Me and my friend Sue at the lake.

Me and my friend Sue at the lake. She is the owner of Ahchi the toy shiatsu.

Designs on the bus

I seems they spare no expense on the art work on some of these buses.

making sugar cane juice

I had seen this guy drive by a few times and saw the crushing machine in the back of his truck but was not sure what it was for.  I saw him working it a few mornings ago. He is crushing sugar cane.  The juice is strained and then put into small bottles.  Maybe they sell it at a market or something.  Raw sugar cane juice. Yum.  He had 2 young girls helping him with the straining and bottling.  They were still in their jammies and a bit shy so no pictures of them.

Scorpion tries to eat my phone

This was a huge scorpion but it looked like its stinger was broke off.  It got run over by a car later.

Christmas in Thailand

Here we have a picture of my little friend Ahchi dressed up like Santa and pictures of a security guard dressed like Santa in front of a big hospital and a display at a local mall.

Lazy?

I knew that the time would come that everything I see here seems NORMAL.  It is not.  I have been working on getting my Visa set up for another year here.  I spent a day in Bangkok last week getting one paper signed at the US embassy.  Last year they charged me $35 for the document.  This year the price went up to $50.  I paid it in Thai money and the dollar has been plunging against the baht so it really cost me about $60.  I understand when foreigners use the US Embassy that they should pay for services but I paid about $11,000 in taxes last year!  And the price goes up.  I consider that a tax hike.  I Should continue this bog but right now I need a break. If I get a picture of something truely unusual I will put it out here.

Bread truck? No Bread bike.

This guy is running around town between the convenient stores selling packages of bread treats.  Most times the bread is toasted and has some sweet spread in between a few slices.  See the fancy safety shoes he wears while riding the bike.  We call those safety sandals. (flip flops)  Most Thais can only afford flip flops to wear.  They cost about a buck. Remember the temp today is probably in the 80's and he is wearing a jacket.

fish traps on the lake?

These traps are actually for tiny shrimp.  The shrimps are fresh water shrimp and are about 1 1/2 inches long.  Thais call them "goong". The shrimp are served in a salad type dish with lots of fresh vegatables.

Big ants and little ants

I have seen this scene many times here.  Ants are a real nuisance.  There are so many kinds also.  Some are really small but the smallest ones have the most fierce bite.  I have seen people swell up and have to go to the hospital from them.  There are also very fast ants (see the "many kinds" link for Psycho ants).  They move like a sped up movie!  But these in the picture are very curious.  There are big ants and little ones working together.  They travel the same path always.  Can you see the small ones carrying what looks like bits of rice?  I have seen these little ones get together and carry something the size of a nickel.  There could be as many as 50 tugging generally in the same direction.  The really big ants appear to be doing nothing at all.  But they are always there moving along with the little carriers.

Printer ink? Heroin?

My printer ran out of ink. I can buy a new cartridge for about $18 or I can take the cartridge in and get it filled for about $4.50 or I can buy a big ole honkin bottle of ink for about $3.00 and fill the cartridge myself.  So I chose the latter.  But I forgot I have to get the stuff into the cartridge.  I went back to the computer store and asked about a syringe to put the ink in.  I figured it would be a tool like but the guy went out back and came back with this medical syringe.  I asked, "How much?" and he just said, "Never mind."

Toni is gone

Ugly Dog Toni is gone.  He was run over by a truck in the very early morning hours a few days ago.  Some Thais say that is good for him.  He will probably come back as a person! He never would get out of the way of vehicles on the road.

Fell into the street

I was waiting for a bus the other day.  When one finally came I went to step off the curb to flag him down but did not look down before I stepped.  Ouch!  I fell off the sidewalk right into the street on all fours.  I bruised my palm and skun up 2 toes.  I talked about these and other hazzards in this blog a long time ago. http://enorman-thai.blogspot.com/2009/12/watch-where-you-step.html What is crazy is that they put a grate on the front of the curb but did not put a grate on the top of the hole.  What's with that?

