friends,
leap day was yesterday here, but it's today for yall. warm and sunny today. that means i get to take a warm shower. the 2 inch plastic hose that comes from the pump is transparent. if it sits full of water in the sun for a couple of hours, it will get warm - even hot. so i turn the pump on into a bucket, then turn it off when the bucket is full, which just empties the standing water in the pump hose line. i've rigged up a shower pump in the back of the house. i bought a larger submersible water pump in bangkok. like you would use in a fountain pool. i ran some hose up and tied it to a line i strung between the shed and the betal nut palm. when i plug in the pump, the water comes out the end of the hose so that it goes back into the big jar i'm using for shower water. when i want to be in the water, i reach up and divert the stream to me, so i can wet and wash. when i'm not getting wet myself, the stream flows back into the jar, so the water isn't wasted. pretty basic, and doesn't do much at night of course, but it's a bit of a luxury, none the less. i like to shower behind the house anyway. under the stars at night. wonderful.
we are planing to go to rayong in south thailand tommarow after tok votes. we are on a special mission, which i'll tell you about after it is accomplished. i asked tok what the voting was for, and she said she didn't know. she's a rather apathetic voter. you are required by law to vote in thailand, imagine that, so she has to go. but she said that all the political candidates are all warm and greeting and promising before the election, and then they all disappear and try to get themselves money. so she says it doesn't matter if she votes or not. in fact, she marks her ballot wrong, so that it would be counted anyway. this is not that uncommon i understand. sort of a protest vote. but she says she believes that she is the only one to have a defective vote every single time there has been a vote. i just asked her if she can remember ever making a qualified vote. she can't remember ever having done so. and she has been voting since she was 17, and she's 44 now. vote buying and other schemes come up after every election. i think the usa has a better system, even with all it's faults, but the US is a different country, and had different reasons for setting things up the way we do it.
thai politics are pretty wacky. i can't claim to understand it very well at all.
we did a budget this morning. i hate doing budgets. on paper, it always says "you can't get there from here". but, i may have to change my ticket and come back a little earlier. whull see...
cares! Onward! Nu and Tok
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20080225
080226 Thaikarl , my address, little crash, and a nice day here
friends,
several people have asked for my address here in thailand
Mr. Karl
167 moo 11
Namchun Lomsak
Phetchaboon 67110
Thailand
my mobile: 011 66 83 161 7558
toks mobile 011 66 85 050 7044
things sent by "Global Priority Mail" at the post office get here pretty quick. Things sent by airmail get here in a couple of weeks or less, things sent by ordinary mail take more than a month to get here. boats are slow you know, for ordinary mail.
----
had a fun little mishap the other day. we were dashing off to the village market to buy food. the road grader made a big swipe down the middle of the packed dirt on the new road, and i elected to try to get by on the side berm. whups. rear tire wiped out on the loose rocks, and we kind of fell over. onto the nice rocks. picked up the bike, which was still running. brake lever bent all outa shape, foot peg all whacked out and my lower right leg got the worst of it. fortunately tok had only a few scratches on her knee. very embarrassing. of course tok was nervous about me driving after that, but i made let me drive, else she won't trust me and will always be more afraid than normal. she's had some pretty big crashes - she hit a water buffalo once, so she's a little more apprehensive than i am.
theres a few new bugs in the thai bugs gallery, scroll down to the bottom, and a couple in the current thai gallery.
today is one of my favorite kind of days here. there is a thin, high hazy cloud cover way up there. the sun shines thru it, but the light is attenuated, doesn't glare so harshly. i'ts still quite warm, and will be warmer later, as the haze keeps the heat in. i think i'll go siphon the dust out of the waterfall pond and refresh the water.
onward!
Nu and TOk
--
Read my Thailand adventure ::: http://www.thaicountrylife.com
several people have asked for my address here in thailand
Mr. Karl
167 moo 11
Namchun Lomsak
Phetchaboon 67110
Thailand
my mobile: 011 66 83 161 7558
toks mobile 011 66 85 050 7044
things sent by "Global Priority Mail" at the post office get here pretty quick. Things sent by airmail get here in a couple of weeks or less, things sent by ordinary mail take more than a month to get here. boats are slow you know, for ordinary mail.
----
had a fun little mishap the other day. we were dashing off to the village market to buy food. the road grader made a big swipe down the middle of the packed dirt on the new road, and i elected to try to get by on the side berm. whups. rear tire wiped out on the loose rocks, and we kind of fell over. onto the nice rocks. picked up the bike, which was still running. brake lever bent all outa shape, foot peg all whacked out and my lower right leg got the worst of it. fortunately tok had only a few scratches on her knee. very embarrassing. of course tok was nervous about me driving after that, but i made let me drive, else she won't trust me and will always be more afraid than normal. she's had some pretty big crashes - she hit a water buffalo once, so she's a little more apprehensive than i am.
theres a few new bugs in the thai bugs gallery, scroll down to the bottom, and a couple in the current thai gallery.
today is one of my favorite kind of days here. there is a thin, high hazy cloud cover way up there. the sun shines thru it, but the light is attenuated, doesn't glare so harshly. i'ts still quite warm, and will be warmer later, as the haze keeps the heat in. i think i'll go siphon the dust out of the waterfall pond and refresh the water.
onward!
Nu and TOk
--
Read my Thailand adventure ::: http://www.thaicountrylife.com
080226 Thaikarl - one view of the US from across the world
friends,
you know i seldom make political comments, or social comparisons etc. but this article in The Nation i found interesting. not just because of it's point of view, but because the sentiments are an echo of what i have heard other Internationals saying. by Internationals, i mean people from any country, who have lived - not just touristed - on other countries, and have more of a world-view, rather than a national-view, based on their home country.
taken from The Nation: opion
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you know i seldom make political comments, or social comparisons etc. but this article in The Nation i found interesting. not just because of it's point of view, but because the sentiments are an echo of what i have heard other Internationals saying. by Internationals, i mean people from any country, who have lived - not just touristed - on other countries, and have more of a world-view, rather than a national-view, based on their home country.
taken from The Nation: opion
America: the land of hype and corny?
As long as you can get past their adherence to political correctness and their irritating habit of megaphoning private conversations, Americans are - mostly - very nice people. Surely we can all agree on that.
Published on February 26, 2008
But a few things recently have reminded me what really ticks me off about them. It is their propensity for beating their chests and proclaiming themselves to be the best in the world at everything.
Take, for example, the game that stops the nation. It's not good enough that they call it the "Super Bowl". Oh no, the commentators and hype merchants then have to refer to it as the "world championship".
My advice to Americans: stop claiming to be the best at everything. If you win a world title, against other teams from around the globe, then good on you. Otherwise, isn't it enough just to be America's best?
In the political arena, presidential candidates drum home the tired old message that the US is not just the world's only superpower, but also the "greatest country on Earth". One of the aspiring candidates recently called the United States the greatest country in the history of the Earth. Next it will be the universe.
What is "great" exactly? My pocket Oxford defines it as "of a size or amount or extent or intensity much above the normal or average". Collins Thesaurus says it is "big, bulky, colossal, elephantine, enormous, extensive and gigantic".
I think of the elephant when I think of the US. Large, mostly benign and well-meaning, generously philanthropic, but oh so clumsy in situations that call for delicate footwork and a certain sensitivity.
At home, the huge number of Americans who don't own a passport and have little knowledge of the world are always being told they are the biggest and the best and the brightest. No wonder they believe it. They also have this strange idea that if the rest of the world's populace had its way, it would be clamouring to live in the US.
Asians and the Europeans don't like American food all that much. Sure we may have been seduced by Americana, but let's face it: Hollywood and fast food pale alongside the rich and ancient cultures found around the rest of the globe.
We have all been watching the presidential campaign with a certain horrid fascination. While they may be a necessary part of the political theatre, those rallies where the candidate is "just so happy to be back in south Texas" just seem so contrived.
Does anyone actually believe rhetoric so lacking in substance? It is only now that commentators are waking up to the fact that as charismatic as he is, Democrat Barack Obama does little more than mouth generalities and platitudes.
A young voter told CNN recently that Obama "will make us look good in the eyes of the world". I'm not so sure about that. Isn't he the same man who said that if the circumstances warranted it, he would order the US military into Pakistan - with or without Islamabad's permission?
And that other boast: America, The Great Democracy. Is it really? Not only hasn't it had a female president yet, but Hillary Clinton happily reminds her supporters that women's suffrage came about only in her own mother's lifetime.
Then take a look at the US voter turnout, which has dropped from a high of 65 per cent in 1960 to barely 50 per cent today. In many parts of Asia - Thailand's Northeast for one - the turnout rarely drops below 80 per cent.
India could easily lay claim to being the world's great democracy. It certainly has a bigger voting population. Also, more importantly, it has to work so much harder, and overcome so many more obstacles, to maintain that status.
I have always believed that the September 11 attacks had such a devastating impact on the psyche of many Americans because it was the first time outsiders had intruded on their comfortable, closeted world. For the many Americans - and there are many - who rarely venture beyond their home county, let alone home state, it was a terrifying realisation that the world could reach out and touch them in a way they did not believe possible.
Almost to a man, their reaction was to retreat into the safe cocoon of patriotism, fly the Stars and Stripes from their pickup trucks - and vote for George W Bush, who vowed to protect them.
The US media could help remove this Us versus Them mentality by improving its coverage of a world its country has so much influence over, instead of continuing its ever-growing fascination with misbehaving "celebrities".
Finding out about the rest of the world might also help Mr Middle America get over his fear of all Muslims, his unease with a rapidly growing China and his strange hatred of the United Nations.
We would like America better if its citizens recognised our existence sometimes - even our sporting achievements - instead of just pining for our unconditional love and acceptance. Who knows, we might even begin to believe it is the greatest.
The Straits Times is a member of the Asia News Network.
guest columnist
John McBeth/The Straits Times
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20080222
080223 Thaikarl - not a lot happening over here
friends,
since i've been sick with infection and bronchitis the last 12 days, there hasn't been much going on here. the antibiotics and broncho dilators the doctor have been giving me leave me pretty weak. if we goto to town, tok gets to drive he motorbike, and after walking around buying foodstuffs i'm pooped out. it's a real drag, and i have to say i'm actually a little bored. because i am boring like this. i spend the day pretty much just hanging around. reading a lot, which is good but not good. i only had room in my bags for about 10,000 pages of reading, and i've read 9,000 of them already. i'll have to start re-reading some of my books from last trip. but since i ran out last time also, some of my books are going for a third read.
i brought a set of Ryobe cordless tools with me- drill, circular saw etc. found a 300 watt step-down transformer in town for 350 baht (10.00!) which was a good deal. these transformers were 5 times that price in the states. but so far, my tools are unused. i have a notion to build a passive solar water heater using the principle of thermosiphon, out of PVC pipe, but don't have the energy to do all the shopping and cutting. oh well, soon now. feeling better everyday.
thursday was a buddist holyday. i couldn't get up to go with tok to the temple at Oh-Dark-Hundred. later in the day, a group of four monks came walking along the road. they were carrying more than the usual gear, food bowels and what look like the monk equivalent of a back pack. they came down to the house and sat around the table. tok and mama went to talk with them, squatting low beside the table. tok came out with rice and food in bags for them. the monks accepted them and they did some praying. the monks went away. i asked tok about them, she said they were forest monks, traveling from Loi to somewhere down south. a long journey to walk. forest monks are monks who have eschewed the modernization of the temples in the towns and cities. they live a simpler life, away from all the distractions of towns and cities. i asked her where they sleep. she said they sleep in the fields and the forests. they have mosquito net tents that put over them and a mat for the ground. monks are required to respect all life - which includes NOT killing mosquitoes. i think they have some polite meditation way of asking the mosquitoes to go somewhere else, if they have been at their disciplines for a while.
i sit up on my porch, book in my lap, krating daeng (redbull) on the table. the motorbikes and trucks and cars buzz by on the big road, the road-grader, tooth roller, flat rollers and the water trucks diesel on my relentlessly. the tobacco is rising in the fields, the sun shines down on the palm trees. kids and neighbors wander by, the chickens trespass into our yard. the dogs come round to drink from the lotus and fish tanks beside the house. as i wipe a little drop of sweat from my temple, i think "life, here, now, IS." most pleasant, indeed.
cares to you all,
Nu and Tok
--
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since i've been sick with infection and bronchitis the last 12 days, there hasn't been much going on here. the antibiotics and broncho dilators the doctor have been giving me leave me pretty weak. if we goto to town, tok gets to drive he motorbike, and after walking around buying foodstuffs i'm pooped out. it's a real drag, and i have to say i'm actually a little bored. because i am boring like this. i spend the day pretty much just hanging around. reading a lot, which is good but not good. i only had room in my bags for about 10,000 pages of reading, and i've read 9,000 of them already. i'll have to start re-reading some of my books from last trip. but since i ran out last time also, some of my books are going for a third read.
i brought a set of Ryobe cordless tools with me- drill, circular saw etc. found a 300 watt step-down transformer in town for 350 baht (10.00!) which was a good deal. these transformers were 5 times that price in the states. but so far, my tools are unused. i have a notion to build a passive solar water heater using the principle of thermosiphon, out of PVC pipe, but don't have the energy to do all the shopping and cutting. oh well, soon now. feeling better everyday.
thursday was a buddist holyday. i couldn't get up to go with tok to the temple at Oh-Dark-Hundred. later in the day, a group of four monks came walking along the road. they were carrying more than the usual gear, food bowels and what look like the monk equivalent of a back pack. they came down to the house and sat around the table. tok and mama went to talk with them, squatting low beside the table. tok came out with rice and food in bags for them. the monks accepted them and they did some praying. the monks went away. i asked tok about them, she said they were forest monks, traveling from Loi to somewhere down south. a long journey to walk. forest monks are monks who have eschewed the modernization of the temples in the towns and cities. they live a simpler life, away from all the distractions of towns and cities. i asked her where they sleep. she said they sleep in the fields and the forests. they have mosquito net tents that put over them and a mat for the ground. monks are required to respect all life - which includes NOT killing mosquitoes. i think they have some polite meditation way of asking the mosquitoes to go somewhere else, if they have been at their disciplines for a while.
