Return to Wangpikun

Yes, Karl returned to Wangpikun and stayed with some friends that we made while teaching there.

Here is a picture of Aranya; one of our former students.


Here is Karl with Aranya and her family. They are the friends that Karl stayed with. Aranya's grandfather lent Karl the hat for the picture.


Karl also met up with some of our other friends and even got to meet the school's latest volunteer teacher who had just arrived. He shared some of our hard won knowledge about teaching English in Wangpikun.

Loy Krathong in Sukothai

Karl spent about a week in Sukothai while they were having the Loy Krathong festival. For this festival, the Thai make small "boats" out of banana leaves and flowers. A candle goes in the center and it is floated on the river after dark.

As with any festival there are also fireworks, performances and parades. In the picture below, some performers take a break from their rehearsal for a picture.


The ruins in Sukothai were all light up for the celebrations.




Karl says that it was very hot during the parade so it understandable that some of the participants weren't exactly happy.




Karl also got some models to pose for him at that ruins.






I bet the models were happy to have a place to put their hats. They really don't look too comfortable and they are probably heavy too.

Pic, pic, ducks, more pics

I was looking at the emails Karl sent me this week and the subject lines read ... "Pic", "pic", "ducks", "more pics". For some reason, that seemed like an appropriate title for this post.

First, we have the pics Karl has been taking at the temples in the Angkor Wat complex with the traditional dancers.




These guys obviously aren't dancers but they were at the temple and Karl caught this quick shot.


Karl says that this little girl was trying to sell him a refrigerator magnet and she was successful. Karl wrote: "its hard to refuse such beautiful eyes"


This is a bas relief on the temple walls.


Karl also went to a shadow puppet show and even got to go behind the scenes.



Karl has also been spending some time just hanging out with the locals. Here are some pictures that he got at the market.




Now for the ducks ... Karl got this picture showing the creative method for transporting ducks to market on a motorcycle. Look closely, the ducks are alive and holding their heads up so they can get a better view of the scenery. Nothing looks quiet right when you are hanging upside down.

Guess What I Found!!

This video shows a place that Karl and I visited back in April. The train really does go right through the market. Actually, the market is setup on the railroad tracks. Although we were there and saw this event, I didn't think to take a video. Well, someone did and here it is.



Train runs through Market

Isn't it wild!!

Living the Dream

So Karl is off living his dream (for a few weeks) of taking pictures in exoctic places. Here are some of the pictures that he has sent me.

Dancers at Erawan Shrine, Bangkok Thailand.


Worshipper at Erawan Shrine, Bangkok Thailand.


Royal Barges in front of the Grand Palace, Bangkok Thailand


Grand Palace at night with a passing boat, Bangkok Thailand


Aspara Dancer at Angkor Wat, Siem Reap Cambodia



Aspara Dancer at Bayon, Siem Reap Cambodia


Dancer in Peacock Costume, Siem Reap Cambodia

Cheerleading in Thailand

When Due told me he was in a cheerleading class in college, he was quick to point out that it was not like cheerleading in America. I asked Due to explain what it was like, but he said it was too difficult to explain.

Well, this past week Due sent some pictures of his cheerleading projects and I now understand!

This is the Disney Project.




This is the Thai project.




This is the Punk project.



And this final picture is just Due being Due.



So, it looks like Due is having a lot of fun his first year of college.

Keep up the good work Due!!

Slide Show from Teaching English in Wangpikun

Karl has been working hard pulling together some slide shows that highlight our trip. We've got so many pictures that we really had to pick and choose. Even so Karl has about 7 to 8 segments he's working on. This one is the first one and it shows some pictures from our arrival in Thailand and a lot of pictures of the students in Wangpikun. The background music on this slide show was a Thai song that was very popular while we were in Thailand. We heard it everywhere!



We hope you enjoy it!

Moving Forward …

Since I would like to continue blogging, I have been presented with a difficult question. Do I continue posting to this site or do I create a new blog for all my not as exciting, but interesting for family posts? Taking the advice of a friend, I am going to reserve the Deckers in Thailand blog for posts regarding our past trips and future trips to Thailand. We don’t know when we will go back to Thailand but I do expect to do a few more posts regarding this trip as well as sharing some Thai recipes. (Including two that I just posted today!) I also hope to hear from our many new friends in Thailand and when appropriate I will post updates on our friends.

For those of you who would like to take a peak at the Decker Family blog you can find it at: Deckers at Large On this blog we’ll be keeping our family up to date on all the fun things we happen to be doing in sunny Florida. Expect a number of pictures of the troublesome but lovable Ernie the cat. Since we like hosting exchange students, you’ll also get to read about the joys of borrowing other people’s children. Most importantly, there will be pictures taken by the great photographer Karl Decker! Karl really has fallen in love with his new digital camera and he is seriously investigating an underwater digital camera. Something tells me we are going to be going diving more often.

We really enjoyed keeping this blog up to date for all our friends who followed along during our travels. We expect to go on many more trips so stay tuned for the next Decker adventure!

