Raising a family in Thailand // Documenting Issan food, culture, music, and people
Breakfast happens around 8:00 AM. The pen on the far side of the fence houses Papa Deng (Tony). Mama Deng’s name is Jona/Jonah. In typical Thai fashion, some of her siblings/half siblings are also named after pork dishes, Moo Wan (sweet pork) and Moo Toon (stewed pork).
The most restful soundtrack via Moo Deng’s new webcam:
I remember using QR codes for product tracking (with Keyence printers and scanners) as a salaryman around Y2K at an electronics factory on monster island. The only other place I’d ever seen them used was at kaiten (conveyor) sushi, on the bottom rim of the plastic plates. The codes would be scanned as they went by on the conveyor so old plates of sushi could be pulled – this was more than 20 years ago! Things certainly come full circle (although the new system seems to be RFID-based):
There was a boom in QR code usage here in Thailand from around ten years ago specifically for adding friends in the LINE app, and then again a few years ago for cashless payments tied into the evolving PromptPay system.
This year has been filled with business trips, mainly to Pattaya for some reason. Just looking back on some photos from May.
Max’s auntie took us to a Korean BBQ buffet near her office in Sukhumvit and it’s basically the best yakiniku I’ve had in Thailand. For 500 baht ($15 US), you get the higher tier plan with beef and seafood, and the waitress comes to grill everything for you. This is the second time we’ve been there, and we’ll probably try to make it there whenever we’re on an extended Bangkok trip.
I think Max took this one. We were there just a week ago!
He is back in the states now, missing Thai food and people. Hurry up and graduate, dude!
It’s taking him more than a day and a half to get back home due to multiple Delta delays. Death by boredom, the opposite of Thai transportation!
This capy was so chill and friendly. He came out of the water and hung with us to munch after I shot this. We gave him all the long grass we had and then went and got him more, because he was an absolute eating machine.
Also known as the blue water lily, or blue star water lily, which is slightly confusing since a “blue lily” is a completely different thing. The plant pictured could be Nymphaea nouchali or one of its several varieties including Nymphaea nouchali var. caerulea which contains the psychotropic substance aporphine, which lead to the outlawing of possession of the plant where tripping ancient Egyptian balls is apparently frowned upon.
The lotus has roots in many countries and religions, and it’s said that everywhere the baby Buddha stepped, lotus flowers bloomed and that when the Buddha died, they reappeared everywhere that he had walked the Earth. The fullness of bloom and color of the flower also have religious meaning. The blue lotus represents wisdom and intelligence.
I took this particular photo in our hometown of Maha Sarakham, at the Issan Arts and Culture Centre, where Nam’s father was director for many years. They were in a ceramic water planter just in front of the Buddha that he sculpted for the university.