We touched down in Koror Palau on a cloudless evening - with a full moon blazing and reflecting off of the wings of the plane the entire flight over from Guam. We had arranged a homestay ahead of time and the owner was going to pick us up. We arrived at 130am, waited until 2am then called our homestay. The father of the owner spoke no English. We called back with someone from the Visit Palau doing the talking. He told us, "oh she's not here - she … [Read more...]
Giant Prawns & Birthdays
Syy got up at 330am this morning to drive an hour to pick up some huge prawns from local farmers. The government provides the baby prawns and then these farmers raise the prawns until they are full grown. The "prawn" market is only in a certain town and each farmer apparently only has a limited supply. Oh and for some reason the market is only open in the wee hours of the morning! Anyway, tonight we celebrated several family birthdays by … [Read more...]
Back to Thailand
We landed back in our home base of Thailand after an amazing time in Africa - enjoying such a variety of activities and experiences that only this continent can deliver. This was in my top 5 best trips taken so far. My heart is still in Africa while my body is in Thailand enjoying the Thai spices of life which include the food and the 5+ hour spa's in Bangkok. We arrived back in Bangkok mid day from Ethiopia. Lucky we had our yellow fever cards … [Read more...]
Fishing Time
Every year around this time the villagers drain one of the local ponds into an adjoining rice field. This takes all night - a couple guys stay up all night with the pump. Then in the very early morning about 15 people gather at the banks for a mud infused assault on the fish. This is not clean work - they jump into the mud, sinking up to their waists and crawl around with small nets and buckets collecting all the fish. By mid morning its … [Read more...]
Changes in the Village
I've been coming to our village in Eastern Thailand every at least once a year for the past 10 years (we own property next to the village). Things change so fast here. In the last 4 years we now have land line service and a 10mb Internet connection (that's 4x as fast as we have at our place in California). Oh and we have 24/7 running water. Prior to this we had to walk 5 minutes to the local pond, turn on the pump for water and then walk back … [Read more...]
Village Updates
Our niece Puk Boong shows up promptly every afternoon around 4pm dressed in her school uniform. She is attending a private school where English is taught at a younger age than a public school. The scope of her English so far is in song - she can vaguely sing the words to a number of songs - and has perfect tone. Today, the 29th of December apparently was Christmas Day at her school. She had to wear the "Christmas" uniform and happily performed a … [Read more...]
Bangkok Day Tripping
We are always going into Bangkok for something. This time for yellow fever vaccinations - I had mine last year for Cote d'Ivoire (good for 5 years) - this time around for Syy for our January trip to Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mozambique. Its not easy getting Yellow Fever vaccs in Bangkok - only available on the weekdays - hospitals don't offer it so we ended up going to the Red Cross Clinic at the Snake Farm. This time of year Bangkok is … [Read more...]
Village Life, Eastern Thailand
Back in the village in Eastern Thailand - 90 minutes from Poipet on the Cambodia border - nice to have some pleasant weather - two days ago hot with fans needed at night - now blankets needed! Village is only 2 homes (used to be about 6 homes) but population swelled dramatically the past few days when friends moved in along with all their tents! Enjoying home made coconut ice cream along with lots of fried insets we are catching with the blue … [Read more...]
Luvin’ Shanghai
The Shanghai Financial Center contains the world's highest observatory. The building is nearly 500 meters tall with an elevator that rockets you up to about 440 meters in just over 60 seconds. There are two observatories - one at the 94th floor and one at the 100th floor. Both afford spectacular views of skyscrapers in all directions. Shanghai is a major International financial player and this building is one of the city's proudest … [Read more...]
Hanging out in China
Nice to be back in China and on Asia time - was in Beijing last year, this time around I've already re-visited Hong Kong and now in Shenzhen on way to Shanghai in a few days. Hong Kong is crazy with all its traffic and hundreds of high rise apartment buildings but so is Shenzhen! Last night was just mesmerized by all the lights driving by what seemed like never ending row after row of high rises. Cities you've hardly heard of in China have … [Read more...]
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