Thai Gluttonous Rice

We were driving to a gathering on Sunday morning when we saw a pickup truck in front of us loaded down with large bags. At a light we were able to read the contents of one of the bags: Thai Gluttonous Rice. No joke. Sooo, what exactly is Thai Gluttonous Rice? Is it rice that is so good that it makes a Thai person become a glutton? Is it rice that only gluttonous Thais would enjoy? (If it's a product for fat Thais, it doesn't have much market share.) Or perhaps is the rice itself gluttonous, over-sized to the extreme and ready to sell to Thai people? Hard to say.

The Market

Every district in Chiang Mai has an open-air market, a place to barter for food, veggies, fruit, flowers, and a whole bunch of other stuff. I work in the Nong Hoy district, so 2 or 3 times a week I go to the Nong Hoy market during lunch. It's a sprawling-covered-roof-without-walls-sort-of-building with all sorts of small stalls underneath selling a bit of everything.

One of the things I buy a lot of at the market is fresh fruit. Oh boy, we love fresh, tropical fruit. Ann blends a couple different kinds of fruit together with fruit juice and ice and wow! we got a fruit smoothie like you wouldn't believe. I had banana/pineapple/dragonfruit yesterday. I typically buy most of my fruit from the same lady every time. I'd like to tell you that it's my keen eye that selected this seller among the others, but the truth is that I buy from her because some of my Thai friends, who first took me to the market, bought from her. I just copy them. :-) This lady does have the widest selection, though I usually get my bananas from a different lady.



So, do you think you know your fruits? Take a look at this picture, which shows all the fruit she sells. How many of them can you name? Leave your guesses in the comments, and I'll moderate the answers.

Herbie's in Chiang Mai!

Ann looked out the back door yesterday and guess what she saw? Herbie!



You never know what you might see in Thailand.

Doctor's Office

Living in Thailand doesn't exempt us from needing a doctor, far from it. We've already been sick--Jacen had bronchitis and I had the flu. And we still needed more immunization shots, particularly for rabies and hepatitis. So based upon a friend's recommendation, we began going to the Kriengsak Clinic, the office of Dr. Kriengsak, a Thai doctor. As you can see, the clinic is not that big. It's perhaps 20 feet wide and has just enough space for a receptionist, 2 examination rooms, some waiting benches, and, of course, a salt-water fish tank (hello Dory and Nemo!).

Despite the humble office, the doctor is wonderful. He speaks excellent English (which makes things easy!) and seems to be very knowledgeable. He is also a bi-vocational pastor, and we've enjoyed getting to know him during our visits.

Emmy's New Dress

Emilee got a new dress for her birthday. She and Ann bought the material from the Warorat Market here in Chiang Mai, then Ann hired a seamstress to make the dress. I've given you a hint about what the dress looked like previously, but I wanted to get some pictures of the entire dress.