Thai Favorites! (recipes)

Here are a couple of recipes for food that is loved by the Thai people (and us too!). The first recipe is for Thai Spicy and Sour Soup with Coconut Milk and Shrimp. In Thailand they actually prefer this soup with out the coconut milk. Also, the shrimp can be substituted with seafood, fish or chicken.

Thai Spicy and Sour Soup with Coconut Milk and Shrimp (Tom Ka Khun) or
Thai Spicy and Sour Soup with Shrimp (Tom Yum Khun)

Ingredients:
50 ounce can of clear chicken broth
1 stalk fresh or 3 - 4 Tablespoons frozen chopped lemongrass
3 kaffir lime leaves
12 - 15 medium or large raw shrimp, shelled and deveined
2 Tablespoons fish sauce
1 - 2 small red chilies finely sliced or red pepper to taste
3 cloves garlic, minced
15 - 20 cherry tomatoes halved
1 cup shiitake mushrooms thinly sliced
1 red bell pepper sliced
1 14 ounce can coconut milk
wedges of lime or lime juice
optional: cooked rice (Thai jasmine rice is the best!)

Preparation:
1. Pour stock into a deep cooking pot and turn heat to medium-high.
2. Add lemongrass to the pot and boil for 5 minutes until fragrant.
4. Add garlic, chilies, and lime leaves to the broth. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
5. Add shrimp, mushrooms, bell pepper and cherry tomatoes. Cook for 5 - 8 minutes or until the shrimp is done.
6. Turn down the heat to low and add the coconut milk and fish sauce. Test the soup for spice and salt. Add more chilies, fish sauce, lemongrass, and/or lime juice to achieve the taste you like.
7. Serve in bowls either on it's own or over rice.

When we were making this, we couldn't find kaffir lime leaves so I just added extra lime juice.



We definitely have the advantage of knowing how this soup is supposed to taste. Once I was done adding the ingredients according to the recipe, Karl took over adding fish sauce and directing me to add other ingredients until we had achieved the taste he was looking for. This picture shows what the soup is supposed to look like.



This second recipe is a desert that is very popular. You could compare it to apple pie in America! It is Sticky Coconut Rice and Mango. If you don't like Mango (or are allergic) you can substitute just about any fruit. I personally like it with Jack Fruit! Just be aware that you have to follow the time guidelines for soaking the sticky rice or it just won't turn out right. (I always get the first batch wrong and have to make it again!)

Sticky Coconut Rice with Mangos (Khao Neeo Ma Muang)

Ingredients:
1 cup Thai Sweet Rice (available at Asian markets also called sticky rice)
1 ripe mango, cut into bite sized pieces or 1 package frozen mango
7 ounces coconut milk
2-3 Tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch disolved in 2 Tablespoons water
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preparation:
1. Soak the sweet rice in 1 cup water for 20 minutes, or up to an hour. (don't soak longer than an hour or it will be too soft!) Use a rice cooker, it makes this easier!
2. Add 1 more cup of water and a pinch of salt. Stir into the rice and make sure no rice is stuck to the bottom. Turn on the rice cooker.
3. When the rice cooker turns itself off, leave the rice alone for 10 - 15 minutes. (Don't be tempted to open the lid and have a look you will let the steam out and the rice won't be sticky enough!)
4. Put the covered rice in the refrigerator until cold and sticky.
5. In a saucepan, warm the coconut milk on medium heat
6. Add a pinch of salt, brown sugar, and vanilla. Stir until sugar is dissolved about 5 minutes.
7. Add the cornstarch and water mixture and stir. As the sauce thickens turn the heat down to low. Remove from heat.
8. Allow the sauce to cool a bit and then stir it into the sticky rice until the sauce is mixed in and the rice is coated.
9. Serve scoops of sticky coconut rice with pieces of mango on top.

As you can see from some of my comments, the sticky rice can be tricky. First, make sure you have the right rice. See how in the picture the rice grains seem much whiter than regular rice.



Next make sure you don't over or under soak the rice. After it is cooked it should look like the following picture. As a result of opening the lid to take this picture, I released the steam that makes the rice finish cooking and so this batch of rice wasn't as sticky as it should be.



This picture shows how the rice should look once the coconut sauce is added.



And our final picture is of our exchange student Ploy about ready to enjoy a little taste of home!



We hope that you enjoy these recipes too!

Under Construction!

I think I'm addicted to blogging. With not much to post now that I'm back to my day job, I've started updating the whole blog. I found a template that I like better and I'm learning how to edit the templates to make them my own. I started from a template that I downloaded from The Blogger Workshop. I also solicited some feedback from Blogger's discussion board and got a helpful comment that my posts were too long. So, I am in the process of formatting the posts to the new template and breaking up the posts into more manageable sizes.

I also added a video to the "Experience Bangkok" post. I finally had a chance to piece together the clips I took during the Khon performance we attended. I uploaded the final product to YouTube and embedded it in the post. You can watch it by going directly to the Experience Bangkok post and scrolling about half way through the post or by going to the video on YouTube at:Clips from Thailand National Museum Performance.

Enjoy the video!

There’s No Place Like Home

In the words of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz "There is no place like home". Particularly because you don’t spend half your time wonder where such-and-such was packed. Yes, we are home and I obviously don’t have as much free time because it’s been nearly 4 weeks since our last post.

