Random Picture of the Week #8

Wat Kumaran, Koh Samui, Thailand. There is a mummified monk in the glass case.

Random Picture of the Week #7

Snake charmer at the local night market, Uttaradit (cobras!)

Everyone!!!

The ants are getting out of control. Today I came home to find our entire dish cabinet filled with trails of the miserable creatures--- turns out there was a dried little rice kernel stuck to a plate.

Washing every dish we own wasn't my idea of a great way to unwind after work, but it gave me the opportunity to loudly recite my favorite lines from The Professional (Gary Oldman rocks)


How many dishes do you want to clean MacKensie?


Heehee.

Random Picture of the Week #6

We pass this on the way to and from Chiang Mai. I don't know what it is, it just looks cool.

Carnage and random thoughts from the day.

I killed a lot of ants today. I normally try to just scare them away but it takes a long time and usually there aren't so many.

Our house is very open so we have to be obsessive when it comes to keeping tidy. Even in the time it takes to eat dinner ants will flood into our kitchen so I'm constantly wiping and rinsing as I cook. Today, the trash had the wrapper from cheese in it (we normally put all food trash in a bag in the fridge until it is taken out). When I got home from work the kitchen had a serious wall of ants coming down from the ceiling, gathering on the floor, and then forming another thick line up to the trash. Gross. Small trails of ants are easily scared away in seconds. These guys weren't worried about me, so I had to resort to the spray. It was ugly. We're pretty lenient with the spiders and the geckos, but ants can't stay.

Poor Al (this story makes me laugh out loud as I type) accidentally ate an ant covered cookie this weekend when he absentmindedly reached into a bag of cookies he had left out earlier. Ah well, this is just how it is when you live in a tropical country.

On another note, our miserable neighbors are having another party-- the fourth this month. Speeches and karaoke blasted out of huge speakers, right outside our windows (less than 3 meters away). I'd like to call them some names but apparently, according to random people on the net, if I call a group of people in another country a name I'm insulting their entire culture. (roll of eyes) I'll just say they're challenged when it comes to respect for the other people living around them. Our other neighbors are lovely. The little girl in the house behind us is in love with us, I think.

Next week is midterm week so we're both very busy (hence the late blog post and the crabbiness) but then after that a much needed break. We'll shoot up to Chiang Mai for a couple days. No plan for what we'll do there-- just relax!

I was afraid that Al and I working at the same place would cause tension but it's actually really nice to have someone at work who gets you and is totally on your side. :-) Now, we're worried about how it will be in the next location when we're not working in the same place and won't see each other as much.


Once it hits 2009 we'll only have 4 more months here, it'll fly by for sure!

Random Picture of the Week #5

Pork satay (satay moo) with peanut sauce and ginger broth with chicken and noodles (bumee naam gai). One of our favorite meals in town.

Satay Restaurant Location: I find it hard to describe the location of things in town due to my limited Thai, but here goes it. Looking at this map, from the intersection of Inchaimee (Injaimee) Road and Th. Samranruen, go south on Samranruen to the point where the Nan River bends toward the road. The river will be in clear view to your left and down at the bank will be a statue of a woman with long hair. Across the street, facing the river, will be the large, open air satay restaurant. Enjoy.

Adventures!

OK, minor adventures. We decided to go for a drive down a road that leads out of town to see what we could see. We took Thanon Samranreun (click here for maps) north figuring we'd stop at some wats (temples) along the way. It was a holiday for the King's birthday, so the streets were fairly empty and a lot of businesses were closed. Of course, once we were sufficiently far from home we got a flat tire. Haha. We walked the motorbike down to an auto shop. They couldn't fix it for us but pumped it with air and sent us down the road to a bike repair shop. When we got there we found it impossible to explain that the tire was flat and that it needed to be fixed (the poor guys there clearly thought we were nuts). They kindly pumped a bit of air in both tires and oiled the chain. We had exhausted our miming abilities and decided to just drive around until it was flat again, which only took another 20 minutes.

All was well though, with the Nan river to our right and the train tracks to our left the route was rather picturesque. We eventually came upon a huge golf course and what was apparently a military site of some sort before turning back for the day. We stopped at two of the four wats we spied, enjoying being the only visitors that day. I'm not sure the names of the temples, will try to find out this week. Pics below:

Starfruit trees outside the walls.

Old-looking wats are the coolest!

If you peruse my Flickr pages you can see I'm obsessed with wat roof spires.

Nagas guarding one of the entrances.