jeez, one day in bangkok can be over whelming, and tiring. tok and i spent all day going hither and yawn, 5 trips on the sky-train. but we did manage to: take my computer to the shop - but of course the screen didn't go black when it was in the shop, so they couldn't do anything; bought some software and a camera; went all over trying to buy espresso coffee beans - i didn't bring enough to last. and of course ate noodles, sticky rice and chicken, and a few other things along the way. this part of the city is alive with people, street vendors, street food, shoppers, shops, kids, teen-agers, motorbikes, cars, buses and trucks. it's busy like christmas shopping downtown the week before christmas, except it's like this everyday.
it's nice and warm out. that part i am very happy about. being cold this last winter in seattle was hard on me. if i want cold here, i can step inside any 7-11 for a few minutes. they always have the aircon cranked. you will hear me commenting on this over and over. you'll just have to skip over the "i love the weather" bits.
not understanding this language, but being with a native is interesting at times. Tok and i found a coffee supply shop today and went into see about buying a few kilos of beans. Tok and the guy in the shop talked for 10 minutes back and forth, and then she got up and said lets go. naturally, i'm wondering what's happening, are we getting coffee or not??? "No, we are not" she says. but we are going to yet-another-place to try there. so what was the 10 minutes of banter about? i still don't know, tho Tok said he was a nice helpful man. the second place did have beans, and even ground them for me. but it was $21.00 a kilo. american price the same. i bought only 2 kilo's. you can't get anything but instant coffee in Lomsak. of course it comes in 27 different forms - with milk, with flavors, with sugar in all it's combinations, but it's all instant coffee. so i had to stock up for 2 months.
this long conversation between thais with a one or two sentence summary happens all the time. i have no idea if they get into family history, the weather, the state of the government or nuclear physics before they get to "oh, by the way, the foreign guy wants coffee, can we buy some here?" part of the reason for being in that place at all. and i'll get "no coffee here" as we walk out the door. i get to do a lot of looking around, smiling, nodding and studying the little details like lighting, wiring, construction methods, pictures with incomprehensible writing on them. life is a mystery. and i have a guide!
we're off to Lomsak tomorrow. 6 hours on the bus. and i've already read 3 of the 6 books i brought with me. send books.
onward!
Nu
replies - comments and questions are welcome - ask any body who has replied. i answer every one. and do pass these travelogues on to others, post on your websites, send out on your blogs, email lists etc. anyone can goto http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
for the collection of these emails, and the ones from last year.
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
jeez, one day in bangkok can be over whelming, and tiring. tok and i spent all day going hither and yawn, 5 trips on the sky-train. but we did manage to: take my computer to the shop - but of course the screen didn't go black when it was in the shop, so they couldn't do anything; bought some software and a camera; went all over trying to buy espresso coffee beans - i didn't bring enough to last. and of course ate noodles, sticky rice and chicken, and a few other things along the way. this part of the city is alive with people, street vendors, street food, shoppers, shops, kids, teen-agers, motorbikes, cars, buses and trucks. it's busy like christmas shopping downtown the week before christmas, except it's like this everyday.
it's nice and warm out. that part i am very happy about. being cold this last winter in seattle was hard on me. if i want cold here, i can step inside any 7-11 for a few minutes. they always have the aircon cranked. you will hear me commenting on this over and over. you'll just have to skip over the "i love the weather" bits.
not understanding this language, but being with a native is interesting at times. Tok and i found a coffee supply shop today and went into see about buying a few kilos of beans. Tok and the guy in the shop talked for 10 minutes back and forth, and then she got up and said lets go. naturally, i'm wondering what's happening, are we getting coffee or not??? "No, we are not" she says. but we are going to yet-another-place to try there. so what was the 10 minutes of banter about? i still don't know, tho Tok said he was a nice helpful man. the second place did have beans, and even ground them for me. but it was $21.00 a kilo. american price the same. i bought only 2 kilo's. you can't get anything but instant coffee in Lomsak. of course it comes in 27 different forms - with milk, with flavors, with sugar in all it's combinations, but it's all instant coffee. so i had to stock up for 2 months.
this long conversation between thais with a one or two sentence summary happens all the time. i have no idea if they get into family history, the weather, the state of the government or nuclear physics before they get to "oh, by the way, the foreign guy wants coffee, can we buy some here?" part of the reason for being in that place at all. and i'll get "no coffee here" as we walk out the door. i get to do a lot of looking around, smiling, nodding and studying the little details like lighting, wiring, construction methods, pictures with incomprehensible writing on them. life is a mystery. and i have a guide!
we're off to Lomsak tomorrow. 6 hours on the bus. and i've already read 3 of the 6 books i brought with me. send books.
onward!
Nu
replies - comments and questions are welcome - ask any body who has replied. i answer every one. and do pass these travelogues on to others, post on your websites, send out on your blogs, email lists etc. anyone can goto http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
for the collection of these emails, and the ones from last year.
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070427
070427 Thaikarl - BANGKOK! YAHOO!
friends,
Back in Bangkok! figured my way out of the new airport, onto the airport bus, sky-trained to MBK, down the little Soi to the Star Hotel and checked in the bags. very exciting to be here. warm. the people, writing, smell, everything! home!
first thing i bought were some Samit cigarettes and a Kraeting Dang (thai red-bull). First place i went was siam square to Coffee World for an espresso. then to MBK to the internet place on the 7th floor. Tok lands at 10:05 tonight. i goint to try to take the city bus for 35 baht ($1.00) rather than the airport bus for 135 baht ($4.00ish) if i botch it like last time i'll have to take a taxi-meter for way more.
one of my readers sent me a question:
and my reply:
my life was definitely in need of renewal. refreshment. here it is. of course, after some time it will be come "normal", but i've lived "normal" in the states, and i want to be here to get to "normal" here. but i think it will take a while. especially since i'm pretty much illiterate, uncultured and rather mute in thailand. that will always keep things interesting.
we are going to stay in BKK for a couple of nights, do some running about here - have to take a computer to see about getting fixed, buy more espresso coffee (i didn't bring enough), goto the embassy to see about visa... stuff and stuff. we'll take the bus up to Lomsak day after tomorrow. i'm looking forward to seeing mama and teri, and the neighbors and friends, and the house and the new kitty cats and the mango tree and the house and, the long list of things to fix Tok has ready for me :-)
Onward!!!
Nu
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
Back in Bangkok! figured my way out of the new airport, onto the airport bus, sky-trained to MBK, down the little Soi to the Star Hotel and checked in the bags. very exciting to be here. warm. the people, writing, smell, everything! home!
first thing i bought were some Samit cigarettes and a Kraeting Dang (thai red-bull). First place i went was siam square to Coffee World for an espresso. then to MBK to the internet place on the 7th floor. Tok lands at 10:05 tonight. i goint to try to take the city bus for 35 baht ($1.00) rather than the airport bus for 135 baht ($4.00ish) if i botch it like last time i'll have to take a taxi-meter for way more.
one of my readers sent me a question:
On 4/27/07, S. P. <*****@ vom.com> wrote: Hey Karl,
When you move to Thialand do you think you will miss this country? I've often thought of packing in all in and running away but I imagine the adjustments at this point would be just too overwhelming.
Travel safely,
S.P.
When you move to Thialand do you think you will miss this country? I've often thought of packing in all in and running away but I imagine the adjustments at this point would be just too overwhelming.
