Thai Mother's Day

The Thai Mother's Day was this past week. It is on the birthday of the Queen of Thailand. Here in America they celebrate it on the closest Sunday since that is when people have time to spend the day at the Thai temple. We decided to go to the Thai Mother's Day celebration on August 10th ourselves. We were very interested in seeing the Thai folk dance performance that was going to be put on by the summer school students. Karl wanted to get some pictures of the dancers at the celebration.

Karl did get some pictures but then by mistake, they all got deleted from the camera before we could download them. We were very disappointed. Also we had told some of the people we met that the pictures would be here on the blog. Only now we don't have any pictures. So, stay tuned, we'll be making another trip to the Thai Temple and maybe get some more pictures.

The Final Stretch

Well, Karl is back home but in the last few weeks that he was away I didn't post anything so I'm making up for it now. I could blame it on Karl because he didn't send any pictures during that time but the truth is that I didn't really have time to do a post. I was too busy Christmas shopping for myself!!

So, Karl went to Ayutthaya after he left Wangpikun but he didn't have much luck getting the models in the settings that he wanted for his pictures. In the end, Karl gave up on Ayutthaya and moved to Lopburi. Lopburi is well known for their population of monkeys. They are not afraid of people and will steal food away from you. Karl was careful not to carry food with him but he also had a stick that came in handy when encouraging the monkeys to "go away". Don't worry no monkeys were harmed in the writing of this blog. At least not physically, it is difficult to determine if any experienced mental anquish resulting from Karl shaking a stick at them.

Here is a picture Karl took in Lopburi and if you look closely you'll see some monkeys in the background.


Here is another picture from Lopburi.


After Lopburi, Karl went to visit our host daughter Ploy in her home town of Kaanchanaburi. This town is famous because it is the location of the "Bridge over the River Kwai" which was made famous by a World War II epic movie by that name. Actually the bridge in the story isn't there any more but there is a replacement bridge that draws tourists as well as the Allied cemetary.

Here is Karl with Ploy's Aunt, Ploy and Ploy's Dad.


Here is Karl on the Bridge over the River Kwai (the replacement any way).


Karl really enjoyed visiting with Ploy and her family. After Kaanchanaburi, he headed back to Bangkok and then caught a flight home. Karl almost missed his connection in Korea because he decided to take a nap. Well, someone took pity and woke Karl up. I think if that hadn't happened, Karl would have used it as an excuse to stay in Korea for a while taking pictures.

So, Karl is back home and hasn't got another trip planned yet. I think he's afraid to leave me home alone considering how much money I spent on myself while he was away.