Edward is one of the two turtles I saved from the road this year. He was crossing from a pond toward Wang Yao Market on the shortcut from Your Place Hotel to Makro. I kept him in a box for an hour until I could release him.
Category: Around Mahasarakham
buff
@Nam’s mom’s house
Marco Pony
I found these at Big C Maha Sarakham (still slowly dying). I just found the brand funny for some reason. But AI told me that it’s an established brand that’s been around a long time. Because of course it is.
The typesetting is just everything I ever expected.
Flooding 2025
This was not too bad of a year for flooding, but it has definitely gotten worse than when we moved here. The enlargement of the pond in front of our house and the concrete road sinking has contributed to making the stretch right in front of our house the most prone to flooding. Luckily, we built our house more that a meter off the ground anticipating this or worse. Most of the houses around us get wet inside. Seeing your house surrounded by water is like living in Ponyo world, so it’s not all bad.
Tendai Visit – August 2025
Nam and I met at Tenri University in Japan 30+ years ago. Over the years, we kept in touch with Tendai from Thailand both formally and otherwise, which led to formal MOU signings between Tenri university and Nam’s employer, Mahasarakham University, as well as mine, Rajabhat Maha Sarakham University. This eventually led to yearly trips from Tendai to MSU with groups of up to 20 students, as well as Nam taking students from Mina’s high school (with her uni students acting as chaperones) for intensive Japanese language training and cultural study in Tenri.
The Tendai group always has a couple destinations when they come over, and they left for Phayao yesterday after spending a few days here. One of the highlights was visiting a Muay Thai camp about 20 minutes away, where students from my university showed us a choreographed routine they had performed at the Maha Sarakham 160 year founding anniversary celebrations the day before.
Come to find out, their coach (a teacher at my uni) attended the sports college next door and was one class below Tony Jaa! I do see some Ong Bak inspiration in their routine.
Anyway, Dabrun Muay Thai Camp posted some photos to FB: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BQUe5vLuN/
As did the moo krata restaurant we ate at later that night: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/19Uz7k3Jz1/
Hope to see all of you again soon!
Weaver
I went on an excursion to the nearby town of Kut Lang on a social development training course for our students. This consisted of locals gathering at a temple, Wat Nong Saen Nuea, and showing off their handmade product crafting skills while students watched and asked questions, with the intention of offering improvement strategies at a future date.
For me, however, this meant a chance to do a side quest and add a new skill, so I embraced it and sat on the concrete floor and learned to weave dried bamboo strips and reeds for five hours.
The old ladies were surprised that a foreigner was so interested in their craft and taught me how to weave a sticky rice steaming basket step by step. I was pitifully slow compared to them, but I kept at it through lunch (the chicken rice looked delicious but is no bueno for keto me), and they put the finishing touches on it just before we left for the day.
Overall, it was a great day for learning.
Wrapped
Max took private Muay Thai lessons when he came back during the summer last year. He really enjoyed it, especially since private lessons in the states are too expensive. His gym and teacher were the same from when he studied with Mina when they were bobies.
The Last Marvel Supper
My brother-in-law opened a boat noodle shop last year. The noodles are good (and the crackling toppings are great), but the wall art is just fantastic:
As you can see, the boat props for boat noodles are very important.
On Maps: รวมพล ก๋วยเตี๋ยวเรือ
CPR Training
We attended a CPR training course over the weekend at a local rescue foundation. Thai CPR practices follow international standards.
Thai Cat Food
Or mostly Japanese, actually.
At the original Big C supermarket location in Maha Sarakham, which has been on a steady decline since so many competitors opened – Makro, Tesco (many branches of varying sizes), some independent stores that usually go bust within a year, and most recently, CJ. What Sarakham really needs is a Tops supermarket, which is is more high-end (but not as high end as Villa).
Pickle really likes wet food recently since she’s getting older, and she crunches reluctantly on dry food like her teeth are sensitive. She likes this Nekko brand a lot (although it’s pretty expensive at Big C, as pictured here), and won’t eat some of the other brands. She still keeps in shape as a mouser and regularly presents us with trophies like rats, mice, squirrels, birds, and lizards. I try to keep her full with cat food so she doesn’t eviscerate her prey on our doorstep like she used to – this system has been working pretty well so far.