111129 Thaikarl - moving quickly with muddy feet

friends,

landed at the airport in bangkok a few days ago and havn't stopped moving since.  went everywhere shopping and looking in BKK, took the bus home to Dong Khwang, our village. lots of changes around here - new houses here and there, trees and bushes have grown up, my sweet wife has been busy making improvements to the house and property.

you know how there's always something you forget to bring when you travel?  i forgot to pack the netbook that i bought specifically for traveling.  it's small, light, easy to transport and it works.  the two notebook computers we have at the house here are very old, slow and generally messed up.  only got this one working late this afternoon... is why i haven't been posting anything since i got back.

but it's wonderful to be here, its certainly a thrill, waking up at 5:30 am to the howling roosters next door, the blazing sun rise that turns the bedroom house into an easy-bake oven within an hour; cars, trucks and motorbikes roaring by intermittently on the big road out front, people talking in words i can barely make out and can't understand, the wack wack wack sound of someone pulverizing chilies and herbs in a stone mortar, and oh yeah, when you are at the edge of the road wanting to cross, look the other way, cause cars are driven on the left side. 

and i'm happy as can be to be home.

more... when i get the computer crap worked out.

cares, Nu

(for the folks new to this list, my thai given name is Anukhun - which means "good person to all people".  they shorten names here, or have pet/nick names they go by.  most every one around our area calls me 'nukhun'  sounds like "noo-koon".  my wife is a little more familiar and she calls me just "Nu".  it sounds like a big "N" sound with a very short, clipped "uw" right behind it.  most thai's have a hard time pronouncing "Karl" so many years ago we went to see the monks to get my proper thai name.)

111125 Thaikarl - Bangkok Lovely

friends,

home in thailand.  sooooooooo wonderful.  so happy to see my wife, Tok, again,.  and the WARMTH and the SUN, and the FOOD, and the crazyness of it all.  Amazing Thailand.  more to come, we have shopping to do :-)

onward

Nu

Thaikarl 1111223 - greetings from Korea!

Friends,

At long last, the adventure continues.  Only 2 degrees here. Just like Seattle  but its not raining!

I'm off to find a Jjimjilbang-  Korean bathhouse to shower, soak, and sleep. 23 hour layover.

more will be revealed...

onward

Nu

Building the Giant Budda

my wife sent me some photos of the construction of a giant budda.  they are building it beside the road somewhere in Petchaboon - which is good sized town 25 minutes away from our house.  Petchaboon is the seat of our province of... Petchaboon.

as you can see, while the head of the statue is on the ground, many people have come to apply little squares of gold leaf to the face.  one of the many ways to show respect and make merit.  by giving away something precious - gold - you are making a bit of merit for your life.

I hope i can get home for the dedication ceremony.  that will be an event!

click the image below to goto the gallery of photos.

BuildingTheGiantBudda

110227 Thaikarl - Blood good, it is

friends,

i received some very nice, concerned comments on my last post.  and several kind offers from friends to donate their own blood for mama.  don't think the blood would survive the post getting to thailand however.  i sometimes feel like i'm viewing the world of thailand with fogged glasses and earplugs in.  i can't quite see what's going on clearly, and what i hear is muffled.  i have to try to figure out what is going on.  and i realize that my understanding is filtered through my own experience.

mama's condition has been known for quite a while.  in the past year, as her kidney slowly wears out, it has slowed her down and caused her problems in over-all well-being.  she is normally a self-guided busy machine.  she cooks, processes output from the fields, makes things (she knotted a three foot fishing net by hand), tends to the plants, chops wood, removes the weeds, visits with friends, and relaxes in between.  i asked tok what mama wants to do about her failing health.  they discussed it, and faced with the hassle and complication of home dialysis, mama decided that she didn't' want to mess with that.  she's around 77 years old and has had a full life.  she would rather spend her savings to have a decent funeral than spend it on extra-ordinary medicine that would prolong the length of her life, but not the quality of her life.  the funeral is preparation to go from this life to the next life.  not to some heaven or infinite after-life, but to the next incarnation in this world.  and during that transition you meet your ancestors and the spirits that surround us.  so it is more important to her to have a good send-off than to live her a little longer and  have a poor presentation to the ancestors.  