Travel safely,
S.P.
and my reply:
i won't miss the united states of amerika at all. miss My family there, yes, but i won't miss the country or the xians, or the politics etc etc etc. not that any of those things are that much better over here, but the food is better and the weather is warm... there may come a day i want to go back... running away doesn't do much for ya... running TO something does. which in the process will take you AWAY from whatever you don't care for "back there" i actually still like the states (mostly), i just like it better here. adjusting to the 'slow complacent getting old and die" in the usa was just getting too overwhelming to me. i was worried about adjusting to asia , but it's not difficult for me at all... fires me up, inspires, intrigues, etc.
my life was definitely in need of renewal. refreshment. here it is. of course, after some time it will be come "normal", but i've lived "normal" in the states, and i want to be here to get to "normal" here. but i think it will take a while. especially since i'm pretty much illiterate, uncultured and rather mute in thailand. that will always keep things interesting.
we are going to stay in BKK for a couple of nights, do some running about here - have to take a computer to see about getting fixed, buy more espresso coffee (i didn't bring enough), goto the embassy to see about visa... stuff and stuff. we'll take the bus up to Lomsak day after tomorrow. i'm looking forward to seeing mama and teri, and the neighbors and friends, and the house and the new kitty cats and the mango tree and the house and, the long list of things to fix Tok has ready for me :-)
Onward!!!
Nu
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070426
070426 Thaikarl - departing for the homeland tommorrow
friends,
tomorrow tok and i fly to bangkok. the homeland. on different planes at different times. another opportunity for being in the wrong place at the right time, or vice versa, or both. when we came here, i arrived early in the morning, Tok was due in later that same day, but at evening time. So i took the airport express bus into Ban Chaio, found dougs apartment, dropped off my gear, got some food, and wandered around a bit. i went to the bus stop at 4pm to be there early for toks 6:15 arrival flight. but the bus never came. at 6pm i flagged a taxi, and offered him all the 100 NT bills i had and all my change - a little over 700 NT ($21 US). he reluctantly agreed, and took me all over the place, arriving at the airport where i found Tok wondering where the heck i was. the embarrassing part was, that the next day, doug and jasmine took me to the same bus stop and pointed out the airport bus --- "right there" because i didn't have luggage, the bus driver(s) didn't automatically stop for a man standing at the airport bus sign, and i didn't wave them down, so there must have been 3 or 4 airport buses that went by while i was standing there... duh. if i had matched the characters on the corner of the bus sign with the characters on the front of the busses, i would have caught one to the airport and been way early. the airport bus is 135 NT ($4.06 US) that was an expensive lesson. what fun the challenge.
i fly in to bangkok in the am, Tok arrives late at night, so i get another chance to go into town, set up in the hotel and find my way back to the airport to meet her. there is a new airport in bangkok, that i haven't been to, so it will be exploritory and guess-by-gosh again. but there is more english at hand, and it IS thailand, where i'm a little more usede to getting around.
the adventure continues.
Onward!
Nu
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
tomorrow tok and i fly to bangkok. the homeland. on different planes at different times. another opportunity for being in the wrong place at the right time, or vice versa, or both. when we came here, i arrived early in the morning, Tok was due in later that same day, but at evening time. So i took the airport express bus into Ban Chaio, found dougs apartment, dropped off my gear, got some food, and wandered around a bit. i went to the bus stop at 4pm to be there early for toks 6:15 arrival flight. but the bus never came. at 6pm i flagged a taxi, and offered him all the 100 NT bills i had and all my change - a little over 700 NT ($21 US). he reluctantly agreed, and took me all over the place, arriving at the airport where i found Tok wondering where the heck i was. the embarrassing part was, that the next day, doug and jasmine took me to the same bus stop and pointed out the airport bus --- "right there" because i didn't have luggage, the bus driver(s) didn't automatically stop for a man standing at the airport bus sign, and i didn't wave them down, so there must have been 3 or 4 airport buses that went by while i was standing there... duh. if i had matched the characters on the corner of the bus sign with the characters on the front of the busses, i would have caught one to the airport and been way early. the airport bus is 135 NT ($4.06 US) that was an expensive lesson. what fun the challenge.
i fly in to bangkok in the am, Tok arrives late at night, so i get another chance to go into town, set up in the hotel and find my way back to the airport to meet her. there is a new airport in bangkok, that i haven't been to, so it will be exploritory and guess-by-gosh again. but there is more english at hand, and it IS thailand, where i'm a little more usede to getting around.
the adventure continues.
Onward!
Nu
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
070426.8 3 photos for you of Tok and i
by request:
1. at a government building in Hauling
2. same building
3. at donshui
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
1. at a government building in Hauling
2. same building
3. at donshui
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070425
070426.5 Thaikarl 5 photos for you from Taiwan
1. Jasmine and Doug - our hosts in Taipei
2. Remember the graffiti "if you want a cool surprise..." modernized
3. Choose your food! add rice, eat! yum... about 2.50 USD per person
4. Betel Nut production. They sell these all over. provides a mild lift, like 1/2 cup coffee
5. Sunday strollers at Donshui. By the water at the end of one of the subway lines. popular place.
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
2. Remember the graffiti "if you want a cool surprise..." modernized
3. Choose your food! add rice, eat! yum... about 2.50 USD per person
4. Betel Nut production. They sell these all over. provides a mild lift, like 1/2 cup coffee
5. Sunday strollers at Donshui. By the water at the end of one of the subway lines. popular place.
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070424
070425 Thaikarl on the east coast of taiwan
friends,
where are we now? Hualien City. Got off the train at dusk, just as it started to rain. short walk across from the train station and found a hotel for NT750 ($22.61 USD). not as nice as the room in the other city, but oh well. and of course, when we walked down the road we saw hotels with signs for rooms for 500 NT. bt the food we found was very good. they have these buffer style restaurants, where the various dishes are in steamer trays, and you select what you like to go with your rice and soup. very good. a young boy in the restaurant spoke excellent english, and with some encouragement from his parents and sister, help us order food and directed us to a shopping district where i could buy some pants. i only brought one pair.
taiwan has some notable aspects. the country side is lovely, mountainous along the whole of the island, alluvial planes on the west. there is a rather utilitarian plainness to the houses. very little flash in the architecture, few curves, decorations or design flairs. boxes for people to live in. very few houses say "rich man lives here" the people are very nice, and friendly, dispute the lack of english. they try to understand, and try to be helpful. i forget a word as soon as i hear it. i know three words as Tok just pointed out to me - good morning, 100 and thank you. :-)
we are taking the train back to taipei this afternoon. spend the night at doug and jasmine's tonight and go into taipei on the subway tomorrow. Tok would like to go up Taipei 101 - the tallest building in the world. then friday, its off to thailand for both of us... on different planes at different times. that should be interesting. i didn't tell you what happened when i went to get Tok from her plane the first day. I'll put that in another post. i'm short time in this game arcade.
onward!
