100603 Thaikarl - wonderful poetic translation - about a snake

there is a snake living around our house.  everybody else wants to kill it, i want to save it from them. trying to identify it, i did some googling, and emails back and forth.  one of the pages with pictures came up on a thai website, which i ran thru google translate.  down the page in one of the comments was this entry:

กลัวค่ะ กลัวมาก	Fear ค่ะ very afraid.
แค่เห็นในบล็อกนี้	Just saw this blog.
ก็ขน ลุกแล้วค่ะ	It horrible Out!.
ไม่ กล้ามองงูเลย	I did not dare look snakes.
แต่ อยากจะอ่านมาก	But I want to read more.
ว่าคุณ จะช่วยชีวิตเค้าอย่างไร	You could save him how
เห็น ด้วยค่ะ ว่าไม่ควรไปฆ่าเค้า ค่ะ	not agree that to kill him.
เวลา ช่วยชีวิตสัตว์ได้	Time to rescue animals.
รู้สึก ดีมากนะคะ	I felt great คะ.
เพราะ เคยช่วยจิ้งจกที่มันเกือบจมน้ำช็อกโกแลตตาย	Because it almost always helps lizard chocolate drowned dead.
ตอนแรก บีโกรธมันที่ทำให้อดกินเลย	At first angry, it makes B อด eat it.
แต่พอ เห็นมันพยายามเงยหัวให้พ้นน้ำช็อกโกแลต	But when I saw it lifted my head to try to spray chocolate
แล้ว จ้องมาที่เรา	Then stared to us.
สงสาร มันขึ้นมาทันที	Pity on it immediately.
เลย ต้องหาอะไรมาเขี่ยมันออกจากถ้วย	What I find to poke it out of the cup.
พอ ช่วยมันได้ก็ดีใจค่ะ	I'm glad it helps enough ค่ะ.
แต่นี่ คุณช่วยงูตัวใหญ่กว่าตั้งแยะ	But here, you help the bigger the snake amply
บุญ เยอะเลยนะคะ	I คะ much merit it.

the english translation reads like some gonzo, stream-of-consciousness tone poem.  in fact, i'm inspired to turn these words into lyrics and make a song out of it.  and like thai songs, it won't rhyme.  stay tuned for that.

this is the translate page:  http://translate.google.com/translate?........  the comment above is found down the page.  our snake is just like the one in the photos:  It's a Xenochropis flavipunctatus - Yellow spotted Keelback.  not very poisonous.  it would have to chew on you for several minutes to get enough venom into the wound.  thanks to Vern at thaipulse.com for help identifying our little friend.  i hope i can ketch him and convince him to live in the ditch out front of the property, and stay away from the house, or he's gonna end up dead.

Xenochropis flavipunctatus, with shoes

Amazing Thailand.  everyday!

100601 Thaikarl - Swimming lessons and more creepy brain pictures

friends,

my step-daughter, Toey wants to learn to swim.  tok asked me if i could teach her.  my brain said "NO".  my brain usually says "NO" to everything, then i have to kick in the "conscious override" program and when it works, i can get my mouth and vocal chords to say "yes".  if it doesn't work the first time, it defaults to silence, so the program has a loop that says "IF 'reply' = silence, restart mechanical "yes" routine.  do loop until 'reply' = "yes".  sometimes even that routine fails.  in this case, i finally said "yes, i can teach Toey to swim".  nothing happened for a few weeks, then a few days ago, we were off to the market to buy swim cloths.  found one for me, but not for Toey, so i won a reprieve.  but, persistence paid off on toks part, toey had he swim suit, i had mine, we'd already been to the swimming pool one evening and got the hours and layout in place.  it was time to go.

i've never taught swimming, but i know how to swim.  so i reached way back into the memory banks and came up with some starter objectives:  blowing bubbles to get used to having your face in the water; floating on your back, kicking with your feet.  Toey was game to learn, but since i have to tell her in english, there was a bit of a communications problem.  i would demonstrate, she would try it out.  she has a habit of starting to inhale before her face is out of the water, so she sputters and coughs a lot.  but, with the encouragement of her friend sitting by the pool, see kept on, and was getting the hang of it.  her friend timed her floating, and she got up to 3 minutes and 27 seconds.  pretty good for the first day.

she had to take the motorbike to take her friend back home, while i waited at the pool.  there are some music rooms at the front. tok told me they were there, but i didn't understand what that meant when she told me.  inside a windowed room were a full set of drums, a couple of guitars and a bass, amplifiers and a microphone set-up.  while i was waiting for Toey, i was watching a guy playing guitar.  a women came over and invited me to go inside.  this was cool.  the guy inside said hello, "guitar??" and i pointed at the bass. he turned it on and we played a bit. he was really shy about playing, and deferred to my playing bass.  he said his name is Mun, he lives there at the pool.  this was pretty cool, i've been itching to play with others for a while now.  been along time since the band(s) folded and i miss playing bass.

the next day i was up in the bedroom working on the website in the late afternoon. Toey came up and said "Swimming!"  brain said "no" mouth said "yes" and we went off.  Mun was manning the desk at the pool, so we didn't go in the music room.  Toey came back with her friend again and we got in the pool for more practice.  she totally forgot how to float and we had to start over.  there was a man teaching five or so little kids in the middle of the pool, and i was taking cue's from him about instructions. suddenly there was a man yelling and pointing at the middle of the pool.  i looked around, trying to see what he was excited about. there was a shadow under the water in the middle of the pool.  the instructor man went over and hauled a young boy up from underwater and carried him to the side.  the boy was limp and lifeless.  not again.  the pool people came running, the father ran over, the kids all gathered around.  i went over to see if i could help, but the pool ladies started CPR, with chest compressions and breaths.  water spilled out of the boys mouth, which they drained to the side and kept up the CPR.  the boy still wasn't responding, but they kept it up.  the hospital is a block away.  i couldn't see, because of all the people in the way, but there was a change in the demeanor of the people around the boy, and i thought maybe some signs of life had re-appeared.  the father was sitting at the boys feet, keening in a high voice.  the other little kids were right there watching the whole thing.  the hospital guys ran in, and they carried the boy away.  in a couple of minutes, people started coming back, smiling and talking, so evidently the boy was revived.  later the pool women talked to me, and i understood when she said "sabai dee" which means "comfort good" - so apparently the boy was okay.  he wasn't breathing for a few minutes, so hopefully there wasn't any damage.  jeez.

so we went back to floating, kicking and face in the water lessons.  now i have another set of grim pictures in my brain of a small boys life-less face.  funny how those things stick so well in ones mind.

two days at the pool, two adventures in addition to swimming.  i told tok, "i wonder what will happen the next time we go swimming?"

there's a few new photos in the picassa gallery. scroll down to the picture of the blue guitar and click on it, and keep going from there.  there's a few new pictures in the bugs and critters gallery also.  scroll down to the praying mantis on the back of my hand picture, click on it, and go from there.

amazing thailand!
Nu

100528 Thaikarl - a shower with a view

one on my friends said i must have a great view from my shower.  i'm sure there are much better ones, but my view is mine and i enjoy it everytime.  especially in the moonlight.

