Category: Photos

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.

Crown update

After our house and the Kujira got flooded, I needed wheels and bought the Triton pickup. I halfheartedly tried to sell it a while back, but we ended up using to haul stuff for student activities and whatnot. Having a pickup and a sedan turns out to be a lot more convenient than having two sedans, badassedness aside. So the Crown has been sitting at my mechanic’s place waiting for daddy to kick up funds for bodywork, paint, and fixing the flooded aircon… So yeah, it’s been almost 3 years, even though she’s always on my mind.

The registration has to be done before next March or it gets de-registered completely, which would mean something more permanent, so that’s not going to happen. So I’m thinking of getting the registration and taxes renewed, and the AC fixed, and getting her safe to be on the road, and just driving her again for a while. As is. Because even like this, she’s kinda badass in this ago of soulless EV plastic trash.

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!

Went on our yearly Pattaya trip

Me and T have been going there every year to visit interns or attend conferences and the like. I took a lot of food photos to add to Maps in hopes of reaching level 10 as a Guide. The trip started out with a great bowl of pork blood noodles for lunch on the way to Borabu, the next town over. Unless otherwise indicated, all of the many bowls of noodles consumed on this trip were yellow bami noodles, which I crave when I’m on keto (I’m off due to uni trips at the moment, so game on!).

What made this bowl stand out were the type of noodles used (thin and perfectly textured), the clear and tasty soup, and the giant chunks of braised pork tendon served in each bowl.

Pickle carrier

Pickle’s son, Marmalade, sadly passed a while back, and they were both afflicted with some strain of flu. This made them weak and moody. I took Pickle to the vet several times over the course of a few months, and she got even more annoying and meowy in the car than she normally is… But she sure is a cute derp sometimes.