Songkran in Miami

Songkran or the Thai New Year happens to coincide with Easter this year and the Buddhist temple in Miami had a big festival planned. Since these festivals are a chance for us to experience Thailand with out the expense and time of a trip halfway around the world we love to go.

Here are some pictures from the festival. We did meet a couple of our Thai friends at the festival and for some reason Karl didn't take a single picture of our friends. Maybe we'll do that next time.

Getting a New Year's Blessing


A small Songkran parade








Several children performed traditional Thai dances


Here's Karl and I


Thailand is going through some difficult times with their government so unstable. Let us hope and pray that this New Year will bring more peace and security to the Thai people.

The Whirlwind Tour

Thursday Suleeporn and her friend To took us around to a number of sites. We saw so many things in one day, it really felt like a whirlwind tour! First was a temple where Suleeporn went to school and she showed us the shrine of a monk who was very kind to her as a child. While we were at this temple, an ordination ceremony was being held for a monk. We arrived at the part where everyone makes a procession around the temple. At the front of the procession was a small brass band playing music that reminded me of Mardi Gras style music. They were joined by some girls dancing and Suleeporn said they dance to help send the monk to heaven. After circling the temple a few times, the soon-to-be monk threw one-baht coins wrapped in colorful tissue paper into the crowd and then went into the temple. We returned to the monk’s shrine where Karl coaxed some novice monks into getting their picture taken. Actually, they enjoyed it as much as Karl did. They would put on serious expressions when Karl was taking the pictures and then break into smiles when he turned the camera to show them the results.

Our next stop was the city of Samut Songkhram. The resort is actually located in a smaller town in Samut Songkhram Province. We had come to see the MaeKlong train station but we first stopped at temple famous for its very old Buddha. At the temple, there are two elephant figurines about a foot tall each with handles on their backs. Suleeporn explained that if you ask an elephant a yes/no question and you can’t lift the elephant with your little finger than the answer is no. Suleeporn got Karl to give it a try just for fun. We then headed to the MaeKlong train station which services a single route; a shuttle service with two passenger cars between Samut Songkhram and neighboring province Samut Sakon. Along the train tracks is a market that literally covers the tracks. Each day, the train leaves Samut Songkhram in the morning and returns just before noon. It leaves again just after lunch and returns around 5:00 pm. So, four times a day the vendors along the railroad tracks pull everything back away from the tracks to let the train pass. They have less than 5 minutes to do it so we had to come and see this for ourselves. When there is no train the market feels crowded and dark. The only place to walk is on the tracks. The umbrellas and awnings keep the sun out but also keep the air from circulating so it is stuffy and a bit stinky with all the fresh seafood. As soon as the bell for the train sounds, people move quickly to roll back trays on wheels and move baskets holding their products. Then the umbrellas and awnings are folded up and out of the way. Trays of vegetables and fruits that are flat enough are just left next to the tracks. It all happens very quickly and suddenly the alley is bright with sunlight. Because it is not very long, the train goes by swiftly. As soon as it passes the vendors are pulling everything back out and the alley returns to the cramped market it was before. Peeking out from our little cubby-hole along the side, Karl snapped a picture of the train as it came and went. The whole thing takes less than 10 minutes and it is really an amusing sight!

Jeap one of the ladies from the resort had come with us, but was feeling tired so she took a bus back to the resort. We know Jeap from our last visit and she is expecting her second child in August. A good month to be born as far as I’m concerned! We had been sight-seeing for almost four hours so it was no wonder Jeap was tired. Suleeporn’s friend To who was graciously driving us around for the day owns a prawn farm and a fruit grove with many different types of fruit trees. He invited us back to his house for Pad Thai made with king prawn from his very own farm. As someone who really likes shrimp this was a nice treat! The shrimp were huge and delicious. It was the best Pad Thai that I’ve had. After lunch, To took us to the prawn fields and let us take a look around. As I mentioned earlier in this post, right after lunch very few people are out and about so there weren’t any workers to photograph. We saw one person who was catching shrimp in the small canal that supplied the shrimp farms with water from the ocean. Suleeporn explained that sometimes the shrimp escape the farm and live in the canals.