(click here to see the full size picture)

left to right:  corn in the fields, tamarind tree, neighbors house, our kitchen and back of the house

100526 Thaikarl - american ingenuity. loses again.

friends,

i use my outdoor shower behind the house.  i like it out there.  we didn't have village water when i built it last year.  i put a piece of cement board on the corner of the shower and put my shower stuff on that.  my organizational wife got me a basket for my things.  but when the wind comes, my razor, toothbrush and such gets blown off behind the wall and i have to go retrieve the stuff.

so i got all fired up when i found three and four-way PVC fittings at the shed market.  bought a bagful of parts, and a long piece of 1/2 inch PVC, found another basket in the shed, and built myself a stand to hold the basket and my shower things.  quite please with my ingenuity, i showed my wife.

her comment?  "why you not get two nails and nail the basket to the wall. not spend all that money on pipe?"

FAIL.  i had no answer for that one.

  (but it is cool eh?)

100524 Thaikarl - new ceiling in the bedroom house

friends,

at long last we have a new ceiling in the bedroom house.  the ceiling before wasn't a ceiling at all, it was the bottom of the roof tiles.  a common trait of many thai country houses.  problem is, the sun bakes the roof, the tiles get hot, and the heat radiates from the bottom of the tiles into the room.  and because the there is an open space between the top of the walls and the ceiling tiles, the dust gets into the room much easier.  Tok is sensitive to dust, so it's not a good thing for her.

we'd already spent our "home improvement" funds on other things, but tok decided that she would use the savings she has and get it done, since the weather has been so hot.  and i promised i send her extra money to replenish her savings over time.  we had do do a little shopping for the wood, insulation and nails.  then a friend of hers who is a builder came over with a few guys and they did the job in two days. 

looks nice eh?  and it is cooler up here in the daytime.  10mm hardwood sheets of plywood were 850 baht each (26$ USD), we used 11 sheets.  plust labor 4000 baht (123$ USD) and incidentals, the whole job came out to 19,000 baht (585$ USD)

looks nice tho eh?  more pictures here....

100521 Thaikarl - Snake - Toad - Termites - Cat

friends, what do all those words have in common?  they are all in the video i just posted to youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZBTv13kg9k



the other day i saw the snake three different times on the same day.  each time on a different side of the house.  when it slide into the woodpile on the east side, i hope to get a better look at it.  i poked a long piece of pvc into the pile lengthwise.  heard it move a couple of times.  he even stuck his head up and gave me a threatening gaping mouth glare, like i was really annoying him. which i was. so i stopped.  if the neighboors see it they'll kill it, so if it shows up again, i'll try to suggest to it that it goes out to the fields to live.  it'll be safer out there... till they start harvesting the corn.  but it can run away.  i hope.

didn't see any fangs, but still couldn't get a good enough look to take a photo and identify it.

the toads and the gekkos have a feast on the bug blooms, which usually happen after some rain.

yesterday, the Tokay gekko suddenly appeared out the the corner of the ceiling and ran along the top of the door over toks head.  it stopped on the wall beside the cabinet.  i ran and got my camera, but it took off as i brought the camera up to take a picture.  beautiful animals!  this one is about 14 inches long.  tok is annoyed with him because he drops his crap on the floor in the bathroom and she has to clean it up.  i was wondering what those were.  kind of looked like little slugs.  tokay turds. hmm.

amazing thailand!
Nu

100517 Thaikarl - the dentist is in - and a ghost story - tok got a job!

friends,

went to see my dentist today.  he replaced a crown that had fallen off.  it fell off months ago, but i waited until i got here to have it stuck back on.  in that time, my teeth moved around, so it didn't fit.  my dentist took an impression and had a new one made.  he put it in for me today, and fixed a stain in the veneer in one of my front teeth.  total cost:  42 USD.  the crown was on a back molar. dentists usually charge more for work on back teech.  you know that have to reach alll that way back there and all.  he had it made from a high-level alloy of some sort.  gold would have cost way more because of the ridiculous gold bubble we're in. seriously, you can come to thailand, have all your teeth fixed, have a vacation, and return to the states for LESS than it would have cost you to have your teeth fixed in the states.  i'm going to be organizing dental trips to thailand next year.  so if you are facing a huge dental bill, need things like bridges, crowns, veneers, implants and your dental insurance won't cover it - you have dental insurance don't you? all american enjoy such wonderful comprehensive healthcare don't they? - keep in touch with me.  even if you're travel shy, i'll get the details set up for you- hotels, transport, a choice of dentists, and some sightseeing if you like.  stay tuned!

tok and mama and i were sitting around the table eating dinner last night.  i got tok to ask mama a few questions about her life.  i was wondering what mama wanted to be when she was a little girl.  answer: farmer.  she doesn't read or write, so she knew that farming, or selling food was the only future for her, so she never thought about anything else. i asked her to find out why she had only one child - tok, my wife.  she said that it was difficult for her to have children.  this was pre-pill days, so there was nothing inhibiting the process.  tok said that her mother had been married ten years before she had her.  mama went to some special place and asked the ghosts to help her get pregnant.  mama had a dear friend who was pregnant at the time.  her friend promised, that if she had twins, that she would give one of the babies to mama to raise.  the friend had her babies but one of them died.  soon after, mama became pregnant.  they believed that the ghosts caused one of the babies to die, so that the spirit of the dead baby could enter mama.  that baby was tok.  so tok is indeed a special, and very much wanted child.

tok got a job!  the school called her and asked her if she would teach thai dancing at the school in village.  we talked about it a month or two ago when it first came up.  she went to see the director today, and got the job.  starts tomorrow.  three days a week, 7 hours of teaching.  but in the strange thai fashion, she is supposed to be at the school all day, even if she is only actually teaching 2 or 3 hours per day.  she has to be there at 8, and can leave at 4.  un-defined what she will do with the other 5 hours of the day.  i've heard this from the english teachers also.  if you are teaching english, you have to be at the school 8-4 every day.  40 hours a week, even if you are only teaching 17 class hours.  some of the non-class hours you will spend making teaching plans, but from what i understand, after you teach a few round, you can re-use the lesson plans you made last term, so you are sitting around, looking busy.  she will earn 27,000 baht for a 5 month term.  that's 834 USD.  she's somewhat excited about it, cause she can save the money. she really really wants to have a car.  nothing fancy, just a car.  with air-con. and dry when it rains.  used cars in thailand are not that common.  i don't know where they go, but you just don't see old cars around here.  and the used ones they do sell, go for big money.  i'm looking for another van (had my friend sell mine after i left) so i'm checking craigslist from here.  she is amazed that you can get a used car for 1000 USD.

but what this means, in the short term, is that i get to be on my own three days a week.  have to get my own lunch (awwww, i can hear yall moaning for me from here) and keep myself amused.  she'll be taking the motorbike to school, so i won't have transport either.  wah.  yeah right.  i'm over the half way mark of this visit.  so i'll just have to make due.  muawwwwww!  it does mean that the couple little tips we were thinking about might not happen.  we were thinking of going to chang mai and chang rai up in the north west part of thailand.  there's a temple up there i really want to see, and they are supposed to be a nice cities.  up in the mountains.  whull see.  phi ta khon is in the end of june, just before i depart, but it's only a few hours by bus from here. so we'll make that.  if tok skips out of school early on friday :-D

gorgeous the life!

neighbors hanging out at sunset.  everybody here is related.

