A somewhat quiet Sunday in Isaan.

It was a quiet day in terms of not much happening but because the kids are off school it gets a little noisy. I sat with the two youngest grandchildren for about an hour this morning having fun on my iPad with language and video apps. I need to take advantage of opportunities to interact with them since our time here grows short. In only 14 days we fly to Bangkok for a night and the next day to Florida. I can't believe it is down to two weeks. 

I feel bad for you because I haven't had much exciting to post the past few days but it will get better when I can tell you about our trip to Mukdahan. As I understand the plan, our son in law is due back tonight or early tomorrow morning. He will spend Monday getting the truck fixed and we will head to Mukdahan on Tuesday morning. I am hoping everything can be repaired on Monday but if it has to be finished on Tuesday and we head to Mukdahan a little later in the day it would still be okay. i think it needs new brakes and some suspension work but no one is able to tell me for sure. 

I got brave today. Phai was at her sisters house and I was eating soup when a man came in and sat down. He ordered soup and then started talking to me. The only English he knew was "hello". Without Phai I was on my own so in Thai I was able to have a basic conversation with him. Then when I finished my soup he had just started to eat his and I noticed he had not helped himself to the fresh veggies that Ning has set out on on a separate table. So I got his attention and told him in Thai that we have them available. Now, I am not saying my grammar was great but he understood and thanked me for the information. My conversation if stated in English would be "want to eat salad? It is over there. zero baht (no charge)". I am trying to promise myself that when I return to Florida I will use the time I use for the daily blog updates to work on my Thai. Of course, I often find diversions but there is no reason I cannot continue to expand my Thai knowledge because I can practice with Phai and her family. 

This morning my brother in law came over like he does every morning. He went into the backyard and when he came back up to the restaurant he was carrying a plastic container. Phai asked him what was in it. Turns out he had turned the lights on for the big bug trap in the backyard (I will post the picture of it again) and he had crickets and beetles. He headed home to cook them and enjoy his special treat. I have a photo posted below of his catch. I am glad he went home to cook them so no one asked me to try them. 


I also read an interesting article in a Thai on line newspaper today about homeless falangs living on the streets in Thailand. They estimate their are about 200 falangs living on the streets of Bangkok and Pattaya who for whatever reason have lost everything. Most are now illegally in the country. Some fell in love with the wrong kind of Thai woman and lost all their money, some got too involved in booze or drugs. The Thai government said they don't really cause any problems but they are worried that if someone treats these homeless people badly it will reflect badly on the tourism business. The embassies for other countries say they cannot help the Thai authorities with the problem. Some of the homeless falangs panhandle and get food from the monks at the temples. Others pick up and sell plastic and glass bottles from the trash for enough money to survive. Here is a link to the article if you are interested:  Read about it here. You might enjoy browsing through the english language Bangkok Post while you are there. It is interesting to see their take on world politics. 

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Captured last night in our backyard and eaten today by my brother in law. Yes, they are alive in this photo.

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This is what he used to catch them. There are several florescent lights they are attracted too.

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I took a number of photos of the kids today and I especially like this on of my granddaughter Fa Mai.

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Phai's flowers are filling in fast. They should look great by the time we leave in two weeks.

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I wish I had taken this photo. I wanted to share it with you. If you notice, the dogs cup is almost full. This is a smart beggar on this pedestrian bridge in Bangkok.



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