Out in the midst of the prawn fields is a small mountain. The people of Samut Songkhram are very proud of their mountain because it is the only one that they have. To joked that it was just a baby mountain as it was only about three-stories high. There was a temple on top so we hiked up the stairs and went to see the temple. In addition to a Buddha inside they also had a Buddha footprint. On the way back down we caught sight of two members of a monkey troop. They kept their distance and we kept ours.

We made what may be our only trip to the ocean to a mud beach that is well known for razor clams. At least that is what we think they are called in English. During low tide, you can walk out and easily dig the clams out of the mud. It was nearing high tide when we arrived so we just admired the ocean and strolled along the vendor shacks. There wasn’t room for the shacks on the sidewalk so they are built out over the sloping sea wall. A scaffold like structure supports the back of the shacks to keep them level with the sidewalk. The first picture is looking out over the Gulf of Thailand and the second shows what the razor clams look like. This little girl liked to play with the clams.

We stopped at one more temple which was unique in that all the interior decorations were done with inlaid mother-of-pearl. The workmanship is very impressive and Suleeporn said that they have been working on the temple for five years and some work still remained to be done.

Our final stop of the day was To’s fruit orchard. To had been teaching Karl some Thai slang through-out the day and they were having a lot of fun with it. The phrase “bawd hag” literally means “burst lung” and it is slang for being very afraid. It comes from the idea that when you are afraid you breathe so hard that you could burst a lung. To said that when riding a motorcycle I am “bawd hag” and I thought that was a very appropriate description for how I felt. The other slang phrase that To taught us was “yut yut” (the “t” is almost silent). This means “very much” and through out the day Karl and To found creative ways to use the phrase. As we followed To through the grove he would call back to us “gin lynchee yut yut” (gin means eat). We did as instructed; picking and eating lynchees as we went along. As we came back out of the grove, To explained his very amusing way for keeping people from stealing his lynchees. Unfortunately, we were sworn to secrecy so I can’t write about it. It really worked! You can see in the picture that the trees overhang the road and yet the lynchees are still on the tree. However, To had lost quite a few lynchees to us. We ate so many that we didn’t want dinner and To picked a bunch for us to eat later.

By the time we got back to the resort it was after 5:00 pm and we were all very tired. It had been a really fun day. Here is a picture of the four of us back at the resort.



Friday we needed a rest. Karl did take some time riding around on our rented motorcycle but I was happy staying in the air conditioning, watching Thai soap operas and getting pictures ready for the blog. I don’t understand anything they say on the Thai soap operas but I find them funnier that way. Friday evening we were invited to dinner with May, Mod and their father Patarapong. Also at dinner was a friend of May’s, Tor who recently graduated from college in Computer Engineering. Tor is very bright; a few years ago he won first place for Thailand in a programming contest sponsored by Microsoft. Dinner was full of good conversation and really good food. We had some grilled king prawn that were huge and very tasty. They had been caught in the river right at the resort. We had several other Thai dishes that we enjoyed but we especially liked the Tom Yum Kun which is a spicy sour soup with vegetables and shrimp. It is a favorite of the Thai people as well and we’ve had Tom Yum Kun before. At Banthip Suanthong it is particularly flavorful. In the picture from left to right, Tor is sitting next to me then May, Mod and Patarapong.

Over the last few days we got some pictures of our friends here at Banthip Suanthong. In the first picture on the left are Suleeporn, Aui, Yong and Jeap (left to right). The next picture on the right shows some of the folks that worked at the resort restaurant. They are Lek, Bo and Dang. We met Dang during our visit three years ago and Bo was kind enough to rent us her motorcycle. The bottom left picture is Somjate and Somsakun who were both very nice to us. Somsakun, the lady on my left, would leave flowers for us at our room and her husband Somjate took us to the bus station on Saturday. The last picture on the bottom right I am with Pacharee who is the owner of the resort and May and Mod’s mother. We really enjoyed our stay at Banthip Suanthong and that is thanks to the friendly people here!

