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.

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!

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.

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!

We made it to the "Land of Smiles"

Well, it was a little hectic leaving the USA this trip. After putting truck in storage and setting up everything to be gone for ten (10) weeks, saying: "Bye for now." to our Mother, the staff at Flagship Health Care, my Daughter, Tina and our Sister Diane we were tired before the trip.

Our friend, Terry Hamilton, took us to LAX airport at 10:30 at night. Usually we fly out in the afternoon and arrive in Bangkok at one o'clock in the morning. Flying into Bangkok is like flying into the Bronx so at 1:00 AM it was a little scary, at least the first time.

This trip we thought we would change up the plan and arrive in the middle of the afternoon and take a car to the beach holiday town of Pattaya, Thailand. That way we avoid Bangkok completely.

Well, fourteen hours and five minutes to Taipei, Taiwan then three hours to change planes and one hour and twenty minutes to Hong Kong. Now, for a little surprise, we had to get off the plane in Hong Kong, go through security with our carry on bags and get back onto the same plane.

Two hours and twenty minutes later we were in Bangkok airport. We went through immigrations, got our bags and headed to meet our driver in the waiting area.

Here is were I think I screwed up as I got confused with the International Date Line and made arrangements for our pick up on Friday. The trouble was it was Thursday and our driver was not waiting for us.

Daeng made a phone call and thirty minutes later he was at the airport picking us up.

It was an uneventful trip to the Honey Lodge Hotel in Pattaya. Honey Lodge is an old hotel, right in the middle of the adult fun zone, next to the beach and the area know as "Walking Street". Although it is old and a little beat up it has nice folks running the place, fresh water swimming pool, hot water showers in our private bath, clean linen everyday and is really cheap at about $18 USD a night.

We'll after the looonnnnnngggggggg trip and the getting ready for the trip we were beat. We showered and went to sleep.

The next six days are kind of a blur, eat, sleep, eat, sleep, walk, eat, sleep, walk, eat, sleep more and now, at 8:00 AM, maybe we are over jet-lag. We are both up and talking about going to have breakfast at the morning market.

It is great to get my favorite fruit, pineapple, all cut up for only 10 TB a pineapple. That is about thirty-three cents each.

Pattaya is, I think, the second most visited area in Thailand. Everything a person could want can be had here. The beach is nice, although sometimes a little dirty. You can walk out into the warm ocean for hundreds of meters and still be only waist deep in water.

Every kind of food is available here due to the millions of tourists every year. This is the low season so it is not very crowded.

One of the foods I love is the kabob that our friend, "Mr. Kabab" has around the corner from our hotel. He really gets into cutting the meat making his kabobs.

If you would like more information about Pattaya go to Google.com and type "Pattaya".

We are going to spend the next four days here and then are going to fly to Chiang Rai on Sunday. Chiang Rai is the farthest north we can go by plane.

We will have to repack or Asia Airlines will charge us more for our two bags. We are about three kilograms (6.6 pounds) a bag to heavy.

Daeng will arrange for a car to take us the rest of the way to our home in Mae Sai on the Myanmar (Burma) Border.

We plan on spending the next two months working on our new home. We have a few repairs to do as well as get the master bedroom suite done along with a guest room or two.

That way we can have visitors during our spring trip.

For the master bedroom we need to put up one wall with door, have the closet cabinets built and put in the air conditioning system. I'm sure we will want to put in some new light fixtures, bed, furniture and television.

We also have some loose ends with Baan AYO Children's Shelter to work through. We know things will work out okay in the end.

We will write more soon. Until then we'll just let down our hair and have fun!

Thank You to Ron Brower's Office!

Without getting into to much detail I want to thank everyone at Ron Brower's Law Office for their help with a pressing problem as we were getting ready to leave for Thailand.

One of my Grand-Daughters was arrested in Los Angeles County and put in jail. I called Ron's office and his office not only helped to get her out of jail but talked to the District Attorney's Office and all charges were dis-missed.

If you ever have a legal problem it is our recommendation you call Ronald G. Brower, Esquire or Ellie Pullian at Brower & Associates, 1043 Civic Center Drive West, Santa Ana, California 92803. The Office telephone is 714-997-4400.

Because Ron Brower is a criminal attorney the telephone is answered 24/7.

A simpler way to say it is: "If you get in trouble call Ron Brower!"

We want to thank them again as everything was handled in a rapid manor so we did not have to worry about this family member as we left the United States of America for Thailand.

I would also like to add that although I don't agree with our legal system all the time it is the best system in the world.

Heart of a fifty year old.......

We are packing for the plane to Thailand tonight.

I thought I would let you know of the chemical stress test results from last Thursday.

I called the Doctor yesterday as he instructed me to after the test. He told me to have fun in Thailand as my heart looked really good for a fifty year old male. He also told me to stay off the treadmill. LOL

As I am age 68, I thanked him.

He said he was traveling to India next week. He also said he was thinking about a little trip to Thailand, too. He stated he would call us there if he makes it.

Yes, it is a small World.