Another Day in Mae Sai 03-15-12

Today was another day in Mae Sai. Yesterday, Daeng went 60 Km south and had a Parent Teacher conference with Boonreang's teacher. The teacher said her son was doing much better in school and will move on to the next level at that school.

On her way home it rained very hard. She stopped at a friend's home and missed most of the rain. That was good and the rain put out a lot of the jungle fired, as well.

Today we got up and headed on Daeng's motorbike to the morning market. We turned left onto the main street, a one way divided road. A girl was coming the wrong way and ran into us. She did not have a driver's licence as she was illegally in Thailand from Myanmar (Burma). Note: In Thailand you drive on the left side and Myanmar (Burma) it's on the right.

She offered us all the money she had, 200 Thai Baht (about $6.60 USD) and must have said she was sorry at least forty times. The good part was none of us was hurt and the only damage to Daeng's motorbike was the basket on the front was bent slightly. I bent it straight with my hands.

We told her to keep her money, be careful and have a great day. She again said: "Sorry" another dozen times and "Thank you!" another eight or nine times.

We went on to the market and had the usual fried chicken, sticky rice, coffee & Pa Thong Ko. Deang did buy some cow skin and fried pork liver just to change up the breakfast a little.

I also took a picture of the lady in the market selling ant eggs for soup. I have had ant egg soap and it is pretty good; tastes like chicken.

Now, let's talk about the price of gasoline. Ninety-one (91) Octane gasoline is 42.45 Thai Baht a liter. US Dollar to Thai Baht is 30.69 per $1.00 US. 1 US Gallon equals 3.785 liter so 42.45 Baht x 3.785 = 160.67 Thai Baht / 30.69 = $5.26 USD a US gallon.

Now, that's not a bad price for 91 octane gasoline considering no gasoline comes from Thailand. ALL gasoline is imported. As you can see from the picture 95 gasohol and diesel, at the top of the picture, is cheaper. Many taxi's and big trucks run on propane which is almost half the price of 91 gasoline above.

Well, so much for the educational part of our blog.

Tomorrow we plan on driving to Ban AYO to see if Chom-nom is still at his school. You folks that have been in prison know what I mean by "school".