nu

100514 "Lawn" the word of the day is "Lawn"

friends,

there's a word i hear frequently these days - especially today. it sounds like the english word "Lawn".
it means "Hot" as in "it's hot now" what ever the rest of the phrase is people might say to me, but when i hear "Lawn" in there, i know they are talking about the weather. i usually reply "nit noi" which means "little bit" it was 110F up here in the computer spot yesterday afternoon, probably get there again today.

my frustration with trying to learn thai comes and goes. i'm not saying i can't learn, i am saying it's going very very slowly. i've worked on a number of "learn to speak thai" programs - including rosetta stone. unfortunately, they teach phrases that i don't use like "he is riding a bicycle" and thus, i don't remember them.

not remembering, that's the problem. for some reason, my brain just isn't tuned to recalling the sounds of thai language. i ask tok for a word, perhaps for something i like like a food. she'll tell me, i'll write it down, transliterate it, say it over and over, make associations and mnemonics. practice it for a couple of days. a week later, i look at the food and say "_____"? gone. not there. hello, brain. what is the word for that. no answer. come on brain, you filed this away somewhere. brain finally answers with "you know, you have never seen anyone water skiing in thailand. thanks brain. thanks alot.

not hearing the tones is a big problem. listen here to someone saying the word "mai"
doesn't sound to hard does it? except each of those sounds is a very different word

* ใหม่ or "MAI" is new ( low tone )
* ไม้ or "MAI" is wood ( high tone )
* ไม่ or "MAI" is not ( falling tone )
* ไหม or "MAI" is silk ( rising tone )
* ไม - this word does not exist ( mid tone )

(taken from: http://www.thaiworldview.com/langue.htm )

so depending on how you sound the sylable, you are saying new, wood, not, silk or a nonsense sound. so if you don't sound it correctly, thai's generally don't understand you.

if i pointed to a pond, and said "beautiful buck" you would wonder what i was talking about. because i said "Buck" instead of "Duck". buck and duck are two different things, two different words. if your native language doesn't have a "B" or "D" sound, they will sound the same to you, and you might not learn the difference.

super simple example.
Lawn means "hot" if you want to make a question you add MAI (falling tone) to the end - you say "Lawn Mai" meaning "hot ???" except in english, we inflect questions with a RISING tone at the end, so if i say "Lawn Mai (rising at the end)", to a thai person i have just said "Hot silk". no wonder they look at me with blank looks when i say things like that.

and as you can see from the thai up above, the different meaning of Mai are SPELLED differently in thai language, but then you have to learn to read thai, which is another whole box of "huh?????

even still, i'm picking up words here and there. some stick, most don't. one way to live in thailand for up to a year on a clear visa is to get an educational visa - you have to goto school, but i could take thai lessons. but oh, wait. you can't work on that visa and have to have a way to live...

more circular problems. i think i'll go have an iced red bull and take a shower now. it's just now noon. and not the hottest part of the day yet.

onward!!!!!
Nu

100513 Thaikarl - home to languid heat and soft days

friends,

it was good to get home again, tho i did enjoy our little holiday.  back home to our full moon house, hot days, light winds and occasional relief from a little rain.  after a few days of laying about, i'm back on beam to get a few things done.  i have to wire up an outlet up in mama's room, another switched light in our bedroom, make a stand for the fan we bought that will set on the headboard inside the mosquito net.  and work on the website for products, and and and.  i have a bunch of photos to sort thru for posting from bang chang, chantaburi and bang fai.  when it's 40 degrees tho, you tend to move at a slow pace dripping in sweat.

tok really really wants to put a ceiling in our bedroom house.  it's just exposed rafters and roof tiles now, and when the sun heats the tiles, it radiates into the room below.  the fan just stirs the hot air around.  but, the building fund was depleted paying off the phone company.  so it has to wait.  owning a house and all the attendant repairs, improvements and projects is something new to me.  the land isn't going to do it.  we are the landlords!  i used to be the guy they hire to do this stuff, now i'm the one to spend the money, and do the work. or at least order it up, as the locals can do the job so much cheaper than i can even doing it myself.

i chatted with a friend of mine i met in india a few years ago. he lives in england now, has a rather important job there, british counsil or something lkike that.  when i met him he wa a young guy running his fathers paan shop in maduri india.  he's come a long way, but in spite of that, he rues the loss of time, family and dreams that the dedication to work has taken from him.  i understand.  i've taken the opposite track in my life- time, family and dreams came first, materials and assets were acquired as necessary, and just as easily disposed of or taken away.  such is life.

Onward!
Nu

100509 Thaikarl - Bang Fai was a blast!

friends, 

woke up this morning to what sounded like jets flying over. it was Bang Fai launching - a few km away at the park site.  woo hoo!!!! we got ready, took a pedal-cab out there.  same scene as last year, zillions of people, umbrellas held right at my eye level watching the rockets roar into the air.  the big rockets are made from 10 foot sections of 150mm PVC pipe with a long long bamboo or spliced banana tree tail.  packed with black powder rocket fuel, they haul them up one of the three launch towers, rope them in, light smoke, and run away.  tok just told me that the announcers would tell everyone to "go away go away" and all the thai people would leave the launch area, but there would still be a falang in the trees, taking pictures.  when they launch, they ROAR!!! smoke pours out, and they take off into the sky trailing white smoke, up, up , up!  the big ones were piercing the clouds later in the day.  awesome!  the champion rocket stayed airborne for more than 300 seconds... 5 minutes of airtime. This year there was a group of rocketeers from japan. they had these fabulous complex rockets. after they launched, they shot colored stars from the stems as they went up, ejected  parachutes and colored cloth and at the apex, they blew apart into color stars, parachutes and smoke streamers.  tok said that a delegation of thai rocket men will go to japan for their rocket festival to exchange experiences and enjoyments.

it was very hot today, sunny and dry.  there are speakers shouting everywhere - from the launch announcers, from the snake tents, from the vendors, from music stages- over load.  even for me.  we watched 15 or so launches, went to the tents where they  prepare the rockets.  drank a couple of liters of water.  i knew tok was having a difficult time in the sun- but she didn't complain and when i asked her if she wanted to go back she says "up to you"  what a sweetheart. so we came back mid afternoon and took shower and napped.  we upgraded to an air-con room yesterday. noisy thing, but tok likes the coolness. and we could actually snuggle when we slept - something we rarely get to do except in the winter season.

tomorrow we bus back to home.  i can upload pictures and video then.

Upwards on a tail of fire and smoke!

Nu and Tok

(p.s.  my blogsite http://www.thaicountrylife.com is still being hijacked by some nefarious Chinese code breakers.  they get in thru some weakness in the blogger code, or in the "gadgets" that are on the side of the page.  i'm having to delete things, change the layout etc to try to eliminate hole they are using.  VERY annoying.  those of you who get these postings from my email list, but readers on the blogsite only will get the crap - redirecting to some money-making internet scheme crap-ola.  if you read online, try subscribing to the RSS feed. that may avoid the hi-jack code entries.)

