Mae Sai FUN FUN FUN 04/16/2010

We both started out with upset stomachs. We think, after talking it over, that the ‘Chive’ that we ate with our “Phi-Thai” last night was not washed as it seemed to have some grit in it.

We got up around 9:30 after several trips to the ‘haung-num’, Thai for water room or rest room. Tun, Daeng’s brother called and invited us to breakfast at his home. We throw on some clothes, pumped on the motorbike and headed to his place.

It was pretty quiet for a Friday morning. There were only a few sellers at the morning market and we saw a lot of people with baskets on their arms going to make offerings at the Temples.

Daeng said this is kind of like the first day of the year and what you do today will govern what you do every day this year.

We had a great breakfast of rice, soup, fried pork with vegetables and cucumbers. I still did not feel well so I ask Daeng to take me back home. We picked up some ice for cooler on the way back as we won’t have a refrigerator until next week.

I went back to bed while Daeng went shopping for a plastic set of drawers for kitchen area and some food items.

I woke up about 4:00 PM and we decided to go do some fun stuff as this is supposed to be a fun day. Daeng said there was some fun stuff happening by Temple next to the little afternoon market.

We arrived to find the place with lots of activity.
There was a kick boxing contest going on with young fighters going on. The young kick boxers are really fun to watch as they are very quick in their fighting.

There were kids on a large bamboo log across the water canal having contest to see who would be “king of the bamboo” so to speak.

There was food and singing going on, too.

Mae Sai Songkran 04/14/2010

Yes, I'm a sissy. Today I stayed home and hide out from the water throwers.

We did go out to have early breakfast as most of the party folks were still home nursing hang-overs. I did notice two men drinking whisky at breakfast. After breakfast we did drive over to Tun & Hlong's place to see how much they had to move into the new home.

On the way back to the house, we were hit by three water throwers. I did have to change when we got home as I was soaked.

Yes, this is a typical day in Mae Sai during Songkran.

This will be a typical Thailand home with a couple families living under the same roof. Daeng's Mother, Brother, Sister-in-law, Nephew, Niece and Son when he is home from school. TIT! (This is Thailand!)

The place will have seven bedrooms and three bathrooms when we are done.

Daeng went out with the family and did some of the things that most Thia's do for Thai New Year with lots of water, water, water every where.

The old swimming hole was pretty dirty as a lot of folks were there. Daeng did not go swimming but hung out with the family, eating, drinking and just having fun.

As for me, I painted three light fixtures and typed out the new air conditioning price book for the company to start using this summer.

I turned in early, around 6:30 PM Daeng got home around 8:30 PM.

Mae Sai 04/13/2010 Songkran

Typical Day in Mae Sai, I think not. We got up about 6:00 AM, had coffee and fruit, jumped on the motorbike to see if we could learn more about an "Air Card" for the Internet.

Everything that does not have something to do with partying or eating is closed. We did find a cellular phone shop open but he said he did not carry the device.

We had some breakfast and then Daeng took me to get my nails done as they were getting too long and breaking. A manicure and pedicure here was 150 THB ($4.50). It was hard to find a shop to get nails done as not many Vietnamese live here. (That's a California joke as most of the nail shops there are Vietnamese owned.)

After the nails, Daeng dropped me off at J&J Mae Sai Internet Cafe so I could catch up on the Internet stuff. Cola at J&J also told me that air cards are pretty slow. He also said my cellular phone would do the same thing. He suggested I call DTAC, my phone provider, and see if they would help me.

Daeng went downstairs and watched the parade. Remember, this is the first day of the holidays.

From the pictures it looks like a big parade. Even the tiger float has a tail soooo long it is supported by rollers so it won't drag on the pavement.

You have seen me write about this water thing. How would you like to be in a parade where the folks watching throw water on you?

Daeng did get into throwing water but she just used a small cup and not a pail.

I spent most of the day here at the Internet cafe. It is almost seven o'clock. I am going to take a baht-bus back to our street and walk the block to our house.

With good luck, maybe I can stay dry. I'll put my net-book in a plastic bag just in case.

Mae Sai 04/12/2010 Tachileik, Myanmar & Cat Telecom

We slept pretty well with the air conditioning. We got up early and had some fruit and coffee. That is pretty typical. We left the house around 6:45 AM and had some breakfast; pan fried chicken, vegetables, steamed and fried rice.

We needed money to pay for the installation of the air conditioning yesterday but had to go to three ATM machines before we could find one that would give us the 25,000 THB we needed. This is a big holiday season and everyone is using the ATM’s.

We stopped and paid for the AC around 8:15 on the way home. I took a morning nap and Daeng went into Tachileik, Myanmar (Burma) to give her Aunt some things to take to her home for the Songkran holiday that officially starts tomorrow.

