Wow, Busy Day and I'm Tired March 30, 2014

I didn't sleep well last night and then woke up at 3:10 AM.  The reason I didn't sleep well is I'm now the bad guy in the family because I told a family member that they need to help out.  She is about six months pregnant, not getting along with her boyfriend, so she has been staying here with us.  All she does is eat and sleep.  She does nothing to help around the house. She just hangs out and eats, that's all. She is also getting very fat.  

Anyway, after asking her to get two cardboard boxes from her Dad and she saying: "I don't want to."  I told her how I feel.  We care about her but we did not make her pregnant.  This should be a happy time for her Dad and Mom but instead she is a burden as she does almost nothing to help out.  Asking her to get two cardboard boxes from her Dad to help us was not asking a lot.  "I don't want to." was not a good response.

Most Thais don't tell you how there really feel, they just stuff it and go on.  Sooo, I'm the bad guy for telling the truth.  

I got dressed at about 4:00 AM and went to the big Mae Sai morning market.  I bought a kilograms of old newspapers for 20 THB (60 US cents) to use while painting and had coffee and Pa Thong Ko at our favorite spot.  They are great folks. We kid them because he is Muslim and she is Buddhist. They have two great kids, also. 

You can see her making coffee in a video on the last half of a story I wrote last year on April 13th, just CLICK HERE.  She always says: "Thank you, thank you very much."

I might also add, he made me what I call a Muslim Taco. It is like a tortilla with a bean paste and a little olive oil on top.  I think they taste very good.   I know, I'm not PC.

I also took a picture of the chicken lady cleaning the heads of the chickens with a tooth brush. She and I both laughed. 

I left the morning market about 6:30 AM but on the way home there was a road block to allow this huge Buddha to be moved on the road.

To show you how large this Buddha is I took a telephoto of the man that is sitting on the shoulder of Buddha.   I think he is lookout for electrical and telephone wires. 

It did not take long for them to clear the intersection and I continued home.  

My goal today is to add some laundry shut off valves for the two washing machines on that side of the laundry area so we can install a free standing sink on the right hand side of the washers.  I unhooked everything and moved them away from the wall.  

I got busy marking and cutting the existing pipes.  I must be back in good graces as I was told to come have breakfast with the family before they went to church.  It was an interesting breakfast with fried chicken and

onions, boiled and then fried eggs, rice, vegetables and ant egg soup.

I wrote a little bit about ant eggs in some other stories. CLICK HERE to read those stories.

In any case, this is what the soup with the ant eggs looks like.  The white part is the ant eggs.  No, I'm not going to say: "Tastes like chicken."

Daeng got up and went to vote. That's correct, vote on a Sunday.  It is a local election and Daeng wanted to vote for the local representative that she knows.  She says she thinks he will help the people of the area, named Moo 8, better than anyone else.

When she got back she made me a cup of coffee and helped me finish the plumbing work.

She also

cleaned out an area in the floor that was broken so we can patch the concrete today, also. 

We work good together.  

I caulked the top of the piping on the wall so it would not collect dirt.  After the caulking cures I will put a coat of paint on the piping.

Daeng and I mixed some concrete up and patched the hole.  I think it looks pretty good for a plumber. 

The caulking needed more time to cure before painting so I put a coat of red oxide primer on the rolling door for this area of the house.  We are going to paint all the metal gates and security doors a red walnut color.  It need two coats of primer before we pain the enamel. 

I then painted the piping the same color it was before and we moved and hooked up the washing machines and tested.  Everything worked correctly with no leaks.  

We still have to buy and install the sink but that's another day.

Tomorrow we are headed to the City of Chiang Mai for some fun and shopping.  

Thailand - First 10 Days Back Spring 2014

It's March 6th and we're on our way back to Thailand for three months.  We pack pretty light as we have clothes and everything we need at our home on the Myanmar (Burma) border.

The worst part of our trip is the 18 hours and 10 minutes in the air.  The whole trip to Bangkok is about 30 hours pillow to pillow.  What that means is from the time we get up in California to the time we get back into bed in Bangkok is about 30 hours.