100504 Thaikarl - Bang Fai - first day

friends,
we got here early! sorta.  there wasn't much going on today (friday) except for setting up of the stages and more food and vendor booths. so we lounged around the hotel room and i napped some.  i twisted my lower hip somehow, so i'ts painful to get up and down, which is a real drag. slows me down alot. we walked the main road after dinner.  the rocket crews each have their own stage set up.  big concert size stages.  with sound systems that could fill an arena with sound.  tok even bought ear plugs.  your guts jump around when you walk in front of the stages.  jeez. but there are lots of dancing girls, singers, and just crowds of people on stage dancing.  the bang fai floats are at the far end of the road, ready for the parade in the morning. they are enormous, covered in gold painted thai traditional designs on layers of skrim.  very beautiful.

the keyboards in this cafe are awful, i can't stand to type on them more than a few minutes, cause you have to bang the keys. and too slow to upload pictures.

tok just told me there are 5 bang fai (rockets) from japan here for the launch day tomorrow.  wait.  i got that wrong. tomorrow - saturday - is just parades and dancing.  launch day is sunday, the day after.  that happens alot. i only *think* i know what's going on.  what's 'really' going on and when is usually different than what i think it is.  thus i get the joy of surprise all the time.  actually it is part of what i enjoy about being here.  things aren't always  'normal', 'usual', 'regular'... as soon as i think i have it figured out, i find out it's different than i thought to a greater or lesser degree.  amazing thailand.

gorgeous the life!
Nu

100507 Thaikarl - Bang Fai time in Yasothorn

friends,

we got up at 5:00am  yesterday - even before the 'crack of dawn', got stuff together, motorbike taxi to the bus store.
14 hours on the bus later - with one 20 min lunch stop, we arrived in Yasothorn, in the Issan area of thailand.  it's flat, dry and hot here.  Bang Fai started as a way to request good rains in the coming rainy season, by shooting giant bamboo rockets into the sky.  the higher the better.  and of course it's evolved into a big event.  and the big rockets are made with blue plastic PVC pipe not bamboo anymore.

i'm looking forward to the launches tommarrow.  tonight it's one big giant dancing contest, with one whole street lined with big stages, HUGE sound systems trying to over-power each other and tons of dancing girls and singers. lottsa food, games and booths.  cool!!!!!

onward! to the sky!
Nu

100429 Thaikarl - roadtrip time!

friends,

we're going on a little get-away.  taking the bus down to Ban Chang to visit our other house, picking up the motorbike from the post office, going to chantiburi for the weekend, and next weekend is Bang Fai up in yasathorn!  Rocket Festival!  woo hoo!  then back home to dong khwang.

i'll be stuck with internet cafes along the way.

100505 Thaikarl - Active day wot?

friends,

yesterday went like this: we got up and ate, went to town to buy fruit, witness the remains of a motorbike/truck accident (dead people), set out fruit for the ghosts, took a nap, took a song toews to sattahip, took another one to pattaya, took another one into town. walked, walked walked.  bookstore was gone. internet cafe to find another.  another song toew, to bookstore, eat food, two more song toews to sukumvit (the main road) song toew to sattahip, song toew to ban chang. got the bike, went shopping at the meeting market and tesco lotus.  bike had a flat. got air. flat again. got a new rear tire and tube (15 USD including labor), went home, then went to the beach and i went swimming in the ocean in the dark  under the stars.  home to snack shower and sleep.

whew.  but it was fun, except for the accident.  just to clarify, the drive made a u-turn at the light, didn't see the truck and pulled right in front of the truck and was literally run-over.  sad thing is, the truck just kept going. and disappeared.  i understand that happens frequently if there's an accident.  people don't stick around to get in trouble over it.  motorbikes, cars, flying, climbing ladders... all dangerous and always the potential for death and injury.  i know this.  but i like riding a motorcycle, drive a car, fly in planes, climb ladders.  i'm careful, but feces occurs you know.  i'm just as eligible as the next guy to not see the on-coming agent of my death and drive out onto the road in it's path.  but i dearly try to avoid that.  i didn't want to go into the gory details, but i've recieved a few very concerned and caring emails and i do acknowledge them.

besides that, late night swims in the ocean are great! especially when the water is warm, the air is warm, the sky is clear...

onward!  by bus to Yasatorn tomarrow for Bang Fai rocket festival

Nu

100504 Thaikarl - Back to Ban Chang and off to Pattaya

friends,

the trip back to Ban Chang on the motorbike was exciting as usual.  big buses and trucks in the lane to your right will just start to ease over to the left, squeezing you out because they want to pull over to the left side of the road.  you have to brake, brake  BRAKE! so you don't get squished.  maybe they will have blinkers on you can see, maybe not.  you can't just whip off to the right either, because faster traveling motorbikes and cars behind you will be whizzing by right where you want to go.  you have to stay on your line!  people will pass you on the right and left, so you can't be wobbling around.  exciting.  tok is very nervous about such things and never fails to start telling me to look out look out.  i finally snapped back at her "i could just close my eyes and you will tell me where to go"  and i immediately felt very bad about it.  there was silence from the back of the bike for the last 20km.  i apologized to her, but i still feel bad.  our relationship doesn't run on small annoyances and aggravations, and i do understand she is just more concerned about traffic than i am.  we had a little notice about that this morning.  we went to the market early to buy fruit for the ghosts at our house.  as we were preparing to leave there was a loud CRASH behind us.  a big truck had creamed a women and baby on her motorbike.  we went over to look.  i wish we hadn't. it was pretty bad.  i was surprised how squeamish i felt, i started feeling dizzy and weak.  feeling that now just remembering it.  next time i hear that sound, i'll not go over there, unless it's obvious that i'm the only one around to help.  such is life.

 

we're going to take the song thow - pick-up taxi car - to pattaya today to goto the bookstore, so i can turn in a bunch of books i've read, and get a few more.  we'll probably go down to the ocean near our house when we get back.  go swimming.  yeah.  that will be nice.  we cruised around the area a little bit yesterday. so nice to have the motorbike to get around on.  i like it here.  nice little village of Phlay next to the ocean from us.

 

our neighbor hood has developed some in the last year.  many of the houses have trees and plants growing up, banana trees 15 feet tall.  people have built out their porches and made shade roofs, tiled floors, extensions behind the houses.  we we bought here, it was rows and rows of houses all exactly alike and no greenery.  there's an internet//game shop a few houses over (where i am now, along with 15 kids playing online games), there's laundry, food shops, beauty hair shops, sewing shops. all built into peoples houses or porches.  you can stay right here in the housing area and get everything you need. mostly.

 

onward!

NU

1000501 Thaikarl - Mayday at the Durian festival

friends,

only just noticed that it is mayday.  this morning we walked up to the gem trading street.  many little shops along the road and side streets, all devoted to selling gemstones.  they have an odd system here.  if you want to buy gems, there are tables in the shops where you can sit, put up a sign for what you are looking for, and the sellers come to you.  the sellers are walking all over the area with shoulder bags of gems, looking for buyers seated at the tables.  opposite of the way business is usually done.  interesting.  and of course there are shops selling cut gems, jewlery, gem cutting and polishing tools, scales and everything associated with the business.  lots of pretty rocks there, and i havn't a clue what is what, or what is worth anything.  so i just took pictures.  i did buy some rough stones at a shop we passed by.  apparently, the stone comes from mozambique.  they put the raw stone in kilns here, and "burn them" which changes the raw stone into gemlike material, from which they can polish the 'burned' stones and make beautiful cut gems.  my daughter is into rocks, she's taking the jewlery design program at north seattle community college, so i thought she might like these.  i bought a raw stone, a burned stone, and a polished stone.  the dealer threw in a few small cut stones to go with the deal.  all for 31.00 USD.  i have no idea if i got a good deal, no deal, or a bad deal, but it was fun.  man did they start bringing out the trays when we were there longer than a couple of minutes. tough business these days tok told me.