she is a person that i love and care for, but you know we have never had a conversation?  she speaks no english except for "good morning"  any interaction with mama and i has to be translated thru tok, and i get the readers-digest-condensed version.  i'll ask a question, like "how many relatives does mama have?" tok and mama will talk for 10 minutes, and tok will answer me "many".  that's it.  life without her will be quite different.  tok will have to maintain the house and take care of her daughter all by herself when mama isn't there to help.  i'm fairly useless with the house stuff.  i can't cook - and don't really care to learn how, i can clean but i'm worse than a fifteen year old, i don't know much about caring for plants, except for dumping water on them, and i sure can't knot a fishing net.  my job is to "bring home the bacon" or in this case "bring home the baht"  until i can figure out a way to do that at home, i have to do that from here... which doesn't help take care of the household up-keep.

tok did locate some blood, and she's got a donor list going so next month, or when ever it's needed she won't have to do so much running around.  the hospital may have better supplies on hand by then also.  the notable thing, which was the real subject of my last post, was the idea of running around on your own to find a donor.  i've only heard of that here in the states with people who have very rare blood types.  thailands medical system is quite extensive, but there are some areas lacking of course.  and they pay a tiny fraction of the price we pay, for the same or better general health care.

the weather in seattle is miserable right now. (whine, snivel, whine whine) low thirties, windy, rain.  oh, would i much rather be in the tropics.  77 degrees F and partly cloudy in bangkok right now.

onward! regardless!

110224 Thaikarl - out for blood

friends,

my mother-in-law has only one kidney, and it's going downhill.  she has to go to the hospital about once a month to have her blood checked, medications adjusted, diet reviewed.  she's doing okay, mostly.  they told her that at some point her kidney function will be so low that she will need dialysis.  it could be done at home for free, but it would mean putting a "port" in her belly to flush fluids in and out.  mama said "phooey on that".

i talked with tok yesterday, and she was urgently running around trying to find blood for mama.  they occasionally give her whole blood - for reasons i'm not quite clear on.  but there are a lot of sick people right at the moment, and the hospital doesn't have any in stock.  so tok was going all over the place trying to find a relative, friend or volunteer to give a pint of blood for mama.  she said she went to 3 hospitals, and all the near relatives with no luck.  next she was going to the police station, then the army base, then to the jail.  could you imagine that? running yourself around trying to find someone with type "O" blood for your mother?  tok has a thyroid problem, she can't donate.  her daughter doesn't have enough hemoglobin sho she can't either.  when i talked to her today, she said she found the policeman who had the right blood, so they were sending it to the hospital in Pitsanolok to be tested for compatibility. so it looks like things are okay for now.

of course i asked all the "problem solving " questions: "can't you order some blood from a big city like bangkok?", "can they put some donated blood in the fridge to keep untill next time mama needs some" apparently, that's just not the way it works. so i made a few jokes, "is she being a vampire today" and if the hospital in Pitsanalok says the policeman's blood is "Aloi" (tastes good) then they can use it this time.

being so far away, the only thing i can do is be supportive, and try to understand.

mama hanging out in the hospital last month

big sigh...

Onward!

110103 Thaikarl - Nappy Hoo Dear, the fruit stand

friends,

this new year feels alot like last year.  well, today feels a lot like a few days ago when it was the last year.  Smack-a-life changes in the last month, but i'll get to that later.

tok got in mind to get some business going.  she was looking into a few options and finally decided to sell rumbutan fruit.  so she took her savings, had a stand built in front of the house by the big road, bought a stock of fruit and went for it.  new years is a four day holiday for thai people.  many people come up our way to go the mountains where there are some sights and a lot of resorts.  she has been somewhere up in the mountains near where we live, selling fruit, and from what she told me today, she's doing quite well.

when she first brought it up to me, i ran thru the standard business modeling - profit/loss, cost of goods, sales, return on investment, etc etc etc.  that went right past her.  i gave up all that scientific stuff and just told her i'd do anything to help if i can.  i already posted a short one about it on the blog:  http://www.thaicountrylife.com/2010/12/toks-fruit-stand.html  there's a photo there.  hope yall are well and have a good year.