There are really three reasons I stayed home beside the TV/Internet guys coming. The first one is I slow Daeng down in the border crossing thing. She can, after obtaining a day crossing pass, just walk back and forth across the bridge. It is pretty busy, as you can see in the picture.

I have to go through immigrations leaving a departure card, have my passport stamped on the Thai side and then leave my passport at Myanmar immigrations on the Burma side. On the way back, I have to give Myanmar immigrations the little card they exchanged for my passport and pick up the passport before coming back into Thailand. On the Thailand side, I have to fill out an arrival card and have my passport stamped again.

The second reason is I have to pay 500 Thai Baht or $15.00 US Dollar on the Burma side to cross over the bridge into Tachileik. Daeng pays 30 THB a day to Thailand immigrations and 10 THB to Myanmar immigrations. She can cross over as many times as she wants during the day if she gets her hand stamped.

The third reason is the “water thing” that is happening in this part of the world this week. It is the celebration of “water” because “water” is a life thing. You need water not only to live but also to grow food, like rice.

During this celebration water is sprinkled on people to help cleanse them and wish them good life BUT this has gotten out of proportion and people will throw buckets of water on you while you are traveling g on a motorbike. Think about it, five gallons of water thrown on you while you are traveling 40 miles an hour on a motorcycle. THAT IS TERRORISM!!! Enough said!

The men, or should I say gang of boys (about seven), from Cat Telecom came a little after 1:45 PM. That’s not bad for being told 1:00 PM. They told us that they could not run the wire because there was too much traffic, due to the holiday, but would do the inside work today and return next Monday.

The inside work meant drilling one hole in the wall and mounting the ground rod outside. It was fun to watch seven men doing the work, one to hold the extension cord plug in the wall outlet, one to open the window to run the extension cord. Then one to plug in the drill, one to hold the drill and one to push on the drill, another to make sure it was straight and the supervisor, of course. I think that was seven.

Remember Cat Telecom is a government owned company. I’m not judging, I’m just saying.

I asked about the television and they acted like they had no idea about what I was talking about.

Daeng got back and we hung out doing a few things on the house. I spray painted one of the florescent light fixtures to see if the acrylic lacquer we purchased yesterday would work okay. The fixture looked great after three light coat of paint. The light even seemed brighter after cleaning the tube and reinstalling it.

One was enough as it is HOT. It feels like it is over 100 degrees, maybe hotter upstairs. It is about 4:00 PM and time to call it a day, it’s a holiday.

Daeng called the man from Cat Telecom and he said nothing could be done until next week and he was off this week, too. Oh well, TIT, which stands for “This is Thailand”.

I should not have prayed for help to give me patients and tolerance. Like the saying goes: “Be careful what you pray for as you might get it!”

After dark we took a ride over to Tesco/lotus and talked about an “Air Card”. That is a little devise that plugs into the USB port of the laptop so you can use the cellular system to have Internet any were in Thailand that you have cellular telephone service. The cost of the device ranged from 2000 THB to 4300 THB ($62 to $135 USD) plus air time charges. No one could tell me, in English, what the air time charges are?

We were told that an English speaking person would be there at 9:00 AM tomorrow morning. We went home frustrated. TIT!

Our New Home in Mae Sai, Thailand 04/11/2010

Wow, we got a lot done here in the last two days. Yesterday, we moved from the Yeesun Guest House to our new place. All we moved were the four plastic containers that we have been storing clothes plus a few other things in when we are out of the country, along with our two suitcases and my back pack.

We hired Sai and his pick-up truck to make this small move. He picked us up at 9:00 AM. We loaded the stuff in his pick-up and headed over to Akoo’s Laundry to pick up the King Size foam mattress, a television and a TV stand that Tun & Hlong let us use. We were at the new place and unloaded by 10:15 AM. Sai charged us a 100 Baht ($3.00 USD).

We worked around the place for a few hours and the crew came to install the Satellite Dish so we can get English TV stations. They did a nice job but we won’t have television until they bring the control boxes and hard wire the Internet connections on Monday.

We did stop at the appliance place and bought a ductless air conditioning system to be installed, today. The one and a half ton system was 28,000 THB installed ($896 USD). We gave them 3000 Baht deposit and will pay the balance when installed.

Daeng was not felling well so we turned in early, like around 8:00 PM.

We slept okay but it was very hot in this concrete building! Also, this is one of the hottest times of the year here in Thailand.

Daeng said she still did not feel good but went to the market around 6:30 AM. She brought back melon, China pears, pineapple and sweet sticky rice with peanuts. China pears are like a cross between an apple and a pear. We eat and talked about the day.

