Cheese

Cheese is not widely available here.  It is more often found in the foreigner type grocery stores like Big C, Tops, and Lotus Tesco.  Look at these prices!  This listed price is per kilogram (2.2 pounds). Keep in mind 32 baht is about 1 dollar.  1500 baht is about $47.  The pieces shown here are about 5 slices of cheese thick and cost nearly $6.

some plant

some grassy plant in my front yard exploded into these large delicate blossoms.

Guy carrying rice plants

See this guy carrying the young rice plant bundles to the next paddie to be planted.  The young plants are pulled up from one field and transported to empty fields to be seperated and planted.

Want a smoke?

Here are some huge bags of a Thai tobacco.  Roll your own of course.  See the papers next to the bags.  I see this stuff used a lot. 

No rain in Udon

Every where around Udon I see tremendous storms at night.  I can see lightning and clouds to the east, south and north. But here in Udon there is little rain.  This is affecting the rice planting.  Below you can see what the fields should look like.  But these fields are getting water from a lake that is being drained above them.

This is what is happening in most fields around here now.  You can see that there is no water and the rice plants are turning yellow and dieing.  The kelly green field is young rice plants waiting to be planted in the paddies.

Thai milk truck bomb

I saw this massive truck pull up to a warehouse while I was waiting for a truck/taxi the other day.  I wanted to get a picture of the porpane tanks that hold the fuel for the truck.  Imagine a firey crash with the 8 fuel tanks right behind the driver.  This truck is carrying boxed individual milk cartons.  This milk weighs a lot so this truck has a real load.  Frequently these trucks will pull up to a warehouse and off load to other trucks all day.  They sometimes never put a box into the warehouse.  This warehouse is full of beer and other drinks.  Click the pictures for a better look.

If you don't know T.Boone Pickens you do not watch TV.  But his idea is to convert all trucks from deisel to propane.  Here is what you will see driving the roads.  Massive truck bombs. It takes a lot of propane to equal a 50 gallon tank of deisel.

Fishing again

Not sure how they do this one but they remove the grasses in the lake to make these trails.  The fish must find traveling in these pathways easier so they congregate here.  They must net or trap the fish in these trails.  Sometimes I see what looks like a trap in these trails.  Some other cool fishing in Thailand at this site. http://www.fishthailand.co.uk/predator_fishing_lake.html

A stack of Thai bricks at a construction site.

Thai bricks are tiny

See the wall going up. 

Can you believe the workmanship?  I think there is actually more mortar than brick.  This is typical of Thai construction.  Thank goodness they do not have earthquakes here.  Click the picture for a real closeup.

Wash the motorbike and take a swim

At the end of the lake there is an over flow area.  Now the lake is just full enough from the rains that the water is begining to spill out.  This water goes on into the rice fields nearby.  The locals turn out to wash trucks and motorbikes and to swim and jump from the walk over.  Right now the water is low enough that vehicles can drive through the spillway.  See the boy jumping from the walkway in the last photo?  A couple of weeks ago this was dry concrete.  The water in the lake has risen about 8 inches from the rains.

Rice planting in the country

Here we go.  THe rice is being planted for a new crop.  He rain is falling and there is water to flood the fields.  The muddy field is smoothed and the rice plans are spaced out so they have room to grow.

See the bundles of rice plant in the fore ground.

Here is what the field finally looks like.  To see other stages of rice planting follow this link.

Julian soccer player from Sweden.

Met this young man today.  He is visiting from Sweden for a few weeks.  He is only 15 but quite a guy I am sure.  We only talked for an hour or so but we discussed a lot about soccer/football and politics of the middle east.  Actually Julian is a Swedish citizen but his family is Kurdish from Iraq.  I have great respect for him from the one hour we talked.  I wish him luck in his soccer career and his life.

Electric fire

I was in the kitchen (outside) washing clothes when the washer quit.  I also noticed the hot water pot was dead.  I went into the house and smelled smoke.  I inspected the electric service panel and found a burnt wire.  I asked some women camped out front of my house if they knew a guy to fix the electric.  A guy showed up within 10 minutes.  He lives in the village.  He fixed the burnt wire and secured some loose connections in the service panel.  He also fixed 3 defective outlets for me.  It took him about an hour.  He asked for 200b (baht) for the work.  That is a little less than $6.  I know I really should have only paid him about $3 but it is Sunday morning.  So I gave him the 200b.  Now I can wash clothes again.

From the market

Here is some pictures of yellow chicken feet, shrimp and crabs.  Chicken feet are popular in Asia.  They can be in a soup or fried like KFC.

more market pictures BUGS

Here are more market pictures.  The 3 plates in the back are heaped with cooked bugs.  I could do an entire blog on the market and provide new photos everyday.  So here I include pictures of bugs sold for eating.

Fishing with a net

gather up the net

 Paddle slowly releasing the net.  It is raining here too.  The net is about 100 meters long with floats.  It is spread along the shoreline in about 1 meter of water

After the net is in place come back inside the net splashing the water

slowly gather the net to see if you got something,  As you pull the net the boat moves along.

I'll have 40b please

The local filling station for motorbikes.  This guy has a shack with a barrel of gas inside.  On the top is a hand pump and a glass so you can see what you are getting,  He pumps the desired quantity into the glass and releases the fuel into the plastic tube which is inserted into the tank.  You can see what she got for 40b or about $1.30.  I have seen these filling stations in the country before.  They look exactly the same down to the wooden shack with a window cut in it.  I did talk about buying bottles of gasoline before at convinent stores. CLick and see.

Nice lounge chair

Check out this chair made from some sticks and the plastic box strapping.  Again they are not wasting anything.  The plastic strapping is hardly ever thrown away.  I even have a piece that I am using for clothes line.

Click on the pictures for a better view.  Use back arrow to go back to blog.

We have a tree at the lake that is bearing fruit.  The fruit is in bunches attached to the trunk of the tree.  This thing is loaded with fruit.  Not quite sure what it is though,  It could be a langsat.