Toks fruit stand

Tok is selling tamarinds and watermelons from a bamboo stand in front of the house.
there are a lot of thai tourists going to the mountains for new years. so she's taking advantage of the extra traffic to try to make a little money.
15 baht for a watermelon is 5   15 cents in U.S. dollars

(that's mama hanging out in the shade there)

permits from the city:  0$

permits from the county:  0$

permits from the health department:  0$

permits for business:  0$

taxes on sales:  0$

lack of government involvement on trade and entrepreneurship:  priceless

101128 Thaikarl - Loi Krathong time

friends,
the Loi Krathong festival this year was on Toks birthday: the 21st.  She sent me some photos.  they went to the temple in the village, and floated their Krathong on the pond next to the temple.  This is one holiday that we have never shared together.  I was in thailand years ago, and enjoyed the event when i was in phuket.  that time, they floated the krathongs on the ocean, and on a large inland lake.  the hot air balloons they release float high in the sky.  very beautiful to see a hundred flickering lights in the sky and on the water.  they don't seem to worry about them coming down and starting fires - which is the first thing people say in america when i tell them about it.

they are floating them on a small pond - they can collect the styrofoam floats.

traditional ones are made from bread (which disintegrates) or banana leaves.

Tok with Krathong

Teri launching Krathong on the pond

Hot air balloon lantern - up and away!

Onward!

"Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom."    Soren Kierkegaard

101029 Thaikarl - Our new spirit house

friends,

we have a new spirit house!  after mama found a snake in bed with her in the middle of the night, the Long Som (spirit medium) told us that the ghost of the land wants a place to live.  (see the previous blog entry for the story) i sent tok some extra money to get us a spirit house.  she had to wait until after the recent buddist holiday to have the workmen come and install a concrete pad and tile.

and again mama had a nocturnal visitor - this time a centipede under her pillow.  don't know what kind of centipede it was, but they do have some big ones in thailand.  ones that bite and produce a painful wound that is easily infected.  they usually don't come creeping around the house.  i've never seen one on our property actually.  so the creatures visit is a little odd.   we're hoping that with the new spirit house installed, the local ghosts will be appeased with their fancy new digs, and stop bothering mama.  that's the principal, as i understand it anyway.

and old man from the village came out to dedicate our spirit house.  offerings of fruit, sweets and food were prepared:

 i wish i could have been there for the ceremony.  we now have a beautiful addition to the yard.

i found a explanitory article about thai spirit houses.  so many things to try to understand. 

100907 - Thaikarl - USA - The snake is a ghost (?)

the snake is a ghost (?)

---

my wife told me a story the other day when i called her.  my 77 ish old mother-in-law woke up in the middle of the night and discovered a snake in her bed. she slowly and carefully got out of bed and went downstairs. she got a flashlight and went back upstairs to look for the snake, but couldn't find it. odd that a snake would go all the way up to the her second floor room.

the next day they went to the Long Som (spirit medium - i still can't say it right, and am probably spelling it wrong) to see what this was about. the Long Som said that it was the ghost of our land. He wants a place to live. So we have to get a spirit house. My wife told me that we actually have to buy two houses - a larger one for the "Angel" and a smaller one for the Ghost. her dictionary translated all the thai words for what she was trying to say as "Angel" but i don't think it's and angel as we think of them in the west exactly.

we also have to have some of the old people from the village come to look around and decide where is the best place to put the spirit houses. i said we'd better go with the program and i'll send her a little extra money (3900 baht) to buy the houses, pedestals and concrete.

i'm never quite sure what is going on with such things. I don't "believe", but i don't dis-believe either. it's important to my family there, so i follow the customs- even if i don't fully understand them. my basic interest is that they don't just kill the snake. if they think that the snake is a familiar for a ghost and thus won't kill it, that's good by me. don't know what kind of snake it was - i'm going to show her pictures of thai snakes next time we skype and see if mama can pick it out. venomous snakes that could be dangerous need to be invited to live elsewhere. maybe the ghost won't need the snake after we get the spirit house installed. i'll post pictures when we have them.

amazing thailand.

