Blogs from Khon Kaen, North-East Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 5

I’ve been noticing that some bloggers have a name for their site. To show that I too feel a real attachment to my blog, I’m going with Bcgypsey’s Capers. I do still encourage positive, upbeat, ego pleasing comments. Work is progressing on The Map, albeit slow but still moving along. I’ve taken several days away from the project to meet Bob in Bangkok. We spent a couple of days riding the BTS, MTR, river taxis and pink cabs. Sorry no elephants. Rush hour begins at 6am and goes until 8pm...no kidding, so they would have been quite the hindrance. We spent our last day before heading to Chaiyaphum visiting the floating market in Ratchaburi and then heading to Kanchanburi to visit the bridge over the river Kwai, which is called the Death Railway Bridge by the ... read more

Tried to send this blog several days ago but it didn't to so will try again. I haven’t done the blog in a few weeks and thought I’d better catch everyone up on ‘things’. I’ve not made any great achievements yet…well I did have a ba dang court constructed (lawn bowling) but I don’t consider that any big deal…if it had been a bing bong table, that would have been different! I feel settled in my village but am still finding new faces and new surprises. The pictures of the weavers were two of those finds. Rice planting is in full swing and it’s an interesting process. When I first visited Chaiyaphum in March, the fields were in upheaval, weed full and ugly. Now they have been ploughed and sowed and the first plantings stand 2 ... read more

Ok, so now I've been told that my pictures still haven't come through. No more text until you see the pics so here goes..........................Let me know what happens. This is only a sampling of what I originally sent, maybe lucky for you.... read more

It's been a lazy week here in Northeastern Thailand. Summer is in full swing and the days are hot... no I don't mean just hot, I mean really hot AND humid. Try to imagine standing in a sauna with the heat set at 100 degrees for about 14hours, fully clothed. That's how I feel today...drained and wet. Now that I have everyone's sympathy I can tell you that I'm actually sitting in a nice cool ICT office my village has recently built. It's got 12 new computers ready for anxious students. It will be interesting to see who actually uses them. My Thai counterpart, Lek, is in Bangkok the next two weeks learning how to teach Information, communication, technology. I on the other hand have been pedaling around my villages conversing with the locals, attempting to ... read more

Songkran, the most popular Thai festival of the year, is held between the 13th and 15th of April. It celebrates the lunar New Year and the Buddha images are bathed or cleansed with water. The elders are sprinkled with water on their hands and necks as a show of respect. In the larger cities water battles are the order of the day with truckloads of people, mostly the young, carrying huge pots of water and bazooka water guns. The festival actually started here in Ponethong on Saturday. Five mounds of sand were dumped at the local wat and the village families somehow organized themselves into groups to work on individual mounds forming them into pyramids. They were then decorated with fresh flowers and candles. My office, the SAO or Sub-district Administrative Office, or in Thai, aw-baa-daw, ... read more