I have been noticeably absent from the blog as of late, nothing wrong, I haven’t been in jail or selling my body for baht coins on beach road…just a brief hiatus to enjoy myself and life for a while without the constraints of constantly writing or researching things to write. It may not seem like it but it takes a great deal of time putting together articles for TLoS and a break was definitely needed to recharge the ol batteries as it were.

Even though I have been on a small break I have still managed to gather a backlog of posts to write and all that stuff will be pouring out on the Land of Smiles very shortly.

The big thing for me was to just relax for a bit and not think about blogging at all, maybe get a fresh perspective.

In the last month I’ve spent a lot more time with a certain Thai woman I’ve been seeing for the past 2 months, her name is Mo and she is quite the sweetheart with a very serious streak of smartass in her. Just recently she gifted me with the Monkey’s pictured above. I’m not exactly sure but I believe that is her way of telling me the relationship has moved to the next level. She seems to get me and she never fails to put a smile on my face, so, I am cautiously optimistic about this one…besides, just look at that monkey, if that doesn’t scream love I don’t know what does, I’m the monkey on the left in case you were wondering.

Mo goes to the temple on a regular basis so I have been as well for the past month or so and for those of you that don’t already know the Vegetable Festivals are in full swing throughout Thailand now. The local Wat started the celebrations off on the 25th and they will end in the first week of October. This festival has a very long history and it’s meant as a time of cleansing ones spirit and mind by not eating meat. I’ve actually been meat free since the 25th and haven’t missed it one bit.

There have been so many new vegetable dishes I have tried that I never knew existed as well as old standbys like Gaeng Kiow Wan ( green Curry ) but made with vegetables ( pak ). The vegetable festival will hit it’s stride this weekend with parades and the ultra religious piercing all manner of body parts with all manner of objects…you should come out, fun for the whole family

I have a post coming up this weekend on the Vegetable Festival…I’ve taken lots of pics I just need the parade pics this weekend to finish it all up.

I’ll finish the post off today with some colorful pictures from my local Wat, Sawangboriboon, which is in full on vegetable Festival  mode.