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.

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.