Category: Our New Thai House

Having a truck is nice

Yes, I can fit all of these things in my normal cars. But I don’t need to dust them off or lay down plastic because it’s a TRUCK.

Honestly, the Mitsubishi pickup truck fills a very specific role in Thailand – it has enough loyal fans that buy them new to enable secondhand value hunters like me to find customized gems that are good for another couple hundred thousand kilometers or whatever. These things lose value like crazy compared to the top-tier pickup brands like Toyota and Isuzu, yet are equal in most functions to other mid-tier brands like Nissan (best for towing) and Mazda (best interior). If you just need a cheap, reliable truck in Thailand, Mitsu is the obvious choice.

This is where the tiles were going (although they were just temporarily placed in this photo, along with a butane cassette burner because we were going to replace our gas range). We had a sheet of dark glass as the splash guard for the wall since we built the house, but it finally broke. So Nam’s older sister gave us these nice tiles she brought from Bangkok.

Cats in Bowls

Pickle has a long history of posing in bowl-shaped objects. This one is a planter, which has a serious crack in its side in this photo, and that broke in half when I brushed against it with my Honda Wave’s tire shortly after. This other one is a sink we bought at Chatuchak and brought back in the trunk of our Cefiro long ago. Her family has a proud history of chilling in bowls – here is her mom or sister (we can’t remember which), nine years ago, also in a planter.

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.

Japanese Hyosatsu (Name Plate) in Thailand

When we built our house in Thailand 17 years ago, we had a Japanese-style name plate carved in granite. When we were thinking of selling our house and moving back to the states last year after the floods, we painted it it over and put an artsy plastic address number over it. Then, when we decided not to move back after all, I eventually scraped all the paint off it… No harm, no foul, I guess.

It’s nice having a truck

Someday, I will make a list all of the vehicles I have owned over the years. A truck has never been among them, until recently. After our neighborhood and my precious Crown was flooded in 2022 (the Crown is sitting at my mechanic’s place, waiting for me to save enough money for a proper restoration), I needed new wheels. Since both of our kids were studying in the USA at the time, I figured we could get away with a standard size pickup and got a great deal on the Triton. It’s been great for carrying stuff around.

An older lady in the neighborhood was giving away huge potted plants, so Nam and I headed over to her house after work one night.

She told us the local name of the plants, which I have since forgotten, and I have since misidentified them several times. We originally thought they were giant lilies (Crinum asiaticum), but that appears not to be the case.

We gave the two shown on the back of the truck to Nam’s mom and kept the twins in the pot on our driveway shown in the top pic. The twins were eventually infected with rust, so I had to do some serious leaf removal.

Allomyrina dichotoma

Female, I guess.

AKA Japanese rhinoceros beetle, Japanese horned beetle, or kabutomushi (カブトムシ).

They show up in our yard at least once a year. The males are more impressive, with their long horn. I was not shocked to read about their use in Chinese medicine, but I was surprised to see that researchers have discovered that their larva show anti-obesity and antibiotic effects. Thank you, Wikipedia!

pickle

This pic reminds me of a photo of her mom, Donut, as a kitten.

Here, Pickle can be seen resting on the track for our front gate. She routinely sits in dangerous places, like in front of cars, and then moves only at the last second, no matter how many times she’s warned.

I’m too lazy too look it up, but Pickle must be around 5-6 years old now. She keeps the surrounding rodent population in check, so she is invaluable, but she is the most needy and meowy cat we’ve ever had… Pickle! Shut up!