 

we spent the rest of day at the durian festival, set up all around the lake at the King Taksin monument, in the center of chanthaburi.   there is of course, many food stands and rows of stuff for sale, but the highlight are the floats on the lake, covered in fruit, depicting thai scenes - mountains, waterfalls, the budda mountain, fishing.  you know how the rose parade in the states has floats made out of flowers? same idea, except they use fruit and rice.  the big activites are tomorrow, but we walked around the lake.  it started raining, so we took refuge at the massage tent!  toks cousin was working there.  we got foot massage (60 baht for 1/2 hour - 1.90 USD) and i went for whole body massage (120 baht for an hour - <3.00 USD)  ahhhhhhh.  we had food, particular foods that you can only find in chanthaburi provice, some shopping and looking around. 

 

tok lived here for 14 years.  she was a school teacher, her daughter was born here.  she took me to see the school where she worked. as we were driving by the back, a women by the road called out Toks name.  it was a friend who recognized her.  the women and tok chatted for a while.  there was a regular swimming pool right there, with a few people swimming.  tok told me that her friend taught her to swim in the other pool at the school. she said when she was learning to freestyle swim, if she stuck her head out the the water, her friend would hit her on the head with a long piece of plastic pipe she carried as she walked along side the pool coaching the swimmers.  from there we went to out to what used to be very countryside, tok showed me the house she used to live in, set back behind some newer houses.  we came upon some people sitting beside the road and stopped.  the olderwomen recognized tok after a moment and was so happy to see her.  her male friend was drunk, and very happy to see me (that happens alot.  i'm very attractive to drunks for some reason)  the women was toks old neighboor. she was very excited to see us, and very please to see me with her, she wished up long and happy life.  this happens frequently.  whenever i'm introduced, or more precisely, when ever i'm encounted by friends, relatives or accouaintences of tok, they are very pleased to see me with her, and have kind things to say to me.  i understand this just from the way they look to me, and i catch a few words here and there.  i'm a lucky man.

 

this internet cafe computer keeps crashing when i try to get to my photos, so yall will just have to wait on them.

we're off to see the "beautiful women" contest. the Durian Qween?????

 

google map to where we are:  (switch to sattilite view to see better, and zoom out a little)

onward!  NU

100430 Thaikarl - a little road trip on the old motorbike

friends, we stayed at our little house in ban chang, last night.  when we got there, there was a vine growing across the porch.  it not only grew across the porch, but a tendril had sneaked under the front door, split in two and went clear across the living room floor and was starting to head up the stairs.  tok said it was a vegatable we could eat.  we've got plenty of it.

 

this morning, tok got up early, went to the post office and got the old motorbike which had been shipped down here, went to the store and got breakfast, washed the cloths, cleaned the house.  and i was still in bed.  got my ass up, made coffee, packed a small bag, dressed up and headed for chantiburi.  tok wasn't sure about taking the motorbike vers the bus.  i was all for it.  it's about 150km to chantaburi, maybe more, i never saw the signs till later.  took us all day, cause we stopped to eat, stopped for gas, stopped to get some circulation going in my butt, and made a side-trip to goto the aquarium by the ocean in rayong.  the aquarium was really nice, they had some giant tank displays, lots of tropical fish, and it only cost 30 baht to go in.  less than dollar.  we drove along the ocean side for quite a ways, very nice.  you really have to pay attention on a motorbike - there's other motorbikes going different speeds, cars, trucks, divots in the road, gravel, dogs, people going the wrong way, cars parked on the motorbike lane, berms where they laid down new asphalt on the road but not on the bike lane and we drive on the left side of the road.  all good.  then the rain started.  that made it interesting.  then it got dark.  even more interesting.

 

but we are here.  tok knew of a hotel from the days when she used to live here.  she lived here for 14 years.  her daughter was born here.  so she knows the area well.  the hotel is 200 baht per night. 

6.25$ USD.  not real fancy, fan- no aircon, but good for us!

 

tommorow some sight seeing, fruit festival/fair, visit some (more) of toks relatives, visit a few temples, forts and waterfalls.  nice to have a motorbike to get around on.  when you take the bus, you're kind of stuck u nless you pay for taxi's, and know just where you want to go.

 

onward!

Nu

How would you like 2 Million (ANGRY BLOGGERS)

READ THIS, THEN SOMEBODY GO STRING THIS GUY UP BY HIS THUMBS
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yeah, no one has implemented this because it it HIJACKING SPAM!

100424 Thaikarl - with nothing to do, we're still busy.

friends,

i was privileged to attend a most interesting event the other day.  i'm working on the write up and uploading video (which takes for-ever).  you'll get that posting tomorrow probably.  my blog site was hijacked for a few days by some Chinese website.  bastards.  but it seems to be okay now.  we've been doing so many things, i can't keep up.  going to a 5 day funeral- the pre-cremation event today at the temple took 4.5 hours - been to the post office a few times. you can "mail" a motorbike here! we're sending the old motorbike down to our house in Ban Chang.  we just took it to the post office, parked it around back and they'll take it to the post office down there.  neato.  going to see my dentist tomorrow, been to the meeting markets, shopping at the market in Lom Sak, over to relatives houses... working on the house (but only a little, i need batteries for my cordless drill - coming from the states) and... taking lots of photos. 

i noticed today at the funeral, where there were several hundred people sitting on plastic chairs, that thai people rarely cross their legs when sitting on chairs. feet on the ground almost all the time.  sometimes they will tuck a leg back to the side, but rarely one leg over the other.

we had some rain yesterday.  which brought out a minor bloom of flying termites and other bugs. which brought out a bunch of frogs, hopping all over the porch. while we were eating dinner at the table, there were 5 frogs skittering around, snatching up the winged termites when they would crash into the ground and stun themselves momentarily.  and the gekko's were running up and down the walls and ceiling sharing the feast.

there is a tokay gekko back in our house.  i like that.  he seems to be up in the roof near the bathroom.  and when he calls,in a few minutes there are answering calls from the other tokays nearby.  such a cool sound. you can hear it here.  hey cool!  when i played the tokay sound on the computer to test the link, the tokay at the neighbors called back a few seconds later.

there's a bug on the desk that looks just like an american cockroach.  except the damn things fly!

toks already in bed sleeping. it's 10:22 and i haven't had my evening shower yet.  off to do that now.  in the moonlite.

Gorgeous the life!