The air conditioning guys and the electrician are both scheduled to come today. Thai folks work seven days a week; Sunday is just another day.

The air conditioning guys showed up right at 9:00 AM as scheduled. That is unusual in Thailand but is one of the reason we paid about 4000 Baht more than we could have at the “Cheap and Easy” place. They showed their professionalism right off by asking us how and where we wanted everything placed.

They checked with us for the exact placement of the inside unit and the outside condenser. We had them mount the outside condenser high on the wall so trucks or people would not run into it. This is also the first of a few that we will have installed and they will stack, kind of, over each other on each floor for the side rooms.

Just about the time they had the inside unit placed the electrician arrived. His job was to move the two hot water heaters, one from Daeng’s Mothers apartment and one from Daeng’s brother’s place. He had already been to their places and removed them. They don’t mind cool showers for a few weeks as it is now HOT here. If you take a shower in the afternoon even the cold water is warm.

He is also going to fix all the florescent lights and plugs as well as add electric receptacles on the roof and in the garage/outside cooking area.

I watched the AC guys and they did excellent work. If I could hire AC installers like them in California we would really be doing well. AC installed, system vacuum pumped, all wiring done, everything cleaned up and system started and tested.
It works perfectly! They even patched the holes the satellite installer made and completed the job in less than four hours. Yea, we have air conditioning for sleeping tonight.

The electrician worked all day to make everything work and put in the two new sets of plugs. He installed both hot water heaters as well. He had to replace several light fixtures. There are 27 florescent fixtures in the building.

Our friends Charlie and Jan came up from Chiang Rai and brought us a home warming gift, a set of Chinese Lions for keep the money inside and the bad people outside.

While they were here we heard a big crash and ran out front to see the first, for us, Songkron accident. A man was traveling east on our street and a bucket of water was thrown on him; he lost control of his motorbike which went down, crossed over the road hitting a girl on her motorbike traveling west.

She went down and was injured pretty bad as she did not have her helmet strapped on and when she went down her helmet came off and she hit her head on the pavement.

A rescue team came within 10 minutes and trucked her to a hospital.

After Jan and Charlie left we paid the electrician, 1,110 Baht for parts and 1,100 for labor, total 2,210 Baht ($69 USD) for a long days work.

We took a warm shower and dressed in a cool room. We then headed to Tesco/Lotus to buy bathroom tissue and a pillow. We had a little to eat and back home to sleep in a cool bedroom.

It was a good day, although not a typical day for Mae Sai.

I just wish Daeng felt better!

We bought some furniture for New Home

Just a quick note to tell everyone we had a productive day. Dish for English TV is installed. We bought a heavy duty step ladder and all the front windows are washed.

The big thing is we bought the first furniture today, a small table and two wooden stools for 900 THB ($27.00 USD).

We move from the guest house in the morning.

Good night.

Our Hew Home 04/09/2010

Greetings from Mae Sai, Thailand. We just wanted to let everyone know that we are doing well but got overwhelmed with getting our new home ready to move into.

What we just think of as typical things seem to become major issues here. As an example, getting broadband Internet service to our home, English speaking television, having the roof sealed to be sure we don't have and leaks during the heavy rains, getting a ladder to reach the burnt out florescent tubes in the high celling areas become a hassle.

Daeng's advice to me: "RELAX, DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY and HAVE FUN!"

Anyway, we are going to try and move out of our guest house and into our new home tomorrow. We will be camping out as this comming week is the Thai New Year and the whole country shuts down to celebrate. That means we can not get any work done until after next week.

If you would like to read more about "Songkran" just go to the story at we wrote last year by CLICKING HERE. We wrote several stories about this time of year on our blog in April last year. Check them out! CLICK HERE FOR APRIL 2009.

N E Way, (That is the way a person starts her letters from jail in California. I always wondered what North East Way was.) again, N E Way, we can not get any work done until after the Thai New Year is over. That means we will not have Internet service until the week after and no television.

Camping out is FUN, FUN, FUN!

I fixed the shower yesterday so we can have cold water showers until the electrician moves the hot water heater from Daeng's Mothers house on Saturday or Sunday. Yes, people work seven days a week here. Sunday is only a day off for the Christian community (Only about 1 % of the folks.)

Also when people move from a rental property they take what ever they put in when they came, hot water heaters, air conditioning systems, kitchen sinks, etc.

I will try to go to J@J Internet Cafe every few days but hate to ride on a motorbike during this holiday time as people will throw a bucket of water on you while you are driving on the road. It is a dangerous time to drive.

We will write more as we can.
Love to all,
Plumber & Little Thai Girl