100824 - Thaikarl - USA Friday Harbor, unitedstates, uh, yeah

friends,
back in the USSR, er, USA.  we departed canada by crossing in invisible line in the water yesteray.  came into Roche Harbor to clear customs.  uh, huh.  when we entered canada, we docked at the customs harbor on Pender.  mike got out, and made a phone call to customs, to thell them that foreigners were entering the country.  they asked a few questions on the phone- "any fruit, food, guns or explosives?", gave mike a number to post in the window of the boat, and we were in.  when American Citizens come back INTO america, well, i don't want to say anything.  Homeland INSECURITY might be listening.  lets just say it was a little more involved.

we're gonna hang out in the san juan islands for a few days, mikes wife might join us for a couple of days, and we're back.  "it's good to be alive"sings sheryl crow on  the music in the coffe shop here... i agree.



you see a lot if interesting boats out here.....

100826 Thaikarl - USA - Doe Bay, Orcas island - hanging out for a few days

friends

posted a few now photos in the desolation sound gallery:  http://picasaweb.google.com/thaikarl/DesolationSound  scroll down to the picture of Errol at the bottom for the lates posted pix.  

we anchored at Doe Bay, Orcas island a couple days ago.  been hanging around, enjoying the resort facilities (for free :-)  they have a restaruant, mike got us in to play music tuesday night.  we made 36$ in tips, and got free pizza.  he got us in last night also, nother 38$ - i keep one dollar, the rest goes into the boat fund.  i don't know mikes songs, so i don't sing with him much, i fake my way thru the chords with him.  sometimes i can read them off his song book, otherwise i watch and listen and try to keep up.  fun to be playing in public again.

the resort has a spa - a set of hot tubs overlooking the little bay here.  we went up and sat in the hot water after playing last night.  nice.

the wind blows thru the strait of jan de fuca, hits widbey island and blows north thru rosario strait - right at us.  the boat was rocking and rolling all night again.  nice way to get to sleep, being rocked and bumped around.  errol was sleeping up on deck, hanging in the mayan hammock suspended by lines and halyards.  i went up late at night to see what was rolling around making a banging noise.  errols hammock was swinging back and forth like a flag in a storm.  the kid slept thru the whole thing.  except when we was being banged into the mast!  we're going to play music tonight at the open mic and probably head south towards seattle tomorrow.

the weather has turned cold, windy and somewhat cloudy.  summers over i guess.  nice while it lasted.  we got a text saying it was pouring rain in seattle.  wah! when i get back i'll make a google map of our travels.

the adventure continues

karl

100810 - Thaikarl - CANADA - Chilling out for the day in Maple Harbor

friends,
we pulled into maple harbor today.  nice marina.  rustic, with numerous nautical decorations around the property - old ships engines painted red and white old propellers etc.  store, pub, laundry... laundry!  my wife was consternated when i told her i've been wearing the same pair of jean for two weeks (..."put honey, i change my underwear...") mike decided to pay moorage, so we'll hang out for the night.  shore power to charge up all the batteries things.  errol has a nintendo DS, there's a DVD player machine, i've got batteries, cell phone and camera to charge, computers, there's the GPS etc etc.  you get real attentive to charging things when your 110v options are limited.  we have a 12v to 110v inverter, but it drains the anchor and house batteries so we have to limit the use of that.  at least the adults think about charging things.  errol just uses them til they die.

traveling by boat sure is different.  i have no idea how you would DRIVE here.

onward - back to the san juan islands this week.
Karl

100816 - Thaikarl - Canada Millions of jellyfish, and wonderful sun

friends,
we're having a wonderful time up her in British Columbia.  the internet connection here in Campbell River marina is weird proxy thing.  i'm trying to upload photos.  goto my picassa gallery  http://picasaweb.google.com/thaikarl and look for an alblum called "Desolation Sound".  i'll upload as many photos as the connection will allow.  we're heading up around Quadra island today.  headed for Octopus islands and more.

onward!

