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Published: January 27th 2007
Well, we are in old Sukhothai right now. Our transport is the good old fashioned bike. I guess I am not used to biking anymore as my "derriere" is a bit senstive right now. We are staying at the Orchid Hibiscus Guesthouse, a great place with cabins made from teak wood and the host is Paolo, who moved here years ago from Italy. His voice is like the godfather himself. every morning we get breakfast with classical music (Paps you would love it here ). A delicious item on the breakfast menu is coconut pudding in a banana leaf, with fresh honey and banana. The bananas are very tasteful here.
Every Thursday is the local market here. we were maybe one out of 10 foreigners, the rest was all Thai. Unbelievable what you could buy at the market. from fresh fruit to underwear to whole pig heads. It is very interesting to hear about the rituals and ideas from the Thai people. If you have a birthday or anniversary or another important celebration, then you would buy a pig head, marinated in spices. Then at the day of the celebration at exactly 9 o'clock you have a monk giving you the blessing and then you bbq the meat and eat it.
The Thai people adore Sabien, they love to touch her (sometimes to her annoyance). I found out that they won't touch children over 10 years as that might confuse/mix up the brain (So I was told).
Yesterday (Friday) we took a guided bike ride tour for 2.5 hours (that is how we get our exercise here for some of you who are wondering if Remmert gets enough exercise in). The tour went through the back country, rice fields, tobacco fields, little villages. The kids fully enjoyed this and our guide was very good. She had lots of back ground information and knew the local people in the villages. Anybody knows why the budha figures from China are rounder and fatter than the Thai ? In China they think if you show a big tummy you have good life , do good business and life in good country. In Thailand the buddhas are more "ladyman", although they always refer to him. The curly hairs shows wisdow ! Guess who was happy in our family ? Some of the buddha figures hold up their hand as a stop sign, this is to stop the bad things that could come to your place/city.
An amazing thing here too is no matter what the house looks like, 99.9 percent of the people own a tv and it is always on.
The transportation here is mainly a scooter. They sit on it sometimes with a family of 4. Child in the front, Dad, another child and mom in the back. Even babies from a couple of months are tagged along on the scooter. No safety belts here !!!!!
Today is a relaxing day, hanging around the pool, and the kids are writing in their journals.
I have to say, you meet amazing people while travelling (an englishman travelling for 12 months around the world, a Dutch family biking around Laos, Thailand and Malasyia, a Vancouver couple travelling for 6 months with a backpack both in their sixties). You also realize how good life at home is and what a great matras I have there !!!
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peter@the clinic
non-member comment
thanks
Thanks for the update. Where are the pics ? All is well here; next week the temps are dropping again. Tell Remmert I signed him up for fishing on Sept 1st as it will be without the waves. Continue to have a blast !