Nu
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070423
070423 ThaiKarl - where are we now?
friends,
the bullet train was just that - a bullet! 286km/hr in places (177 miles per hour!!!!) we got to the south of the island in 2 hours. smooth ride. the countryside that wizzed by was mostly flat and very cultivated. not much rough land laying around. rice and vegetables growing on nearly every bit of land that doesn't have a building on it.
we got out at the end of the line. nice new train station. we walked away from the station to find food and alcohol for my espresso cook stove. english speakers are few and far between here. you have to be clever or just give up. i finally communicated that i wanted alcohol by finding a bottle of mouthwash that had the ingredients in english and chinese - so i could point out the characters for alcohol. had to goto another store, but i had the correct word written on a piece of paper, so i'm all set.
the city we were in just seemed like a big city, so looking at a map we got at a car rental place, we just picked a spot northward up the east coast of the island and bought regular train tickets to there. figuring out what platform and train to be on wasn't too hard. had to ask a few people, and got the shrugs a few times, but got on to another train, switched trains a few stops down the road. we had a 2 hour layover at the second station and considered just looking for a hotel there, but it seem too much big city.
the train went along the coast and up the mountains thru a lot of tunnels. tok was following our track by matching the characters on the map with the chinese characters on the posts in the train stations. of course we didn't know how to say any of these, but you have to go with pattern matching to get anywhere. if you know the pattern to match. our destination appeared after dark, we disembarked onto a platform with very little activity or lights surrounding the station. had no idea where we were. outside the station there were a few buildings with lights off in the distance, and far away one sign said "hotel". we walked down past there, but we were out in the stix, not even a shop to buy water in sight. hmmm. we past a place that tok figured was renting motorbikes and went there. turns out you must have a Taiwanese drivers license to rent a bike, but the guy who convey this to us understood that we were looking to eat dinner and find a hotel. he walked us the hundred meters to the taxi stand and set us up with a taxi. young fellow and his girlfriend drove us into town - which satisfyingly turned out to be nicely lines with commerce and neon signs. took a couple of where-we-goings and a mobile phone call to a friend who spoke english to convey that we wanted an inexpensive hotel. they dropped us off in front of some buildings that had signs, not of which said "hotel" but it did look like a hotel lobby inside. 550 NT$ ($16.92 USD) later we had a room. not fancy, but it will work.
wandered off for dinner of rice, pork and tofu. you have to do a lot of pointing and finger waving. we learned that to indicate the number "3" with your fingers, you make what people in the USA would call an "OKAY" sign - circle of index finger and thumb with other fingers raised. i would say "which platform" and they would sign "okay". tee hee. what fun.
so here we are, in some city on the south east coast of taiwan, hotel'd, fed and found internet. got alcohol for my espresso maker, cigarettes are $1.00 a pack, Tok is happy, and so am i.
onward
20070418
07419 Thaikarl - the adventure continues...
friends
departing tonight for a week in taiwan, then three months in thailand.
if you know anyone to add to my travel list, send me an email, when
you forward emails, the recipient sees all these goobly characters,
i'm glad to add anyone direct.
you can see previous travelogues at http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
onward!!!!
Nu
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20060530
37 thaikarl i can understand what people are saying this must be USA
friends,
landed back in seattle, washington, UNITED STATES (the sign in the airport didn't say "of america")
i can understand ambient conversations. i can read the signs. the money is all colourless. the food un-appealing. people are inconsistent shapes and featured. jeez.
i didn't get searched at customs this time like i did last year. so i breezed thru all that in less than an hour. no one at the airport that i knew, so i took the metro bus. with 25kg of luggage. always come back heavy with acquisitions. it was 8pm and the sun was just setting. in the tropics its completely dark by 8pm. and COLD!
at my apartment, it was a joy to see my cats - they were mildly interested in my return, had to sniff all the strange smells from me and my bags. they are so BIG, these cats. asian cats are generally small and thin. my room-mate was a little nervous to see how i would react to everything being moved, reconfigured, restacked and re-piles. i'm okay with it. it's a mess, all my electronics are unplugged and confused, stuff is not exactly where it used to be. but i expected all that. i have to re-do all this stuff anyway to adjust to living in a much much smaller space.
i'm in that weird "don't quite know what to do with myself" zone. my body thinks its the middle of the day, but it's now 4:06am. birds are chirping, which means the daylight will arrive soon. the culture shock of returning to this place is far far worse than going overseas. but i'll get used to it. mostly. enough to get along. next time i buy a ticket for asia it will be a one-way ticket. (even if i know i'm coming back, extending and re booking is more expensive than just buying a one way return ticket) but maybe, i won't need that return ticket. not for a long time.
i called Tok, she i getting busy as always - working in jamlongs shop, setting up to cut and style hair at her own house, and some people have expressed interest to her of learning english. "hey, that's supposed to be MY job i said to her". i miss her and the family, and all the people in the neighborhood. but i must keep a "cool heart" as they thais call it. so i will.
the next adventure begins...
now.
Onward!
Nu.
or am i back to being karl? oh yes, i guess so. thus:
Onward!
karl
--
i am in thailand at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
landed back in seattle, washington, UNITED STATES (the sign in the airport didn't say "of america")
i can understand ambient conversations. i can read the signs. the money is all colourless. the food un-appealing. people are inconsistent shapes and featured. jeez.
i didn't get searched at customs this time like i did last year. so i breezed thru all that in less than an hour. no one at the airport that i knew, so i took the metro bus. with 25kg of luggage. always come back heavy with acquisitions. it was 8pm and the sun was just setting. in the tropics its completely dark by 8pm. and COLD!
at my apartment, it was a joy to see my cats - they were mildly interested in my return, had to sniff all the strange smells from me and my bags. they are so BIG, these cats. asian cats are generally small and thin. my room-mate was a little nervous to see how i would react to everything being moved, reconfigured, restacked and re-piles. i'm okay with it. it's a mess, all my electronics are unplugged and confused, stuff is not exactly where it used to be. but i expected all that. i have to re-do all this stuff anyway to adjust to living in a much much smaller space.
i'm in that weird "don't quite know what to do with myself" zone. my body thinks its the middle of the day, but it's now 4:06am. birds are chirping, which means the daylight will arrive soon. the culture shock of returning to this place is far far worse than going overseas. but i'll get used to it. mostly. enough to get along. next time i buy a ticket for asia it will be a one-way ticket. (even if i know i'm coming back, extending and re booking is more expensive than just buying a one way return ticket) but maybe, i won't need that return ticket. not for a long time.
i called Tok, she i getting busy as always - working in jamlongs shop, setting up to cut and style hair at her own house, and some people have expressed interest to her of learning english. "hey, that's supposed to be MY job i said to her". i miss her and the family, and all the people in the neighborhood. but i must keep a "cool heart" as they thais call it. so i will.
the next adventure begins...
now.
Onward!
Nu.
or am i back to being karl? oh yes, i guess so. thus:
Onward!
karl
--
i am in thailand at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20060529
36 Thaikarl time to go back in time
friends,
it's 6:25pm monday may 29th here in taiwan. it is 15 hours earllier in seattle. so when i catch the plane tonight at 11pm, after some 11 hours in the air i will arrive in seattle at 7:10pm, this same day. going back in time. appropriate. returning to my past, from this far eastern present.
what a long strange trip it's been.
i haven't felt like writing since i've been here in taiwan. i will have to backfill the travelogue from seattle. i have enjoyed my visit to nationalist china. seen and done some interesting things. doug and jasmine have been very friendly and helpful to me. and i miss tok, the family, and thailand very much.
Onward
Nu
--
i am in ???? at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
it's 6:25pm monday may 29th here in taiwan. it is 15 hours earllier in seattle. so when i catch the plane tonight at 11pm, after some 11 hours in the air i will arrive in seattle at 7:10pm, this same day. going back in time. appropriate. returning to my past, from this far eastern present.
what a long strange trip it's been.
i haven't felt like writing since i've been here in taiwan. i will have to backfill the travelogue from seattle. i have enjoyed my visit to nationalist china. seen and done some interesting things. doug and jasmine have been very friendly and helpful to me. and i miss tok, the family, and thailand very much.
