Our Dog is Thai

Our Yorkie, Jezzy, is a Thai dog, even though we've taken her to America. To help her remember her roots, Ann bought her a couple of traditional Thai outfits.





Given how much colder it is here in Raleigh, she's gonna need them!

Our Helper (And Friend)

For the last many months, Phii Maat has been coming to our house once a week to help Ann cook and clean. She's been a wonderful blessing to us. Not only is she a hard worker, she's also been kind and friendly, loving on the kids, and even trying to make friends with our dog (though not with much success). We said a tearful goodbye last week and took a few pictures to remember her.

Playing in the 'hood

The evenings are fun times in the neighborhood. The kids come out for an hour of play time. Here's Jacen and Emmy playing frisbee and riding a bike.

A grilled pork restaurant

There's a particular style of restaurant that is very popular with Thais. It's called muu ga-thawt, which literally means grilled pork. The basic idea is that you grill your own meal at the table. This style originally only served pork, but now has beef, chicken, fish, vegetables, or whatever. A new one opened not far from our house--all you can eat for 99 baht ($3)!--so we went and tried it out. The kids loved being able to grill their own meat and boil their own cabbage and noodles.

When you first sit down, a guy brings a bowl of coals and puts it on your table:



Then he puts the metal grill on top and pours water around the edge (for boiling):



While that heats up, we go to the buffet, ignoring the flies, and select some meat. Then we grill it, using only chopsticks:



Here's Jacen and Emmy happily grilling away:

Now that's a knife

My father wanted a hand-made bowie knife, so this is the one we got for him. It was made at Piak Bowie Knife, which is located just east of Chiang Mai. It's bigger than it looks in the picture; the blade is 8.75 inches long.

More Music at the Sunday Night Market

As I have mentioned before, the Sunday Night Market can be a musical place. Here's a couple pictures of contrasting musicians, one an elegant lady (part of a 4 person band) and the other an overly made up young girl (going solo):

Food from the Sunday Night Market

As we prepare to leave, we are revisiting some of our favorite spots. One is the Sunday Night Market here in Chiang Mai, a great place to buy food.

Here's a new item: Hot dogs in waffles. Regrettably, it's almost impossible to find American-style hot dogs here, so I'm pretty sure I wouldn't enjoy this.



Grilled sticky rice:

Goodbye Futon

I don't think Jezzy wanted us to sell our futon. It was the one soft spot in the house that she was allowed to nap on.

Orchids

One of the best things about living in the tropics are the flowers. It takes almost no effort to grow the most beautiful exotic flowers. Case in point: Here are some orchids growing in my front yard. I didn't do anything beyond water them and occasionally add some fertilizer. I was sorry to have to sell them.

More From the Umbrellas Factory

A couple more shots from the umbrella factory in Borsang, east of Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Looking through the spokes of some unfinished umbrellas:



The inside of a pink umbrella:

Umbrella Factory

Last week we went to Borsang, east of Chiang Mai, to do a little shopping. We went to an umbrella factory and watched them make umbrellas, mostly from bamboo.

This guy has a piece of wood that spins along its horizontal axis, while he cuts out sections with a large knife and other tools. I wonder how many cuts has from his work.



This lady is string together the "spokes" of the umbrella, which are made from bamboo.



This lady is adding a layer of cotton over the spokes. On top of this will go the "sa paper," which can then be painted or colored.



I blogged about umbrellas once before.