After a few days in Bangkok we took a van to our village and our niece immediately ran up to us and gave us big hugs around the legs (she is only 6 years old). She proudly showed us her Thai/English language book she has been studying in school.
One chapter quickly caught my eye, chapter 8 – “Language for Nightclubs”. I spotted phrases such as “you have a nice dall face” – presumably supposed to say “doll face” and “can I have a cigarette”, “Is she above board in everything”, “She is a looker alright” and “Your Thai Whiskey is very strong”!
Break one of the leaves from this tree and it smells exactly like garlic!
Every time we return to the village there are changes – this year my wife’s brothers home has walls and windows rather than just a roof on top of supporting poles. He and his wife let their daughter choose the color of the outside – her favorite color is pink, so naturally they painted the outside walls pink.
We also purchased our first house – for $1000 US dollars. This empty wooden house needs to be moved – but it won’t have to travel to far. With a nearby home-site formed from soil that we had excavated to create create a surrounding ditch (to keep out the wild dogs), and a well we had dug (120 feet down for water) – we are well prepared for when we move the house.
Congratulations on purchasing your first house Dave. We wish you and your family a lot of happiness in it. Don’t forget to plant some of those garlic smelling leaf trees. By the way, what’s the name of the tree…
M and G
Bangkok
Not sure the name of that tree in Thai – everyone calls it the “garlic vine”! …although ours looks more like a tree to me. Unfortunately it is not edible 🙁
Here is some more info about this: http://www.rareflora.com/cydistaaec.htm
I have seen many travel sites across the internet, but I haven’t seen much about the Philippines.
It seems to me, that the PI is the bastard child of asia.
Planning a honeymoon in Thailand and while I am not sure my husband and I will need the bar translation guide, (well I sure hope not!), Eastern Thailand is slowly creeping on to my radar and this makes me bittersweet about visiting as I don’t want to be those people who bring the change. Thanks for sharing, Dave.
Yes – there certainly isn’t much tourism in this particular part of the country east of Bangkok – so in that sense it is refreshing – however the crazy amount of growth here in the past few years is not.
Nice post. Very valuable info.