Onward
Nu
--
i am in ???? at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20060525
35 Thaikarl we're not in ..... anymore dorothy
friends,
taiwan is a bit of a change from thailand. language and script completely different of course, and many small differences in life, appearance and custom. i've been pretty much doing nothing for the last couple of days, walking around the neighborhood some and hanging with my friend doug. nice to just chill after the last couple of months of busyness in the village.
but today i am determined to find the subway entrance and go into the city. Doug and Jasmine live in an outlying area of the megalopolis of Taipei. so all i'm seeing is the local business and residential life. the Taipei city is something else.
doug has a DSL connection here at his apartment,, so i'm online much more. you can look for me on yahoo instant messenger as indiakarl. or not.
Onward!
Nu
--
i am in taiwan at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
taiwan is a bit of a change from thailand. language and script completely different of course, and many small differences in life, appearance and custom. i've been pretty much doing nothing for the last couple of days, walking around the neighborhood some and hanging with my friend doug. nice to just chill after the last couple of months of busyness in the village.
but today i am determined to find the subway entrance and go into the city. Doug and Jasmine live in an outlying area of the megalopolis of Taipei. so all i'm seeing is the local business and residential life. the Taipei city is something else.
doug has a DSL connection here at his apartment,, so i'm online much more. you can look for me on yahoo instant messenger as indiakarl. or not.
Onward!
Nu
--
i am in taiwan at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20060523
34 Thaikarl greetings from taiwan!
friends,
many baht later, i finally made the plane from bangkok to Taiwan. i'm
visiting with Doug, whom i met at the Celta course and his wife. i'm
typing this on an iBook at dougs english school. (so nice to see a
mac again) quite an impressive setup they have here, two nice rooms
with new desks and chairs, whiteboards... a real school. it's called
DJ's English School for Doug and Jasmine (his wife)
it's a little different here. like, everything is in chinese
characters, and the language sounds very unfamiliar, soft and breathy.
the city of thaipei is some ways away, we are out in the out lands of
the city proper. i can take the MRT subway into the city. doug and
jasmine are busy with school.
raining. grey. like the scenes from blade runner...
will be nice to soften the let down from thailand. i have been with
tok 24/7 for 4 months... feels strange to be on my own now. but she
is not that far away.
onward!
--
i am in thailand at the moment. to be added or deleted from my
travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at:
http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20060522
33 Thaikarl Missed my plane! so i'm going to china.
friends,
for the first time in all my flying, i missed my plane yesterday. drats. simple as setting alarm for 'time to be at airport' not for 'time to get up to get ready and goto airport'. and of course, it being sunday, the Delta airline office was closed, and you can't get china air on the phone. still, we packed up and took a taxi to the airport. i went to the china airlines counter and the ladie said there was a 1:30pm flight, no problem. okay good. went through all the dreary goodbyes at the security gate etc. when i got back to the counter and they started punching things in the terminal, things went wrong. seems that china airlines only has one "codeshare" flight per day. and since i have a paper ticket, i had to goto the delta office to change it. but they don't open until 9:00 am monday, and the flight for the day leaves at 8:25am. sweet. all of this took much discussion, terminal keying, calls to supervisors etc. fortunately Tok was still waiting at the passenger fence. we took taxi back to the hotel. when the taxi stopped, i woke from my nap and opened the door... and clipped a car that was zooming past. black-car stops, there is a lot of discussions in thai, broken mirror glass on the ground and i have little idea what's going on. we got the new room (wayyyyyyyyy in the back of the lodge) and when we came back out, the taxi and black-car are still there. black-car man calling insurance company. we ate lunch at the road stall. eventually some guys came out on a motorbike, took pictures and made out paper work and told me that i had to split the cost with the insurance company. 2000 baht (little over 52.00). i gave the taxi driver 200 baht, because it wasn't his fault and it had taken up much of his time and fares to deal with all this. he was quite surprized and grateful for that.
so this morning, monday, tok and i take the skytrain and walk to the delta office - up on the 27 floor of an office building and rebook the ticket. oh, another 75.00 USD to change the ticket. the original flight is booked now. so once again, my arrival in seattle is set back. now i return to Seattle on the 29th of may, china airlines, flight 22 arrives 7:10pm. my thai visa expires tomorrow, the 23rd, so i have a little problem there. i don't need to spend MORE money to make a visa run to cambodia, so i'm going to leave BKK tomorrow morning and fly to taiwan. i have a friend from the english course who lives there, and i will visit with them for 5 days, waiting for the flight to Seattle. that will be interesting. doug and his wife are starting an english school in Taipei, so i am looking forward to seeing how it all works. and to hang out in Taiwan for a bit. more foreign money to add to my collection of places to come back to. but, the cash is gone. i had to take back the money i gave Tok to live on to pay for scratched car, more hotel and food etc, i'm going to be eating rice and walking alot in Taiwan. the Dutch have a saying: "laugh and pay". i'm laughing my ass off.
Onward!
Nu
--
i am in thailand at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
for the first time in all my flying, i missed my plane yesterday. drats. simple as setting alarm for 'time to be at airport' not for 'time to get up to get ready and goto airport'. and of course, it being sunday, the Delta airline office was closed, and you can't get china air on the phone. still, we packed up and took a taxi to the airport. i went to the china airlines counter and the ladie said there was a 1:30pm flight, no problem. okay good. went through all the dreary goodbyes at the security gate etc. when i got back to the counter and they started punching things in the terminal, things went wrong. seems that china airlines only has one "codeshare" flight per day. and since i have a paper ticket, i had to goto the delta office to change it. but they don't open until 9:00 am monday, and the flight for the day leaves at 8:25am. sweet. all of this took much discussion, terminal keying, calls to supervisors etc. fortunately Tok was still waiting at the passenger fence. we took taxi back to the hotel. when the taxi stopped, i woke from my nap and opened the door... and clipped a car that was zooming past. black-car stops, there is a lot of discussions in thai, broken mirror glass on the ground and i have little idea what's going on. we got the new room (wayyyyyyyyy in the back of the lodge) and when we came back out, the taxi and black-car are still there. black-car man calling insurance company. we ate lunch at the road stall. eventually some guys came out on a motorbike, took pictures and made out paper work and told me that i had to split the cost with the insurance company. 2000 baht (little over 52.00). i gave the taxi driver 200 baht, because it wasn't his fault and it had taken up much of his time and fares to deal with all this. he was quite surprized and grateful for that.
so this morning, monday, tok and i take the skytrain and walk to the delta office - up on the 27 floor of an office building and rebook the ticket. oh, another 75.00 USD to change the ticket. the original flight is booked now. so once again, my arrival in seattle is set back. now i return to Seattle on the 29th of may, china airlines, flight 22 arrives 7:10pm. my thai visa expires tomorrow, the 23rd, so i have a little problem there. i don't need to spend MORE money to make a visa run to cambodia, so i'm going to leave BKK tomorrow morning and fly to taiwan. i have a friend from the english course who lives there, and i will visit with them for 5 days, waiting for the flight to Seattle. that will be interesting. doug and his wife are starting an english school in Taipei, so i am looking forward to seeing how it all works. and to hang out in Taiwan for a bit. more foreign money to add to my collection of places to come back to. but, the cash is gone. i had to take back the money i gave Tok to live on to pay for scratched car, more hotel and food etc, i'm going to be eating rice and walking alot in Taiwan. the Dutch have a saying: "laugh and pay". i'm laughing my ass off.
