It wasn’t long ago that knitting and crocheting were a popular pastime for women in the United States, as a matter of fact it was a pretty big industry as well. Obviously these were serious skills that were needed throughout the beginning of the country that took a back seat after the industrial revolution when machines made clothes faster and cheaper.

Even so knitting and crocheting were still very popular especially through the periods of the 1950’s to the 1970’s. There were yarn stores on every corner and it was commonplace to see a knitting basket in most living rooms with an ample supply of yarn and usually a half finished piece laying on top. Since the 70’s it’s a rarity to see any of these things in America. Sure, there are still women that enjoy the craft but they are few and far between these days.

During my first trip to Bangkok I found myself wandering the city most days, getting lost and enjoying the new sights I would see during my exploration. One day I stopped in a small beer bar to escape the afternoon heat and replenish myself with a nice cold beer when I saw something I hadn’t seen in almost 20 years. The cashier was intently crocheting rounded patterns and her friend was knitting them into a sweater.

The first thing that ran through my head was the fact that Bangkok holds the title of the hottest city on the planet followed by just what were these Thai women knitting sweaters for? Through my travels I ran into more and more Thai women knitting and crocheting. They were not only very good at it they wasted not one stitch. Sweater, hats, the occasional scarf and drink coasters…lots and lots of drink coasters.

The majority of knitting that I saw being done was by women from rural Thailand who were working in the tourist area’s to send money home. It wasn’t until my first trip up country to North East Thailand that I realized the truth behind the sweaters. From January to the middle of March it can get quite chilly at night. There was more to it than that of course. While spending time in rural Thailand over many trips it became apparent that many women still knitted and crocheted to clothe their babies and small children. Baby blankets, booties and hats to keep their little heads warm were just a few of the things they made.

While these crafts are slowly dying out in America they are still going strong among rural Thai’s but you can see it won’t be long before the slow decline begins here as well. All of Pookie’s Aunts and older cousins knit and crochet but Pookie and the younger family members can’t be bothered with it.

My last trip to Mukdahan had me spending some time in the village with the grand parents and Pookies cousin. Her cousin was 4 months pregnant at the time and she was furiously crocheting away. I only spent a few days in Mukdahan before moving on to Nakhon Phanom but I never once saw Pookie’s cousin without needles in her hand intently working on more pieces that would be knitted together at a later time.

Keep an eye out during your travels though Thailand and you’ll start to see it more and more, and if you are real lucky you might get a scarf or a hat out of the deal…I did.

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Thailand to Ask U.S. to Take it Off Piracy Watch List

This week the powers that be in Bangkok suggested that they would once again ask to be taken off the piracy watch list by the United States, fat chance.

All you have to do is walk around Bangkok or Pattaya for 5 minutes to realize the proportion of pirated items in Thailand is a huge problem for companies world wide. The day a hit movie hits the theaters it’s also on sale on the streets for 100 baht note. And movies are just the tip of the iceburg, clothing, music and everything else under the sun gets copied as soon as it hits the market and is on sale to you on the streets of Thailand within days.

Although there are highly publicized raids on markets and shopping centers throughout Thailand these raids usually net a very small amount of pirated goods and the sellers are back at it within 24 hours. Just this week in Pattaya Mikes Shopping Mall was raided and a total of 101 bags, 47 wrist watches, 35 shirts and 10 hats with a combined street value of around 20,000 Baht were confiscated. Anyone else with half a clue could have found 20 times that amount in the same mall just casually perusing the outside vendors and those on the first floor. Seems the vendors had an inkling that the man was coming.

Until Thailand owns up to it’s piracy problem and actually does more than make a modest show of doing anything about it they will be on the piracy watch list for a very long time. And that’s good news for you and me because you can find some decent quality pirated goods at a very good price, especially when you are talking about video games.

Filmmaker Oliver Stone Still Irrelevant

Ever since his hit film JFK was released the self proclaimed conspiracy theorist has been giveing lectures world wide on the assassination of  American President John F. Kennedy. And this week found Mr. Stone expounding on said conspiracy to a host of 300 Thai high school students who were no doubt bored to death.

Stone was in Bangkok as part of a series of talks facilitated by the Vienna-based International Peace Foundation. Who, no doubt, couldn’t procure anyone more interesting to speak. While I’m all for a good conspiracy and the JFK assassination is the mother of all conspiracies, Oliver Stone is just way too far out there for anyone with an actual brain in their heads.  Aside from the fact that his film on the assassination fudged some very real facts and created new characters out of thin air and is widely regarded as being  a bad speculation as to actual events, who actually cares anymore?

JFK is more relevant today than Oliver Stone is and that’s saying something considering the former has been dead for 47 years! Maybe if Stone would stop boring Thai students to death and found a good movie to make the studios might give him some money and he might make the news again for something other than a long dead conspiracy.

