Strange Pets

Ya see that big bug tethered to the sugar cane log? That's a Thai Rhinoceros Beetle. It seems they are quite a business here. They appear in the late summer months to mate, and munch the crap out of the farmers coconut, banana, and pineapple crops. The farmers aren't pleased, but everyone else is. The locals stage fights with them. Don't worry though, no one gets hurt. What they do is this. They get a sugar cane log, and dig a hole in it, and put a female in there. Then they put two males on the log, and they start pushing each other to get to her. The one that falls off, or gets tossed out of the way is the loser. They have these little sticks with metal rings on them. You spin these between your fingers, and the rings make a "zzzurzzzurzzzurz" sound. The beetles react to the different sounds made. Trained bugs!! Who knew? Anyway, alot of money gets put on these matches. It's quite the event in august and september. I told Roong i thought that was a hoot, and would like to have one. I was joking...but 2 days later, one of the farmers in her district brought me 6 of them!!!! Haaaaa. Mine aren't as big as the one in this photo, but there are many different species. I will try and get a pic of them and add it to this blog tomorrow. They are supposed to die off after the fall mating, so i am not sure how long they will last. They locals treat them like pets, and it's quite normal to be chowing down at one of the outside restaurants, and have one sitting by his owners plate having a bit of lunch too. They are so big, they don't really seem like insects. More like little wind up toys. they aren't aggressive, they just ponder along. They do make a very loud hissing sound if irritated, and that can be a bit unnerving at first. They can fly too, but don't seem to be very willing to do it. That's all for now. I did get pretty bombed with my friend Steve at a pet shop the other night, but thats a story for another day ( Hi Mai!). Haaaaa!

Don's English Home opens.....

What a day! Our little classroom opened up today. We had 3 classes, with a total of 14 children. A few more may show up on wednesday though. We tried to divide them up by their skill level. I think we have them pretty well sorted out. The youngest ones are first, then the intermediate, then the kids that really just need to practice speaking. Roong took the day off work to be there to help. She did alot of translating at the beginning of each class. Once the kids understood most of the basic commands, then we seemed to do pretty well. Roong won't be there on wednesday, but i am hoping Palmy will be close by just in case. most of the kids are From Roongs district, but i do know a few of them. The 12 yr old in the black and white stripes is Ead's daughter Earth. The 11 yr old in the same photo, that has the yellow shirt is her sister Art. The other two girls are named Oon and Ice. At the picnic table, that's Pim and Boom in front. Roong's niece Bing is just to the left of them. That is Lang on the right, and Gino,Man, and Nat in the back. There was another class, but i will have to get photos on Wednesday, when the rest of the kids show up. I think there will be 1 or 2 more.
Adjusting to their differnt abilities was hard. They are wonderful children, and quick to learn. I hope i can do the same..Haaaaa!

Hanging out with friends...and other assorted creatures

Roong and i had dinner with Steve and his wife Joom last night at Ban-nok. We had a great time. A few other showed up too. That jerk Thanet was there with a group also. It seems i didn't get the job at the Pattananikom school because the little knob told the board i wanted 40,000 baht per month. They hired a Filippina woman to teach instead. But as she isn't a native born English speaker, no one can understand what she says! Haaaaa! So they fired Thanet (kharma strikes again) and put Kizi in charge of the English dept. They say i should get hired next term when the other girl's contract is up. But in Thailand...who knows?
The guy in the T-shirt is Steve. That's Joom talking to my wife. The guy with his hand on steve's leg is Joom's Uncle (snicker). The older gentleman is Eads Father. He built everything there from scratch, starting with a small chicken farm. Pretty impressive. The 3 guys are friends of the family. They are like local strong arms or something, but they seem nice enough. Steve says they are good people to know. Oh..the cutie in the apron is one of the waitresses there. I think her name is like Tiree.

Skul daz

Only two more weeks until we open the class. I still have to finish putting a door in, and getting the back room light to work. And due to leaks beyond our control, I truly hope it doesn't rain during class hours. Haaaa! That's Thep on the left, he made the signs for us. We have a fair amount of people that say they want to send their kids to learn with us. We also have several adults. I may have to do a few evening classes for them. We will see how it goes. And yes, i know that sign is butt ugly, but Thep is a good friend, and i didn't have the heart to tell him that. 8)

Visa's and stuff

Ok...it seems blogspot had a glitch going. I am not sure why i couldn't type on that last post, nor why the letters only showed up in blue. Yeesh! I got my one year visa stamp! Yayyyyy. But there is actually only 8 months left on it, because it took these dwarf sized shisters 4 months to give it to me. And, they managed to put the country into a state of martial law in the process. ( I didn't do it!!). This flag is something i did for an ex-pat site here.