Onward!
Nu
--
i am in thailand at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20060520
32 thaikarl Amazing Thailand and the next stop
Friends,
Departing bangok tomorrow. There is a pall hanging over Tok and I, knowing that it will be some time before we are together again. We've shopped for last minute things… mostly things for Tok. She purchased the rudiments- dryer, curler, scissors etc so she can cut hair at home to earn a little money. I gave her everything I had left in Baht, hope it will tide her over until I can generate some cash to send to her from seattle.
What follows are a collection of Amazing Thailand bits that I noted and may or may not have included in prior messages. Some are a bit thin in explanation, but I have other things to do tonight…
Onward!
Nu
Amazing Thailand
The time bell ringer
Bangs the gong 1-2 1-2 1-2 1-2 1-2 for 10 pm
Tok and I were eating Phad Thai one evening in Lom Sak. I heard a clanging sound, someone rhythmically hitting a piece of metal. Tok says "It's Ten PM" "How do you know that?" I ask her. "The time man." She says. I notice a man leaving on motorbike across the street. The sound I heard was the man banging on a piece of metal hanging from the road sign. "Clang-Clang…Clang-Clang!" Ten times for 10 o'clock. I am amazed. They actually have a time keeper who goes around ringing a gong to tell the time. I ask Tok if there actually is a man whose job it is is to ride around town and gong the time. Of course there is.
Roti Boy 4/19/2006 9:24 AM
Everyday in Siam Square there was a long long queue at the Roti Boy shop. Roti's are buns that have a butter and coffee cream dressing applied to the dough before baking. They originated in Singapore decades ago. They started as a mix of bun and cookie, then became a soft cream cookie melted on top of the bun. From early in the morning until late afternoon, there would be a line of people around the corner and down the alley waiting to get their Rotiboys. Reminds me of the similar craze when Krispy Kreme doughnuts opened a store in Issaquah Washington. Another outlet in Siam is Papa Roti. Papa Roti's buns aren't quite so buttery and have a slightly crispy top. Tok waited and hour in line to buy some Rotiboys for us. They are very tasty, but hardly phenomenal. They go through thousands of these things every day. (we have since see Rotimom, RotiBuns and somewhere is Rotigirl)
Anti Thaksin ring tones 3/9/2006
The prime minister of Thailand is having a difficult
time right now. Something about a business deal where he sold his shares in a communication company, and made millions of Baht – tax free. A little article in The Nation reported on that political ringtones can be awkward in some situations. People have downloaded anti-Thaksin ringtones for mobile phones. A reporters phone started ringing "Thaksin ok pai" ("Thaksin get out" I'm guessing) during a press conference with the agricultural minister – who is a good buddy of the prime minister. Even funnier, the ringtone was audible when the TV news reports of the press conference were broadcast later that day.
Croaking Lizards 3/14/2006 9:59 PM
Every night I have heard a loud croaking sound. Starts with a series of short chirps then a loud Wah!-Waah!, several times. And I do mean these things are loud – about like the cawing of a crow loud. I asked Tok several times what was making that sound. She said it was like a gecko, but bigger. I wasn't sure what that meant – things get lost in translation very easily. I've heard it several times from the north wall, near the cabinets that make up the wall of Mama's bedroom. Tonight I got my flashlight and peered over the top of the cabinet, and there was a large head sticking up! As big as a tablespoon big! Big yellow eyes, pale green skin with soft pink dots. It ducked down the wall when I shown the light on it. I went and got a mirror and went into Mama's bedroom and put the mirror against the wall so that I could see down the space between the wall and the cabinet. Wow, it's a lizard of some sort- a BIG one. Has to be at least 9 inches long. I didn't think a little gecko sized creature could be making so much sound, now I know what it is. I learned that these guys are called a "Tokay". The name approximates the sound they make. So many strange and interesting creatures about. I like to kid Tok, every time I discover another one. "Are we going to eat them?" She always laughs at me. I learned that the croaking sound is a territorial call. Mama got fed up with the animal waking her up and tried to fish him from out behind the cabinet one day. She kept shoving the palm broom behind the cabinet. The Tokay finally came out and stopped by the window. I ran to get my video camera, shot 3 seconds of video and it ran down behind the cabinet again. A few days later it was gone. I was afraid mama had killed it, but it reappeared a couple of weeks later. Loud as ever…
Houses on stilts
Many Thai houses outside of the towns and cities are built up on stilts. Some are several feet above ground, most are above head height, some are 15 feet up in the air. I've wondered about the reason many times. I asked Tok about it and she gave the reason for the tradition. In former times there were wild elephants and tigers in Thailand, having your house up in the air protected you from them. Well, there are no tigers or elephants now, so why do they continue to build houses this way? I've come to realize a few things about this construction that makes a lot of sense, for here and other places in the world where they build stilted houses.
When you house is 10 feet up in the air, it is more difficult for enemies or bad guys to gain entry. The house is up where the breezes are. The space beneath the house is shaded, and open to any breeze, thus is cooler. The space is also protected from the rain. It gives a place to cook, work, store things and hang out. Being up on stilts also prevents most of the critters like rats, mice, frogs, snakes and numerous bugs from coming into the house. Most of the houses are supported by concrete columns. I've seen the molds they use for the columns behind the hardware store. The concrete columns have steps formed on the upper end, to support wooden floor beams. The beams are bolted thru holes cast into the tops of the columns. The base of the columns has a footing molded into them. The columns are set about two feet into the ground. I don't know if they set them into a concreted hole or not. Having stilts made of concrete keeps the termites from eating them, and making their way up into your house.
I like the stilted houses. I like the open spaces beneath them and the way people work and live under the house. The interior of any house gets quite warm in the sun. There is generally no insulation beneath the roof or in the walls, so the sun heats the roof and walls, which re-radiates into the rooms inside.
Burning trash
Out in the rural areas, most of the household trash is burned. Everything. A lot of plastic bags, food containers and other things that make a nasty pollutant smoke. They don't have garbage collection. There just isn't the infrastructure to support it. And burning is easy. That means that just in Thailand, there are thousands of these fires every day. Add that to the large portion of the rest of the world who do the same thing, and I imagine we have a lot of junk going into the air. Sure, north Americans, and the European union countries have stopped or curtailed burning garbage, but that is a small portion of the world population.
Thai newspaper coverage
I have noticed something about news coverage in Thailand, at least in the English language newspapers, and what I can glean from the TV news. They don't put a lot of stories of death, destruction and "things to fear" in the paper. There are two national English language papers – the "Bangkok Post" and "The Nation". They print stories that are mostly concerned with politics, social issues, financial dealings, world news and human interest. Very muted are the shootings, road accident spectacles, lurid coverage of murders, rapes, robbery, fires, child molesters, and other horrors that the north American news and papers love to dwell on. They do report these things, but they are limited to a few column inches, not pages and pages of such events.
The Thai language newspapers I can't tell you about. There seems to be a number of them that are a bit tabloid in nature. There is always a photo of people that have been murdered, often in the drug world. They show the bodies splayed the way they were found, like "true crime" photos. Usually they will pixilated the faces, or immodest portions displayed.