i sit up on my porch, book in my lap, krating daeng (redbull) on the table. the motorbikes and trucks and cars buzz by on the big road, the road-grader, tooth roller, flat rollers and the water trucks diesel on my relentlessly. the tobacco is rising in the fields, the sun shines down on the palm trees. kids and neighbors wander by, the chickens trespass into our yard. the dogs come round to drink from the lotus and fish tanks beside the house. as i wipe a little drop of sweat from my temple, i think "life, here, now, IS." most pleasant, indeed.
cares to you all,
Nu and Tok
--
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20080217
080208 Thaikarl The wedding date is set! w00t w00t!
the day has been fortold. the time is set. the wedding of tok and i will be on november 11, 2008. which just happens to be 11/11, so obviously the time for the ceremony will be 11am. unless that conflicts with some other rule i don't know about yet.
how did we arrive at the day? we went to see a monk. that's the customary way to decide. i asked tok if we could go to the temple after she returned from town. we got on the motorbike and headed out towards lomsak. we turned on the road to pitsanolok, and after a while turned off to a country road. off the main roads, there are roads that go all over the area, no signage of course. the roads are sometimes paved with concrete, especially in some villages, but otherwise they are red dirt. this time of year, the dirt roads are hard packed, but i can imagine that in the rainy season they are a slippery sludge of mud. i enjoy it when we veer off the main roads like that. so many interesting things to see in he little clusters of houses and the spread fields.
eventually we came to a village where the temple was located. why we went to this temple, instead one of the two or three in our village, i don't know. inside the grounds we parked the motorbike. the monks were out teaching somewhere, but they would be back in an hour. some workmen were spreading stucco cement up on a scaffolding surrounding a very tall tower. come kind of stupa/like building. the scaffolding was of constructed of bamboo. each of the joints is held together by a loop of rope tied to a stick. the loop is wrapped around the joint, the stick is twisted to tighten the rope, and secured from unwinding by a piece of wire. the whole structure looks spindly and un-safe to western eyes, but they have no problem clambering all over the thing. there was yet another building under construction nearby, and a couple of budda-halls, and in the back houses for the monks to live in.
i roamed around taking pictures, and looking at the wonderful thai style art work in paint and concrete that adorns the temple buildings. i really am fascinated by the thai style of traditional art. i work at copying it in my drawing books, but i'm still pretty crude at it.
the monks arrived in a pickup after about an hour. tok talked the monk for a while, and he lead us into the main meeting room of the temple. this is a large open room, with a row of shrines in the middle, budda images in the corner, and a raised level in the south wall where the monks sit during services. the walls are painted with scenes from the life of budda. in this place, there were two rows of paneled scenes. twice around the room told the whole story. some 74 panels in all i believe.
we sat in the tiled floor before the monk. he and tok were talking for a long time. i listen and try to pick out words. one in a hundred i recognize. the monk opened a daily calendar and started flipping thru the pages, occasionally asking a question. he also had another book that he consulted that had all kinds of charts and tables, pictograph and diagrams. there was counting on fingers, page flipping, back and forth chatter. meanwhile i'm just trying to keep my legs from going numbing sitting cross legged in the tile floor, and trying to keep my back straight so it doesn't start cramping up on me.
eventually the monk settled on two dates: November 11th, or November 15th, our choice. i liked the 11th, tok thought that was fine and we confirmed with the monk. there was more page turning, chart consulting etc. tok gave me 100 baht (3.00) to give to the monk, which i dropped into a basket he pushed towards me, and we were done. monks are not permitted to take anything directly from a women.
so now we have our wedding day. yall are invited of course!
i had some questions about some of the story panels on the walls, as i hadn't seen this part of the story before. they seemed to predate the birth of the budda and had something to do with a story about an old man. i asked tok what the story was behing these pictures. she was explaining the story to me when the monk returned to the hall. seeing our interest int the story, the monk started explaining the story in each panel, all in thai of course. i listen politely, and tok did also. somewhere around panel 15 i whispered to tok that it's going to take us till tomorrow to get too panel 78. she found a way to politely break of the lessons, and we went back out to the bike, and motored off back home.
11/11... sounds like a good day for a wedding eh? that is just after the rainy season in thailand, it's turning dry and cooler. a nice time to visit thailand if it's your first time.
now i just have to save up for the wedding party. thai weddings are fun. there is the ceremony with the monks in the morning, then that afternoon and evening the hosts feed everybody who comes. there's drinks and dancing. usually there is at least a D.J. spinning CD's. bigger weddings will have all the way from a couple of stage dancers up to giant elaborate stage shows that go on all night, and everybody from villages all around show up. ours will be rather laid back, tok is guessing 50 to 150 guests, depending on how many passersby stop in for food and drinks, how many people invited, and how many falangs (that's all of you reading this) actually appear.
im actually looking forward to it.
more to be revealed...
Nu and Tok
more photos at: Thaikarl Picassa Gallery
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20080213
080213 Thaikarl - i annoyed the ghosts.
i'm laid low by somekind of bacteria bug. sore throat, nose, lungs etc. Tok tells me that i may have angered the ghosts and they made me sick. Or i picked up a bug somewhere. she took me to the clinic. nice doctor, checked me over, prescribed meds and off we go. total cost: $6.00, and that was mostly for the meds. so i'm fever/on, fever/off, feeling okay, to back in bed again. sooner or later my body will have been exposed to all the strange bugs that we don't have in the states, and i wont get sick from these things. Tok takes very good care of me.
we had a visitor the other day: a Coelognathus radiatus (Copperhead Rat Snake). we didn't know if it was dangerous or not (it's not poisonous) so we were a little delicate handling it. well i was trying to be, but Tok was a little more nervous about it, and kept warning me to get away, which spooked the snake even more, so it would go hide in even a more difficult place. finally flushed it out with the hose, and it hi-tailed it along the back fence and slithered into the neighbors yard.
onward!
Nu and Tok
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20080206
0802006 Thaikarl Free Rocks
finally did some work today. not a lot but some. it's been pretty much relax and read time since i've been home. busy enough in bangkok, but life in ban dong khwang has been books, coffee and naps. till today.
they dumped some truckloads of crushed rock up on the big road. everyone up and down the road has been going to these piles and collecting the biggest rocks to line the walls of their new driveways. each plot of land had to buy big cement pipes for the deep drainage ditch that runs beside the road. they piled dirt on top of the pipes and leveled it somewhat crudely to make driveways to each plot of land. the dirt walls of these driveways will erode in the rainy season, so with all the "free" rocks in the piles and along the graded edge of the road building, people are taking advantage to gather the rocks to wall up the sides of the dirt.
it's been like COLD the last few days. the sun came out today and it got warm, so i was let off during the heat of the day. but come sundown, when it was cooler, tok gets me away from my book to load the big rocks in the cart and haul them to our drive, and toss them down the slope. after 3 loads i was ready to quit. but she said we needed more. not to be wimpy, i helped make two more loads, and thankfully it was too dark to see the rocks by then.
but my next job will be to move all the dirt that has already slide down the slope, break up the giant clods of earth sticking out the sides, then stack/place the rocks from the bottom up to make a proper erosion barrier.
at least the rocks are free.
Tok went to the market for a little while. when she came walking back, there were lots of people out grabbing rocks. I had the hoe out and was hucking the big rocks out of the pile with mama. Tok told me that the people were very impressed that i was out working on the road. and they said it was very nice of me to come round to greet them when i arrived. That was because the day or so after i arrived home, i walked by myself thru the back yards and said Sawatdee Kap (HI!) to the neighbors, and relatives and kids. if you act like a neighbor, instead of an aloof outsider, they think you are a neighbor. doesn't seem to matter that you can't say anything more than Hi.
Gorgeous the life!
Nu and Tok
20080205
080201 Thaikarl - Went to the fair
friends,
we had some fun last week. well this week also, but i'll have to get to that later. we needed to goto phetchaboon, which is the nearest 'bigger' town to visit the government business office to get some information, and to see if we could find a transformer for my tools. tok's friend mod (sound like 'maude' but said very fast) offered to drive us if we bought gas. it's about a half hour drive from our village.
there is a fair of some unknown reason set up on a big field north of the town center. we went there, bought some lunch and lookded around some. lots of booths selling the usual stuff- food, cloths, knacks. but at the back of the area was a ferris wheel, and i could see a "Wall of Death" set up back there. I like fairs. obviously the best time to come would be at night. mod said she would take us. we can bring mama and teri too.
finding a place to park the car took a while. i'm used to the motorbike, which you can park anywhere quickly. we found a spot along the back of the field and we all ambled into he fair, at the speed of mama, which is not quickly. i could hear a popping sound comeing from somewhere. as we got closer i realized there was a shooting range. woo hoo! i booked over there, and discovered a slug pit bulldozed into the ground, a long shooting bench and army guys helping load the guns and setting the targets. tok and i went to the table where you could buy ammunition. hmmm, .38 special, .45 ACP, various rifle cartridges, 9mm. i selected a bag of .45 ACP lead bullet wadcutters for 120 baht/5 shots. (4.00 USD) they had jacketed .45's but they were more expensive. they gave us a big paper target and down to the range we went. a solder loaded the clip and handed me a 1911a .45 ACP semi-auto pistol. my favorite handgun in the whole world. 5 shots - 2 in the black. i had to go back and get more. Tok took two shots, one in the black, one outside. pretty good for her first time ever shooting a gun. i popped off the other three rounds and sorely resisted the temptation to run back up and get some more ammo. like the beatles song "happiness is a warm gun"
the rest of the fair was a little moore mundane. i paid 30 baht to go up and watch them on the Wall of Death. One motorcycle rode around and around, followed by a pickup truck. teri and mod rode the little roller coaster, i bought some sugar cane so mama could feed the elephant. we had some food and ice cream and looked at the furniture and of course the cloths and other goodies.
they had a games fairway of course. ring-toss, knock-over-the-bottles, and everyones favorite, judging by the number of booths devoted to it, the balloon busting booths. 20 baht buys (.66 usd) buys 7 darts. you have to break 7 balloons to win i prize. i lost. twice. enough for me. Seems like it should be so easy tho. but the tiny spaces between balloons magnetically attract the darts.
we all had fun that night. mama is quietly delighted by such things. never complains, that i know of, even though we drag her all over the place.
i think the fair had someting to do with army day, as there were exhibits of military hardware like troop carriers and big machine guns.
good fun for the whole family.
Nu and Tok
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20080201
080202 Thaikarl - where have i been? lotsa places!
friends,
pardon my quietness the last week. we have been adventuring! started with Korean pork dinner, turned into a road trip, friends in the navy, house shopping, beach barbque, exotic accommodation (Attack! of the ANTS!), seeing beneath the see, consolate paperwork funs, meeting with taiwan friends, chasing down information and things in bangkok, and still more to come.
i have to wait till we get back to lomsak to have the time to write it up. Sanook Dee!!!
Gorgeous the LIfe!
Nu and Tok
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pardon my quietness the last week. we have been adventuring! started with Korean pork dinner, turned into a road trip, friends in the navy, house shopping, beach barbque, exotic accommodation (Attack! of the ANTS!), seeing beneath the see, consolate paperwork funs, meeting with taiwan friends, chasing down information and things in bangkok, and still more to come.
i have to wait till we get back to lomsak to have the time to write it up. Sanook Dee!!!
Gorgeous the LIfe!
Nu and Tok
--
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20080126
080124 Thaikarl home Ban Dong Khwang
friends,
home again in Ban Dong Khwang, our little village 7km from Lomsak, 35km from petchaboon, 365km north of Bangkok. it feels quite good to be here. there is always a few days of transition, a fuzzy time when i'm not quite here, but not there at all. Its a period of "remembering this place". it only last for a couple of days, then it feels like my place again.
there are some changes. they have been working on the big road. they have widened the 2 lane road another 40 feet on each side, piling in the dirt with trucks and grading and rollering it down. the pond in front of the house has been reduced to the size of a small car. it's more like a puddle now. tok had them take out the middle of the three coconut trees and we have a new, wider driveway that slopes up to the new roadbed. the sun and rain have been pounding the Lucky Moon House we built for ourselves last year. We ran out of money and didn't get to put protective stain on the wood, so i'ts starting to look dry and graying. the floor boards on the south porch have shrunk because the rain blows onto that wood and soaks it, then the sun cooks it all day and the boards are drying out. i think we will have enough cash to do a little staining on the sunside of the house, but not much.
the annoyed neighboors behind us barrowed money from the bank and did a lot of fixing up of their house. they had a layer of rock put on the public road. the rock has pushed aside the concrete beams i laid along the road last year, so we'll have another go round over where the exact property lines are so i can reset the concrete. our land has shrunk enough with the public road put in next to the property, and with the loss of the pond and area that the big road is taking up.
the neighbor one house over built a big building in front of his house. like a tall 4 car garage with rollup doors and a wide metal roof. tok says he has come back to live here - they were living elsewhere it seems - and he will open a package store selling beer and things in this building. the drag is that he put up two tube lights (flouresant fixtures) on tall poles to illuminate the land and building. of course the lights are on all night, and the too-white light spills over and lights up our front yard. it was nice and dark out there before, very pleasant to sit out there in the night and look to the stars, but not so much now.
oh well. the way things were are not the way they are now. i was thinking that if i first came to this house now, i wouldn't think much about these things i've talked about, since the new road, the annoyed neighbors and the tube lights would be here, they would be part of the existing landscape. that fact that i knew it different 5 months ago is moot.
Sai and Tai, who live next door were happy to see me. Tai came over the next mormning and we had one of our disjointed conversations with a few english words, lots of gesturing and me going "oh i see" and barely knowing what we are talking about. i walked thru the back of the yards over to where the bunch of kids live to say "Sawatdee Kap" (hello!) and wave. they were all smiles, the boys got all shy as usuall. this morning the whole crew came round the back, all the kids, girls and boys. they came over to talk with me, but of course i don't know what they say, but they were asking me all kinds of questions, and want me to repeat my tricks- magically pulling off my thumb, making a coin appear from beind their ears, taking pictures and VDO (video). great to see them.
i can't even begin to tell you how wonderful it is to have the food again. and as everyone is sick of hearing, i am so much happier to be in the warm/hot weather again. and it goes without saying, but i will anyway- being back with tok is the flower of this home in so so many ways.
gorgeous the life!
