Thai Society/Culture
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Prime Harshness
From my student’s essay on problems in Thailand: “If I were Prime Minister, the first thing I would do is help beggars in Thailand, because the beggars are pathetic. They can’t find a good job…” She must be a transfer student from Public Administration.
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Thai Ghost Busker
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Last Dinner in Bangkok
This meal was so good, it cannot be described properly with words… Suffice to say, it knocked us all out with a quantity/quality double combo. @ one of the numerous Korean BBQ joints near Sukhumvit Soi 12
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One ThaiPad Per Child
I took this photo a couple months ago out toward the local ostrich farm. The political party that put tons of these signs up on all the roads won Sunday’s elections, so I guess Max and Mina will be getting their ThaiPads soon…
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Essentially Isan
This was taken last week at Rajabhat Maha Sarakham, my university, at a welcoming ceremony for freshmen (aka “freshies” in Thailand). In the foreground, English program students are praying during a traditional bai sri ceremony around a Christmas tree-shaped arrangement of folded banana leaves, as other students play takraew on the courts in the background and molam blasts from the unseen stage to the left.
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Mango Season in Thailand
April, May, and June are mango season here. Everybody who grows them at home brings them into the office or to their friends before the fruit gets too ripe. The coolest thing is that there are over a hundred different species grown and sold here in Thailand. I’ve probably tried about a third of them. To date, the best kind I’ve had are small ones that people grow in their backyards and sell at weekend fresh markets, known generically as mamuang noi (small mango). They have the perfect blend of sweet, tart, and wild flavors, and are at once slightly chewy yet soft.
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Laotian paraprosdokian of the day
“The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the somtam.”
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Spraying insecticide, again
When I ventured out this morning to buy the kid’s breakfast, sticky rice and barbecued pork skewers (which have gone up in price universally to 5 baht per skewer — they were still 3 baht at some places up until a couple months ago), I drove though a fog hovering in the neighborhood behind ours. Even with the windows closed, I got a whiff of Raid and realized they were fumigating the area again. I hurriedly went to buy the food — in an yet unsprayed area — and rushed back home. Nam said she’d just heard a pickup driving around blasting a message from the local government, so that meant they…
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Jewel Co.
In the mall attached to our hotel in Ubon, the Sunee Grand.
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Snakehead in the Gutter
Last time it was a pla salid (Snakeskin Gourami). No pics, but today we found a dead pla chon (common snakehead) in the pool of water that forms on the street to the side of our front yard. It was about 10 inches long, a great size to eat. In fact, I’m pretty sure it must have walked up from the pond (forty feet away) and died sometime yesterday during/after it rained, because it was in a place workers walk by all day and if it had been alive, they surely would have taken it home to eat. A snakehead makes a wonderful meal. A ten inch one could feed a couple…
