Sunday, October 31, 2010

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Although Halloween also known as All Saints Day is not celebrated in Thailand, except in the tourist areas, we wanted to wish everyone a Happy and Fun Halloween.

Monday, October 18, 2010

My Fall in Church

Now with the title of "My Fall in Church" you would think of something spiritual.

Nope, I fell down the flight of stairs while leaving the Church after Sunday Service, yesterday.

I was wearing black, smooth, dress up socks and as I came down the stairs, after a little picture taking, I slipped and fell.

Remember, in Thailand you take your shoes off before you enter a building.

I didn't think I was hurt after I walked a little.

One sore butt cheek and my two toes on my right foot were a little sore.

This morning I noticed two of my toes were black and blue. Daeng insisted I go to the KASEMRAD Hospital Clinic.

We hopped on the motorbike and arrived around 9:05 AM. We signed in. I had been there before so it was easy. All I had to do was give them my name as they have everything on computer.
They told us the Doctor would be in about 10:00 AM so we walked across the street and ate.

I had a Chinese, yellow noodle, fish soup. They laughed at me as Thais eat noodles with chop-sticks. I ate them with a fork and spoon, Italian style, rolling the noodles up on the fork.

Back to the hospital clinic at 10:00 and waited only about five minutes before we saw the Doctor. He spoke English and told me he didn't think it was broken but if I could afford it he would like to take x-rays.

I said: "Yes, Good!" We went to the X-ray Department in the next office, took the two X-rays, waited about five minutes, went back into the office the Doctor was in and looked at the X-rays together.

There were no breaks of fractures. He prescribed some Nimesulide and Danzen for pain and swelling that we picked up at the front desk.

It was 10:37 AM as we paid the total bill for the drugs, Doctor, X-rays and hospital clinic. The total was 630 Thai Baht ($21,00 USD).

All done in one hour and thirty-two minutes, including breakfast.

Hell, that is a lot better than Obama Care! Wake up America!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Two weeks at Home in Mae Sai, Thailand

It's 5:30 AM on Sunday morning. Our friends Chuck and Ray called us from California to say "Hello".

They also wanted to let us know they were thinking about returning to Thailand with us when we return in the Spring of 2011.

It's been two weeks that we have been back to this little town, Mae Sai, on the Myanmar (Burma) border. One of the great parts of being back is we can buy a whole, cut up pineapple for about 6 Thai Baht; that's US 18 cents.
Our home is on the south side of town so we are about four (4) kilometers from the actual border bridge into Myanmar.

The shop house is on "Official Thai Land". Before we lived on disputed land; kind of like the West Bank but no rockets or bombs in about ten (10) years. At that time, Mae Sai was evacuated because the Burmese Army was supposedly fighting the Shan Rebel Army.

Please remember that we are not judging, we are just saying!

Being on "Official Land" means we have a deed to the land and the building.

Mae Sai has 14 villages with approximately 22,000 people. Yep, BIG city life.

Our rest stop in Pattaya was very relaxing. We both gained about three kilo's (6.6 pounds) during our short stay at the beach. We love that area and all the diversification.

When we say diversity we are talking about the food, the people and the entertainment.

Most Thai folks are happy to have you take picturs and smile when you are taking their pictures. In this bakery I was asked not to take any pictures. Maybe they thought I would steal their recipes. I was told: "No Pictures!" after I took this one.

We did find the chicken soup lady. She sold her shop on Soi 13/2 and bought a special Tuk-Tuk made into a soap wagon. It is pretty neat. She has great chicken soup, also. To read more about Tuk-Tuk's just CLICK HERE.

We have done a few things during the last two weeks. We finished up the roof drains that were still not hooked up.

We had two birthdays and a little Birthday Cake to go with the Happy Birthday Singing.

We went to a "New House" party. That is a party to celebrate the completion of your new home. Food, a little service to bless the house and everyone, then more food and beverages, then more food and more food. I had trouble getting onto the motorbike due to eating so much.
"Bang", one of Hlong's adopted kids. Hlong is Daeng's sister-in-law. I know, you need a score card to keep up with the names.

Anyway, Bang was married in May of this year and moved with her husband to Bangkok to work and put away a nest egg. You can read about her wedding by CLICKING HERE and going to the bottom of the story.

