The Waterfalls......

Today was a fun day. Roong and i went out adventuring. About an hour southeast of us is some serious jungle. There is a small river that runs through it that has a few small waterfalls along it. Alot of people go there to play in the water, and picnic or whatever. It is very comfortable there. The water, and all the shade from the trees, help keep it fairly cool there. There is also the normal line of small food shops all over the parking area. Hmmmm..i have just noticed that all my photos of cute little Thai honeys in swimsuits have disappeared. I must remember not to let Roong carry the camera!

The Bad Steak incident....

Ok, since we didn't drown at the waterfalls, or get eaten by cannibals, we decided to go find dinner. Roong was convinced that i needed a steak. It has been a pretty much beefless last 2 months, so i was all for it. She took me to this little place off of the main road back to Pattananikom. It was beautiful! It was outside, with lots of trees and flowers, and you sat in these little teakwood gazebo things. It was looking like rain, so we had a nice cool breeze. The waiter asked me what i wanted, and i told him a T-bone and a salad. He then asked me if i wanted a "meaty bum"???? I was hoping he was actually asking if i wanted it cooked "Medium". So i said "Fire it up bubba!". It's a good thing that our waiter and waitress were nice, and the that the place was pretty, cause the food sucks! Haaaaaa! The steak was about 1/4 inch of undercooked fat. Yeesh! It's not like i am hard to feed yanno! But that explained why Roong ordered orange juice and a macaroni salad. I gotta keep a closer eye on her. She loves to set up these little experiments. Haaa! Oh...Thailand has its own beer, called Singha. It tastes pretty good. Or maybe it was just good cause it was cold, and i haven't had one in a while. Who knows?

Godzilla vs Mopeds.....

Mopeds are not motorcycles!!! Yeesh! Everyone here owns at least one scooter. They are all over the damn place, like ants at a picinic. They refer to them as motorcycles. I have tried a few times, armed with a photo of a Harley, to show them the difference. All they say is "Ahhh..Choppa!". Anyway, The guy that owns the local sign shop on the main street (well, our only street) has this Suzuki RG150 for sale. He wants 6000 baht for it ($160). It runs fine, he rode it around a bit to show me. Of course it needs all the normal stuff, like new tires and all. But for under $200, what do ya want? I will take Palmy with me to translate to find out about the title and all. I don't know if they have those here. I am not in a rush, because we need to be careful with our finances this next few months. It is just fun to look at. I checked on the internet for international drivers lisences. It seems all they are is a translation of my current lisence. Sounds like pretty much of a scam. My Missouri one is good for like 3 months here. I dont think anyone here really gives a damn about all that anyway. Roong is friends with the local police dept, so they sorta watch out for me in non-interested way. Works for me! Zoom Zoom! Here is a photo of it.........



1998 RG150 The Suzuki RG150 was a 148 cc 2-stroke road motorbike produced by Suzuki in Thailand . The bike was produced from 1998 until 2000. In 1998, it was selected as the 2nd best new motorcycle of 1998 by Motor Trend magazine. It was produced almost exclusively for Thailand although around 100 were exported to New Zealand . This is what one looked like new......

Khoapansa .....

Wow! What great morning. Today Roong took me to the Khoapansa celebration at one of the local Wats. As near as i can understand, it is a traditional celebration that takes place once each year. People go to the temples, and give the monks candles, so they can pray at night. It is also a bit of a beauty pageant and Rose Bowl thing too. The different districts are each represented with a float, and they can win a trophy. Today Roong's district came took 2nd place! Yayyyy! I have more photos on the other camera of Roongs Coworkers. I will add them to this post later. That is Roongs best friend in the photo with her. Her name is "In".

Chowing down in Thailand....

The Food here is great. It's mostly just small amounts of moo (pork) or kai (chicken) mixed with veggies and sprouts and stuff. It's served in a soup fashion, or in a broth made mostly of coconut milk. And of course a fair amount of one or more of the many different chili peppers they have here. There's alot of different ways to hurt yourself at the dinner table here.
The Fruit on the other hand is a hoot. Oranges are green, pears have seeds the size of a golf ball, and grapes have hard shells and segments like a tangerine. The strangest is the Rambutan. It is kind of like a small red pear with a leathery shell, and huge soft spines. But they all taste great. here are a few shots of the fruits and fruit stands. I can't pronounce the names of most of them without causing my wife to convulse with laughter, so i won't even try to spell them. Some of these photos are off the internet, because they are out of season, and some where taken here.