Doug and Matt go to concert
Doug and matt were telling about going to the Bangkok100 concert last night. They were carrying beers in their hands when they went to go in, but the guard at the gate told them they couldn't carry beer in. They pointed at some people passing beer thru the fence a few feet away. The guard said that was okay. So mat went into the gates and around to the fence. Doug handed the beer to him, just a few feet away from the guard, who nodded them on. Then Doug went into the gate, met mat, got their beers and went in too the concert.
Afterwards, there was a truck of roadies from the show going by picking up people who where trying to get away from the concert area. They jumped on the truck with some 30 other people. At one point the truck almost couldn't make it up the hill. They didn't know where the truck was going, but it was away from the show, in the general direction they were headed.
White men can't squat
Business Terms form BKKpost
Professor W Chan Kim and Professor Renee Mauborgne brainchilds;
Red Ocean Strategy or Bloody Ocean Strategy: Competing within the existing industry and weaning customers away from competitors
Blue Ocean Strategy: Creating new demand in the marketplace. The competition is irrelevant. Focusing on a target market (say B class and higher) and concentrating on innovative products with good design.
"Sunrise Market"Motorbike trailers
People use motorbikes for many forms of transporting; people, goods and products. One of the interesting uses is to haul a little trailer. These trailers are two wheeled, made of metal or wood and have an extended push bar across the front. People place the load on the trailers so that the push bar is lightly loaded, place the push bar over the seat of the motorbike, and sit on it to hold it in place when moving. This method, of course, begs the question, "what happens when you hit a bump hard and your butt comes off the seat?". The answer of course is that the trailer will be "un-hitched" and go flailing across the road. But this seems to rarely happen, as many people use the 'seat of the pants' hitch method, and you would think that they would stop doing that and make something else if un-hitching was a common occurrence. Tok and I hauled a bag of cement, 6 boxes of ceramic tiles, a new toilet and sundry hardware in a cart like this. I had to keep the speed down of course. Today we hauled two big bags of fine sand, and two more bags of concrete. Nearly flattened the tires on the cart. I had to be the trailer hitch; it was too heavy for Tok to control.
Relaxed property boundaries- open doors
Bugs and critters
You can't go with out shorts and shirt
The miserable mosquitoes
Ants, beetles, flying ants, roaches, red ants, bees
Frogs, skinks, tokays, lizards, toads, mice, rats
Bug blooms
The big four wingers when it rains
The ants go crazy
Bumble beetles
And the little ants that carry away the bodies
Thais don't wear baseball caps
When they do, they are on straight
Many Cambodians do – motodup drivers uniform
Fuel costs
BKK post the some farmers are going back to using buffaloes. The fuel for the motorized buffaloes is getting too expensive.
Half of the Thai Fishing fleet grounded due to fuel costs.
Oil Wars. If you think the war in Iraq was about Oil, and even if you don't… just wait.
Short doorways and eye-poking umbrellas
Thai school children wear uniforms
What will happen to the frogs if they widen the road?
Tok told me they posted notices that they are going to widen the two lane road that runs by her house to four lanes. All of the property that is on the road has a 23 meter set-back (about 75 feet) that is owned by the government. They will use the space to enlarge the road. The road is posted as Road 21, which means it is a major roadway. Although it will be good for travel and commerce, there will be some sad consequences of this progress. Along the roadway now, especially in the village areas are some magnificent trees, which will of course be cut down. A lot of shade will be lost in front of peoples properties. Between Toks house and the road is a pond. Many properties have drainage pipes to carry away the water, Toks doesn't. so the water accumulates between the raised driveways of hers and her neighbors property. Many frogs and other creature are living in this pond. That will also be gone. Not to mention moving the noise of traffic that much closer to the house. Oh well. Progress.
Not talking or listening to people talk sure gives you time to think.
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i am in thailand at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
Departing bangok tomorrow. There is a pall hanging over Tok and I, knowing that it will be some time before we are together again. We've shopped for last minute things… mostly things for Tok. She purchased the rudiments- dryer, curler, scissors etc so she can cut hair at home to earn a little money. I gave her everything I had left in Baht, hope it will tide her over until I can generate some cash to send to her from seattle.
What follows are a collection of Amazing Thailand bits that I noted and may or may not have included in prior messages. Some are a bit thin in explanation, but I have other things to do tonight…
Onward!
Nu
Amazing Thailand
The time bell ringer
Bangs the gong 1-2 1-2 1-2 1-2 1-2 for 10 pm
Tok and I were eating Phad Thai one evening in Lom Sak. I heard a clanging sound, someone rhythmically hitting a piece of metal. Tok says "It's Ten PM" "How do you know that?" I ask her. "The time man." She says. I notice a man leaving on motorbike across the street. The sound I heard was the man banging on a piece of metal hanging from the road sign. "Clang-Clang…Clang-Clang!" Ten times for 10 o'clock. I am amazed. They actually have a time keeper who goes around ringing a gong to tell the time. I ask Tok if there actually is a man whose job it is is to ride around town and gong the time. Of course there is.
Roti Boy 4/19/2006 9:24 AM
Everyday in Siam Square there was a long long queue at the Roti Boy shop. Roti's are buns that have a butter and coffee cream dressing applied to the dough before baking. They originated in Singapore decades ago. They started as a mix of bun and cookie, then became a soft cream cookie melted on top of the bun. From early in the morning until late afternoon, there would be a line of people around the corner and down the alley waiting to get their Rotiboys. Reminds me of the similar craze when Krispy Kreme doughnuts opened a store in Issaquah Washington. Another outlet in Siam is Papa Roti. Papa Roti's buns aren't quite so buttery and have a slightly crispy top. Tok waited and hour in line to buy some Rotiboys for us. They are very tasty, but hardly phenomenal. They go through thousands of these things every day. (we have since see Rotimom, RotiBuns and somewhere is Rotigirl)
Anti Thaksin ring tones 3/9/2006
The prime minister of Thailand is having a difficult
time right now. Something about a business deal where he sold his shares in a communication company, and made millions of Baht – tax free. A little article in The Nation reported on that political ringtones can be awkward in some situations. People have downloaded anti-Thaksin ringtones for mobile phones. A reporters phone started ringing "Thaksin ok pai" ("Thaksin get out" I'm guessing) during a press conference with the agricultural minister – who is a good buddy of the prime minister. Even funnier, the ringtone was audible when the TV news reports of the press conference were broadcast later that day.
Croaking Lizards 3/14/2006 9:59 PM
Every night I have heard a loud croaking sound. Starts with a series of short chirps then a loud Wah!-Waah!, several times. And I do mean these things are loud – about like the cawing of a crow loud. I asked Tok several times what was making that sound. She said it was like a gecko, but bigger. I wasn't sure what that meant – things get lost in translation very easily. I've heard it several times from the north wall, near the cabinets that make up the wall of Mama's bedroom. Tonight I got my flashlight and peered over the top of the cabinet, and there was a large head sticking up! As big as a tablespoon big! Big yellow eyes, pale green skin with soft pink dots. It ducked down the wall when I shown the light on it. I went and got a mirror and went into Mama's bedroom and put the mirror against the wall so that I could see down the space between the wall and the cabinet. Wow, it's a lizard of some sort- a BIG one. Has to be at least 9 inches long. I didn't think a little gecko sized creature could be making so much sound, now I know what it is. I learned that these guys are called a "Tokay". The name approximates the sound they make. So many strange and interesting creatures about. I like to kid Tok, every time I discover another one. "Are we going to eat them?" She always laughs at me. I learned that the croaking sound is a territorial call. Mama got fed up with the animal waking her up and tried to fish him from out behind the cabinet one day. She kept shoving the palm broom behind the cabinet. The Tokay finally came out and stopped by the window. I ran to get my video camera, shot 3 seconds of video and it ran down behind the cabinet again. A few days later it was gone. I was afraid mama had killed it, but it reappeared a couple of weeks later. Loud as ever…
Houses on stilts
Many Thai houses outside of the towns and cities are built up on stilts. Some are several feet above ground, most are above head height, some are 15 feet up in the air. I've wondered about the reason many times. I asked Tok about it and she gave the reason for the tradition. In former times there were wild elephants and tigers in Thailand, having your house up in the air protected you from them. Well, there are no tigers or elephants now, so why do they continue to build houses this way? I've come to realize a few things about this construction that makes a lot of sense, for here and other places in the world where they build stilted houses.