Hum-bur-ker

When the bus stopped at a stop in Sawang Den Din a lady got on board with a tray of hamburgers for sale.  I figured what the heck and bought one.  20 baht (60 cents)  The bun was Bee-u-tee-full. Thais believe anything that has a bun is a hamburger.  This one was chopped up hotdogs and onions inside.  And they say it "hum-bur-ker".

Fueling the bus

On the road to Seka the other day the bus pulled over for fuel.  You see that here they are using B5 bio-diesel.  They have pumped 74 liters at a cost of 2000 baht (about $60).  The cost is 27 baht (86 cents) per liter.  So they are running this huge Mercedes Benz bus on 70 liters (18.5 gallons).  Actually in Thailand all of the alternative fuels are cheaper than the 100% crude oil fuels.  Normal Diesel is over 29 baht per liter.

Seen a Mars bar lately?  Mars is the candy company that makes many candy bars like Snickers and Three Musketeers.  This bar comes from Australia and is available all over Thailand..  I have not seen Mars bars in the U.S. for many years. The problem, however, is that you can not buy one and get it home in the 100 degree temps without it melting.

Safety First

Kids ride the school truck/bus to school.  So is there no room in the back or do the kids on top just like the view better?  Watch out for overhead wires ok?  Think their driver got a safety award last year?

cows live under the house

The cows are hearded to a field everyday to eat the grass.  They basically roam free.  We have noticed a time or two when the cows return in the afternoon that there is a new calf.  The calf keeps up just fine.

some fish and shrimp in the market

I see these strange looking fish at the market.  They always rest in these baskets with no refridgeration.  How about this pile of shrimp, really big shrimp and again no ice no refridgeration.  The shrimp look tasty but I have never tried them.  It is hard to see how big they are here but they are about 6 inches long or so.

hard day at the office

A samalore driver,  Many times you see these guys sleeping in their buggies while they wait for the next fare.  You saw the whole buggy in a previous blog here.

A couple of statues at the entrance to the temple at Ban Hoy market.

Here are a couple of pictures of statues at the entrace of this temple.

Looking into the tops of trees

I was riding in a bus that was VERY tall and when they pulled over at this bus stop the bus was within inches of the branches of a tree.  This tree was similar to a cherry tree.  As I looked out I saw a Preying Mantis right at eye level.  He saw me as well and soon moved around so I could not see him any more.  This was a big one.  He was probably about 6 inches long.

rice is green and the country side is beautiful

The bus ride back from the lake is a beautiful ride these days.  There has been a lot of rain.  The rainy season is definetely in full swing now.  There is so much water that in some cases the rice fields have too much water and the rice has drowned where the farmers can not get the water out.  Otherwise, as far as you can see out of the bus, there are bright green rice fields.

Found the oldest picture of Pepsi

There he is.  Pepsi then and now.  In the first picture he is the one in the back right corner of the cage.

Waterfall

I saw this small waterfall near the land that is being bought in the next post.  There were many temples and statues near the waterfall.  It is typical for there to be temples near natural features like mountains, caves, waterfalls and lakes.  The path leading to the waterfall was a bit creepy. Watch out! Snakes do climb trees here!  I have had a 4 foot green snake fall from a tree right at my feet.  Click individual picures for a closer look.....  Use back arrow on browser to go back to blog.

Buying land?

My friend wants to buy the land on the right side of this road and build a house in the shadow of the temple above.  It is a beautiful location with a brook flowing at the back of the property under the bridge.

You can see the stairs leading up to the temple.

This is the brook flowing past the land.

This is a shot from a distance, of the montain that the temple is on.  The land she is buying is below the temple on the mountain.  A beautiful location. Price? About 1.6 million baht or about $50,000 for 3 rai or about 1.2 acres.

train vs. pickup

Evidently there was a train collision at the tracks next to my house (about 100 feet away).  I was at home but did not notice until I took a bike ride to find a watermelon.  We have had some thunderstorms and I figure that I just thought the sound of the crash was thunder.  The story is that a lady broke down on the track.  Someone had to encourage her to get out of the truck with her other 2 passengers.  The driver is being fined 140,000 baht.  I guess that is to pay for the train repairs.   140,000b is about $4375.