Nu

*$@*&#*$ chinese site hajacked me!

friends... one of my readers sent me an personal email and told me they went to this blog and were redirected to some crap-ola.  i think i got it sorted out, but if you come here, and the first post is internet ad-speak garbage, hit the "STOP" button in your browser - the big "X" in the firefox toolbar - and then write a comment on one of the entries below that.  i'll get your comment in an email.  but i'll just have to keep checking this page like crazy.  GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

100417 Thaikarl - a short day

friends,

lazy day today. went by quickly.  worked on the computer for hours answering emails, setting up web pages.  it rained a few times today, which cooled the air off quite a bit, and cleared the dust and haze from the sky which made for a nice sunset cloudview:

a few people have asked again why i'm not living here in thailand.  the short answer is of course, i have a family to support, and it's not easy for me here, as i don't speak the language, and most of the skills i have don't translate to well paying jobs here.  english teachers  make enough to support a family.  as much as i complain about the states, i don't dislike america - i just like  thailand more.  if i could understand more about the government and things here, i'd probably complain about here also.  americans - of which i am one and will always be one - are great complainers.  i try to keep it to a low level tho, as generally my outlook on life is positive, no matter where or what i'm doing.  so while i'm here i enjoy it immensely.  when i'm in the states, well, it is familiar, and i can work there - which supports the family.  but believe, as soon as i can figure out something that will enable me to live here permantly, here is where i'll be.  tok has no interest in living in the states.  she would like to meet my family, and see some of the country, but not to live there.  i'm sure she would hate the food. (i do)

i found an interesting observation about thailand in one of the blogs i follow:

Next, Richard comments, "What's up with all the violence in Thailand? I thought it was an idyllic Buddhist country. Now it seems like they're more prone to violence than the good old U.S.A. Even with our budget issues and governator, I'll take southern California anytime."

I like southern California too… but don't be too quick to judge Thailand based on an anomalous incident in which 21 people died. Statistically, violent crime is much, much worse in southern California.

In Thailand, violent crime, particularly against foreigners is almost unheard of; the worst thing you have to worry about there is corruption, not getting your head blown off.

relevant, as i have received a number of caring concerned emails about being here in thailand when there is news about the red-shirts demonstrations getting out of hand in bangkok.

the rest of the day was lax. made a new cable for my guitar amp and played guitar, ate dinner and maybe we'll watch a movie.
or not.

gorgeous the life!
Nu

100415 Thaikarl - another day, more adventure

friends,

tok woke me early today.  "wake up, take shower! eat breakfast! we must go!"  arrrrgh. but wake up i did, took shower, ate breakfast, got dressed.  we motorbiked a ways up the road to a relatives house.... and waited around for an hour.  that happens alot.  tok likes to get ready and go so WE aren't the one holding up the program.  even if it means we wait around an hour at someones house.

eight of us got in the back of the pickup, and 7 more in the cab - tho some of that number were small kids and a baby.  more than two hours drive up into the highlands west of where we live.  it's the last day of songkran festival, so allong the way we got doused, dumped, on, hosed, splashed and deluged with water by crowds and sometimes gangs of people waiting by the side of the road for people to come along.  no going around them either.  soaked over and over.  but it's warm as usual, and the hot air blasting past the truck feels like sitting in the face of the furnace outlet.  just when you would get dried out almost, we'd go thru another little village and get doused again.  wee hee!  the really heinous tossers use ICE WATER.  that gets your attention as it soaks thru your crotch.

we disembarked at toks grandmothers sisters house.  she's 96 years old, blind, can't hear well, and so skinny you'd think she'd blow away.  but everyone talked with her and handed her babies.  we ate food (8 different dishes on the floor, plus sticky and regular rice).  i chilled in the hammock for a while, and tok came to get me to go fishing.  that was interesting.  they netted hundreds of little fish from the water hole left in a nearly dried up water course.  when we got back, they cleaned the junk out of the nettings, wrapped handfuls of the little fish in leaves and roasted them out back.  tasty with sticky rice.  i napped on the floor for a while with six other people.  hot part of the day indeed. (photos in the gallery here)

they had a water ceremony for the old ladies, and for some of the not-so-old people.  more food and ice water, and we were back in the pickup for the long drive home.  it's a bit hard on the body being folded up in the back of an open pickup, with hot wind blasting you, a young girl full of energy singing and playing with everyone.  and of course, getting soaked again along the way.  the ride back seemed a lot longer than the ride up.

tomorrow, i think i'll just hang out.  Hah!  hopefully the shops will be open and i can get the tubing to finish my shower plumbing - pictures to follow.

gorgeous the life!
Nu

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100414 Thaikarl - all in one day - amazing thailand

friends,

tok and i went to town for songkran day yesterday.  the usual parade, beauty contests, and mass throwing of water. the photos are in my picasa gallery.
..
today was eventful.  if i don't tell you now, tomorrow will fill up with more things and i'll never get caught up.

early in the morning, tok got me to get out of bed, saying something about putting out food for her father. (?) her father died many years ago, so i wasn't sure what was going on.  around the side of the house, she had a tray with food on it- rice, chicken, water, vegetables.  she lit a candle and incense, said a few words and we set the tray on the ground next to my plum tree.  songkran is a time to honor the ancestors also i learn.

i read my book and laid around in the hammock most of the hot mid-day.  then a whole bunch of people showed up, kids and neighbors and a few old people. we did a songkran water ceremony to honor the old people right off our porch.  photos of that are in the gallery here.

the men hung around for a while drinking whisky and water, so i went around back. 27 years i haven't had a drink and sometimes that brown liquid still looks inviting.  jeez.  healed, never cured.  i worked on putting together the PVC pipe for my new shower.  we bought a big submersible pump in bangkok and i'm looking forward to getting it all in place.  but most of the hardware stores are closed for like 5 days for songkran, so i'm lacking a few parts.  more to come on that.

then tok came and got me to go have dinner at her uncles house.  (pictures here) wow, what a spread!  20 people sitting on tarps on the ground. chicken, noodles, vegetables, fish balls, sausage, fish, drinks, cabbage and a few bits of mystery foods, all cooked on charchol stoves korean Bar-B-Que style.  YUM!  they are all so nice to me, even though i can't talk to them.  welcoming me to sit down, offering me drinks and putting food on to cook for me.  everyone there was related by family or marriage.  everyone there lives there or nearby.  nobody had to drive to dinner, everyone lives close enough to walk.  i asked tok if this was common in the villages and she said it was.  they say what ever words of english they know "you happy?" "anukhun! you like?" and laugh and laugh.  i feel so fortunate to be sitting there with these good people.  eating food with them, and totally accepted as a mute part of the big family.  i was thinking of bar-b-ques in the states and there's little comparison, beyond it being a family get-together.  they asked me for a show, so i went back to the house and got my guitar.  the first song i sang was all the phrases i kniow in thai. made it up on the spot to three chords:  "1,2,3, 1,2,3, thank you, thank you, how are you, how are you," "Nung, Song, Sam...kap khun kap...sabai dee mai"  that was a hit.  then i badly played a few neil young songs and a couple of beatle songs.  totally forgot the words, but it didn't matter, i just made them up to fill in the gaps and nobody knew the difference! 