When you house is 10 feet up in the air, it is more difficult for enemies or bad guys to gain entry. The house is up where the breezes are. The space beneath the house is shaded, and open to any breeze, thus is cooler. The space is also protected from the rain. It gives a place to cook, work, store things and hang out. Being up on stilts also prevents most of the critters like rats, mice, frogs, snakes and numerous bugs from coming into the house. Most of the houses are supported by concrete columns. I've seen the molds they use for the columns behind the hardware store. The concrete columns have steps formed on the upper end, to support wooden floor beams. The beams are bolted thru holes cast into the tops of the columns. The base of the columns has a footing molded into them. The columns are set about two feet into the ground. I don't know if they set them into a concreted hole or not. Having stilts made of concrete keeps the termites from eating them, and making their way up into your house.
I like the stilted houses. I like the open spaces beneath them and the way people work and live under the house. The interior of any house gets quite warm in the sun. There is generally no insulation beneath the roof or in the walls, so the sun heats the roof and walls, which re-radiates into the rooms inside.
Burning trash
Out in the rural areas, most of the household trash is burned. Everything. A lot of plastic bags, food containers and other things that make a nasty pollutant smoke. They don't have garbage collection. There just isn't the infrastructure to support it. And burning is easy. That means that just in Thailand, there are thousands of these fires every day. Add that to the large portion of the rest of the world who do the same thing, and I imagine we have a lot of junk going into the air. Sure, north Americans, and the European union countries have stopped or curtailed burning garbage, but that is a small portion of the world population.
Thai newspaper coverage
I have noticed something about news coverage in Thailand, at least in the English language newspapers, and what I can glean from the TV news. They don't put a lot of stories of death, destruction and "things to fear" in the paper. There are two national English language papers – the "Bangkok Post" and "The Nation". They print stories that are mostly concerned with politics, social issues, financial dealings, world news and human interest. Very muted are the shootings, road accident spectacles, lurid coverage of murders, rapes, robbery, fires, child molesters, and other horrors that the north American news and papers love to dwell on. They do report these things, but they are limited to a few column inches, not pages and pages of such events.
The Thai language newspapers I can't tell you about. There seems to be a number of them that are a bit tabloid in nature. There is always a photo of people that have been murdered, often in the drug world. They show the bodies splayed the way they were found, like "true crime" photos. Usually they will pixilated the faces, or immodest portions displayed.
Doug and Matt go to concert
Doug and matt were telling about going to the Bangkok100 concert last night. They were carrying beers in their hands when they went to go in, but the guard at the gate told them they couldn't carry beer in. They pointed at some people passing beer thru the fence a few feet away. The guard said that was okay. So mat went into the gates and around to the fence. Doug handed the beer to him, just a few feet away from the guard, who nodded them on. Then Doug went into the gate, met mat, got their beers and went in too the concert.
Afterwards, there was a truck of roadies from the show going by picking up people who where trying to get away from the concert area. They jumped on the truck with some 30 other people. At one point the truck almost couldn't make it up the hill. They didn't know where the truck was going, but it was away from the show, in the general direction they were headed.
White men can't squat
Business Terms form BKKpost
Professor W Chan Kim and Professor Renee Mauborgne brainchilds;
Red Ocean Strategy or Bloody Ocean Strategy: Competing within the existing industry and weaning customers away from competitors
Blue Ocean Strategy: Creating new demand in the marketplace. The competition is irrelevant. Focusing on a target market (say B class and higher) and concentrating on innovative products with good design.
"Sunrise Market"Motorbike trailers
People use motorbikes for many forms of transporting; people, goods and products. One of the interesting uses is to haul a little trailer. These trailers are two wheeled, made of metal or wood and have an extended push bar across the front. People place the load on the trailers so that the push bar is lightly loaded, place the push bar over the seat of the motorbike, and sit on it to hold it in place when moving. This method, of course, begs the question, "what happens when you hit a bump hard and your butt comes off the seat?". The answer of course is that the trailer will be "un-hitched" and go flailing across the road. But this seems to rarely happen, as many people use the 'seat of the pants' hitch method, and you would think that they would stop doing that and make something else if un-hitching was a common occurrence. Tok and I hauled a bag of cement, 6 boxes of ceramic tiles, a new toilet and sundry hardware in a cart like this. I had to keep the speed down of course. Today we hauled two big bags of fine sand, and two more bags of concrete. Nearly flattened the tires on the cart. I had to be the trailer hitch; it was too heavy for Tok to control.
Relaxed property boundaries- open doors
Bugs and critters
You can't go with out shorts and shirt
The miserable mosquitoes
Ants, beetles, flying ants, roaches, red ants, bees
Frogs, skinks, tokays, lizards, toads, mice, rats
Bug blooms
The big four wingers when it rains
The ants go crazy
Bumble beetles
And the little ants that carry away the bodies
Thais don't wear baseball caps
When they do, they are on straight
Many Cambodians do – motodup drivers uniform
Fuel costs
BKK post the some farmers are going back to using buffaloes. The fuel for the motorized buffaloes is getting too expensive.
Half of the Thai Fishing fleet grounded due to fuel costs.
Oil Wars. If you think the war in Iraq was about Oil, and even if you don't… just wait.
Short doorways and eye-poking umbrellas
Thai school children wear uniforms
What will happen to the frogs if they widen the road?
Tok told me they posted notices that they are going to widen the two lane road that runs by her house to four lanes. All of the property that is on the road has a 23 meter set-back (about 75 feet) that is owned by the government. They will use the space to enlarge the road. The road is posted as Road 21, which means it is a major roadway. Although it will be good for travel and commerce, there will be some sad consequences of this progress. Along the roadway now, especially in the village areas are some magnificent trees, which will of course be cut down. A lot of shade will be lost in front of peoples properties. Between Toks house and the road is a pond. Many properties have drainage pipes to carry away the water, Toks doesn't. so the water accumulates between the raised driveways of hers and her neighbors property. Many frogs and other creature are living in this pond. That will also be gone. Not to mention moving the noise of traffic that much closer to the house. Oh well. Progress.
Not talking or listening to people talk sure gives you time to think.
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i am in thailand at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20060516
31 Thaikarl short timing grey skys today
friends,
i just notice that there are two issues numbered "29" so is this one 30, or 31? i'll make it 31 and sort it out in the later life.
short time. so many things left undone. guess i'll just have to come back. what do you want from thailand?
I want the life i have now. you?