Sunday, April 29th we boarded the airplane headed for home. It was a grueling 27 hours before we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale but thanks to the time change it was only 10:30 pm on the day that we left. Karl occupied his time taking pictures and some of them are quite interesting. Karl got this one of Mt. Fuji as we flew over.

Even after getting a good night sleep we were still dragging the next day. It didn’t matter to me because I wanted to spend as much time as I could with my sister and her family before they had to leave. That evening we went to the drive-in at the Swap-Shop and enjoyed a movie in the back of their truck. We had the great idea to sit on an air mattress. It lasted for about 5 minutes before all the air leaked out! It didn’t matter we had a great time watching “Meet the Robinsons” and munching on popcorn and licorice. The first picture is Dallan and the second is Ruth and Allie.

















Tuesday, we went to the beach and it was so much fun that we didn’t notice how badly sun burnt we were until several hours after we returned home! When we first arrived, we were a little concerned because we saw jellyfish in the water. After learning from the lifeguard that they didn’t sting, Dallan had fun gathering them up off the beach and throwing them back into the water. In the picture, Dallan is showing off two big jellyfish he found. Allie seemed to like the sand and some how she got sand all over in her hair. She also found it amusing to play peek-a-boo with a seashell. Allie would hold the shell so the inside was facing away from her. Then she would turn it over and say “Boo”. It was really cute. Dallan had a lot of fun with the boogie-board we brought. We showed him how to use it to ride a way and with some help from his Dad he caught a few good ones. Brent got a little creative and had Dallan ride the boogie-board against the waves. Doing that Dallan caught a little air as the board came over the wave. Ruth and I got Dallan to stand on the boogie-board and try a little surfing. After the picture was taken, we waited for a good size wave to come along and then we let go. Dallan rode for a short distance before he fell off. Good Job Dallan!

We went home in the afternoon after spending a few hours. For dinner we made some Panang Curry so that Ruth and Brent could try some Thai food. They really liked the curry, but it was a little spicy for the kids. It wasn’t until that evening that Karl and I started feeling our sunburns. Ruth, Brent and the kids were fine, they had learned from their first trip to the beach back in January to spread the sunscreen on thick.

I had told Due’s family that I would wear the dress his Aunt made for me on my first day of work. I was glad that the skirt was short because Wednesday morning my legs were bright red. I had been transferred to the Purchasing Division at Broward County so I was actually starting a new job. It was a usual first day where you meet so many people that your head is spinning by lunch time. The rest of the day was spent getting used to where things are in the new office. As promised to Due’s mom, Noy; here is a picture of me in my beautiful dress on my first day of work.

I was glad to get back home because Wednesday was Allie’s 2nd birthday. After dinner, we had cake and ice cream. Allie got her own little cake to eat which she enjoyed very much. Next, Allie opened her presents including a little doll that we had bought for her in Thailand. Taking pictures turned out to be a challenge. With limited light on our patio and a little girl who was always moving, most of the pictures were blurry. Here are a few that turned out nice. In the last picture, Dallan is holding up the toy we brought from Thailand for him; a squishy mouse that goes splat when you throw it, then slowly returns to its original shape.




Thursday we said goodbye to Ruth, Brent, Dallan and Allie. We spent the morning with them getting everything loaded into their trailer and taking last minute opportunities to spoil the kids. I don’t think Ruth and Brent appreciated the homemade kazoos I gave the kids. That’s OK, they don’t have to worry about me doing it again for awhile. When everything was ready to go, they loaded up the kids and were off to St. Louis, Missouri. Ruth wrote a bit about their trip on her blog. We really enjoyed our few days with Ruth’s family and hope that sometime in the future they will be back in South Florida for dental school. I know they made a lot of friends here that are hoping the same thing.






From that time until now, I can recap our activities with just a few words: work, eat, sleep. Ok, it’s not that bad. Karl went to the doctor and found out that he has a broken collar bone from the motorcycle accident in Authaya. There is no ligament damage and it is healing well. We have been getting resettled into our house. We had packed some things in a closet to make room for Ruth and her family and we’ve been unpacking that. We really like the new closets that Brent built for us. Karl is particularly happy with the master closet because now there is enough room for my clothes and his. I am happy with it too because I now have a nice shoe rack for all my shoes! We are now wishing we’d had him do the other two closets as well. So, Brent you have plenty of work if you decide to come back! Even though our days have been full, the everyday stuff just isn’t as interesting. So, we are looking forward to our next adventure. We are not sure when that will happen. In the meantime, we’ll do occasional updates on the blog. We have lots more pictures from Bangkok that I’d like to put on our photo gallery when I get the time. Also, you never know when we might have an adventure in our own backyard! We’ve already had the first named storm of the season (subtropical storm Andrea) and technically hurricane season hasn’t started yet. However, we are hoping that we don’t have too many adventures involving storms. This last picture that I am including is of the rose bush I received as a goodbye gift from the development team I managed at my former division in the county. They are a good group of people. It was planted right before we left and I was so happy to see it blooming.