Wedding And A Funeral

This is a picture taken 4 or 5 years ago.  The lady in the flowered shirt is Yai Bao.

 

She was my housekeeper, when I was in the Peace Corps.  I'm still not sure how I could afford a maid on only 250 USD/ month.  I think I paid her 30 USD/ month, which was not a lot for all the work she did, but she also used my house as the local casino. 

During the day, while she was cleaning or doing laundry, villagers would stop by to buy tickets for the underground lottery.  Other times, she would organize a game of cards in the evening with some of the local high-rollers - usually, a group of old Thai-Chinese ladies. Yai Bao and I would serve them snacks and drinks and at the end of the night (sometimes 3 or 4am), she and I would get a cut from the dealer for letting them use my house.  The idea was that the police would never suspect an illegal lottery or gambling operation to be going on in a foreigner's house.

Here's another picture from the same day.  I had a bit of a shock just before this picture was taken.  Before I arrived in Chaiyaphum I had asked my friend, Supot, how Yai Bao and her husband were doing.  He told me that her husband had passed away.  It was sad news, of course, but not too much of a surprise because he seemed to be about 20 years older than Yai Bao.

What was a surprise, and caused Supot and I both to choke on our whiskeys was a few minutes after we had arrived at Yai Bao's house, her husband came out to greet us.  I guess Supot got some wrong information - or we were seeing ghosts.

There's the ghost smiling in the background.

Here's a picture of Yai Bao's husband and I during the water festival.  For some reason he was dressed up like an old lady.

Well, fast-forward to a couple weeks ago when I drove up to Chaiyaphum for the wedding that I blogged about previously.   Similar to my last trip - when I arrived, Supot told me that Yai Bao's husband had died the day before, but this time he was not mistaken.

So, the day after the wedding, I stopped by my old village to attend the funeral. 

I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here is the path leading to the temple. 

here is Yai Bao and some of her friends waiting for the monks to arrive.

After the funeral, I stopped by my old house.  This is the view looking out across from the casino.

Bangna Sunset

The other day, Nuch and I came home to an amazing sunset behind Bangna.

This is looking out from our rear balcony.

World's Biggest Birdhouse

Here are some more pictures of Nuch's and my condo. Ours is the 2nd to last building.

The complex consists of 6 buildings and 4 swimming pools. It's one of only two high-rises within a couple miles, so it also attracts all the pigeons in Southeast Bangkok.

This was taken from the pool. Our room is on the 8th floor.

Here's a closer look. Our balcony is on the bottom - the black bird sitting there is fake and is supposed to scare away the pigeons. It seems to be working, as about 12 pigeons have decided to perch on the floor above us.

Grand Opening - Bangkok's Airport Rail Link

Yesterday, the express train from Suvarnabhumi Airport to downtown Bangkok had its grand opening. By chance, I had to renew my passport at the US embassy, so I figured I'd try out Bangkok's newest public transport system.

For 100 Baht I got a round trip ticket.

I don't think I was the first passenger on Bangkok's new Airport Rail Link that day, but I was definitely the only one on that particular run.

This is the upper terminal just after the ticket booth. Just me and a cleaning lady a couple hundred yards down the corridor.

This is the train platform. As they say in Thai - "Ngee-ab!!!!!"

To be honest for my particular trip, the Airport Link was not so convenient. It took me at least 2 hours to get from my front door to the Embassy, and in the process I experienced muliple full-body sweats walking through massive, poorly air-conditioned terminals and going from the Rail Link to the Subway once I got downtown. The best part of the trip was a motorcycle taxi from Lumpini Station to the Embassy that finally cooled me down.

All that being said, the 15 minute ride on the Rail Link did present some unique views of the Bangkok suburbs.

This was taken just outside Suvarnabhumi Airport, as we pulled out from beneath the terminal.

The Airport Link follows the expressway that I've taken dozens of times, but without the obstructions of the road, cars, and railings you're better able to take in the surroundings. It's a 15 minute time warp from a 3rd world agrarian countryside to a new-world concrete jungle.

A few minutes outside of the airport, the land was still fairly rural.

Soon after you could see more development. Here's a school.


Here's a new cookie cutter development being developed right next to an old cookie cutter development.


Just a few minutes from Makkasan station in downtown Bangok, you could see the edges of the city start to grow along with Bangkok's ever present inner-city slums - with satellite cables dishes, of course.

On the way back, I was the only one, too - except for a cable TV news crew from Korea.

This is the Makassan Station in downtown Bangkok.

Being the only one on the train, they had no choice but to interview me. When asked about the best part of the new service, I told them that there were plenty of seats.

Times Are Tough All Over

You know times are tough when Thai street dogs are begging for handouts.

What's In A Name - Boonlerd

While writing the previous blog, I realized that Nong Sai's husband has the same name as one of my favorite Thai actors - Boonlerd.

Boonlerd is the water buffalo that appeared in the movie "Bangrajan", which is a historical film about a brave group of warriors that died while defending Thailand from Burmese invaders. Anyway, Boonlerd left a lasting impression on me. Not simply because of his award-winning portrayal of a water buffalo, but because he had 10 ft horns!!!!

Here's another scene with Boonlerd.

I was so impressed that when I moved to Korat and bought a $200 motorcycle, I named it - Boonlerd.

Chaiyaphum Wedding

A couple weeks ago, my old friend, Supot, from Chaiyaphum gave me a call. The daughter of a friend of ours was getting married and he asked me to join. So, on a Friday afternoon I made the 5 hour trek Northeast to attend an Isaan wedding.

Here are the bride, Nong Sai, and the groom, Boonlerd.


I remember the first time I met Nong Sai. Her mother was a coworker of mine and a close friend. One night there was a large group of us at a restaurant, and Nong Sai,who was 7 or 8 at the time, happened to be sitting next to me. At some point in the evening I caught her staring at me, which was quite common in Chaiyaphum where kids rarely get to see a foreigner in person.

Playing along, I turned and stared back at her. She sat quietly and continued to look straight at me. - white skin, big nose, and by far the biggest human being she's ever seen, then something startled her and she yelled for her mom. I guess she had never seen blue eyes before because she grabbed her mother's arm and asked why I had cat's eyes.

Here are the bride and groom being introduced by their parents.


Here's my friend Supot.

and Selena.

Mr. Sam and his wife

Not sure who these people were, but they were sitting at my table and were very friendly.

the son was very proud of his name brand shirt.

Miss Thailand World 2010

If you look just to the left, you'll see a map of the world with filled with red dots (except for Africa). This is the location of all the people who have viewed my blog. There's also a bit of software that let's me know what pages they visit and how they found my website.

After a bit of analysis, I could see a clear pattern. About 1% of my visitors are my mom, grandma, Nuch, and other family members. The other 99% are people who have googled "Miss Thailand" in one form or another and have come across one of my yearly Miss Thailand World or Miss Thailand Universe blog entries.

So, not wanting to disappoint the red dots around the world, here is this year's newly crowned Miss Thailand World 2010 - Srirat Ruangsiri.



Some of the other contestants



and some more Srirat...

Balcony By The Sea

Not much going on recently, so here's a little blog-filler.

As time goes by, we're finding more and more interesting restaurants near our place - out in the boonies. Here's the Seaside Balcony where we ate last week:

Star Fish rice.

Their Spirit House had a beach theme.

a new twist on urinals, as well.

Here are some pictures from their website.