13 nations vow to save tigers

This week a dozen nations including Thailand and Russia met in Hua Hin, Thailand to discuss the wild tiger population throughout Asia.  The nations which also included China, India, and Myanmar vowed to join together and double the population of wild tigers by 2022. The plan includes cracking down on poachers as well as limiting the building of roads and infrastructure in the tigers natural habitat.

Tiger numbers in the wild have plummeted because of human encroachment and poaching. From 100,000 at the beginning of the 20th century, the number of tigers today is less than 3,500. Hopefully this pact between the nations holds up and is much more than a diplomatic meeting. These beautiful creatures need to be preserved and it will take a multi-national collaboration to make that happen.

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The Bangkok International Tattoo Convention will be held this weekend,  January 15th, 16th & 17th,  at the Impact Muang Thong Thani Hall 9 and looks to be quite a considerable event. Billed as Bangkok’s first ever international tattoo convention they will be in good company as Thailand has had a few successful  international tattoo festivals before in Bangkok and Pattaya hosted by none other than world renown Thai tattoo artist Jimmy Wong. The success of these previous events will surely add to the hype of this one.

Featured will be tattoo masters from around the world such as: (click on the photos for more info on the artists)

Mick Tattoo, a.k.a. Mick from Zurich Who is known for his amazing dragon imagery and full body suit designs.

Shige who’s self taught style has brought him world recoginition for his traditional Oriental Tattoo’s with a personal touch who also has a sweet illustation book out that will be on sale at the convention.

Mike Ledger The famous New York City tattoo artist who has studied in Japan and is known for his impressive sleeve  & body suit work.

Tim Hendricks who is known by many from his appearances on the television show Miami Ink  is also well known throughout the world for his custom made tattoo equipment.

Federico Ferroni from Love Hate Tattoo’s who is known for his impeccable oriental designs.

Chris Garver who is also known for his work on the television show Miami Ink and is recognized as a leading tattoo artist around the world.

Fu Hailin Chinese tattoo artist who aside from his tattoo work is known around the world for his beautiful illustration books The Chine Seal and Lie Huo Manuscript.

Horitsuna hailing from Japan who’s claim to fame is the Japanese traditional style known as Tebori.

Boog a world famous Texas Tattooist known for his killer script work.

If you are planning on getting any ink done then you definitely want to get in early if you want to book time with any of these artists because I am positive that their schedule will be filled within the first few hours of the convention and with their styles of work I’m sure time will be very limited.

The tattoo convention will also feature a tattoo competition, all sort’s of vendors and merchants and live performances by Thyruz, a black metal act from Norway and Thai Reggae artist Zom Ammara. You can click on the pics below to get a taste of their respective works.

This is surely the tattoo event of the year so you don’t want to miss it.  Entrance fees are 500 baht for a single day and 1200 baht for all three days. The convention will run each day from 11 am – 8pm. You can click the poster below to go to the conventions web site for more detailed information.

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Behind the family farm in Nakhon Phanom there is probably close to 50 individual rice paddies that are owned by all the various families in the village. I learned the hard way exactly how the rice fields work in the village because I spent a few days fertilizing them last April for the coming planting season. The family owned 7 fields behind their farm and a further 5 fields 3 miles down the road.

After a hard days work I was asked if I wanted to go fishing, to which I replied,  “sure”. I expected that once the fishing nets were checked and folded up that we would be loading up the truck and heading down the road to the Mekong, but I was wrong. We loaded up the truck and got all the kids on a motorcycle and started heading in the general direction of the Mekong but then we took a turn onto the dirt road that runs along side the rice fields.

The fields behind the farm are separated by a small wooded area with a stream and on the other side was another 40 fields or so. We came out of the wooded area and drove to the opposite side of the fields and parked. That’s when I noticed that interspersed around the fields were actually man made ponds that were pretty good sized and as I found out about 10 feet deep.

I asked Pookie if they had stocked the ponds and I was told they occasionally buy feeder fish and set them loose but the birds also help out by dropping remnants of fish and other critters into the water. As the nets came out and were prepared to start the fishing the kids found a spot in the shade to play while Pookie hid out behind a very small tree for cover while watching the men fish.

The ponds are collectively used by all of the farmers so I didn’t expect many fish to be pulled out but after a long day of shoveling manure I was more than ready to jump in and cool off. Eventually Pookie’s brothers and her young cousin unfurled the nets and set to trawling the first pond but as expected they didn’t get anything after 3 tries. We then headed for the second pond only to find that the fish weren’t home there either.

Right near the fields is what looks like a large natural lake and I was told we would walk over there and give that a try. I thought it sounded like a good idea until I walked into the lake only to find that the water only came up to my shins. At best it was 3 feet deep in places. more of a large flooded area than a lake. At this point I wondered what we would be fishing for.