Aye Caramba!

Hi again. I have just had yet another bout with Roong's English tutor. I cannot believe that I am catching crap from this kid. WE DON'T SPEAK LIKE THAT! Sunanta, contractions are for sissys! Haaaaaaa!

Palmy goes into business at Ban-nok

Palmy got a job! There is a beautiful restaurant/bar/hotel here called "Ban-Nok". It's an open air place that is done in a Western American style (sorta). The food is great and the Singha beer is cold. What more could you ask for? The place is owned an operated by a real nice couple named Ead and Nan (That's Ead and i in the first Photo). They are great friends, and alot of fun to hang out with. Ead runs the restaurant and all, and Nan does all the landscaping (which is amazing with all the flowers, ponds, and waterfalls). Ead said that she wanted a website, but it has to be in Thai. So i asked Palmy if she wanted to give it a shot, because her personal site is very creative. Palmy was all over that (for the right amount of baht of course!). On saturday i took Palmy over there to get some photos, and some information. Ead ordered up a bunch of food, so we could get photos of that too. It was a beautiful spread. The food was delicious, and we got to chow down on it with her and her family after we took all the photos. It seems my favorite hidey hole has gone world wide web on me. What can ya do?

Palmy's 15 seconds of fame

I almost forgot about this. While we were at the waterfalls, Palmy spotted a Thai movie star. His name is Morris K. I have not seen him in anything yet, but he was very nice, and more than happy to let me get a shot of he and Palmy. I figure that means his career is about shot! Haaaa!

More Water Sports....

Another beautiful day at the waterfalls. This time Palmy and Puk and I went swimming. The place is like Johnson's shut-in back home. It's about a 1/2 mile of small rapids and waterfalls that you can take an innertube over. The only drawback is that neither of the girls can swim. But they are a brave pair, so off we went. It didn't take long to break their spirit though i am sad to say. At the first waterfall, there are 2 guys there to catch alyone that has trouble. It's only a few feet drop, but thats enough to turn you over and give you a good dunking. That was enough for Puk. She went under for a few seconds, and came up sputtering and paddling like a lost puppy. Palmy was a bit more game though. She jumped back in the tube and headed on. She got about 20 yards ahead of me by the time we reached the large deep pool that is like a stopping point. I yelled to her to hop off her tube, hang on, and paddle to the shore. She wasn't buying that. She floated on until she saw the next set of rapids. There, she somehow flipped off her tube, and ended up hanging on to this large branch that was sticking up out of the water. She was screaming and laughing at the same time. I told her to stand up. I jumped off my tube, and stood up to show her. She wasn't going for that either. So i got back on the tube and floated towards her. As i went by, i grabbed her and yanked her onto the tube with me.....then we hit the rapids. A few rough bounces, and a whole lot of swallowed water later, we came to a calm. We crawled to the shore and about collapsed. Guess what was waiting for us there...you're right, a hooker! She grabbed her boobs, and started babbling something about her meatballs. I was laughing my ass off, and luckily Palmy didn't know what she was talking about (That child has got to get out more..yeesh!). Anyway, we all lived through it, and want to go give it another try. I will let ya know how that one turns out, and of course, just how much a meatball does cost in Thailand.

My My My....

Well what do we have here? I wonder where that came from. Could it be a brand spankin new 2006 Honda Phantom? Could it be that some fool finally admitted he was too old to ride around on a damn crotch rocket all day? Thailand truly is a magical place.

The Kings Wat (temple)

Last weekend was alot of fun. Roong and i went to the kings palace and Wat in Bangkok after our monthly battle with the evil Immigration dept. The whole thing is an explosion of color and light. Everything is covered in gold leaf, colored glass, and mirror chips (which explains what happened to all those disco balls from the 70's, Haaaa!). The most amazing thing was the hallways. Encircling the entire place is a wall with one open air side. The other side is covered with a long painting, that tells the entire story of Thailands mythology. I got to talk to one of the several people who are constantly working on repairing and maintaining it. Roong explained alot of the story bits too me. I would like to find a book on their mythology that is in English. The stories are wild. The one shot of the front of the palace has a balcony. This is where the king comes out and waves, and does whatever else kings do. We also got to go into the temple and place insence and pray. was very nice. You can't take photos in there though, because it is the kings private area.