100808 - Thaikarl USA - greetings from canada

friends,
greetings from bedwell harbour, south pender island, British Columbia.  Canadian customs station check in.
we left seattle on the armadillo - mikes 50 foot sailboat on friday around 7pm.  motored up north into the setting sun and oncoming darkness.  i had been going full bore the last few days, so i went to my bunk around midnight.  we got in to some rough water alongside whidbey island, where the sea is open to the ocean thru the straigt of juan de fuca.  difficult to sleep with the boat banging around, bouncing up and down on the bunk, things falling down and clattering in the cabin.  i just got to sleep at 3am when nathan woke me to go up and take down the sails.  we hoped to sail, so we'd put them up, but not enough wind to make a difference, so we were motoring,  but the sails were making steerage difficult, so we hauled them down and went back to bed.  mike was driving until 5am, when nathan awoke me again to anchor up in burrows pass.   we slept a little while motored into anaortes to top off the fuel tanks.

we motored over to friday harbor in the afternoon, went grocer shopping and nathan and i took land showers.  a friend of mikes lives on friday island across from the harbor.  we mored over there, visited a while and anchored up in the south anchorage of friday harbor, because the fog rolled in and it wasn't a good idea to go any further.

mike set the crab pot before midnight.  this morning, mike hausled up 15 crabs, 6 of which were males big enough to keep.  crab feast tonight!  motored up here to check into customs.  we're in funny money land now.  woo hoo!!!!

onward!!!
karl

100806 Thaikarl - In the USA and off again

friends,

returned to the USA.  what a shock.  but, after so many trips, it's as expected.  been really fortunate to have lots of work come my way.  which means i'm just enough ahead to take off again.  going to desolation sound in canada on mikes 50 foot sailboat.  we're out for three weeks.  yeeeee haaaaa!

more will be revealed...

karl

100702 Thaikarl - thailand is behind, korea is now, USA is before... me

friends,

the internet cafe next to our hotel in bangkok is no more, so i didn't post before i left.  i'm in korea now, on 10 hour layover.  so i took the subway trains into town.  going to drop off a book to the couch-surfing.com contact i have here, and goto a korean bath-house.  the subway system here is a trip.  it's a giant puzzle.  you have to know how to read maps and spatial diagrams, search out the english words mixed in with the korean characters.  i got it sorted out, mostly.  when i went to leave, my travel card that i bought from the machine didn't work to let me out the gate.  buzzes went off, and barriers wouldn't open.  i went to various machines, up and down stairs, to multiple exits, studied all the maps looking for an office of some sort.  couldn't find a worker to help me.  finally a young guy helped me... he just took me through the handi-capped gate.  doh!  don't have a clue what when ary.  maybe i fried my card?

raining here, but warm.  bought a cheap umbrella cause it's warm, and i was getting all steamy.  with a little help from the guy at the desk, i got online in a "PC-BANG", internet/game room, down in the basement of a building.  going to the bath-house for a few hours next, then back to the airport. and try some mystery food.

and from there... i dunno.

onward!

100625 Little things happen all the time

friends,

getting down to the departure time next week.  wah.  but life still going on here.  i've added a few pics to the picasa galleries
for Misc Life and Thai Bugs.  go there and scroll down to the new photos.

A lizard appeared on the tamarind tree behind my shower.  he was nice enough to hang out there until i could finish my shower and run for my camera.  beautiful color on his head. 

i showed him to tok and she was like "meh"  she said they are common in thailand, they see them all the time.  i explained to her that we don't have these commonly in the states- depending on where you live. and not in seattle.  i guess it would be like somebody coming to seattle and taking pictures of pigeons all the time.  we'd be like "they're just pigeons, what's the big deal?" my earliest memories were from the time we lived in victorville california.  out in the desert at george air force base.  lizards were part of a boys life then and there.  specially "horny toads".  i liked lizrds then, like 'em now.  she asked me what animals are common in seattle.  i had to think about that one.  birds of course, dogs cats, sometimes raccoons, dead 'possums, squirrls, rarely a snake.  that's about it. had to google up photos of most the raccoons and possums for her, she'd never seen one.