Nu
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i am in thailand at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
i just notice that there are two issues numbered "29" so is this one 30, or 31? i'll make it 31 and sort it out in the later life.
short time. so many things left undone. guess i'll just have to come back. what do you want from thailand?
I want the life i have now. you?
Nu
--
i am in thailand at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20060514
29 Thaikarl my purpose in thailand and...
Friends,
I have finally realized what my purpose for being in Thailand is…
It's to nourish the mosquito population. The little bugs really like me. There must be something quite flavorful about my farang blood that they will fly in from all directions to sample. And I'm positive that after a nice meal, they wiz off and tell all their friends where the best dinner is. The mosquitoes here are minute. You think they were simple little gnats, nothing to fuss about. Not so. Evolution figured out the "small is better" advantage when it came to these guys. They are not as easily spotted as they home in for a dose of my blood. And being so small, when they land on your skin, you can't feel it. I have been bitten hundreds of times, and I have yet to actually see a mosquito on my skin. I've had constellations of bites on my back. Going shirtless is a nice idea in the luxurious temperature here, but it means they are going to get you. I slather on the repellent, which seems to dismay them a bit. But they are quite expert at finding the little patch of skin I missed. They especially like your ankles and calves. I won't leave home with out my DEET. If there is any chance of being out after nightfall I have one of the little bottles in my kit, or pay for it later. And these creeps are active 24/7. They tend to stay out of the hot sun, but then you must be out in the sun to enjoy the relief. One small consolation: these mosquitoes are fairly solitary. I have suffered through the *swarms* of mosquitoes in Michigan and Ohio. Thai 'skeetos are not like that. Thank whatever god they live by.
I finished the brickwork on the wall we knocked out, and helped move the junk from the back porch to the shed and the burn pile. Tok is allergic to lots of dust. She broke out in hives the night before last when we swept up much of the concrete and wall dust and debris in the front entry. The hives are still dissipating. So there is frequent sweeping and moping to do to keep the dust level down. I tried to keep a fan blowing out the window, to make some airflow *out* of the house, but they see the fan sitting there burning up electricity, with no person sitting in front of it, and someone turns it off. I turn it on. Next time I come back in the house, it's off again. Gave that one up. Prior programming "unplug and turn off what is not being used this very minute" over-rides the temporary program "air flow to take dust out the widow using the fan". So I gave up on that concept. But we're almost there with the major projects and clean-up.
I hope we can have a day to borrow Jamlongs motorbike and goto the mountains before departure to Bangkok. We'll see.
BTW: DEET is the active ingredient in mosquito repellant.
Onward!
Nu
Thai bit: After having a baby, the new mother lays continuously next to a fire for up to seven days, drinking herbal tea and eating only rice, salt and fish.
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i am in thailand at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20060511
29 thaikarl end of time acceleration
friends,
the end of my time here (for now) is approaching, and i am seriously feeling the compression of time. i am trying to keep a neutral feeling about leaving - they call it "not having a hot heart" in thailand. (interestingly, a "cold heart" is a calm, relaxed person, unlike our meaning.)
working to finish up the projects, and take in everything. what ever gets left un-done will mean i just have to come back. like when i visit another country, i don't convert all my currency back to dollars. that means i'll have to come back to the county to spend the money. so i have currency from canada, europe, india, thailand, cambodia, vietnam, and now Laos. lots of places to get back to.
but thailand is home.
back to work....
On wards!
Nu
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i am in thailand at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
the end of my time here (for now) is approaching, and i am seriously feeling the compression of time. i am trying to keep a neutral feeling about leaving - they call it "not having a hot heart" in thailand. (interestingly, a "cold heart" is a calm, relaxed person, unlike our meaning.)
working to finish up the projects, and take in everything. what ever gets left un-done will mean i just have to come back. like when i visit another country, i don't convert all my currency back to dollars. that means i'll have to come back to the county to spend the money. so i have currency from canada, europe, india, thailand, cambodia, vietnam, and now Laos. lots of places to get back to.
but thailand is home.
back to work....
On wards!
Nu
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i am in thailand at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20060507
28 Thaikarl wow the whelm. it is bangkok
friends,
after the "quiet life" in the country, bangkok is even for me, a bit overwhelming. but i like it. have noticed the total assault of people, traffic, commerce and cool things to see and do does make the brain a little frazzled.
i had a few 'gotta do's' while we are here, so i ran around yesterday and took care of them. got my airline tickets and all that. today was some sight seeing. mama wanted to got wat prekow (sp?) which we had been to already, so i passed on the 200 baht farlang entrance fee and went wandering. turns out that is is a big buddist holiday, and they had all these tents out on the big field with exhibits, and displays. very cool. the first tent had a collection of budda images. tens of them. many people looking, praying, taking pictures. in another tent they had they very modern exibit on the history of buddism. mulit-media projections, sculptures, 3D LCD dispays, and even a holovision of the baby budday coming at you, out of the thin air. it was very well done, and they did have english notes under things. after the family got done at the temple they came over and we went through everything again.
mama was tired, so we took them to the hotel, and tok and i went to jatachuck market, and back to mbk. everybody is pooped out. i'm kinda tired also, but city-jazzed up. taking the bus back to the north tomorrow.
onward
NU
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i am in thailand at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
after the "quiet life" in the country, bangkok is even for me, a bit overwhelming. but i like it. have noticed the total assault of people, traffic, commerce and cool things to see and do does make the brain a little frazzled.
i had a few 'gotta do's' while we are here, so i ran around yesterday and took care of them. got my airline tickets and all that. today was some sight seeing. mama wanted to got wat prekow (sp?) which we had been to already, so i passed on the 200 baht farlang entrance fee and went wandering. turns out that is is a big buddist holiday, and they had all these tents out on the big field with exhibits, and displays. very cool. the first tent had a collection of budda images. tens of them. many people looking, praying, taking pictures. in another tent they had they very modern exibit on the history of buddism. mulit-media projections, sculptures, 3D LCD dispays, and even a holovision of the baby budday coming at you, out of the thin air. it was very well done, and they did have english notes under things. after the family got done at the temple they came over and we went through everything again.
mama was tired, so we took them to the hotel, and tok and i went to jatachuck market, and back to mbk. everybody is pooped out. i'm kinda tired also, but city-jazzed up. taking the bus back to the north tomorrow.
onward
NU
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i am in thailand at the moment. to be added or deleted from my travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20060506
27 ThaiKarl bangkok holiday, return to USA
friends,
brought the family to bangkok for the weekend for the little holiday i
promised them. Teri is excited to go "every place!" we went to MBK
last night. Mama had never been on an escalator, and we had a good
laugh as she stumbled on and off. by the third floor, she would just
stand at the step and keep sticking her foot out, missing the next
rising step. and teri had never been on an elevator, so when we took
the lift down from the 7th floor to the ground, she grabbed her mother
and hung on. talk about taking the country folks to the city! and
all the stairs we have to climb and decend using the fly-overs to
cross the streets is a killer for mama. but at (roughly) 74 she's a
sport about it.
i'm trying to find a dentist that takes visa cards. i have to have
some work done, but my cashmachine is about empty. which also means i
have to return to the USA. i got my revised ticket today at Delta
(they don't have e-tickets!!!!) i return to seattle may 24th.
i came back to ECC to get my course certificute, and i'm taking
adavantae of the (free) computers in the teachers room.
onward!
Nu
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i am in thailand at the moment. to be added or deleted from my
travelogue, send request to this address. view previous posts at:
http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
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