Bang is now expectant. "Expectant" is what they coined pregnancy on "I Love Lucy" show about fifty years ago. I guess I just dated myself.
Bang has morning sickness ALL DAY so she can't work at her restaurant job in Bangkok. She came back to Northern Thailand for a little while to hope she will get over that part of having a baby. She'll then return to Bangkok and work for a few more months.

She gets up early in the morning, cleans some and starts ironing in the laundry. It's nice to see a house guest pitch in and help.
One of Daeng's sisters, her name is "Mon", came down with tuberculosis and had to move back to where her house of record is in Chiang Rai. That is about 50 kilometers south. I don't fully understand the system but here in Thailand everyone has a home of record. That is like a permanent residence. They call it a "House book" record.
Her "House Book" record is at her brother's home in Chiang Rai. She does not have a "National ID Card" so she is not qualified for the national medical. What that means is in order to get health care she has to be visited by a nurse once a week at that address to get her treatment for free.

Daeng's Mother also went with her and will stay for a month or two until Mon can take care of herself, again.

We tried to do it with a little laughter, funny face masks and all.
One of the nice things that happened with Mon getting sick is Daeng's brother, "Pooie", drove his motorbike from Chiang Mai, with two kids on it. They came to see Mon but stayed a few days visiting other family members.

On the left of the picture is Daeng's Brother, "Tun". On the right is "Pooie".

That is correct, 300 miles on a 100 cc motorbike with two kids.

I had met Pooie and his family before on a trip to Chiang Mai. While he was here he also fixed a leak on our roof. It was a crack in a grout line between a row of roof tile.

Life goes on with fresh bananas, pineapple, coconuts and warm, moist weather here on the Myanmar (Burma) border.

And don't forget the happy kids.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Home at Myanmar (Burma) Border & Shopping!

Sunday we made the trip from Pattaya to our home in Mae Sai, Thailand on the Myanmar (Burma) border.

It was a good trip starting with a ride by hired car from our hotel to the Bangkok airport. It was Sunday morning at 8:30 so very little traffic. The trip took about and hour and thirty minutes.

We checked in with Air Asia and our bags were right on the weight of 20 Kg each bag that we had paid for in advance. We had repacked in Pattaya. By the time we made it through security, walked to the gate and had a little something to eat we only had time to use the rest room before boarding the plane.

Short flight of one hour and twenty minutes and we landed in Chaing Rai. We got our bags and "Sai" met us at the front of the airport. Daeng had made arrangement for "Sai" to pick us up and then to pick you "Boonreang", her son.

"Boonreang" is going to school in Chiang Rai and boards with his teacher. He is in High School and will be 15 years old later this month.

The trip from Chiang Rai was uneventful but everything was nice and green as it has been raining almost everyday for the last three months. The rice fields were looking good, too. Thailand is the largest exported of rice in the world. Jasmin rice comes from Thailand. We really like it because it has a nut like favor.

We were waved right through the three check point as "Sai" is somehow connected with the army or police.

Everything was about the same as when we left and Tun's, Daeng's brother, laundry was set up and running full steam ahead. With all the rain, his business had been very good for the last few months. It was a good time to relocate the business.

We slept good Sunday night and rested on Monday.

Tuesday we went shopping, will kind of shopping. We actually went for a nice long walk and ran into a casket maker's shop.

Now, I never thought to much about shopping for a casket although I had bought a used one and spent an hour in one with the lids closed when I worked for Prudential Insurance Company. That was a long time ago in a land far, far away.

To make that story short, it was in a sales meeting and I came out of the casket as a sales manager saying: "We'll bury every other sales team in the contest!"

It was a nice metal, split top casket, with silver handles and hinges and only slightly used. It was a metallic gray finish and had only a few rock marks on the top. It was only in the ground for a couple of days and belonged to a nice Jewish Grandmother from the Bronx.

My kids used it for a toy box for a few years before we went on the road as performers in 1973. Maybe that explains part of my kids personalities.

Back to today, most Thais are small in body size so none of the caskets would fit me. The man told us that was not a problem as he could cut down about seven big trees to make one for me. Then he laughed out loud. Yep, everyone thinks they are comedians.

They did have one that would fit me. It was an air conditioned box sent in from, you guessed it, China.

Since they don't do much embalming here, it is a refrigerated unit that you can put folks into if they can't cremate them right away.

It was big enough to fit me.

Daeng liked the white one with natural wood sides for her.

He told us he had a "lay away plan" and then laughed again.

So much for shopping.

It's nice to be home!