Nu and Tok
--
Read my Thailand adventure ::: http://www.thaicountrylife.com
home again in Ban Dong Khwang, our little village 7km from Lomsak, 35km from petchaboon, 365km north of Bangkok. it feels quite good to be here. there is always a few days of transition, a fuzzy time when i'm not quite here, but not there at all. Its a period of "remembering this place". it only last for a couple of days, then it feels like my place again.
there are some changes. they have been working on the big road. they have widened the 2 lane road another 40 feet on each side, piling in the dirt with trucks and grading and rollering it down. the pond in front of the house has been reduced to the size of a small car. it's more like a puddle now. tok had them take out the middle of the three coconut trees and we have a new, wider driveway that slopes up to the new roadbed. the sun and rain have been pounding the Lucky Moon House we built for ourselves last year. We ran out of money and didn't get to put protective stain on the wood, so i'ts starting to look dry and graying. the floor boards on the south porch have shrunk because the rain blows onto that wood and soaks it, then the sun cooks it all day and the boards are drying out. i think we will have enough cash to do a little staining on the sunside of the house, but not much.
the annoyed neighboors behind us barrowed money from the bank and did a lot of fixing up of their house. they had a layer of rock put on the public road. the rock has pushed aside the concrete beams i laid along the road last year, so we'll have another go round over where the exact property lines are so i can reset the concrete. our land has shrunk enough with the public road put in next to the property, and with the loss of the pond and area that the big road is taking up.
the neighbor one house over built a big building in front of his house. like a tall 4 car garage with rollup doors and a wide metal roof. tok says he has come back to live here - they were living elsewhere it seems - and he will open a package store selling beer and things in this building. the drag is that he put up two tube lights (flouresant fixtures) on tall poles to illuminate the land and building. of course the lights are on all night, and the too-white light spills over and lights up our front yard. it was nice and dark out there before, very pleasant to sit out there in the night and look to the stars, but not so much now.
oh well. the way things were are not the way they are now. i was thinking that if i first came to this house now, i wouldn't think much about these things i've talked about, since the new road, the annoyed neighbors and the tube lights would be here, they would be part of the existing landscape. that fact that i knew it different 5 months ago is moot.
Sai and Tai, who live next door were happy to see me. Tai came over the next mormning and we had one of our disjointed conversations with a few english words, lots of gesturing and me going "oh i see" and barely knowing what we are talking about. i walked thru the back of the yards over to where the bunch of kids live to say "Sawatdee Kap" (hello!) and wave. they were all smiles, the boys got all shy as usuall. this morning the whole crew came round the back, all the kids, girls and boys. they came over to talk with me, but of course i don't know what they say, but they were asking me all kinds of questions, and want me to repeat my tricks- magically pulling off my thumb, making a coin appear from beind their ears, taking pictures and VDO (video). great to see them.
i can't even begin to tell you how wonderful it is to have the food again. and as everyone is sick of hearing, i am so much happier to be in the warm/hot weather again. and it goes without saying, but i will anyway- being back with tok is the flower of this home in so so many ways.
gorgeous the life!
Nu and Tok
--
Read my Thailand adventure ::: http://www.thaicountrylife.com
20080121
080122 Thaikarl - the golden hour in bangkok
friends,
its the golden hour in bangkok. that time of day when the sun is low on the horizon, and the city is bathed in a soft orange glow. in bangkok, the golden hour is two hours long, because of the haze. it's nice and warm, people are out in the shops and streets. the day vendors are packing up their wares to make room for the night vendors. it is a pleasant time in the city. so alive, so active. day business is over, the coming night brings out cool of evening, and the city slows, but doesn't relax. this is bangkok after all.
tok and i went to the american consulate today. closed. martin luther king day. but, we're in thailand?!? oh, it is the American Consulate. so we have to start over tomorrow. so we went shopping instead. Tok is trying to find a jean vest. we took the water taxi boat to pratunam market. rows and rows and blocks of little shops, selling... pert near everything. lots and lots of cloths of every sort. your brain gets numb looking at all the colors and styles and shapes. we were in there and another 2 adjoining markets for more than 2 hours. no vests. but we did get a 40 minute foot massage ( 3.15 USD), that made it not quite so taxing. we rode one of the little green buses back to victory monument near our hotel. the green buses are too low ceilinged for me, i have to stand with my head tilted and hunched over.
we had some dinner and tok went looking for stuff, i came here to the internet shop. she just arrived with her prize- a jean vest! i was guessing it cost 350, 550 baht. wrong... she got it for 59 baht (2.00) good score! then she has to tell me that 1000 baht ( 32.00) was lost from her pocket somewhere today. whah. but she got a great deal on the vest. she has a knack for doing that- finding good prices.
.
some friends of ours from taiwan are coming into thailand next week for chinese new year break, so tok and i are going to take the bus to lomsak tomorrow and we'll come back to bangkok next week to see doug and jasmine and their new kid, and we'll run around doing the business information gathering then. i'd like to get up to the house and see mama and teri anyway, instead of spending another 4 days here now.
on a t-shirt it said: "you may be behind, but you are next" wha????
onward!
Nu and Tok
--
Read my Thailand adventure ::: http://www.thaicountrylife.com
its the golden hour in bangkok. that time of day when the sun is low on the horizon, and the city is bathed in a soft orange glow. in bangkok, the golden hour is two hours long, because of the haze. it's nice and warm, people are out in the shops and streets. the day vendors are packing up their wares to make room for the night vendors. it is a pleasant time in the city. so alive, so active. day business is over, the coming night brings out cool of evening, and the city slows, but doesn't relax. this is bangkok after all.
tok and i went to the american consulate today. closed. martin luther king day. but, we're in thailand?!? oh, it is the American Consulate. so we have to start over tomorrow. so we went shopping instead. Tok is trying to find a jean vest. we took the water taxi boat to pratunam market. rows and rows and blocks of little shops, selling... pert near everything. lots and lots of cloths of every sort. your brain gets numb looking at all the colors and styles and shapes. we were in there and another 2 adjoining markets for more than 2 hours. no vests. but we did get a 40 minute foot massage ( 3.15 USD), that made it not quite so taxing. we rode one of the little green buses back to victory monument near our hotel. the green buses are too low ceilinged for me, i have to stand with my head tilted and hunched over.
we had some dinner and tok went looking for stuff, i came here to the internet shop. she just arrived with her prize- a jean vest! i was guessing it cost 350, 550 baht. wrong... she got it for 59 baht (2.00) good score! then she has to tell me that 1000 baht ( 32.00) was lost from her pocket somewhere today. whah. but she got a great deal on the vest. she has a knack for doing that- finding good prices.
.
some friends of ours from taiwan are coming into thailand next week for chinese new year break, so tok and i are going to take the bus to lomsak tomorrow and we'll come back to bangkok next week to see doug and jasmine and their new kid, and we'll run around doing the business information gathering then. i'd like to get up to the house and see mama and teri anyway, instead of spending another 4 days here now.
on a t-shirt it said: "you may be behind, but you are next" wha????
onward!
Nu and Tok
--
Read my Thailand adventure ::: http://www.thaicountrylife.com
20080119
080119 Thaikarl: Greetings from BANGKOK!
friends,
it is so good to be HOME! the sun was out all day, it is pleasantly warm, the bangkok air is thick and laden with scents. real food on the streets, beautiful thai people everywhere, signs i can't read, driving on the left (look to the RIGHT when crossing the street!) and my beautiful Tok greets me at the airport with a smile.
the adventure begins now. this is my 7th visit to thailand. imagine that.
only making a quick stop at the internet cafe... more will be revealed!
Sanook dee!
Nu
--
Read my Thailand adventure ::: http://www.thaicountrylife.com
it is so good to be HOME! the sun was out all day, it is pleasantly warm, the bangkok air is thick and laden with scents. real food on the streets, beautiful thai people everywhere, signs i can't read, driving on the left (look to the RIGHT when crossing the street!) and my beautiful Tok greets me at the airport with a smile.
the adventure begins now. this is my 7th visit to thailand. imagine that.
only making a quick stop at the internet cafe... more will be revealed!
Sanook dee!
Nu
--
Read my Thailand adventure ::: http://www.thaicountrylife.com
20080111
080110 Thaikarl - delayed departure
friends,
i delayed my departure a week on both ends. i was waiting for some money to come in, and i have a couple of jobs that i've been working on that need finishing. Cost $100 to change the ticket, but i can make that up and more by working the rest of the week. Departing January 17th and returning April 17.
Tok and i will have a busy time in Bangkok after i arrive. we have some Bangkok shopping to do, and i'm doing some fact-finding about doing business there for a friend of mine. not to mention going to the US Consulate, and the Amphur (district goverment office) to register.
another week isn't so bad to wait. is it?
Gorgeous the Life!
karl/NU
--
Read my Thailand adventure ::: http://www.thaicountrylife.com
i delayed my departure a week on both ends. i was waiting for some money to come in, and i have a couple of jobs that i've been working on that need finishing. Cost $100 to change the ticket, but i can make that up and more by working the rest of the week. Departing January 17th and returning April 17.
Tok and i will have a busy time in Bangkok after i arrive. we have some Bangkok shopping to do, and i'm doing some fact-finding about doing business there for a friend of mine. not to mention going to the US Consulate, and the Amphur (district goverment office) to register.
another week isn't so bad to wait. is it?
Gorgeous the Life!
karl/NU
--
Read my Thailand adventure ::: http://www.thaicountrylife.com
20071218
071218 Thaikarl - I'm going home again Jan 10th
friends,
I'm going home again January 10th. Yippeee! i only get to stay three months this time. oh well. i've had some good work since i've been back from the last trip home. paid off what we owed to the wood shop for building the Lucky Moon House. hoping to have enough to buy stain/paint for the house to do the job when i'm home. all depends on how much work i have these last few weeks. looking good at the moment.
after much discussion, tok and i decided to postpone the formal wedding, and the party until fall of 2008. when i get to bangkok, we're going to have a civil wedding. with that document in hand we can start the application for immigration for tok. it's about the only way she can get to come to the U.S. so yall can actually meet her. its a long, and now much more expensive process. common law marriage is customary in thailand, so as far as tok and i are concerned, we are already married. the buddist ceremony and party formalizes things, and the government registration give you the legal paper that you need for immigration etc. i can get a better- longer term visa if we have the government registration as being married.
a surprising (to me) number of people from the states have said they would really like to come to thailand for the wedding, so yall will have a little more time to plan the trip. late fall is a better time to visit thailand for most foreigners, the weather is cooler and the rainy season is over. AND you get to skip out on what ever winter you have in your life.
looks like our life plan will be to live in thailand, but come to the USA for working, then go back home. we can make money faster in the states. employment possibilites are very limited in thailand, and even if i got a job there, the pay wouldn't allow us to get ahead any. the two of us working here can save money- especially if we live cheap. 6 months of my work, coupled with whatever tok can make will get us a long way back home. we still have a lot of things to build on the house, and we have no "retirement"
so you can be expecting fresh travelogues from thailand january thru april. if you are forwarding my emails to others, and they want to be added to the list, have them contact me.
attached is a photo of a very important document. it is a house registration document for foreigners. it says that i live in ban don khwang village outside lomak, i.e. toks house. so i am officially registered with the thai goverment as living there. with this document, i can buy something like a motorbike or a car, and have it in my name. since i don't have an apartment in america, it means that i (semi) officially live in thailand! well, i have a residence there.
onward!!!
--
Read my Thailand adventure ::: http://www.thaicountrylife.com
I'm going home again January 10th. Yippeee! i only get to stay three months this time. oh well. i've had some good work since i've been back from the last trip home. paid off what we owed to the wood shop for building the Lucky Moon House. hoping to have enough to buy stain/paint for the house to do the job when i'm home. all depends on how much work i have these last few weeks. looking good at the moment.
after much discussion, tok and i decided to postpone the formal wedding, and the party until fall of 2008. when i get to bangkok, we're going to have a civil wedding. with that document in hand we can start the application for immigration for tok. it's about the only way she can get to come to the U.S. so yall can actually meet her. its a long, and now much more expensive process. common law marriage is customary in thailand, so as far as tok and i are concerned, we are already married. the buddist ceremony and party formalizes things, and the government registration give you the legal paper that you need for immigration etc. i can get a better- longer term visa if we have the government registration as being married.
a surprising (to me) number of people from the states have said they would really like to come to thailand for the wedding, so yall will have a little more time to plan the trip. late fall is a better time to visit thailand for most foreigners, the weather is cooler and the rainy season is over. AND you get to skip out on what ever winter you have in your life.
looks like our life plan will be to live in thailand, but come to the USA for working, then go back home. we can make money faster in the states. employment possibilites are very limited in thailand, and even if i got a job there, the pay wouldn't allow us to get ahead any. the two of us working here can save money- especially if we live cheap. 6 months of my work, coupled with whatever tok can make will get us a long way back home. we still have a lot of things to build on the house, and we have no "retirement"
so you can be expecting fresh travelogues from thailand january thru april. if you are forwarding my emails to others, and they want to be added to the list, have them contact me.
attached is a photo of a very important document. it is a house registration document for foreigners. it says that i live in ban don khwang village outside lomak, i.e. toks house. so i am officially registered with the thai goverment as living there. with this document, i can buy something like a motorbike or a car, and have it in my name. since i don't have an apartment in america, it means that i (semi) officially live in thailand! well, i have a residence there.
onward!!!