10:20 at night now, cooled down to 85 degrees and time to go shower and get to bed.  another day beckons.  hope to find a shop open tomorrow to buy the PVC and hose i need to finish my shower.

amazing thailand!  onward!
Nu

100413 - Thaikarl - more things under the sky than i can tell

friends,

trying to convey the things i see, feel and think about after just five days in thailand is like trying to pass on the entire contents of a magazine when you only have time to flip thru the pages standing in line in the grocery store.  events and information flys by with each page you flip thru, but you can only catch snatches of text, and glimpses of photos.  it's like trying to tell someone the scene by scene contents of a movie while walking back to the car.  best i can give back is little snippets.

leaving bangkok was a bit of a struggle.  the red shirts had the main road all blocked off.  the taxi's couldn't get thru to take us to the bus station.  we had to take all our kilo's of baggage up to the sky-train and take the train to Mochit- the end of that line.  then taxi to the bus station.  since then, the whole red-shirt thing has turned violent, with many dead.  i haven't followed the story, tok just comes and tells me "21 people killed today" after hearing it on thai tv.  whew. dodged that mess.  as my wife says "no red-shirts in Lom Sak" which is where we live.

a few things are different around the neighborhood. there's a nice new house next to ours on the formerly vacant plot in front of tai and sai's house.  it's owned and was built for Sai's nephew and his wife and baby.  young couple who worked in bangkok, saved their money and borrowed the rest to build the house.  they have a business they work under the house makeing sticks for umbrella's.  of all things.  they buy bundles of wood that come from a kind of palm tree, split them into thinner sticks with a machette, and a worker chucks them in an electric drill and shoves them thru a die that carves the spinning sticks into neat round shafts that will make the ribs of an umbrella that the monks use.  so there is the whirrrrrrr whirrrrr whirrrrr sound of the drill going all day.

the back neighbors fighting cocks crow morning and night, their dog barks, and the small deisel pump in the field runs all the time... chuckachuckchucka. since it's sonkran holiday time, they boys next door crank up the stereo and sing out loud to all their favorite rock songs.  and of course, the cars, motorbikes and trucks that motor by on the big road in front of the house keep the sound field fresh. quiet in the country it is not. 

there is a tree six feet tall and quite full beside the house that i was excited to believe is my plum tree.  but to the amusement of tok and mama, that tree is more like a weed (they use it in the curry).  my plum tree is behind that.  not quite so big, but bigger than it was last year.  it's summer season here, hasn't been rain for a few months tok says.  all the fields and ditches are dry and brown.  looks like california.  one of these times i'm going to be here after rainy season, which is august and september, when everything is massivily greened out.  one of these times.

i'm very happy to be home, very happy to see teri and mama and the kitties, very happy to be around thai people again.  already dreading going back to the states.  but such is life.   for now.

onward!
Nu

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100405 Thaikarl - Korea rocks!

friends,

 

flight over was pleasant, except for being stuck in a window seat.  i much prefer the aisle so i don't have to wake people to get up, and the food carts don't go by me cause i'm sleeping so far away.

took the airport bus to town, followed the directions i was given, and arrived at amiee's apartment for my couchsurf for the night.  she was very nice, quite personable and a good conversationalist. she told me down the little streets to a small restaurant and ordered these kimchi cake things that were awesomely delicious!  food suddenly becomes exciting, interesting and desirable here.

 

i slept nicely on some pads on the floor, got up when she had to head off to her english teaching job.  she waved me off, and i was free to wander.  which i did.  just walked around the neighbor hood for a while.  i really wanted to goto a Korean bathhouse she recommended, but i knew i'd spend all day there and see nothing else.  i wanted to figure out the subway system, so i went underground.  the system is quite extensive, and fortunately the stations have the english name on the signs, so i figured out the smart card machine, got on the green line and got our where i wanted to go. and there wasn't much there above ground.  did run across and old palace to visit, took a few pictures, had my picture taken with several gangs of shy school girls.  they are so cute.  a man with purple hair gets their attention.  had some more espresso in an upstairs shop.  they guy that served me spoke perfect LA english.  cause he's from there.  his name was jimmy, we talked abit, he located the airport bus stop for me.  made my way back to the airport, got another stamp in my passport, breezed security and found the internet place.  free computers, free internet.

 

man, as soon as i get off the plane and i'm back in a land of mystery i feel myself perk up.  the WONDER returns, the urge to assimilate, absorb, notice, contemplate and just "BE" wafts in on the psychic breeze that rushes in when the door to the plane is opened.  i think its the same reason, for the same feelings you get when you visit las vegas, or disneyland, or yellowstone park.  the ordinary is in-ordinary, the normal there  is an abberation of your normal. what you are used to, what you see everyday is overlaid by a new movie, the sights and sounds and images are HUGE, inspiring, bigger than life. and not like home.  but this isn't disneyland, it's seoul korea.  and i can't read the signs, understand what people are saying, can't tell what is in this can of something to drink.

 

and i love it.

 

few more hours and i'll be back with my sweetheart, in another (slightly less) mysterious place and i get to have that "home.....!" feeling.  nice.

 

onward!!!!!
Nu

 

(reverting to my thai name for the duration)

visit http://www.thaicountrylife.com

Invitation to view thaikarl's Picasa Web Album - Thailand april - june 2010

You are invited to view thaikarl's photo album: Thailand april - june 2010 Thailand april - june 2010 Apr 6, 2010 by thaikarl went home for three months. View Album Play slideshow Contribute photos to this album Message from thaikarl: all the menu's on this computer are in korean, so i couldn't figure out how to attache photos to my email. but i did get them into picassa. this link will work for photos from this journey. comment and enjoy! If you are having problems viewing this email, copy and paste the following into your browser: http://picasaweb.google.co.kr/lh/sredir?uname=thaikarl&target=ALBUM&id=5456926356212695201&authkey=Gv1sRgCIfNrZTbxqvGaQ&feat=email To share your photos or receive notification when your friends share photos, get your own free Picasa Web Albums account.

100404 Thaikarl - departure time!

friends,

it's been a frenzied week, as usuall before take off.  when you take a 2 week holiday, if you forgot to take care of something- like putting your netflix account on hold before the send you some new disks, it's no big deal.  but when you're going to be gone for 3 months, you aren't going to be around soon enough.  so i have to take care of all that.  i did send in my netflix dvd's, but i forgot to put the account on hold before they sent the next one out.  so "dead snow" is going to sit in my mailbox for three months.

it's 6 am, the sky is just starting to lighten up.  i've been up all night, storing stuff and packing my bags.  i usually stay up all night before i leave.  when i hit the seat on the plane, i'll be asleep before we take off.  wake up to eat then back to sleep.  all the way across the pacific.  except this time i have a 23 hour layover in seoul korea.  which is kind of weird, but it means i get to spend the night and most of the next day there.  i got a place to sleep on couchsurfing.com.  should be fun, though i'll still be a little fuzzy brained from sleep/wake disruption.  then, then, then... the flight to bangkok and my wife tok will be waiting for me at the exit gate.  joy abounds.

the "red-shirts" are raising a ruckus in bangkok.  they are people who don't like the current government, they want it dissolved and new elections held.  and just so everybody knows who they are, they wear red-shirts.  thousands of them are milling around the major shopping centers in bangkok, causing the malls to close.  last year the "yellow-shirts" occupied and closed the bangok airport for a week.  i wonder what color-shirts will be next.  purple would be nice.  for i while i thought the politics in thailand was pretty wacky.  i've payed a little more attention to american politics  since the last election, and listened to everyone talking about issues like the health-care movement. having listened to americans having their say, left and right.  from what i hear right here in the states, our politics, and the people who talk about it, is just as wacky.  we're a bit different, but just as wacked-out as thailand.  people believe all sorts of crazy things.  tok is worried about getting mixed up in the red-shirt mess.  i told her we'll just go around them.  whull see.

wow, check out the weather near where we live.  pitsanalok is and hour our so away... and it's at up in the mountains, so it's gonna be even hotter in the lower lands where we live.  that's a little warm, even for me.  but after the crappy week of rain, wind and cold we've had here in seattle, it will be high heaven.

i had to drive around and find an open wire-less connection.  probably won't be online again until the airport in korea.  for you all that tweet, i'm on twitter at http://twitter.com/thaikarl more to come. perhaps even a podcast from far away! and more video - now that i have a better camera. what would you like to see and hear about???/

onward! to amazing thailand!