It didn’t take me long to realize we would be mucking around in the mud for fresh water clams and mussels. They didn’t think I was up for it and laughed as I laid in the water, pulling myself around with my hands while feeling for anything in the muck below. Surprisingly, for me and them, I pulled up about 12 mussels and the brothers found about 20 each. More than enough to compliment dinner that night. And while we were mucking around in the mud Pookie decided to try her hand at photography, as you can see she caught my better side.

So, as the sun began to set, we loaded up the pickup truck and headed back to the house with our haul of mussels and just like their western counterparts there was a tall tale or two of the fish that got away. Dinner that night tasted better than any four star restaurant, partly because the work we put in to bring it to the table but mostly because I felt like I was a part of something bigger than a meal.

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The Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom will be hosting the annual Thailand International Jazz Conference from the 29th-31st of January.

Some of the worlds most renowned jazz musicians will be in attendance at the 3 day event held at Mahidol University’s College of Music. International acts such as Aaron Goldberg, Gregory Hutchinson, Omer Avital, Rich Perry, Harold Danko, Jeff Hirshfield and Jay Anderson will be appearing on stage as well as some very talented local musicians.

The 3 day conference will be jam packed with events including  live performances, lessons, workshops and solo competitions. The solo competitions are divided into 2 groups, the open and junior competitions,  where musicians will be competing for cash and prizes worth over 100,000 baht. Not too bad considering the entrance fee is only 800 baht for the open competition and 500 baht for the junior.

A pass for this awesome 3 day event is only 2000 baht and that gets you into every event. If you are only interested in watching the live performances then you can purchase a concert pass for 500 baht. The three day schedule of events can be seen below and you can get all the information you need at the official web page for the Thailand International Jazz Conference 2010.

Check out the video at the end of this post to see some of the great performances from the 2009 conference, you’ll definitely be in for a weekend of great music.

January 29, 2010

Time		Type	Event	Venue
	10:30am.-11:30am.	Workshop	Rangsit University Faculty	Auditorium
	11:30am.-12:00pm.	Performance	Rangsit University Student	Oval Stage
	12:15am.-12:45pm.	Performance	OMAH	Oval Stage
	01:00pm.-01:50pm.	Workshop	Jay Anderson	Auditorium
	02:00pm.-02:50pm.	Workshop	Harold Danko	Auditorium
	03:00pm.-03:50pm.	Workshop	Jeff Hirshfield	Auditorium
	04:00pm.-04:50pm.	Workshop	Rich Perry	Auditorium
	06:00pm.-07:00pm.	Performance	Mahidol University Jazz Orchestra	Main Stage
	07:30pm.-08:30pm.	Performance	Prode Tanapat Jazz Group	Main Stage
	09:00pm.-10:00pm.	Performance	Denny & Friends (Rangsit University Faculty)	Main Stage
	10:30pm.-11:30pm.	Performance	Baptiste Herbin Quartet	Main Stage

January 30, 2010

Time		Type	Event	Venue
	10:30am.-11:30am.	Workshop	Silpakorn University Faculty	Auditorium
	11:30am.-12:00pm.	Performance	Silpakorn University Student	Oval Stage
	12:15am.-12:45pm.	Performance	LAM Jazz Band	Oval Stage
	01:00pm.-01:50pm.	Workshop	Prod Tanapat	Auditorium
	02:00pm.-02:50pm.	Workshop	Koh Mr.Saxman	Auditorium
	03:00pm.-03:50pm.	Workshop	Anant Lerpradit	Auditorium
	04:00pm.-04:50pm.	Workshop	Baptiste Herbin	Auditorium
	05:20pm.-07:00pm.	Competition	Solo Competition Type B (Junior Division) Final Round	Auditorium
	07:30pm.-08:30pm.	Performance	Koh Mr.Saxman	Main Stage
	09:00pm.-10:00pm.	Performance	Mansri (Silpakorn University Faculty)	Main Stage
	10:30pm.-11:30pm.	Performance	Rich Perry Quartet	Main Stage

January 31, 2010

Time		Type	Event	Venue
	10:30am.-11:30am.	Workshop	Mahidol University Faculty	Auditorium
	11:30am.-12:00pm.	Performance	Mahidol University Student	Oval Stage
	12:15am.-12:45pm.	Performance	Jazz Dojo	Oval Stage
	01:00pm.-01:50pm.	Workshop	Infinity	Auditorium
	02:00pm.-02:50pm.	Workshop	Omer Avital	Auditorium
	03:00pm.-03:50pm.	Workshop	Greg Hutchinson	Auditorium
	04:00pm.-04:50pm.	Workshop	Aaron Goldberg	Auditorium
	05:20pm.-07:00pm.	Competition	Solo Competition Type A (Open Division) Final Round	Auditorium
	07:30pm.-08:30pm.	Performance	Infinity	Main Stage
	09:00pm.-10:00pm.	Performance	The Pomelo Town (Mahidol University Faculty)	Main Stage
	10:30pm.-11:30pm.	Performance	Aaron Goldberg Trio	Main Stage

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When you think about farming and Thailand the logical conclusion usually ends up with visions of  rice, but when you drive through the provinces of Samut Sakhon & Samut Songkhran your logic just might be challenged. When I was heading to Damnoen Saduak floating market in April I settled in for what I knew was going to be a long ride full of bland scenery, about 50 kilometers South West of Bangkok along Rama II Road something made me sit up and take notice.