--
Read my Thailand adventure ::: http://www.thaicountrylife.com
20070904
070904 Thaikarl in USA - what 's happening now?
friends,
it's been over a month since i returned to the US. settling back into place. somewhat. got some handy-man work going, which is good. re-built a set of exterior stairs for one client, deep cleaned a house (3 bathrooms!), and now i'm in eastern washington working on a property that has a long list of jobs to do - painting, fixing, tractoring, moving logs, moving dirt, fixing machines, and the big job: refinishing the exterior of a log cabin. four levels up on scaffolding is an exciting place to be. the old finish has to be striped, sanded, scraped and two coats of stain and one coat of topcoat applied. phew. but the environment is nice.
i talk to tok on the phone everyday, sometimes several times a day. i sure miss her cooking! they are draining the pond as part of clearing for the new big road. we still owe $750 to the lumber shop, the new room still needs stain and finish, and the stairs still need to be replaced.
so my objective is just to work work work, save money, and as soon as i have enough to take care of things, go back home to thailand. tok and i have decided that the most expedient thing to do is to get civil marriage in thailand and start application for regular immigration for her. that way, she will be able to come to the states with me on work trips. but it will take many months for the immigration to come thru, so the sooner we can get it started the better. we will have the REAL marriage ceremony later. i know i said april or may 2008 before, but it might have to be later that year - in the fall perhaps. that is actually a better time for falangs to visit thailand - after the rainy season and cooler.
the united states is a strange place when viewed from thailand experienced eyes. strange indeed. but very rich and interesting in it's own right. as long as i don't watch the "news" on TV or in the newspapers- so much death and destruction and fear mongering.
onward!
--
Read my Thailand adventure ::: http://www.thaicountrylife.com
it's been over a month since i returned to the US. settling back into place. somewhat. got some handy-man work going, which is good. re-built a set of exterior stairs for one client, deep cleaned a house (3 bathrooms!), and now i'm in eastern washington working on a property that has a long list of jobs to do - painting, fixing, tractoring, moving logs, moving dirt, fixing machines, and the big job: refinishing the exterior of a log cabin. four levels up on scaffolding is an exciting place to be. the old finish has to be striped, sanded, scraped and two coats of stain and one coat of topcoat applied. phew. but the environment is nice.
i talk to tok on the phone everyday, sometimes several times a day. i sure miss her cooking! they are draining the pond as part of clearing for the new big road. we still owe $750 to the lumber shop, the new room still needs stain and finish, and the stairs still need to be replaced.
so my objective is just to work work work, save money, and as soon as i have enough to take care of things, go back home to thailand. tok and i have decided that the most expedient thing to do is to get civil marriage in thailand and start application for regular immigration for her. that way, she will be able to come to the states with me on work trips. but it will take many months for the immigration to come thru, so the sooner we can get it started the better. we will have the REAL marriage ceremony later. i know i said april or may 2008 before, but it might have to be later that year - in the fall perhaps. that is actually a better time for falangs to visit thailand - after the rainy season and cooler.
the united states is a strange place when viewed from thailand experienced eyes. strange indeed. but very rich and interesting in it's own right. as long as i don't watch the "news" on TV or in the newspapers- so much death and destruction and fear mongering.
onward!
--
Read my Thailand adventure ::: http://www.thaicountrylife.com
20070814
070814 Thaikarl - where did i go?
friends,
i am in the united states. in seattle. been at my sisters house for the last week. re-acculturation to america is arduous and depressing, and the 'jet lag" effect is most difficult for me when i travel east. so i kind of crawled into a quiet little cave and have been chilling out here. made some calls to get work started. getting work will crank things up in a good way.
so i'm quite alright. just quiet for the moment. i'll post an update and postscripts as i re-awake.
onward!
karl
--
Read my Thailand adventure ::: http://www.thaicountrylife.com
i am in the united states. in seattle. been at my sisters house for the last week. re-acculturation to america is arduous and depressing, and the 'jet lag" effect is most difficult for me when i travel east. so i kind of crawled into a quiet little cave and have been chilling out here. made some calls to get work started. getting work will crank things up in a good way.
so i'm quite alright. just quiet for the moment. i'll post an update and postscripts as i re-awake.
onward!
karl
--
Read my Thailand adventure ::: http://www.thaicountrylife.com
20070803
070803 Thaikarl - Last day in Lomsak
friends,
can't extend it this time. leaving for bangkok tomorrow and flying out monday to Vancouver B.C. (closest i could get a ticket)
last night tok and i were messing around on computer and heard a car going by on the big road. and a thump. had that "oh, oh" sound. then hollering outside in the dark. Sai and Tai's dog Ham was killed. i really liked him. he was good natured and always came over to say hello and hang out. but he didn't have much sense about crossing the road. this time i didn't even want to go help with the body and all that. we miss him. even tok said she will miss him coming round when we are eating hanging out for possible scraps. such is life.
i really really really don't want to leave home. oh well.
onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
can't extend it this time. leaving for bangkok tomorrow and flying out monday to Vancouver B.C. (closest i could get a ticket)
last night tok and i were messing around on computer and heard a car going by on the big road. and a thump. had that "oh, oh" sound. then hollering outside in the dark. Sai and Tai's dog Ham was killed. i really liked him. he was good natured and always came over to say hello and hang out. but he didn't have much sense about crossing the road. this time i didn't even want to go help with the body and all that. we miss him. even tok said she will miss him coming round when we are eating hanging out for possible scraps. such is life.
i really really really don't want to leave home. oh well.
onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070729
070728 Thaikarl - about the ants again, its only working
friends,
don't be freeking out on me now. i have ants in my toothbrush because i take shower outside using the water jars. if you use the bathroom, there are no ants. well not usually. besides, there's a frog who lives in there behind the brush basket who eats anything that moves in there. he must, cause otherwise, how would he survive? Its not the same frog that used to live in there. different species. emerges from the drain in the floor. what a life.
we're getting things done. moving dirt in the sun is exhausting. i crashed in the hammock during a break today and missed the burning ceremony for a friend of Toks. We went to the death ceremony thing at their house last night. a pickup truck full of monks came, they chanted for a while, a short eulogy or two, and food was served. then they gamble. cards, and this game played with three dice and a bowl. you place bets on a roll up plastic sheet, trying to match the outcome of the three shaken dice under the bowl. i didn't have any money to lose. so i didn't. told Tok i lost 500 baht. she was perturbed to say the least. then i added "in my imagination" 555555!
i hope it stays warm in seattle. i'm not looking forward to being cold.
Gorgous the life!
nu
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
don't be freeking out on me now. i have ants in my toothbrush because i take shower outside using the water jars. if you use the bathroom, there are no ants. well not usually. besides, there's a frog who lives in there behind the brush basket who eats anything that moves in there. he must, cause otherwise, how would he survive? Its not the same frog that used to live in there. different species. emerges from the drain in the floor. what a life.
we're getting things done. moving dirt in the sun is exhausting. i crashed in the hammock during a break today and missed the burning ceremony for a friend of Toks. We went to the death ceremony thing at their house last night. a pickup truck full of monks came, they chanted for a while, a short eulogy or two, and food was served. then they gamble. cards, and this game played with three dice and a bowl. you place bets on a roll up plastic sheet, trying to match the outcome of the three shaken dice under the bowl. i didn't have any money to lose. so i didn't. told Tok i lost 500 baht. she was perturbed to say the least. then i added "in my imagination" 555555!
i hope it stays warm in seattle. i'm not looking forward to being cold.
Gorgous the life!
nu
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070726
070726 Thaikarl Gorgeous the life
friends,
Buncha new pix in the picassa gallery (new pix are always at the bottom)
News of the weird
on a pillow at the monday market, emblazoned with a large orange flower on a pale green background, where the words:
"Gorgeous the life" i like that. Very satisfactory result indeed. All your base are belong to us.
And, not to be outrageous or anything, but the last paragraph in a story in the Pattaya Mail (english language newspaper) reads:
Some sanook (fun) from thailand. else, we're getting things done. in fits and spurts as they say. i spent a good part of the day 'tera-forming' the ground under the Lucky Moon House. after construction, the dry ground under the house was all lumpy and had wood pieces and cement chunks all mixed in. worse than that, when it rains the flood of water would run under the middle of the area and turn it into a sea of mud. i dug out a shallow ditch to divert the water across the front of the house, and along the side behind the water fountain. one thing i learned building the water fountain - water goes where IT needs to go, which is not necessarily where you think it will go. i also had the big idea that if i turned on the pump and poured liters of well water over the whole area, i could reform the hard lumps by turning the whole thing back into mud, which i could rake and scrape around to make a somewhat level surface. Tok thought i was nuts. I'm always coming up with crazy "non-thai" ideas. so i did just that- flooded the whole area under the house with water, and raked, and raked and raked, and scraped. somewhat successful. it's hard to make dirt that turns to clay mud move around. we'll see what its like when it drys out some.
They are planting rice in the fields out back. what a job! a few weeks ago a conventional tractor came round and plowed under the remains of the tobacco crop. Then, since we haven't had any big rains, they turned on the pumps and filled the fields with water from the wells. chunka-chunka-chunka sound 24 hours a day. then a man plowed and scraped the fields using a motorized buffalo, which is a kubota industrial motor that drives two big metal wheels, with long handles running back to the operator. they first seeded rice seed in a couple of the smaller fields, which has been growing like grass. the last week, they have been gathering the seedlings. 12 or so people bent over, snatching the seedlings from the mud, gathering them in the other hand. they smack the bunch against their foot to remove the excess mud, straighten the bundle and tie it with a strip of bamboo. Then they put 15 or so bundles on a bamboo pole and distribute them across the fields. the last couple of days they have been replanting the seedlings. grab a couple of seedlings (which kind of look like scallion onions) and push it in the water down into the mud. do this over and over and over. all day. bent over. i go out to take pictures and they always laugh and try to get me to try it. i decline. after all, it IS forbidden for foreigners to engage in agricultural work.
as tok and i were walking along the dams out to see the workers, i asked her "where do the snakes go when the fields are full of water?" i'm always asking dumb questions like that. Tok fired back: "I don't know, i forgot to ask them!" with a big smile. Once i asked her where will the frogs live when they destroy the pond making the big road. she said "they can go live in the fields!" i a bit soft when it comes to the creatures. if a frog comes hopping into the house, or on the porch, i'll ketch it and take it out to the pond. The other day i found a land crab under the 55 gal drum. he was a bit harder to catch (ouch!) but out to the fields he went. they would have probably kept it to put in the papaya salad. any time big flying insects get in the house, i try to gently guide them out the roof. they will just ignore them. or smack them if they are annoying. I lie to watch the chickens, but they can get annoying. If i make a pile of raked up debris and dirt, then go have lunch, when i come back the pile will be scattered all over. the chickens do this funny scratch-scratch then a quick hop backwards and head-dive to look for exposed things to eat. they get all over the yard. Tok doesn't like them and throws things to get them to go away. but then, she's been living with the neighbors chickens for years. i haven't.
we came into town today to transfer a land telephone line over to Toks name. One of the neighboors needs money to fix their broken well pump, so he's selling his land line to us. you can't just get a land line. there are a limited number of lines to the village. the only way to get one is to wait until somebody wants to sell theirs. but everybody has a mobile phone, so.... amazing thailand.
have to go back to my earth-moving and yard work.
onward! Gorgeous the life!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
Buncha new pix in the picassa gallery (new pix are always at the bottom)
News of the weird
on a pillow at the monday market, emblazoned with a large orange flower on a pale green background, where the words:
Bright-colored in gay colors, gorgeous the life. Very satisfactory result.
"Gorgeous the life" i like that. Very satisfactory result indeed. All your base are belong to us.
And, not to be outrageous or anything, but the last paragraph in a story in the Pattaya Mail (english language newspaper) reads:
"...Saowaluk ran from the scene of the crime and police are now searching for a dangerous one-armed jealous shoe polisher who's attracted to lesbian prostitutes' girlfriends." The headline for the story read: "One-armed man slit lesbian's throat in a fit of jealousy"
You can fill in the details from there.Some sanook (fun) from thailand. else, we're getting things done. in fits and spurts as they say. i spent a good part of the day 'tera-forming' the ground under the Lucky Moon House. after construction, the dry ground under the house was all lumpy and had wood pieces and cement chunks all mixed in. worse than that, when it rains the flood of water would run under the middle of the area and turn it into a sea of mud. i dug out a shallow ditch to divert the water across the front of the house, and along the side behind the water fountain. one thing i learned building the water fountain - water goes where IT needs to go, which is not necessarily where you think it will go. i also had the big idea that if i turned on the pump and poured liters of well water over the whole area, i could reform the hard lumps by turning the whole thing back into mud, which i could rake and scrape around to make a somewhat level surface. Tok thought i was nuts. I'm always coming up with crazy "non-thai" ideas. so i did just that- flooded the whole area under the house with water, and raked, and raked and raked, and scraped. somewhat successful. it's hard to make dirt that turns to clay mud move around. we'll see what its like when it drys out some.
They are planting rice in the fields out back. what a job! a few weeks ago a conventional tractor came round and plowed under the remains of the tobacco crop. Then, since we haven't had any big rains, they turned on the pumps and filled the fields with water from the wells. chunka-chunka-chunka sound 24 hours a day. then a man plowed and scraped the fields using a motorized buffalo, which is a kubota industrial motor that drives two big metal wheels, with long handles running back to the operator. they first seeded rice seed in a couple of the smaller fields, which has been growing like grass. the last week, they have been gathering the seedlings. 12 or so people bent over, snatching the seedlings from the mud, gathering them in the other hand. they smack the bunch against their foot to remove the excess mud, straighten the bundle and tie it with a strip of bamboo. Then they put 15 or so bundles on a bamboo pole and distribute them across the fields. the last couple of days they have been replanting the seedlings. grab a couple of seedlings (which kind of look like scallion onions) and push it in the water down into the mud. do this over and over and over. all day. bent over. i go out to take pictures and they always laugh and try to get me to try it. i decline. after all, it IS forbidden for foreigners to engage in agricultural work.
as tok and i were walking along the dams out to see the workers, i asked her "where do the snakes go when the fields are full of water?" i'm always asking dumb questions like that. Tok fired back: "I don't know, i forgot to ask them!" with a big smile. Once i asked her where will the frogs live when they destroy the pond making the big road. she said "they can go live in the fields!" i a bit soft when it comes to the creatures. if a frog comes hopping into the house, or on the porch, i'll ketch it and take it out to the pond. The other day i found a land crab under the 55 gal drum. he was a bit harder to catch (ouch!) but out to the fields he went. they would have probably kept it to put in the papaya salad. any time big flying insects get in the house, i try to gently guide them out the roof. they will just ignore them. or smack them if they are annoying. I lie to watch the chickens, but they can get annoying. If i make a pile of raked up debris and dirt, then go have lunch, when i come back the pile will be scattered all over. the chickens do this funny scratch-scratch then a quick hop backwards and head-dive to look for exposed things to eat. they get all over the yard. Tok doesn't like them and throws things to get them to go away. but then, she's been living with the neighbors chickens for years. i haven't.
we came into town today to transfer a land telephone line over to Toks name. One of the neighboors needs money to fix their broken well pump, so he's selling his land line to us. you can't just get a land line. there are a limited number of lines to the village. the only way to get one is to wait until somebody wants to sell theirs. but everybody has a mobile phone, so.... amazing thailand.
have to go back to my earth-moving and yard work.
onward! Gorgeous the life!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070723
070723 check your toothbush for ants
friends,
getting things done around the household. spend the day digging up good dirt, to put under the house, and transplanting a chille bush and some other weird tree. tired, but it feels good to get done.
mama uses a huckleberry finn ploy. yesterday she started rebuilding the tin house that covers and protects the well pump and motor. she's out there dragging around wood, banging nails, sawing peices, gathering corregated tin. of course, Tok had to come help her, and then i got dragged into it because they were going to use the best wood - because it was handy. there is plenty of crappy wood with a zillion nails in it, but still strong as iron, but you have to go find it and drag it around. after a while, mama went and sat down under the house, then went inside and took a nap. meanwhile, Tok and I were committed to building this thing, then it was just me. but it got done.
they are starting to plant rice in the fields. i've never seen this, as the other times i've been here when the tobacco is growing. so i't quite interesting. except for the pumps running 24 hours a day to fill the fields with water. there hasn't been any big rain to fill the fields, so they are pumping it from the wells. the pump sounds like a sewing machine - but louder, and constant. photos to follow.
there are some new photos in the picassa gallery.
oh yeah, the ants. since i take my showers outside from the rain water jars, i leave my toothbrush on the lid of one of the jars. the ants seem to like the residual sweetness of the toothpaste, so i have to check my toothbrush for ants before using it. the red ants aren't a bother, rather tasty in fact, but the black ants bite.
Onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
getting things done around the household. spend the day digging up good dirt, to put under the house, and transplanting a chille bush and some other weird tree. tired, but it feels good to get done.
mama uses a huckleberry finn ploy. yesterday she started rebuilding the tin house that covers and protects the well pump and motor. she's out there dragging around wood, banging nails, sawing peices, gathering corregated tin. of course, Tok had to come help her, and then i got dragged into it because they were going to use the best wood - because it was handy. there is plenty of crappy wood with a zillion nails in it, but still strong as iron, but you have to go find it and drag it around. after a while, mama went and sat down under the house, then went inside and took a nap. meanwhile, Tok and I were committed to building this thing, then it was just me. but it got done.
they are starting to plant rice in the fields. i've never seen this, as the other times i've been here when the tobacco is growing. so i't quite interesting. except for the pumps running 24 hours a day to fill the fields with water. there hasn't been any big rain to fill the fields, so they are pumping it from the wells. the pump sounds like a sewing machine - but louder, and constant. photos to follow.
there are some new photos in the picassa gallery.
oh yeah, the ants. since i take my showers outside from the rain water jars, i leave my toothbrush on the lid of one of the jars. the ants seem to like the residual sweetness of the toothpaste, so i have to check my toothbrush for ants before using it. the red ants aren't a bother, rather tasty in fact, but the black ants bite.
Onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070721
070721 Thaikarl - the visa story in depth
friends,
here's the story on trying to get a tourist visa. my short flaming spew i sent before was confusing, i know.
the setting:
Tok and I are getting married. we could apply for a fiancee visa, which allows a foreigner to come to the united states for up to 90 days, during which time you must get married - or not. no matter what, she/he must leave the country. if you marry, you can then apply for immigrant status, with green card and all that. the fiancee visa costs several hundred dollars and more importantly, takes 4 to 6 months to complete. not fast enough, since we are to marry next spring.
so the next logical choice would be to get her a tourist visa. just enough time to visit the united states, meet family and friends and have a little look around. the immigration website states clearly that they consider anyone who wants to come to the US to be an immigrant- meaning you want to come to the USA to live and work. (of course, if you are from a developed countries like Europe or japan, you are going to be just a tourist, you get a visa by just showing up.) they state that you must prove to them that you have sufficient ties to your home country to ensure that you will go back. we figured that we had all that covered: Tok is caring for a young daughter and an aged mother. she has property and employment. we had documents and photos and everything to support this. we thought that her having a fiancee in the USA would be a help- it would show that she has support there, a place to go and someone to look after her. i also thought that they would consider it favorable because we wouldn't want to screw up the tourist visa because it would make it unlikely that she could ever get an immigrant visa after we are married.
sounds good yeah? legitimate, honest and open.
wrong.
in their eyes, having a fiancee in the united states means that you want to go to the us to live with them, and are applying for a tourist visa just to get into the country, with no intention of going back. the girl at the consulate counter even said that: "i cannot issue a tourist visa to you because i believe you want to go to america to live with your fiancee" and that was that. that is why i said in the earlier email that as soon as i said i was her fiancee, i could tell the answer was NO. for Tok to apply for a tourist visa under those circumstances would be truthful, but not the whole story - as she would like to visit the america.
I did talk with a local immigration lawyer a while back. when i emailed him of our failed result he replied:
so it wasn't the interviewers fault really, she was just following the rules. yeah.
It would have been much better if Tok applied for a tourist visa all on her own. no mention of a fiancee at all. and i shouldn't have been with her. if she went there and said she just wanted to visit america, see a few sights and come back, they would have looked at her property, employment and band statement and determined (by whatever formula they have back there) if she had sufficient cause to return to thailand before the visa ran out. while we were waiting, we watched and listened as many people went to the windows for their interviews. the ones who walked away smiling and holding a green paper got their visa's. there were all kinds of people, going for all sorts of reasons- visiting relatives, holiday, student trips etc. most of them were seemingly successful. tho we did hear a few cases where they wanted more documentation of employment etc.
so, whatever. it's not like its a whole lot easier to stay in thailand. except that, anyone from a developed- meaning RICH country can just show up at the airport and get an automatic 30 day stamp in their passport. and as i've mentioned, you could extend that for up to 5 months stay in total before you have to exit the country for 90 days. used to be you could do a visa run every thirty days and stay in thailand indefinitely. but they got tired of that a few months ago and changed the rules.
oh well.
onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
here's the story on trying to get a tourist visa. my short flaming spew i sent before was confusing, i know.
the setting:
Tok and I are getting married. we could apply for a fiancee visa, which allows a foreigner to come to the united states for up to 90 days, during which time you must get married - or not. no matter what, she/he must leave the country. if you marry, you can then apply for immigrant status, with green card and all that. the fiancee visa costs several hundred dollars and more importantly, takes 4 to 6 months to complete. not fast enough, since we are to marry next spring.
so the next logical choice would be to get her a tourist visa. just enough time to visit the united states, meet family and friends and have a little look around. the immigration website states clearly that they consider anyone who wants to come to the US to be an immigrant- meaning you want to come to the USA to live and work. (of course, if you are from a developed countries like Europe or japan, you are going to be just a tourist, you get a visa by just showing up.) they state that you must prove to them that you have sufficient ties to your home country to ensure that you will go back. we figured that we had all that covered: Tok is caring for a young daughter and an aged mother. she has property and employment. we had documents and photos and everything to support this. we thought that her having a fiancee in the USA would be a help- it would show that she has support there, a place to go and someone to look after her. i also thought that they would consider it favorable because we wouldn't want to screw up the tourist visa because it would make it unlikely that she could ever get an immigrant visa after we are married.
sounds good yeah? legitimate, honest and open.
wrong.
in their eyes, having a fiancee in the united states means that you want to go to the us to live with them, and are applying for a tourist visa just to get into the country, with no intention of going back. the girl at the consulate counter even said that: "i cannot issue a tourist visa to you because i believe you want to go to america to live with your fiancee" and that was that. that is why i said in the earlier email that as soon as i said i was her fiancee, i could tell the answer was NO. for Tok to apply for a tourist visa under those circumstances would be truthful, but not the whole story - as she would like to visit the america.
I did talk with a local immigration lawyer a while back. when i emailed him of our failed result he replied:
Dear Mr. Karl
For any consolation it may be, the officer really doesn't have any choice in the matter with an admission of a principal personal relationship with a US Citizen residing in the US. Under those circumstances it is virtually impossible for the applicant to overcome the statutory presumption of immigrant intent under INA section 214(b). I would wager that the denial sheet they gave you gave section 214(b) as the basis for denial, often expressed as "the applicant failed to demonstrate sufficiently strong ties to the home country.
so it wasn't the interviewers fault really, she was just following the rules. yeah.
It would have been much better if Tok applied for a tourist visa all on her own. no mention of a fiancee at all. and i shouldn't have been with her. if she went there and said she just wanted to visit america, see a few sights and come back, they would have looked at her property, employment and band statement and determined (by whatever formula they have back there) if she had sufficient cause to return to thailand before the visa ran out. while we were waiting, we watched and listened as many people went to the windows for their interviews. the ones who walked away smiling and holding a green paper got their visa's. there were all kinds of people, going for all sorts of reasons- visiting relatives, holiday, student trips etc. most of them were seemingly successful. tho we did hear a few cases where they wanted more documentation of employment etc.
so, whatever. it's not like its a whole lot easier to stay in thailand. except that, anyone from a developed- meaning RICH country can just show up at the airport and get an automatic 30 day stamp in their passport. and as i've mentioned, you could extend that for up to 5 months stay in total before you have to exit the country for 90 days. used to be you could do a visa run every thirty days and stay in thailand indefinitely. but they got tired of that a few months ago and changed the rules.
oh well.
onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070718
070718 Thaikarl crafty day and bus time again
friends
there is a nice video that gives a flavor of bangkok at:
http://video.mthai.com/player.php?id=11M1184809786M0
they are having a kind of crafts demonstration/hands on under a tend outside the department store near the hotel. Tok went there yesterday and made a few things. she's over there now while i am in the internet cafe. they have tables and instructors set up, each doing a different crafty thing. you can learn how and make your own painted bracelet, painted glass, display board, painted nails, flower baskets etc. all free. Tok was really excited, she wanted to learn everything! each of the tables gives you their card, and if later you want to buy paints or materials to do your own, you can contact them. pretty cool.
lots and lots of commerce occurs on the sidewalks and beside the road in thailand. food, cloths, jewelry, glasswear, souvenirs, CD's/DVD's/VCD's - just about anything/everything. people will rent a space if it's in front of a commercial property, or just set up and sell. everything from an old women with a few bananas to elaborate crafts fair type booths with signs, displays and music. and it will all be folded up, packed up and gone every night. unless it's the night vendors - they take the places the day vendors leave open. there was a guy who set up a tv tray sized table outside 7-eleven the other night. he had a few bottle of whisky, some coca cola, a bucket of ice and glasses. instant street bar. some places, like on the fly-overs and sky-train walkways are barred from vendors. or at least so says the sign. doesn't stop people from opening up a suitcase, laying out a cloth, and selling cute jeweled fobs they put on their phones, or hair bands, or combs. someone will lookout, and if a cop starts to wander in their direction, flip/flop/flash, all the merchandise is back in the case and the vendors walk off.
amazing thailand
onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
there is a nice video that gives a flavor of bangkok at:
http://video.mthai.com/player.php?id=11M1184809786M0
they are having a kind of crafts demonstration/hands on under a tend outside the department store near the hotel. Tok went there yesterday and made a few things. she's over there now while i am in the internet cafe. they have tables and instructors set up, each doing a different crafty thing. you can learn how and make your own painted bracelet, painted glass, display board, painted nails, flower baskets etc. all free. Tok was really excited, she wanted to learn everything! each of the tables gives you their card, and if later you want to buy paints or materials to do your own, you can contact them. pretty cool.
lots and lots of commerce occurs on the sidewalks and beside the road in thailand. food, cloths, jewelry, glasswear, souvenirs, CD's/DVD's/VCD's - just about anything/everything. people will rent a space if it's in front of a commercial property, or just set up and sell. everything from an old women with a few bananas to elaborate crafts fair type booths with signs, displays and music. and it will all be folded up, packed up and gone every night. unless it's the night vendors - they take the places the day vendors leave open. there was a guy who set up a tv tray sized table outside 7-eleven the other night. he had a few bottle of whisky, some coca cola, a bucket of ice and glasses. instant street bar. some places, like on the fly-overs and sky-train walkways are barred from vendors. or at least so says the sign. doesn't stop people from opening up a suitcase, laying out a cloth, and selling cute jeweled fobs they put on their phones, or hair bands, or combs. someone will lookout, and if a cop starts to wander in their direction, flip/flop/flash, all the merchandise is back in the case and the vendors walk off.
amazing thailand
onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
070718 thaikarl - to cambodia and back in one day
friends,
i made the visa run to cambodia today. it was rather painless really. took the skytrain to the On Nut station, went to the food court in the Tesco Lotus (department store) and found the tour man and the rest of the people going on the run. some 16 of us got into two of the large passenger vans they use here and 4 hours later we arrived at a new border crossing. exited thailand, handed over passports and photos to they kid at the table and went to the casino for a buffet lunch. after lunch, the tour man came with our passports all ready to go, walked back to thailand, got another 30 days stamped in, got back in the vans and 4 hours later back in bangkok. DVD movies along the way, one rest-stop for snacks and toilet midway. only 1900 baht ( 63.00 USD) for the whole thing, including the visa for cambodia that we used for all of 1 hour. never really went into cambodia actually. there's a buffer zone between each countries gate - which is why there is a casino there. tens of scruffy, ragged kids begging for handouts hanging on the fence. on the thai side, the road is paved. across the gates on the cambodian side, it's dirt. such is the difference. we are staying in bangkok at the hotel again, then busing back to Lomsak tomorrow.
my brother deposited some money he owed me for a little work (and kicked in a little extra, thanks!) in the bank in the US, so we have a week or so living expense covered. back to work on the house. lots of dirt to move, debris to clean up, touching up after the 'painters' - no lack of things to do. and the water fountain i built has a few "issues" to fix - like an internal leek that i will have to fix somehow. and the weather is still warm, and the food is still delicious, and Tok is still a sweetheart.
onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - august 8 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
i made the visa run to cambodia today. it was rather painless really. took the skytrain to the On Nut station, went to the food court in the Tesco Lotus (department store) and found the tour man and the rest of the people going on the run. some 16 of us got into two of the large passenger vans they use here and 4 hours later we arrived at a new border crossing. exited thailand, handed over passports and photos to they kid at the table and went to the casino for a buffet lunch. after lunch, the tour man came with our passports all ready to go, walked back to thailand, got another 30 days stamped in, got back in the vans and 4 hours later back in bangkok. DVD movies along the way, one rest-stop for snacks and toilet midway. only 1900 baht ( 63.00 USD) for the whole thing, including the visa for cambodia that we used for all of 1 hour. never really went into cambodia actually. there's a buffer zone between each countries gate - which is why there is a casino there. tens of scruffy, ragged kids begging for handouts hanging on the fence. on the thai side, the road is paved. across the gates on the cambodian side, it's dirt. such is the difference. we are staying in bangkok at the hotel again, then busing back to Lomsak tomorrow.
my brother deposited some money he owed me for a little work (and kicked in a little extra, thanks!) in the bank in the US, so we have a week or so living expense covered. back to work on the house. lots of dirt to move, debris to clean up, touching up after the 'painters' - no lack of things to do. and the water fountain i built has a few "issues" to fix - like an internal leek that i will have to fix somehow. and the weather is still warm, and the food is still delicious, and Tok is still a sweetheart.
onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - august 8 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070716
070716 Thaikarl - Visa? what a waste of time and money!
friends,
Tok and i went to the US consulate today for her tourist visa "interview". when we finally walked up to the window, the first thing the girl asked was I her fiance. it was obvious that the answer was NO! from that second on. she didn't look at the papers, didn't even ask Tok any questions. $100.00 for the visa fee, transport and hotel in bangkok, and all these papers filled out, copies made, pictures taken etc. i am so completely annoyed with our goverment, and the people behind them that have supported our "immigration system" bah! i don't even want to talk about it anymore. maybe later.
i booked a flight from Bangkok to Vancouver B.C. for early august. i would feel really bad leaving the family behind with all this work to do and the uncertainty about Mama's health. put the ticket on credit card. costly, but whatever. scraping around trying to borrow a few hundred here and there for living expenses for us for my extension... it appears i will have plenty of work when i return, so things will smooth out nicely within a short time.
meanwhile, we are in Bangkok, which is always a thrill for me. since the visa thing tanked, we're going to relax a day, then wednesday i have to take a special "visa-run" bus to cambodia, leave thailand and turn right around and come back in to get another 30 days in the country. bus leaves at 5:30am and returns that night. lots of bus-riding time in the nexe couple of days, as it's another 6 hours back to the country home.
6:00pm. they are playing the thai national anthem on TV. time to stand up. 8:00am and 6:00pm. the anthem is quite short. the joke is, "how could you win a battle against thai soldiers?" answer: "play the national anthem. they will all stand up and stand still. bang-bang-bang. we win"
onward!
nukhun and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
Tok and i went to the US consulate today for her tourist visa "interview". when we finally walked up to the window, the first thing the girl asked was I her fiance. it was obvious that the answer was NO! from that second on. she didn't look at the papers, didn't even ask Tok any questions. $100.00 for the visa fee, transport and hotel in bangkok, and all these papers filled out, copies made, pictures taken etc. i am so completely annoyed with our goverment, and the people behind them that have supported our "immigration system" bah! i don't even want to talk about it anymore. maybe later.
i booked a flight from Bangkok to Vancouver B.C. for early august. i would feel really bad leaving the family behind with all this work to do and the uncertainty about Mama's health. put the ticket on credit card. costly, but whatever. scraping around trying to borrow a few hundred here and there for living expenses for us for my extension... it appears i will have plenty of work when i return, so things will smooth out nicely within a short time.
meanwhile, we are in Bangkok, which is always a thrill for me. since the visa thing tanked, we're going to relax a day, then wednesday i have to take a special "visa-run" bus to cambodia, leave thailand and turn right around and come back in to get another 30 days in the country. bus leaves at 5:30am and returns that night. lots of bus-riding time in the nexe couple of days, as it's another 6 hours back to the country home.
6:00pm. they are playing the thai national anthem on TV. time to stand up. 8:00am and 6:00pm. the anthem is quite short. the joke is, "how could you win a battle against thai soldiers?" answer: "play the national anthem. they will all stand up and stand still. bang-bang-bang. we win"
onward!
nukhun and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070714
070714 Thaikarl - bad time to leave
friends,
haven't said much to yall lately. everyday is pretty much the same drill: get up, drink coffee and work on the house. goto town, buy food, go back and work on the house.
i'm scheduled to depart thailand july 18th. my ticket expires that day, and i can't extend the date. a one way ticket is pretty expensive. it's a bad time to be leaving. Mama is coughing up blood. Tok took her to the hospital this morning. They need several days of samples before they know what is going on. but it can't be anything but serious. coupled with that, there is still a ton of work to do around the house just cleaning up after all the construction. i hate to leave it all for Tok to do, and worry about mama at the same time. i'm trying to conjure up a way to stay for a few more weeks. i can put the plane ticket on a credit card, but cash for living is, um, well, a mystery. i'll let yah know...
the new house is as finished as the budget will allow. they built us some stairs to get up there, using any old leftover laying around wood. it works, but it's like the staircases they have in holland. very steep, more like a ladder than a stairs. but it will have to do. and the stain and varnish of the the wood will have to wait also. etc.
we leave for bangkok tommorrow. Toks tourist visa appointment at the embassy is monday morning. wish us luck. it's a long shot, be we'll give it a try.
onward!
Nukhun and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
haven't said much to yall lately. everyday is pretty much the same drill: get up, drink coffee and work on the house. goto town, buy food, go back and work on the house.
i'm scheduled to depart thailand july 18th. my ticket expires that day, and i can't extend the date. a one way ticket is pretty expensive. it's a bad time to be leaving. Mama is coughing up blood. Tok took her to the hospital this morning. They need several days of samples before they know what is going on. but it can't be anything but serious. coupled with that, there is still a ton of work to do around the house just cleaning up after all the construction. i hate to leave it all for Tok to do, and worry about mama at the same time. i'm trying to conjure up a way to stay for a few more weeks. i can put the plane ticket on a credit card, but cash for living is, um, well, a mystery. i'll let yah know...
the new house is as finished as the budget will allow. they built us some stairs to get up there, using any old leftover laying around wood. it works, but it's like the staircases they have in holland. very steep, more like a ladder than a stairs. but it will have to do. and the stain and varnish of the the wood will have to wait also. etc.
we leave for bangkok tommorrow. Toks tourist visa appointment at the embassy is monday morning. wish us luck. it's a long shot, be we'll give it a try.
onward!
Nukhun and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070712
070712 Thaikarl - Tok and I are getting married
friends,
i know some of yall are busy and don't get around to reading the travelogues. my subject lines are sometimes obtuse, so in case you didn't read the "lucky like the moon" story of how Tok and I became engaged, you can read it at:
http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/2007/07/070706-thaikarl-lucky-like-moon.html
but the short version is this:
last year i asked Tok to marry me. she accepted. we will be getting married in thailand april or may of next year - 2008. everyone is invited. we set the date far enough ahead to allow people who would like to come, and also holiday in thailand, time enough to plan, save and make arrangements.
we are applying for Tok to get a tourist visa to the USA. if successful, she will be coming over for a few weeks (when i get the money together for her) and those of you on this list who would llike to meet her will have opportunity. IF we get the visa. they make it very difficult for thais to visit the states. Homeland Insecurity and all that.
onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
i know some of yall are busy and don't get around to reading the travelogues. my subject lines are sometimes obtuse, so in case you didn't read the "lucky like the moon" story of how Tok and I became engaged, you can read it at:
http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/2007/07/070706-thaikarl-lucky-like-moon.html
but the short version is this:
last year i asked Tok to marry me. she accepted. we will be getting married in thailand april or may of next year - 2008. everyone is invited. we set the date far enough ahead to allow people who would like to come, and also holiday in thailand, time enough to plan, save and make arrangements.
we are applying for Tok to get a tourist visa to the USA. if successful, she will be coming over for a few weeks (when i get the money together for her) and those of you on this list who would llike to meet her will have opportunity. IF we get the visa. they make it very difficult for thais to visit the states. Homeland Insecurity and all that.
onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070706
070706 Thaikarl - Lucky like the Moon
Friends,
There is an important story I left out of my travelogues from 2006. Some of you might have guessed, some of you know.
April in Thailand is the month of the Songkran Holiday. It's a Thai new year, based on the lunar calendar, and very big holiday. Many festivities are in order. The most famous, and inescapable, is throwing water. In the old days, the custom was to merely sprinkle a few drops of water on passers-by, but it has devolved to groups of people with everything from cups to water cannons thoroughly soaking anyone who comes near. There are parades, music, beauty contests, music, honoring the old people, and general good fun.
I had a special plan for this day. Songkran day will have a full moon that night. I'm quite enthralled by full moons. When I was a kid, I had a bedroom window that was only a few inches above the level of the bed. I could lay there at night and watch the moonrise, and I would stay awake late, until it had risen so high that the moonlight crossed my bed and was replaced by shadow. Perhaps the rays of the moonlight got deep into by psyche, but I have ever felt changed and charged by that time. So full moons especially are notable for me, as it is in much of the world. I feel like there is an additional energy in the air - if I choose to notice it, and it is a good time for me to do things I consider special.
My plan for this full moon was formed in purpose, but lacking in details. I worked it out as the day went on. The first thing I decided I must do is to get a string of words translated into Thai language... I couldn't ask Tok of course, as the words were for her. We had met a Thai women how now lives in Texas at Jamlongs beauty shop the day before. I asked Tok if we might find this woman. She had said she would be at one of the temples in the morning, and I asked Tok to take me there, ostensibly to see the goings on. When we arrived, I didn't see the women, so I had to gently ask Tok to find her. The women was busy somewhere, so I had to stall around till she came back. Then I had to converse with her in private somehow, which was not easy. I asked the women to translate and write in Thai the words I had in mind. She did, but when I looked at the paper, it was (to me) illegible. I can recognize Thai characters, and I have copied them numerous times, but the softened abbreviated handwritten characters I couldn't make out. Tok was getting a little suspicious of why I was trying to do business with this woman, so I had to let it go and hope I had another chance later.
In the afternoon, we followed the parade to the civic grounds in the town of Lomsak. There is big field out front of the police station and civic buildings. The parade cars and trucks formed up there for showing the floats, and there was a big stage for music, announcements and beauty contests. Tok and I tend to stick pretty close together when we are out, so I took a while for me to entertain an excuse to wander off on my own. Tok was doing some of the makeup for the beauty contestants, and while she was busy doing that, I went of to "shoot video" of the floats and the Isan bands.
I was trying to find someone who could translate the words form me, and write them down in legible characters. When I showed the paper the women wrote, there were some big smiles and laughs, and I had to explain that the words were for someone else. My explaining didn't always come across. When I asked some boys who were part of an Isan music band, one of them seemed to understand what I was asking for. He copied the illegible handwriting into clear Thai script that I could read. So far so good.
When we returned to the house later in the day, I had to sneak away quietly and carefully copy the words in my own hand. I wrote on a piece of nice paper I used for drawing. I had a plan to carry out next.
I drink a lot of Kraeting Deang, which is "Red Bull" in Thai. It's somewhat of a 'signature' drink for me. We save the bottles, either to recycle, or for me to make something of them. I took one of the empty bottles, rolled the note up and put it inside and put the cap on. I had saved a few rings of jasmine flowers from the parade during the day. I put all this in a bag, and went looking for a digging tool. Mama uses a short shovel thing to tend the plants. It is a wooden handle about a foot long with a piece of steel on the end to dig with. I quietly put all these things out back of the house and answered the call for dinner.
After dinner, I kind of wandered off into the night, retrieving my bag and digging tool. I went between the houses out to the fields. I walked along the earthen dams between the fields. Old tobacco plants were still standing in rows, looking ghostly and limp. The moon was full and bathed everything in a glorious light. In between Toks two fields there is an earth dam that separates them. I turned right and found a good spot where the earth was wide enough, and there weren't weeds growing. I started digging with my tool. It was tough chopping a hole in the hard clay soil. I was flinging the loose dirt off to the side. Once I flung the tool up to rid the hole of a little dirt and the tool suddenly felt lighter. The metal end had come loose and flown off into the tobacco stalks. Great. I had a little blue LED light with me, but trying to see anything with it was difficult. I was on my hands and knees, rummaging around the roots in the moonlight with a tiny blue light trying to find the metal end of the digging tool. Every bug in the field came over to see what was going on, and was delighted to find me. I almost gave up and was thinking of going back to the house for a proper flashlight, but I didn't want to reappear at the house and raise any questions. Going back into the weeds for one last look, I finally found the metal scoop. Did my best to pound it tightly to the wooden handle and continued my digging - being a little more careful when I went flinging dirt around this time. Finally I had a hole big enough and deep enough to put in the red bull bottle. I sprinkled a few leaves over the hole, and displayed the jasmine flower rings around the opening of the hole. I didn't want it to be too obvious, but then I didn't want it to be easy to pass over, and it had to look just un-natural enough to attract attention. This part of the plan was accomplished.
I went back to the house and innocently hung around for a while. When Tok had a free moment, I asked her if she would go for a walk with me in the moonlight. We took hands and walked out back to the fields. As we were walking along the earth dam, I asked Tok if she ever felt her father's presence in the fields. He died about twelve years ago. Tok inherited these fields from him. She said that she did occasionally sense him. I asked if he would approve of us. She said that he would. The moon had risen a little since I was last in the field, and it was easy to walk in only the moonlight. I lead the way right at the crossing earth dam and approached the spot I had prepared. When I stopped suddenly and turned around, it took Tok only a second to look down and see the ring of flowers. What is this? She asked me. It is for you I told her. She bent down to look closer. The blue top of the red bull bottle was glinting in the night light. Now she knew for sure something was up. I told her to take out the bottle. I was so nervous and excited I could hardly breathe. Tok took the bottle out of the ground and looked at it. There is a paper inside she said. Open it I said. She opened the bottle and shook out the paper. Unrolling it, she peered at the writing in the moonlight. She giggled softly. I asked her to read the note, which she did- in Thai. No, read it in english, she read it again, but silently. Out loud please, in english I asked her. She read the note, it said:
"Will you marry me sir?"
