the train

The train went by as I crossed the track.  This is a passenger train to Nong Khai.  I have never seen a freight train.  Only passenger trains on these tracks.

Girls in school uniforms

On my walk today I saw some girls headed to school.  All school kids wear uniforms.

Fires

It has been dry a while.  No rain for months now.  The fires will begin soon.  Here is an isolated fire near my house.

some vegies for stir fry

The peppers cost 15 cents and the onions cost 60 cents.  The peppers are a bit hot/spicy. Vegatables in USA

New tires

Got some new tires.  They changed them in the street with 4 jacks.

soup wagon

Lady pushing a cart with soup for sale.  There are lots of these street vendors.  If you have a cart you can make money.

fishing got a double

Went to Sabai Sabai fishing today.  My neighbors went too.  Pat my Canadian connection and the most popular guy in Udon with the ladies went and so did his neighbor Su.  Su caught 2 fish (small ones) at once!

The Pig head

These pig heads are prepared for cerimonal type gatherings.  They do some prayer and then slice thin pieces of meat off the head to eat.  I caught a guy at the local market preparing one for sale.  The bottom picture was at a festival last year.

BWIN Jersey

Jersey and shorts set is about $7    BWIN

CDs and DVDs

Game CD/DVDs anyone?  The CD versions are 100b and the DVDs are 200b.  That is $3 and $6 respectively 

Pizza Delivery

Again motor bikes are called to service for delivery vehicles. This one is the Pizza Company.  KFC also deliverys by way of motorbike. Click on the link to hear their Advertisement!

old fashioned samlore

This is how people used to travel around town.  There are still a few of these old vehicles around.  They are for hire.  They will take you for about 50 cents or so.

waiting for a fare

I caught this guy waiting at the main bus station.  There are dozens of these guys and they are a kind of taxi service only by way of motorbike.  They pickup people at the bus station and take them to the final destination.

Kids get a snack after school

After school kids come out to the street and are greeted by street vendors selling snacks, drinks or toys.  You can see also that school kids have uniforms.  ALL schools have uniforms.  There are many schools so  there are many different uniforms in town.

Watch where you step!

The sidewalks and streets are in bad repair.  But don't even think about a law suit.  Walking is your responsibility and you should look where you step!

Will work for food? No way.

At major interesctions in Atlanta you will find panhandlers claiming they will work for food but what they really want is a handout.  Not in Thailand.  At those intersections you find people selling a flower arrangement that drivers hang on their rear view mirrors.  Some of these arrangements are fragrant but not all are.  The idea is that the flower arrangement is good luck for the vehicle.  As drivers hang the flowers they bring their palms together and say a quick offering to Buddha.  The flowers cost 20 baht or about 60 cents USD.

Torrified wood

I like to read about and talk about new technologies that are being introduced to replace fossil fuels.  Here is a neat one that I discovered this week.  In this process where wood or woody products are heated in the absence of oxygen like charcoal.  The result, however, is a product that is resistant to mositure, burns better than woody products alone and may be used to sequestor carbon into the soil where the torrified "biochar" actually improves soil for crops.  Why these technologies and techniques are not in the forefront is a mystery to me.  Checkout the addresses below.


http://torrefication.blogspot.com/

http://hem.fyristorg.com/zanzi/torrefaction.html

Mile marker post

This is a marker for Route 2.  The name at the top left is Udon and says that Udon is 6 kilometers away.  This Route 2 is the major highway from Khon Kaen to the Northeast of Thailand.

Mama San cooks this morning

I wanted to get a picture of the steaming pots of soup sitting on the charcoal heaters against the sunrise sky.  The lady cooking saw me and jumped into the picture.  She later told Suda that I took her picture.

Thai language and alphabet

I have not talked about the Thai language much. They have no spaces between words or puncuation on sentences in the written language. There are 44 consonants and 32 vowels. Here is an example with the English translation.


I would like to buy a mystery novel in English.
ฉันต้องการซื้อหนังสือนิยายเรื่องลึกลับเป็นภาษาอังกฤษ



.

Building sites

Building sites. Use a few old sticks and start digging to layout the house. You see they put up steel and then pour concrete to create pillars. I guess that make this house some sort of "pole barn" structure.

Jungle

Where the land is left to itself it becomes a true jungle. I had seen stories about Vietnam war where people were 5 feet from each other and could not see the other but could smell them. The NVA smelled like fish and they said the Americans smelled like soap. I have taken a few pictures from the road. This stuff is thick!

Sun and pollution

I said it before. Here is the sun trying to get through the morning dirty air. Sometimes it takes a while. It is dry season and there is no rain to clean the air. Dust coming off the roads only adds to the problem.

Thai furniture

They had a huge festival in town this week. There were many shops selling their wares. This is a picture of a furniture shop. I love the colors in the wood.

Rice harvest

A picture of a couple of fields after the harvest

Cool tractor

I want one. Check out the handle bars. The engine is a diesel that just putts along. They have many attachements for these. You can see the wagon on this one.

Electric service for several houses

Check out this utility pole and the meters for several houses attached.

cigarette health warnings

I had mentioned the cigarette package health warnings before. Here are couple of pictures from Thai Cigarette packs. The picture must cover 1/2 the pack. It would be difficult for me to smoke looking at these pics.

Pepsi has a new friend

Pepsi has been such a pain but he is getting older (and bigger) and starting to settle down some. He lets me sleep at night now. But he has a new friend Panda. Panda is a tiny currly haired dog. Pepsi thinks he is a pillow.

sunset pictures

Sunsets can be spectacular here due to the dirty air.