In addition to the human friends we have at the resort, we also made a feline friend. This chocolate calico cat liked to come into our room and play “catch the string” or get scratched under the chin. I’m sure Ernie would be very jealous if he knew that we were giving attention to another cat but fortunately he can’t read!

Saturday we headed to Ayuthaya with a bag of Lynchees in hand (a gift from Suleeporn). Happily it wasn’t a long trip. We took a shared van to Bangkok and caught another one to Ayuthaya. The whole trip took about 3 hours. Here in Ayuthaya we are planning to see some of the historical sites before we go back to Wangpikun for the Songkran festival.

I’ve put more pictures from Samut Songkhram in our online photo album at: Samut Songkhram I’ve also gotten some time to reduce the file size of some additional pictures from Cambodia and Laos and uploaded them. Enjoy the pictures!

The Friendly Laotians

Friday morning, we were up at the crack of dawn (if you can believe it) to go see the alms giving ceremony that takes places every morning around the city. The monks walk around the city in single file and the local people wait on the sidewalks with baskets of sticky rice or fruit. As the monks walk past, a handful of stick rice or piece of fruit is dropped into the offering bowl they carry. Some groups of monks were rather small, but others seemed like they stretched on for a mile. Someone had told us that there were over 300 monks in the city and they all came out for alms each morning.

After the monks had returned to their temples, we decided to climb Phu Si while it was still cool. We didn’t visit the Phu Si temple earlier in the week because there are so many stairs to climb. We braved the stairs and walked around the temple grounds catching our breath. The area is still filled with smoke so the views from the mountain top weren’t so spectacular. As you can see in the picture of Karl, the Mekong River behind him is barely visible and yet it isn’t even a mile away. Besides finding the temple on the top of the hill, we found the remnants of an anti-aircraft gun. As we walked down the other side of the hill, we passed through another temple built around a cave shrine that houses a chubby Buddha image. At this temple we also saw a peaceful use for some remnants of war. Seeing the bombs turned planters is poignant considering that Laos was the most bombed country ever; having 1.9 metric tons of bombs dropped on it during the course of the Vietnam War. The US did this in spite of a Geneva agreement that Laos remain neutral; a disturbing bit of history that has had tragic effects on Laos.



For the remainder of the day Friday and Saturday, we lazily wandered around the market taking pictures and talking to friends that we had made. Luang Prabang actually has a good selection of western food which I welcomed. After two and a half months, I miss some of my favorite foods (like cake!). There are several sandwich vendors on the main street and we happened to meet one lady, Manikhone, who likes to laugh. We buy a sandwich from her nearly every day! The sandwiches are made with a French baguette, cheese, chicken or tuna and various vegetables. The sandwiches have a Lao flare as the vegetables include cucumbers and carrots; normally not put on western sandwiches. Laotians also like their sandwiches with sweet and hot chili sauce, but you can ask for mayonnaise instead. So, we order our sandwich and sit and talk to Manikhone while we eat. She spends every day selling sandwiches from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm and so she often has free time. Manikhone must spend some of that time watching people. She always has some funny comments about the foreigners that she’s seen since she last talked to us. There is a lot for her to laugh about. Some people look like they should join a circus with their odd hairstyles and dyed hair. Others look like they have been in the mountains for several weeks without any soap. And then there are those who have so many piercings that they look a bit like a Frankenstein monster. Something that we are used to seeing but is offensive to Laotians (and other people in Asia) are the short skirts, exposed bellies and low-cut necklines. All Manikhone can say is that she feels embarrassed for them because they think they are attractive and they are not. So, if you are ever in Laos and you notice the vendors giggling and chattering to each other as you walk past; maybe you should reconsider how you dress. The first picture shows me with a couple of the market vendors, the second is one of the market vendors with her handmade items and the last one is us with our friend Manikhone.