I answered "YES!"
And that is how I 'tricked' Tok into asking ME to marry her.
Of course, after some laughing and joking about it, I turned things around, and formally asked Tok to marry me. She said "yes" warm hugs and kisses in the moonlight followed...
So, as you may or may not have known, Tok and I are getting married. In a way we are already, as common-law marriage is valid in Thailand. We certainly live and love together as spouses. But of course, we would like to have a fun gathering, a Buddhist ceremony and a celebration. The date will be in April or May of next year - 2008. The custom here is to consult with the monks or the shamans or somebody for a proper date and time, and Tok tells me they can't do that until it is next year. We could easily get married much sooner, but I have to work and save up the money for the wedding (food, drink, decorations, music). a few of my family members and friends have indicated that they would like to come to Thailand for the wedding, so we set the time far enough ahead that people can plan, save and arrange time off. Plane tickets to Thailand are $1000 - $1500 return (we'll see about that next year though). In early April is the Songkran New Year festival, which is the Thai New Year. And in the middle of May is Bang Fai, which is the rocket festival. Anyone who comes to the wedding might consider the timing to be here for one or the other. But of course, this is amazing Thailand, and there are wonderful places to visit, food to eat, and people to meet. There were be several choices of accommodation depending in your style- there's a resort up the road, some can sleep at the house, and there's a basic and a classy hotel in Lomsak.
Keep in mind also, that you can get dental work done in Thailand for 20 percent of the cost in the states. Many western trained dentists that speak English and use modern techniques. If you need bridges, crowns, filings, laser whitening, overlays, dentures etc, you can get it done here, and probably pay for the whole trip on the money you save over having it done in the states. Plastic surgery is low cost also. Not that any one needs lipo and such.
It is still common in Thailand for the groom to pay a bride-price to the brides' family. It's much more relaxed nowadays, if the couple doesn't have much, the brides' family can still give blessing. In keeping with the custom, I had Tok ask her mother if my plan to buy or build a house was enough for me to marry her daughter. Mama kind of snorted, mumbled a few words and walked away. I asked Tok what mama said. She said mama said "okay, but he has to take care of me too" very practical.
Billions of words have been written trying to describe how two people meet, love and care for each other. I can only say that I am a lucky man. I've found a woman who is nothing short of honest, loyal and true, and loves me as I am. She asks for very little. Gives very much. There are many beautiful flowers in a garden. I've found one who is simple and un-adorned, but a flower none-the-less. Meeting Tok has been a gateway to a whole new life for me, in a place I love. I sure didn't see it coming. And now I can't see it going either.
When Tok and I were first talking to each other on messenger, our conversations were friendly but not romantic. We talked about the chances of either of us getting married again, but we were not thinking of US marrying each other. I said something to the effect that "I'd have to be lucky like the moon to get married again" she didn't know what that mean's, I didn't either, it just came into my head. But "lucky like the moon" became a euphemism for "getting married". When we would pass by a wedding party on the motorbike, I would say "they are lucky like the moon" and she would laugh. This is why it was important to me to ask Tok to marry me (or get her to ask me) on the night of a full moon. And that is why, on the end crown of the roof on the new house, I had the name of our new house painted above a white disc. The new house is named "Lucky Moon House"
Onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
There is an important story I left out of my travelogues from 2006. Some of you might have guessed, some of you know.
April in Thailand is the month of the Songkran Holiday. It's a Thai new year, based on the lunar calendar, and very big holiday. Many festivities are in order. The most famous, and inescapable, is throwing water. In the old days, the custom was to merely sprinkle a few drops of water on passers-by, but it has devolved to groups of people with everything from cups to water cannons thoroughly soaking anyone who comes near. There are parades, music, beauty contests, music, honoring the old people, and general good fun.
I had a special plan for this day. Songkran day will have a full moon that night. I'm quite enthralled by full moons. When I was a kid, I had a bedroom window that was only a few inches above the level of the bed. I could lay there at night and watch the moonrise, and I would stay awake late, until it had risen so high that the moonlight crossed my bed and was replaced by shadow. Perhaps the rays of the moonlight got deep into by psyche, but I have ever felt changed and charged by that time. So full moons especially are notable for me, as it is in much of the world. I feel like there is an additional energy in the air - if I choose to notice it, and it is a good time for me to do things I consider special.
My plan for this full moon was formed in purpose, but lacking in details. I worked it out as the day went on. The first thing I decided I must do is to get a string of words translated into Thai language... I couldn't ask Tok of course, as the words were for her. We had met a Thai women how now lives in Texas at Jamlongs beauty shop the day before. I asked Tok if we might find this woman. She had said she would be at one of the temples in the morning, and I asked Tok to take me there, ostensibly to see the goings on. When we arrived, I didn't see the women, so I had to gently ask Tok to find her. The women was busy somewhere, so I had to stall around till she came back. Then I had to converse with her in private somehow, which was not easy. I asked the women to translate and write in Thai the words I had in mind. She did, but when I looked at the paper, it was (to me) illegible. I can recognize Thai characters, and I have copied them numerous times, but the softened abbreviated handwritten characters I couldn't make out. Tok was getting a little suspicious of why I was trying to do business with this woman, so I had to let it go and hope I had another chance later.
In the afternoon, we followed the parade to the civic grounds in the town of Lomsak. There is big field out front of the police station and civic buildings. The parade cars and trucks formed up there for showing the floats, and there was a big stage for music, announcements and beauty contests. Tok and I tend to stick pretty close together when we are out, so I took a while for me to entertain an excuse to wander off on my own. Tok was doing some of the makeup for the beauty contestants, and while she was busy doing that, I went of to "shoot video" of the floats and the Isan bands.
I was trying to find someone who could translate the words form me, and write them down in legible characters. When I showed the paper the women wrote, there were some big smiles and laughs, and I had to explain that the words were for someone else. My explaining didn't always come across. When I asked some boys who were part of an Isan music band, one of them seemed to understand what I was asking for. He copied the illegible handwriting into clear Thai script that I could read. So far so good.
When we returned to the house later in the day, I had to sneak away quietly and carefully copy the words in my own hand. I wrote on a piece of nice paper I used for drawing. I had a plan to carry out next.
I drink a lot of Kraeting Deang, which is "Red Bull" in Thai. It's somewhat of a 'signature' drink for me. We save the bottles, either to recycle, or for me to make something of them. I took one of the empty bottles, rolled the note up and put it inside and put the cap on. I had saved a few rings of jasmine flowers from the parade during the day. I put all this in a bag, and went looking for a digging tool. Mama uses a short shovel thing to tend the plants. It is a wooden handle about a foot long with a piece of steel on the end to dig with. I quietly put all these things out back of the house and answered the call for dinner.
After dinner, I kind of wandered off into the night, retrieving my bag and digging tool. I went between the houses out to the fields. I walked along the earthen dams between the fields. Old tobacco plants were still standing in rows, looking ghostly and limp. The moon was full and bathed everything in a glorious light. In between Toks two fields there is an earth dam that separates them. I turned right and found a good spot where the earth was wide enough, and there weren't weeds growing. I started digging with my tool. It was tough chopping a hole in the hard clay soil. I was flinging the loose dirt off to the side. Once I flung the tool up to rid the hole of a little dirt and the tool suddenly felt lighter. The metal end had come loose and flown off into the tobacco stalks. Great. I had a little blue LED light with me, but trying to see anything with it was difficult. I was on my hands and knees, rummaging around the roots in the moonlight with a tiny blue light trying to find the metal end of the digging tool. Every bug in the field came over to see what was going on, and was delighted to find me. I almost gave up and was thinking of going back to the house for a proper flashlight, but I didn't want to reappear at the house and raise any questions. Going back into the weeds for one last look, I finally found the metal scoop. Did my best to pound it tightly to the wooden handle and continued my digging - being a little more careful when I went flinging dirt around this time. Finally I had a hole big enough and deep enough to put in the red bull bottle. I sprinkled a few leaves over the hole, and displayed the jasmine flower rings around the opening of the hole. I didn't want it to be too obvious, but then I didn't want it to be easy to pass over, and it had to look just un-natural enough to attract attention. This part of the plan was accomplished.
I went back to the house and innocently hung around for a while. When Tok had a free moment, I asked her if she would go for a walk with me in the moonlight. We took hands and walked out back to the fields. As we were walking along the earth dam, I asked Tok if she ever felt her father's presence in the fields. He died about twelve years ago. Tok inherited these fields from him. She said that she did occasionally sense him. I asked if he would approve of us. She said that he would. The moon had risen a little since I was last in the field, and it was easy to walk in only the moonlight. I lead the way right at the crossing earth dam and approached the spot I had prepared. When I stopped suddenly and turned around, it took Tok only a second to look down and see the ring of flowers. What is this? She asked me. It is for you I told her. She bent down to look closer. The blue top of the red bull bottle was glinting in the night light. Now she knew for sure something was up. I told her to take out the bottle. I was so nervous and excited I could hardly breathe. Tok took the bottle out of the ground and looked at it. There is a paper inside she said. Open it I said. She opened the bottle and shook out the paper. Unrolling it, she peered at the writing in the moonlight. She giggled softly. I asked her to read the note, which she did- in Thai. No, read it in english, she read it again, but silently. Out loud please, in english I asked her. She read the note, it said:
"Will you marry me sir?"
I answered "YES!"
And that is how I 'tricked' Tok into asking ME to marry her.
Of course, after some laughing and joking about it, I turned things around, and formally asked Tok to marry me. She said "yes" warm hugs and kisses in the moonlight followed...
So, as you may or may not have known, Tok and I are getting married. In a way we are already, as common-law marriage is valid in Thailand. We certainly live and love together as spouses. But of course, we would like to have a fun gathering, a Buddhist ceremony and a celebration. The date will be in April or May of next year - 2008. The custom here is to consult with the monks or the shamans or somebody for a proper date and time, and Tok tells me they can't do that until it is next year. We could easily get married much sooner, but I have to work and save up the money for the wedding (food, drink, decorations, music). a few of my family members and friends have indicated that they would like to come to Thailand for the wedding, so we set the time far enough ahead that people can plan, save and arrange time off. Plane tickets to Thailand are $1000 - $1500 return (we'll see about that next year though). In early April is the Songkran New Year festival, which is the Thai New Year. And in the middle of May is Bang Fai, which is the rocket festival. Anyone who comes to the wedding might consider the timing to be here for one or the other. But of course, this is amazing Thailand, and there are wonderful places to visit, food to eat, and people to meet. There were be several choices of accommodation depending in your style- there's a resort up the road, some can sleep at the house, and there's a basic and a classy hotel in Lomsak.
Keep in mind also, that you can get dental work done in Thailand for 20 percent of the cost in the states. Many western trained dentists that speak English and use modern techniques. If you need bridges, crowns, filings, laser whitening, overlays, dentures etc, you can get it done here, and probably pay for the whole trip on the money you save over having it done in the states. Plastic surgery is low cost also. Not that any one needs lipo and such.
It is still common in Thailand for the groom to pay a bride-price to the brides' family. It's much more relaxed nowadays, if the couple doesn't have much, the brides' family can still give blessing. In keeping with the custom, I had Tok ask her mother if my plan to buy or build a house was enough for me to marry her daughter. Mama kind of snorted, mumbled a few words and walked away. I asked Tok what mama said. She said mama said "okay, but he has to take care of me too" very practical.
Billions of words have been written trying to describe how two people meet, love and care for each other. I can only say that I am a lucky man. I've found a woman who is nothing short of honest, loyal and true, and loves me as I am. She asks for very little. Gives very much. There are many beautiful flowers in a garden. I've found one who is simple and un-adorned, but a flower none-the-less. Meeting Tok has been a gateway to a whole new life for me, in a place I love. I sure didn't see it coming. And now I can't see it going either.
When Tok and I were first talking to each other on messenger, our conversations were friendly but not romantic. We talked about the chances of either of us getting married again, but we were not thinking of US marrying each other. I said something to the effect that "I'd have to be lucky like the moon to get married again" she didn't know what that mean's, I didn't either, it just came into my head. But "lucky like the moon" became a euphemism for "getting married". When we would pass by a wedding party on the motorbike, I would say "they are lucky like the moon" and she would laugh. This is why it was important to me to ask Tok to marry me (or get her to ask me) on the night of a full moon. And that is why, on the end crown of the roof on the new house, I had the name of our new house painted above a white disc. The new house is named "Lucky Moon House"
Onward!
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070704
070704 Thaikarl - let go and let Thai
friends,
my new mantra - "lt go and let Thai" the paint crew is driving my inner painter nuts - slapping wall putty in the cracks in the wood, mildly sanding it and staining over it, so the whitish putty still shows, dripping paint everywhere etc etc. deep breath - "let go and let thai" - the stain they are using covers over the grain of the wood, looks more like paint than wood stain. i had to realize that what i consider "beautiful expensive tropical hardwood that would cost a zillion dollars in the USA" is just "wood" to the thai's. much like we consider pine and cedar. so "let go and..." but when they get round to the new house, i'm going to be a little more definitive about what i want and DON'T want. if i can get them to understand of course. the crew that Noi was using the last week stayed out drinking until 4am and weren't in any shape to work yesterday, so she fired all of them and brought a whole passel of people today. and away they went.
my time here is short. i hate that.
onward! "let go and let..."
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
my new mantra - "lt go and let Thai" the paint crew is driving my inner painter nuts - slapping wall putty in the cracks in the wood, mildly sanding it and staining over it, so the whitish putty still shows, dripping paint everywhere etc etc. deep breath - "let go and let thai" - the stain they are using covers over the grain of the wood, looks more like paint than wood stain. i had to realize that what i consider "beautiful expensive tropical hardwood that would cost a zillion dollars in the USA" is just "wood" to the thai's. much like we consider pine and cedar. so "let go and..." but when they get round to the new house, i'm going to be a little more definitive about what i want and DON'T want. if i can get them to understand of course. the crew that Noi was using the last week stayed out drinking until 4am and weren't in any shape to work yesterday, so she fired all of them and brought a whole passel of people today. and away they went.
my time here is short. i hate that.
onward! "let go and let..."