We use China Airlines as we can fly round trip for about $1,000 USD each.  Of course that is economy fair as first class is about $5,000 USD each.  I am small enough now to sit okay in the tiny economy seats.  I have lost about 76 pounds from my top weight of 326 pounds.  

Everything went smooth, the immigration officer laughed at me as I sang my "Good Morning Song" using English, Spanish and Thai. Because the streets were pretty empty at two in the morning, the taxi driver took us on city streets so we did not have to pay the 75 THB (about $2.40 US) for tolls on the highway.  

Pam at the White Orchard Inn II had our favorite room ready for us.  We like this little place as it is clean, close to the sky-train (BST) and the staff is very friendly and helpful. 

I have made the trip over the Pacific Ocean 21 times. The longest trip was in 1961 from Korea to California with 44 hours in the air on prop planes.  I was a young man of 21 years old and the trip still beat me up. 

When we arrived, we checked in our room, showed, eat and took a little nap.  Bangkok is a 24 hour town so we had no problem having breakfast at five o'clock in the morning.

This is Sukhamvit Road at Soi 5 at 5:00 AM.  The party is still going on.

We had breakfast at Took Lae Dee Restaurant in Foodland.  They have Farang food so I had an English Breakfast.

"Took Lae Dee" translates from Thai to English as "Cheap and Good".  That is a excellent translation and the folks there are very friendly. 


Here is a picture of our server at 5:00 AM.  This is why they call Thailand the "Land of Smiles". 

A few hours sleep and up again.  With the red shirt and yellow shirt demonstrations happening in Bangkok it is hard to move around this Sukhamvit Road area by car or taxi but very easy on the Sky-Train.  

We'll talk of the red and yellow shirts at another time.  

By the way, you can even get fresh vegetables right in the city.  Yea, Thailand.  

I wanted to go to a noon meeting on Saturday with some English speaking friends so I hopped onto a motorbike taxi.  At that time of day we were able to travel through the Tobacco Monopoly.  

The Tobacco Monopoly is a several square mile area in the center of Bangkok that is used to dry, treat and cut tobacco.


On the way through the area, the smell of tobacco and the chemicals that they add was so strong I almost vomited.  

I wish I could take my smoking friends through this area as maybe smelling this stuff would help them quite smoking. 

We have been talking about buying a car here in Thailand for the last few years.  Gasoline is very expensive so we have been considering vehicle with a diesel.

At this time, real gasoline, when you can find it, is around $6.00 USD a US Gallon.  Gasohol is a little cheaper and is what most folks buy for their cars. Diesel is around $3.54 USD a US Gallon. 

Also, a diesel pickup truck will get about the same mileage as a gasoline car. Being a guy, I like the idea of having a diesel pick-up truck, too. 

So we found the closest Chevrolet dealer in Bangkok and went to see the Chevy Colorado.  This is the model we liked. It is a X Cab with a 2.5 L Diesel. 

The folks at this dealership were not very friendly so we agreed that we would look more when we got home in Chiang Rai.  There is a Chevy dealer there, as well. 

During our stay in Bangkok, we took a little time to smell the flower, so to speak.  

The flowers here are beautiful.   

We also walked around the more know areas of Bangkok.


We stopped for a coke in the Nana Fun Area.  It is know as the World's Largest Adult Playground. 

By the way, here you can still buy Coco-cola made with real cane sugar in 7 oz. glass bottles. 

We were also a little sad as we made a little side trip to the little coffee shop were we bought coffee every morning in 2006.  

It was run my an elderly couple that always smiled and treated us nicely.  

When we got there we found this, an empty shop. We went through the open doorway and found the owners.  He was ill and they had to close the shop.

We spent some time talking with them to be sure they had enough food and could live alone okay.  They said their son was helping them so they would be okay.

Things change but this made us both sad.  

It also reminded us that life is like a roll of toilet tissue. The closer you get to the end the faster it goes. 

We have been here in Bangkok for six days so it is time to go north.  I also have to renew my Thailand retirement Visa.  I could do it in Bangkok but it is much easier in Mae Sai. 