Re: 100308 Thaikarl - going home again, at last - emailed question

On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 4:54 AM, <lxxxxxxbxxxx@aol.com> wrote:
oh wow cool. So, the house with the computer, is that the one that you send pics of, it's like on stilts kind of? or looks that way. 105 eh? wow. So, they have electricity and all? not to sound stupid. Is her mom ok, or did she pass? I remember she was sick. The house where you send the original picx, is anyone still at that house?


yes, our computer is up in the 'bedroom' house. that's the one i had built that is up on stilts with the blue roof. on the left in the photo.  we even have DSL broadband... usually.  not super fast, but when it works, it's a heck of a lot better than dial-up or an aircard.

the orange house on the right is the original, main house where mama, and teri sleep.  my wife (an i, when i'm home) sleep in the bedroom house.  we do indeed have electricity.  thailand is a developing country, but everyone has electricity, unless they build out in the mountains and don't want to pay to have the lines strung.  we didn't have running water until last year, when the village put in a pond and pumping station.  so there's a PVC pipe that runs along the rain ditch in front of all the houses, then runs to each house.  we had a guy run PVC from the tap to the kitchen and bathroom, so there is water at the sink in the kitchen and a shower head in the bathroom.  but the village water costs money, so we mostly use well water for everything.  and the village water is only on during the day.  it shuts off at night. there's a 2 inch hose from the well and an electric pump.  we move the hose around and fill up the big jars for bathing and washing water, watering the plants and filling the fountain pond.

my mother in law is still kicking around.  her single kidney is slowly failing, but they are treating that with medications and careful diet.  eventually it's gonna kill her, but not till later.

life in the country where we live is basic, but not so primitive anymore. 

and yes, it was 105 degrees Fahrenheit up in the bedroom the other day my wife told me.  this is the early part of the hot season in thailand.  getting up around 100 F every day now, high 70's at night.  Phitsanulok is about 70 miles away from us, here's the weather there.  and it's in the mountains, so usually a little cooler.  thanks for asking.  i can't wait to be there,

100308 Thaikarl - going home again, at last

friends,

finally got the funds together. i'm going home to thailand april 4th. i have a three month ticket, but if the cash runs out, i'll have to book back earlier. i've had a lot of things going on the last four months that enabled this trip. i am soooo looking forward to seeing my wife and her mother and her daughter, our house(s), and everything! looking forward to the HEAT- april is the hottest month in thailand, the food, showering outside, working on the house, going to town, going to the markets, seeing the neighboors, meeting new friends, the bugs, the geko's, the motorbike, our cats, ... need i go on. it's been 8 long months. it has been an El Nino year in seattle, so quite warm and dry... for winter here, so it's not been too bad, but nothing like home.

i have a 23 hour layover in Seoul korea before flying on to bangkok. strange i know, but it means i get to overnight there and look around some more. tok and i would like to holiday in korea. may not this time, but sometime. it costs almost as much for her to fly to korea round trip as it does for me to fly seattle to bangkok!

in the meantime, whilse i've been counting the days, i've been hanging out a little:

(yes, that's me up there)

ONWARD!!!!

--
" ...when an ideal gas (which doesn't exist) is cooled down to absolute zero (which can't be done) it has zero volume (which also doesn't exist, except as an idea. Isn't Zero great?)" tim anderson

091204 Thaikarl - homesick indeed

friends,

winter is pooling around my feet here in seattle. i'm still wearing my flip-flops, going to have to find my shoes soon, i think. i came across an article by another man who lives in thailand: http://www.escapefromamerica.com/2009/11/homesick-expat/ echos how i feel. everyday.

Tok and i had a discussion about my going home time. looks like i won't go home until.... shudder... april. if i wait until then, i hope i can save enough money to go home for three or four months, and there are festivals in thailand in aprill (Songkran, Pee ta Khon) and in may (Bang Fai rocket festival) and in july is Kao Pansa which is a festival that tok has never been to, but every year she says she'd like to go. me too! so we'll do our traveling IN thailand this time. we've been to cambodia, vietnam and taiwan and we want to go to korea sometime. but this time we'll get around the home country some. i've been there for Songkran, Pee ta Khon and Bang Fai, and will enjoy them again.

as ever i'm looking, feeling, investigating, thinking, asking, wishing, searching for that person, business, job that will enable me to live at home all the time. just have not found it... yet. i get some good suggestions from people: teach english (not enough income for a man with a family to take care of) import/export (but what product??????) tour guide (dis-allowed by the thai government) internet-based business (yes, but what????). something will click into place. some of the good ideas that might work, aren't ideas that i could get passionate about. i don't mind working (the money's kind of nice) but i'm not one to do some job or business that i am not somewhat excited to be in. something that i like to say "would get me out of bed in the morning" meanwhile, i'm busy keeping the cash flow going day to day. living cheap, sending money home and saving some to go back. if you have any ideas/opportunities, email them to me, or comment on the blog.

meanwhile, back home... we have new next door neighboors. Tai and Sai had a big area in front of their house that is part of the family land. sai's relative is building a house there.... just off our porch.

this is how it looked a couple months ago. it's much further along now. ah progress. Tok says they are good people. but they can see right into our bedroom windows. so i'll have to stay dressed if the curtains are open :-D which i didn't have to do before.... the kids used to play on this area. wonder if they still are?

Gorgeous the life! karl

091121 Thaikarl - i'm a reverse immigrant

friends,

i'm still here in seattle.  would much rather be home in thailand, but that's normal.  i've realized that i have a lot in common with many immigrants to the states.  people who's home is mexico, south america, asia, india can't find good paying work there, so they come here.  they work, send money home to the family, and when they have enough saved up, go back to the home country till the money runs out, then come back to the states to work again.  which is exactly what i do.  i live as cheaply as possible when i'm here, send enough home to thailand to take care of Tok, mama and teri, and when i save up enough, i'll go home for two three months.  the income stops when i get on the plane.  i need roughly one thousand dollars per month that i'm home, plus plane ticket- which could be anywhere from $850 - $1200.  a thousand a  month when i'm home is more than i send over each month, but when i'm home we do more things, and i spend money that tok wouldn't- on tools, books, red-bull etc.

needless to say, this remote life is getting old. but somewhere out there, is the right contact, the right product, the right idea that will somehow, someway enable me to earn our living and (more) from within thailand.  just don't know who or what that is.  yet.

a number of my readers have told me that they miss my entries.  i feel a little odd makiing entries in "thai country life" when i'm not in the thai country actually, so i don't update much when i'm in the states.  but nearly everything i do here is for and by my life there, so why not tell you about it?

it's getting darker earlier here in seattle, and the rains and cold are approaching for real.  meh.  hoping i can get ahead to be home late december- but it's probably going to be january or february.  so i'll still skip a good part of the winter.  this is good.

onward!
karl