Sunday, I stayed in and rested. The smoke in the air is really irritating and had made my throat raw and sinuses congested. Karl explored the town and took lots of pictures. I’ve put them on our online photo album along with other pictures taken in Laos at: Laos

Given the heavy haze, we were considering leaving Luang Prabang and traveling to northern Thailand for a week or so before heading to Loei to see Due and his family. Monday, March 19, the air seemed a bit clearer and we decided to see about a tour to local hill tribe villages before we finalized our plans and bought the plane tickets. We were able to find a taxi driver to take us outside of Luang Prabang to a Hmong village that welcomes visitors. It was a dusty little village with bamboo and wooden houses built up the side of a hill. Outside of the houses were handmade textiles set up for sale and the women and children as young as 5 years old were anxious to show what they had for sale. For a small charge, a group of nine villagers would put on a show and let us take pictures. There was traditional singing, dancing and flute playing in the show but they also showed us other parts of their culture. There was shooting poisoned darts from a crossbow, spinning tops and grinding rice and corn. Karl got to try the crossbow and he actually hit the bull’s-eye! The spinning tops was a game where two people would start two wooden tops spinning and two other people would sling two more wooden tops at the first two trying to hit them. To get the tops spinning at high speeds, they used a stick and a string wrapped around the top. The stick would be flicked like a whip to release the top and send it spinning. The grinding rice and corn wasn’t a game but the kids that were working the stone mill to grind corn couldn’t stop giggling as Karl took their picture. After the show, Karl took more pictures of the group and of the individual members. Karl was so happy with the pictures that he made arrangements to come back the next day.

On our way back to Luang Prabang, we stopped at the SOS Children’s Village. This is a village that provides housing for orphaned children and it is administered by SOS Children’s Village Charity. We had learned about it searching the internet for possible places that we could teach English. During our first few days in Luang Prabang, we had sent emails and even called the office in Vientiane but hadn’t gotten any response about whether we could teach. When we paid a personal visit to the village we were able to talk to the school director and learned that the process to get volunteer teachers approved in Laos was lengthy. That being the case, we would not be able to teach. The visit to the village was not a loss as we got to see how well the children were taken care of. The buildings are quite new and our escort told us that each house can accommodate up to 10 children and one “mother”. Siblings live together to help keep the family ties close. SOS Children’s Villages have been set up in several countries. Their website is: SOS Children's Villages

Tuesday, we woke up to a cloudy day and as the day progressed Karl
began to wonder if he would have enough light when we returned to the Hmong village in the afternoon. Shortly before we were to leave, it started to rain. We made it to a restaurant before we got to wet and had some lunch. The rain outlasted us and we finally headed back to our hotel on our bicycles getting quite wet. Karl returned to the Hmong village Wednesday morning and got some more pictures. Our friendly taxi driver is also Hmong and he invited Karl and me to his home that evening. His daughters and a son wore their traditional costumes and we got some pictures of them. The first picture is of Karl, our taxi driver and his father-in-law; the second picture is of Karl and the taxi driver's kids.

Thursday we went to the Luang Prabang National Museum with Manikhone’s daughter. As we were about to leave the market to go to the museum, three more ladies decided to join us. One of them had never been to the museum before! So we walked down the street and toured the museum together. The museum used to be the royal palace so there were a lot of the effects of the King and Queen as well as artifacts from temples that had been destroyed. Pictures weren’t allowed inside the museum but we got this one of the group at a nearby temple.

We spent the rest of our day Thursday saying goodbye to the friends we had made. The local people are a bit cautious of foreigners due to rude tourists but are very friendly and welcoming to anyone who makes the effort to be polite and friendly as well. In the picture, Karl is standing with the Salikas; a couple that he met while out taking pictures one afternoon. That night we had quite a storm, the wind was blowing so hard that it pushed the rain through our window and we had a small flood in our room. Thanks to the wind and the rain, Friday morning the weather was beautiful. For the first time since we had arrived in Luang Prabang we saw blue skies! We got to enjoy it for a few hours before our flight back to Vientiane Friday afternoon. The crossing from Laos to Thailand is over the Friendship Bridge and when crossing into Laos we were on a crowded bus so we didn’t get to see much. This time we took a taxi back over the bridge and got to see the Mekong, which was very low. We stayed the night in Nong Khai and today we travel by bus to Loei. This last picture shows how beautiful the river is when there is no smoke!