More "Our town" stuff...

In this post, i wanted to give you a better idea of what Pattananikom looks like. The two photos of the little buildings are the typical store fronts here. Most are 3 story skinny little townhouses. The first floor has a large garage door entrance, and the business ( no matter what it is) is there. The 2nd and 3rd floors are for living space. They seem to cost between 1,000,000-2,000,000 baht. That nice house belongs to the family that owns the local mini-mart type store. That other little house on stilts is across the street from us. Palmy went riding with me to have lunch and take a few photos.

Visa Hell!

We have just returned from our latest trip to the Immigration Dept. in Bangkok. Golly gee, what fun! They seem to have a never ending supply of reasons to make you come back in a month so tghey can charge you yet another 1900 baht fee for some bullshit. This time they are going to have the local police check our address, and make sure i really live here. They also want a few photos of Roong and i at home. This also gives them time to check to make sure that i have the 400,000 baht in the bank that they require. All they would have to do is call the bank and check this blog, but then they don't get their fee. I understand that their Gov. needs to survive too, but at least the angry monkeys had a sign to warn you about it all. The photos are of my lovely wife on the bus ride back.

I found a good steak!!!!

Well, actually, Roong found it. She asked a friend, and they had a few suggestions. It's expensive (by Thai standards) and can't compare to Outback, but it's real beef and they have steak sauce! They have a T-bone, but for some reason they cut it off the bone. I still can't get them to find a baked potato, but french fries are ok as a replacement. The place is only a few minutes from our home too. That's our beautiful daughter Palmy (doing that goofy asian girl peace sign thing again) standing next to the entrance to the place. As I mentioned before, none of the places here have names. You just say the name of the owner, and then what they sell. The place is very comfortable. It is all open-air, and has a thatched roof. It is next to a small waterway, so there is a cool breeze most of the time. The only drawback is that damn Karaoke machine.