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.

A bug

Of course there are plenty of crazy bugs here.  I saw this one when I was out taking pictures of flowers.

Lizzard in the bathroom

No shortage of lizzards in Thailand.  These things can get quite large. This one was probably about 8 or 9 inches long. I was glad he was outside the screen.  I stayed in a hotel room a couple weeks ago and had one, like this, in the room behind the wardrobe. They move quite fast.  Small ones, 4 or 5 inches long, live in all houses and are welcomed because they eat the mosquitos.