A quick journey to Taipei was not meant to be. Rather than get up with the chickens at 430am in the Thai village I am staying in to catch a van to Suvarnabhumi Airport to catch an 11am flight, I opted to take a a van into Bangkok a day early at a reasonable 3pm departure. I didn’t catch much sleep that night due to three women next door partying like it was December 31, 1999. The day of my flight, I left my hotel at 8am for the airport. […]

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Our property is located next to a tiny village about 2.5 hours east of Bangkok. In recent years there have been plenty of changes here. We now have running water, Internet access and most of the wooden homes in the village have been taken down and many of the villagers have moved nearby into western style buildings (especially as the nearby industrial park continues to experience rapid growth and starts to further exert its influence over this still surrounding rural landscape) – and it will for both good and bad. […]

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When I travel I try to take advantage of meeting locals and seeking out home stay opportunities. Rather than seeing a country from just my own perspective, often times more superficially, staying with locals allows one to see and experience a country through their eyes. I find experiences more rewarding and despite the usual communication barriers I discover they are also intrigued with my perspectives and are curious about my own travels. My wife’s family lives in Thailand; we are able to visit each year, preferring to spend as much […]

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It is impressive the resourcefulness Syy’s mom has at her disposal. We’ve been washing dishes from a liquid soap she’s created from a number of mostly organic ingredients. She makes a lip balm out of coconut milk and wild bees wax collected from nearby hives. It smells quite pleasant and works very well for chapped lips. The rice wine takes her most of the day to make – and ferments for about 8 days before its ready to drink. We’ve had running water in the village for the past few […]

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I had the happy occasion to be in Thailand in spring 2011, staying first in downtown Bangkok, then up in Chiang Mai, luxuriating in two hotels that were two of the most glorious and well appointed I’d ever enjoyed. In the thick of downtown Bangkok is Lebua at State Tower, a five-star, all-suite luxury hotel that towers over the rest and offers stunning views of the city and Praya River below. It is a massive place of glass and stone, and my suite on the 57th floor offered more room […]

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Sometimes the world works in mysterious ways. This is an interesting story from several weeks ago in rural Thailand. I never think of my high school history teacher (last I thought of him was about 5 years ago) and furthermore I never have vivid dreams (or if I do, I never remember them) and I don’t believe in stuff that is not tangible. A day after the dream one of my former teacher’s colleagues wrote me to tell me my high school teacher had passed away the previous night. And […]

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I always tell people we eat rats here to varying responses including one of disbelief and disgust. However these are not Bangkok Rats, er, city rats, rather they live in the unpolluted rice fields. My wife’s brother makes bamboo traps by hand for catching these rats. The traps are simple in design but very effective. They are spring loaded by a string which bends the long part of the trap into the shape of a bow when the trap is loaded. A small stick fits in between part of the […]

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We spent the better part of the afternoon husking and opening very mature coconuts in preparation for a big dinner tonight (coconut curry). I had flashbacks of Wilson in that Tom Hanks movie from several years ago. I’ve eaten hundreds of coconuts over the years but never from one that had already started sprouting. The inside of the coconut fills with a white foam like growth which can then be eaten in its own right or more appealingly sucked on to get the juice from this sponge-like material. We’ve set […]

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So I’m back in my wife’s village after a hectic several weeks of travel in Japan and Thailand (hence the shortage of blog posts). This is Eastern Thailand, about 90 minutes from the wild outpost of Poipet, on the Thai/Cambodian border. I’ve been coming here at least once a year for nearly the past 10 years for 5-6+ weeks at a time. This is a great escape from the city and urban life not to mention the undesirable weather in most of California at this time of the year. There […]

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