We flew Thai Airlines as it still has planes from the new airport to Chiang Rai.  They also give you 20 Kilograms of free checked baggage.  Nok Air and Air Asia charge for all checked baggage.  With baggage the cost is about the same.  I also got a deal on line for 1900 THB (about $57 USD) each.

The trip was uneventful and we took a taxi the 60 Km north to our home. Every one and everything was good when we arrived.

A couple of new news items.  While we were gone, Daeng's brother Tun made a septic room so he could do kidney dialysis at home.  


They did a nice job with the glass but the plumbing has a little to be desired.

I have to remember that most folks here have never seen "A" grade work so they think "C" grade is okay and "D" grade is acceptable.  Oh well, this is Thailand.

The other new item is Daeng's niece, Nuy, is five month pregnant.  She lives with her boyfriend but come here every morning early, when he goes to work, and spends all day eating, eating and eating.  I told her she would be as big as me in a few months.  I need to try and be loving. 

She told me that after the baby is born she will be skinny again and I'll still be fat. 

It is also nice to see Bang helping with the laundry business.  Her son, Bum, is so cute and growing up really smart. 

His nickname is really "Bom" but I always call him "Bum". 

It's also nice to have coffee and Pa Thong Ko at the Ban Pa Mueat morning market.  

Our friend "Me", the lady on the left is going to have another baby.  We asked her is she knew if it would be a boy or girl.  She said she didn't know.  I told her is she was on the bottom she would have a little girl and if on top, a little boy.  


She started to laugh.  I ask her why and she said: "I think I'm going to have a puppy!"

Here is a picture of her little girl.  She is just like Mom, want more money. 

Grandma is going to stick around also to help with the new baby.  

We ran into "Mai", the fellow that helped us with our home after the 6.8 earthquake here in 2011.  He was a great help and put everything back better than it was.  

For stories about the 6.8 just CLICK HERE. 

He understand the value of quality work and is an excellent craftsman.

Watermelon anyone?  The sign says: "3 for 10 THB".  That is about 10 US Cents each.  To bad I gave up watermelon for lent.  I should have given up Brussel Sprouts. 

Tortillas in Thailand?  They don't call them tortillas but they look and taste about the same.  

Here is the way they toast them on the Myanmar (Burma) border. 

I think this is the way they have been doing it for hundreds of years. 

Renewing my Thai Retirement Visa was extremely easy as most of the immigration officers have Tun, Daeng's brother, laundry their uniforms.  They filled out most of the paperwork and I was out in about a half hour with a Visa until March 13, 2015 and municipal entries.  That means I can come into Thailand as many times as I want during the year.  
We also visited the big Mae Sai morning market.  You can buy just about anything there.  

That includes Ant Eggs for Ant Egg soup. 

It takes a lot of time to harvest enough Ant Eggs to fill a small bag like Daeng is holding.  The cost is 40 THB, about $1.25 USD. 

Now that we are here for a few weeks before we do some traveling, we did some shopping for food items, like coffee, milk, bread, sugar, peanut butter, jelly and stuff like that at Tesco/Lotus.  Tesco/Lotus is a big store. 

Daeng bought cheese and sauce to make pizza. 

We also spent three days looking and test driving cars and pick-up trucks.  I was thinking about the Chevy Colorado but when I test drove one it was very sloppy in handling compared to the Toyota.  


We stopped to buy gasoline for my motorbike and I could hear Daeng laughing.  I turned around and ask her why she was laughing.  She pointed to the drawing of the pigs on the big truck next to us.  I laughed, also. 

We went to the Toyota Dealer just south of Mae Sai and test drove the Toyota Vigo Hilux 2.5L diesel model G Smart Cab, again.  

Here is a review of the "E" model CLICK HERE.  In the USA it is known as the Tacoma or 4Runner.  We like the "G" model as it has all the extra stuff like back up camera, DVD player, etc. 

Ta, the lady we are working with, is going to call the main dealership in the morning and see if they have it in white with a cream interior.  If they have it we think we will buy it.  

More will be reviled tomorrow, Monday.  

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".