the kids came by with a crazy bike they put together.  check this thing out:

cow skull handlebars... now THATS COOL! (there's another picture in the picasa gallery) little scooter wheel in front, regular wheel in back, and lots and lots of rope.

we've had a "bad cat" coming around harassing our cats for a while.  poor August comes in all scratched up, missing patches of hair.  one day mama caught the "bad cat".  there was a bunch of hollering (in thai of course) teri came out with the basket and a lid, the put the cat inside, tied down the lid jumped on the motorbike and drove away.  i was concerned they were going to throw it in the river - i don't know what they do in such situations.  15 minutes later, tok and teri came back, minus the cat.  they didn't drown it.  just took it to the next village and let it out.  let them deal with the monster.  banishment i can handle.  it was likely a feral cat, not somebodies pet.  here's August:

we fixed a few things around the house today - i put up a shelf, re-strung the ropes on the rain shades, took off the cement board over the steps.  trying to get all the little things done while i'm still here.  i've been following Cliff Maas's weather blog since i've been home.  i see the folks in seattle have had worse than usual crappy weather.  but it just might be real summer when i get back.  that will be nice.  easier to adjust to.  but 75 degrees F will seem cold, as usual.

i made a panorama view of the mountains to the west of our house.  it is nice, isn't it? (click here to goto the view page)

gorgeous the life in amazing thailand,
Nu

100621 Thaikarl - what IS happening now anyway?

friends, one of my readers wrote and me ans asked the timeless question: what's happening?  here's my reply:

oh, i'm just hanging out, enjoying my last days here.  lots of thinking time, speculating, dreaming, conceiving, fretting, calculating, wondering, regretting, inventing, designing, proposing, accepting, rejecting, feeling, observing, analyzing, worrying, deducing, pondering.... lots and lots of "ings"  all within my own skull.  when you are surrounded by people who don't speak english, you don't get diverted into conversations about anything really, so almost all of your talking is in your own head.  a running monologue that gets meandered and guided by voices from the past present and future.  reading books and listening to music, swurfing the internet, watching videos on youtube, provide a modicum of focused distraction, but the ever present voice and running movie in my head is merely attended to, not silenced by such stimuli.

it's a brief interlude into the life of the idle rich.  rich, because i have everything i need, idle because i don't HAVE to do very much of anything.  but it has a strict span of time, this leisure, the income stream stopped when i got on the plane, and the bucket of funds i brought with me is leaking out the myriad of holes.  the bucket will need refilling, but that is later, this is now, and now is pretty damn good all in all.

it's perpetual summer in thailand.  you aren't bundling up to protect yourself from the cold, hiding inside to keep warm, turning on lights in the middle of the day cause it's so dark under all the clouds.  when it rains, you just get under cover, you don't have to go inside, you don't have to go get your coat.  and the rain never lasts that long. sometimes the heat is oppressive, and you welcome a cooling breeze or a chance to go in 7-11 where the aircon is always set to imitate the arctic summer.  it takes a lot of energy to keep warm.  i don't have that cost here.

it's a brief interlude into the life of the idle rich.  rich, because i have everything i need, idle because i don't HAVE to do very much of anything.  but this interlude has a sharp span.  the income stream stopped when i got on the plane, and the reservoir of funds that runs the powerplant is getting down to reserves level.  the reservoir will need refilling, but that is later, this is now, and now is pretty damn good all in all.  refilling the bucket just means i won't be so idle, but i'll still be rich.  i have a home in paradise, and i carry that with me always.

years ago i had an apartment. it was the first apartment that was completely mine. i called it "the Oasis".  it was a refuge in the desert, a place to quench your thirst, regain your power.  i had a business sized card made up that said this:

Everybody needs an Oasis.
If you don't have one, make one.
If you can't make one now,
Use somebody else's until you can.

i've made a new Oasis for myself here.  and i enjoy it while i am here. i carry it with me, everywhere.
that's what's happening.

Nu