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070701
070801 Thaikarl - it ain't over till, there's no more yellow papers
friends,
beside the road there are a couple of stands that sell whole roast chicken. the chickens revolve constantly on spits over a propane burner, like a rotisserie. know what the thai's call these chickens?
not a lot of time to be interneting these last days. the painters are painting the house. they use oil-based enamel paint, directly on the concrete stucco. none of this primer stuff. no sir. just paint it. driving me nuts because as a painter myself, i'm a bit of a perfectionist - i've painted on "high-end" jobs where drips, brush slips, streaks, rough edges and overlaps are just not tolerable. but this is not the way they do things here. at least, not at the prices i'm paying. so the old house is now orange, with dark brown, maroonish trim, and the inside is green, er, it's green now, but after seeing the color on the walls, we didn't like it so much, so they are going to overcoat it with a lighter green -= a llittle more blueish.
we're going to have to leave a lot of things un-done. bank account hitting bottom. stairs to the new house, railings for the porch, staining and varnish for the new house etc etc etc, will all have to wait.
but, we did spend the first night in the new house! not exactly because it was ready for us - but the strong smell of the enamel paint inside the house drove all of us out. we swept aside the tools, sawdust and planks, laid down a few blankets and use the collapsible mosquito netting. i was cold and kept snuggling up to tok. she woke me up to tell me i had pushed her of the mat and she was on the wood floor. oops. it was significant, because there was a full moon that night. and the new house is named "Lucky Moon House" - says so right up at the top (film at 11)
thais call the rotating roast chickens "Circle Chicken" tee hee...
onward,
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
beside the road there are a couple of stands that sell whole roast chicken. the chickens revolve constantly on spits over a propane burner, like a rotisserie. know what the thai's call these chickens?
not a lot of time to be interneting these last days. the painters are painting the house. they use oil-based enamel paint, directly on the concrete stucco. none of this primer stuff. no sir. just paint it. driving me nuts because as a painter myself, i'm a bit of a perfectionist - i've painted on "high-end" jobs where drips, brush slips, streaks, rough edges and overlaps are just not tolerable. but this is not the way they do things here. at least, not at the prices i'm paying. so the old house is now orange, with dark brown, maroonish trim, and the inside is green, er, it's green now, but after seeing the color on the walls, we didn't like it so much, so they are going to overcoat it with a lighter green -= a llittle more blueish.
we're going to have to leave a lot of things un-done. bank account hitting bottom. stairs to the new house, railings for the porch, staining and varnish for the new house etc etc etc, will all have to wait.
but, we did spend the first night in the new house! not exactly because it was ready for us - but the strong smell of the enamel paint inside the house drove all of us out. we swept aside the tools, sawdust and planks, laid down a few blankets and use the collapsible mosquito netting. i was cold and kept snuggling up to tok. she woke me up to tell me i had pushed her of the mat and she was on the wood floor. oops. it was significant, because there was a full moon that night. and the new house is named "Lucky Moon House" - says so right up at the top (film at 11)
thais call the rotating roast chickens "Circle Chicken" tee hee...
onward,
Nu and Tok
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
20070622
070622 Raising a ruckus!
Raising a Ruckus
friends,
boy, did i start a ruckus around here. a few weeks ago, the truck came to deliver the concrete poles that will hold up our new room. the truck had a hydraulic crane on the back to pick up the poles and deliver them to the ground. i saw an opportunity there. out near the front of the house is a pile of old concrete poles that belong to one of toks relatives who lives a few houses away. these poles were cut out from an old house, where there is normally a square base to the poles, the concrete is broken away and the steel re-bar is poking out. i always thought that these poles were in an inconvenient place. we moved one of them last year using rollers and ropes. it was a difficult job - these things are heavy. one day toks relative, who owns the poles was over, and i asked her to ask him if we could use them to line the property line alongside the newly built access road to gams house. he was okay with that. but, the prospect of moving the things was daunting, and easily put at the bottom of the to-do list. but the truck and crane presented an opportunity i couldn't pass up.
i asked tok if they would move the old poles into place along the drive if we paid them to. they were fine with that. so they moved all the poles, lining them up end-to end along thee driveway. then the fun began. gams mother and father came out, and a big discussion about the location of the poles ensued. there was lots of pointing and exclaiming and drawing lines in the dirt. the boundaries of the properties are marked by small concrete posts placed in the ground with code numbers on them. one of the key posts that marked the back corner between gams family land and toks land and the corner of the access road was under the new dirt. so out came the picks and pikes and hoes and more chattering about where the post was exactly. we dug a hole, and made it bigger - more to the left, NO, more to the right. NO! more that way! Deeper! they finally found the post, and put in a stake to mark the exact spot. then more discussion, more pointing and lining. they got out string and stretched it between the known markers, up and down the length of the access road. we moved the old concrete poles to align with the string, but there was still considerable racket to be made over the whole issue. it got even more interesting when gams family said that sai and tai, whose land is on the other side of the access road, could not use the road because they didn't help pay for it. this got sai all riled up of course, and there was more discussion of all that aspect.
things settled down somewhat over the next few days. then gams mother came out day before yesterday and said something to boon, our contractor, along the lines that our new roof was over hanging the access road by 50 centimeters. this really annoyed tok, since the roof didn't overhang by such a large amount, or perhaps not at all, since the exact property lines were still in question. she decided that we should find another marking post that was buried a few meters from the one we found before. i didn't know there was another post. so first job after breakfast yesterday was for me to go out and start digging. now, mama was sure that the post was over HERE somewhere, by where the old tree was. then of course gams mother and father came out and they insisted that it was over THERE. out came the tape measures, lots of pointing and discussing. meanwhile i kept digging. found nothing. so i started digging at the second "for sure it's here" point, still nothing. then we dug until the two holes were now one hole, about 6 feet long and two and a half feet deep. i would dig some, gams father would get fired up and start digging in another place, tok was digging, gams mom, tai and sai came home and put in their 2 baht. meanwhile, the workers are up above us, cutting the beams for the roof over the balcony, watching all this commotion with amusement. this went on for hours, then everyone wandered off for lunch, then resumed again, then, stopped when everyone got tired. i decided to get out of the middle of the whole thing, as i had very little idea what was going on and what all the discussion was about. i went over and mixed up some cement and worked on cementing rocks to the rockery waterfall.
after a while, the kids all came home from school, so sai and tai's kids, gams brother and assorted neighbors all got involved in more digging, more chattering. every now and then i'd look over and one of the bigger kids would be digging, or everyone was standing over the hole pointing this way and that. my attention was on my cement and rocks. one of the times i looked up, they were filling in the hole, and i noticed they put up a wooden stake. seems that Mack, gams brother had did a little digging with the pike somewhere near the center of the hole but in a southern direction and found the marker peg. our trench ran east/west, but, as it turns out, mostly north of the actual marker. so we were close, but it took mack's digging in the "wrong" direction to reveal the peg.
this whole thing took literally all day. i started digging around 8:30am, and the hole wasn't filled and staked until around 6pm. and once the true property line was found, one of the workers dropped a plumb bob from the edge of our new roof, and it was determined that the west corner of our roof overhangs the access road by about 10 centimeters. so gams family was complaining that when it rains, the run-off from our roof will fall in the road. but tok told them she is waiting for the the drive-by gutter installers to come around, and we'll put a gutter up there to take away the rain water. this is grand by me, as i want to have a rainwater collection system that feeds some big 100 gallon jars for taking my showers and for washing cloths. cloths washed in the hard water from the well feel stiff when they are dry, as the minerals get in the fabric.
"drive-by gutter installers"??? what is that you ask? around here, like the ice cream trucks in the states, people drive by along the road selling things. they will play music, or beep a horn, or have a loudspeaker on the roof that plays a tape of the sales pitch. but you can buy more than ice cream. apparently one of these speaker trucks are people who install gutters. others are selling rice, food, repair jobs - a man comes to the house with a meter and checks out any appliances that aren't working, like fans or toasters. if it meters out, he will take to his truck and fix it for you. some of the speaker trucks are political announcements, and most of them i have no idea what they are on about.
throughout all this no one seemed to really get angry. there were places where the tone of voice got a little strong, but the next minute they would be laughing about something. no one walked off in disgust. interesting.
amazing thailand, love it.
tomorrow tok and i are going to Loei to go to a ghost/spirit festival something. i'll know when i get there. my Englishman friend mel and his wife came by yesterday, and said they would go with us - which is good, as they have a pick-up. should be fun- get outta town for a bit anyway. except they are coming to get us at 7am. thai's like to have parades and things at eight o'clock in the morning!
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
friends,
boy, did i start a ruckus around here. a few weeks ago, the truck came to deliver the concrete poles that will hold up our new room. the truck had a hydraulic crane on the back to pick up the poles and deliver them to the ground. i saw an opportunity there. out near the front of the house is a pile of old concrete poles that belong to one of toks relatives who lives a few houses away. these poles were cut out from an old house, where there is normally a square base to the poles, the concrete is broken away and the steel re-bar is poking out. i always thought that these poles were in an inconvenient place. we moved one of them last year using rollers and ropes. it was a difficult job - these things are heavy. one day toks relative, who owns the poles was over, and i asked her to ask him if we could use them to line the property line alongside the newly built access road to gams house. he was okay with that. but, the prospect of moving the things was daunting, and easily put at the bottom of the to-do list. but the truck and crane presented an opportunity i couldn't pass up.
i asked tok if they would move the old poles into place along the drive if we paid them to. they were fine with that. so they moved all the poles, lining them up end-to end along thee driveway. then the fun began. gams mother and father came out, and a big discussion about the location of the poles ensued. there was lots of pointing and exclaiming and drawing lines in the dirt. the boundaries of the properties are marked by small concrete posts placed in the ground with code numbers on them. one of the key posts that marked the back corner between gams family land and toks land and the corner of the access road was under the new dirt. so out came the picks and pikes and hoes and more chattering about where the post was exactly. we dug a hole, and made it bigger - more to the left, NO, more to the right. NO! more that way! Deeper! they finally found the post, and put in a stake to mark the exact spot. then more discussion, more pointing and lining. they got out string and stretched it between the known markers, up and down the length of the access road. we moved the old concrete poles to align with the string, but there was still considerable racket to be made over the whole issue. it got even more interesting when gams family said that sai and tai, whose land is on the other side of the access road, could not use the road because they didn't help pay for it. this got sai all riled up of course, and there was more discussion of all that aspect.
things settled down somewhat over the next few days. then gams mother came out day before yesterday and said something to boon, our contractor, along the lines that our new roof was over hanging the access road by 50 centimeters. this really annoyed tok, since the roof didn't overhang by such a large amount, or perhaps not at all, since the exact property lines were still in question. she decided that we should find another marking post that was buried a few meters from the one we found before. i didn't know there was another post. so first job after breakfast yesterday was for me to go out and start digging. now, mama was sure that the post was over HERE somewhere, by where the old tree was. then of course gams mother and father came out and they insisted that it was over THERE. out came the tape measures, lots of pointing and discussing. meanwhile i kept digging. found nothing. so i started digging at the second "for sure it's here" point, still nothing. then we dug until the two holes were now one hole, about 6 feet long and two and a half feet deep. i would dig some, gams father would get fired up and start digging in another place, tok was digging, gams mom, tai and sai came home and put in their 2 baht. meanwhile, the workers are up above us, cutting the beams for the roof over the balcony, watching all this commotion with amusement. this went on for hours, then everyone wandered off for lunch, then resumed again, then, stopped when everyone got tired. i decided to get out of the middle of the whole thing, as i had very little idea what was going on and what all the discussion was about. i went over and mixed up some cement and worked on cementing rocks to the rockery waterfall.
after a while, the kids all came home from school, so sai and tai's kids, gams brother and assorted neighbors all got involved in more digging, more chattering. every now and then i'd look over and one of the bigger kids would be digging, or everyone was standing over the hole pointing this way and that. my attention was on my cement and rocks. one of the times i looked up, they were filling in the hole, and i noticed they put up a wooden stake. seems that Mack, gams brother had did a little digging with the pike somewhere near the center of the hole but in a southern direction and found the marker peg. our trench ran east/west, but, as it turns out, mostly north of the actual marker. so we were close, but it took mack's digging in the "wrong" direction to reveal the peg.
this whole thing took literally all day. i started digging around 8:30am, and the hole wasn't filled and staked until around 6pm. and once the true property line was found, one of the workers dropped a plumb bob from the edge of our new roof, and it was determined that the west corner of our roof overhangs the access road by about 10 centimeters. so gams family was complaining that when it rains, the run-off from our roof will fall in the road. but tok told them she is waiting for the the drive-by gutter installers to come around, and we'll put a gutter up there to take away the rain water. this is grand by me, as i want to have a rainwater collection system that feeds some big 100 gallon jars for taking my showers and for washing cloths. cloths washed in the hard water from the well feel stiff when they are dry, as the minerals get in the fabric.
"drive-by gutter installers"??? what is that you ask? around here, like the ice cream trucks in the states, people drive by along the road selling things. they will play music, or beep a horn, or have a loudspeaker on the roof that plays a tape of the sales pitch. but you can buy more than ice cream. apparently one of these speaker trucks are people who install gutters. others are selling rice, food, repair jobs - a man comes to the house with a meter and checks out any appliances that aren't working, like fans or toasters. if it meters out, he will take to his truck and fix it for you. some of the speaker trucks are political announcements, and most of them i have no idea what they are on about.
throughout all this no one seemed to really get angry. there were places where the tone of voice got a little strong, but the next minute they would be laughing about something. no one walked off in disgust. interesting.
amazing thailand, love it.
tomorrow tok and i are going to Loei to go to a ghost/spirit festival something. i'll know when i get there. my Englishman friend mel and his wife came by yesterday, and said they would go with us - which is good, as they have a pick-up. should be fun- get outta town for a bit anyway. except they are coming to get us at 7am. thai's like to have parades and things at eight o'clock in the morning!
--
I am in southeast asia April 19 - July 20 2007 ::: http://thaikarl.blogspot.com/
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