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.