On both sides of the road for as far as the eye could see were flooded fields.  I knew it was too early for rice planting and some of the fields looked almost white under the water while others had men who seemed to be raking white mounds into perfect lines throughout the field.  I tries to coax the answer out of my driver but he couldn’t explain in English so I was left with my own ideas until I got back to the hotel later that day.

When I showed my find to Pookie and asked what was going on without blinking she picked up a salt shaker from the table and poured some salt into my hand. Something so simple yet my mind couldn’t figure it out.

After looking at the pictures for a while and doing a little research I realized I had hit the mother load of Thai ingenuity. Not only are the Thai’s using one natural resource to manufacture another,  they are doing it in an absolute green way.

These fields are actually large shallow flat pools that have the earth tamped down tight to hold the water that is pumped into them from the Gulf of Siam or the Mae Khlong River, both of which have a  high salt content. The water is pumped into the pools by means of a wooden paddled conveyor belt driven by small windmills scattered throughout the fields. Once the water is pumped into the shallow pools then it’s a two month wait while the sun does it’s work removing the salt from the water.

At the end of two months the pools are drained of the majority of their water and the residual salt that came to rest on the bottom of the pools is then raked up into piles to be collected. The collected salt is then stored in small warehouses located at the edges of the fields where it is then packaged for sale.

Every couple of miles along the road are small stands selling the sea salt in bags as small as one kilo all the way up to 50 kilo sacks. The salt farms operate for six months of the year starting at the end of rainy season in November and continuing until the end of April just before the rains return.

Most crops need water but this is one crop that relies on the sun and I can only guess that early rains would be bad for business.

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Today marks the 20th annual World AIDS Day. Sadly,  by now the hope was there would be a cure and no more need for such days. Today and any day that AIDS awareness can be front and center to the worlds populace is extremely important, especially when the disease has faded in the minds of most people. Thailand’s AIDS story is one of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and just one reason why awareness is so important, not just today but every day.

AIDS research and prevention programs have been hard enough for the largest and most affluent countries of the world to handle so one can imagine how hard it’s been to educate and create public policy in developing nations, especially those hit hard by the disease. There are no developing countries in the world where public policy has been more effective in preventing the spread of HIV and AIDS than in Thailand.

Thailand’s comprehensive prevention programs have been very well funded and politically supported which has saved a considerable many lives.  Thailand saw the HIV infection rate decrease yearly from 1991 when new HIV infections were at 143,00 to 2003 when new HIV infections bottomed out at 19,000.

Unfortunately 2003 is also the year the new infection rates began to rise again in gay males and since 2003 the real fear has been a new  resurgence of infections. To this end Thailand has started to aggressively promote public awareness programs again. The problem is still very real when more than  1 in 100 adult Thai’s are infected with the disease and AIDS is now among the leading causes of death in Thailand.

Whenever you hear statistics referring to AIDS in Thailand the fist assumption is that the sex industry is the culprit and while that may have been true during the initial stages of AIDS progression in Thailand,  today is a much different story. The Thai government,  due in large part to their public policies and programs in the 90’s,  have reduced visits to commercial sex workers by Thai men by more than half  as well as decreased sexually transmitted infections, raised condom awareness and substantially decreased new HIV infections.

The majority of HIV and AIDS cases in Thailand today occur through heterosexual sex with the largest groups of new infections being seen in teenagers, married females and gay males. Even though Thailand was fast to implement prevention programs in the 90’s they have been lax in the last decade and most of today’s teenagers were not old enough to understand the prevention campaigns that were so prevalent during the 1990’s.

The current situation in Thailand as of 2008

• The majority of Thailand’s HIV infections (around 80%) occur through heterosexual sex.
• HIV affects more men than women in Thailand; the male-female ratio is 7:5.
• HIV prevalence among pregnant women, which reached a peak of 3.4% in 1992, had fallen to 0.87% by 2006.
• An estimated 1 in 5 new HIV infections in Thailand are attributable to unprotected sex between men.

Obviously these statistics are very sobering and reason for real concern. Thailand’s original AIDS awareness programs dealt a serious blow to the infection rates seen between 1991 and 2003 but, unfortunately, the Thai government became complacent once numbers began to drop. In 2001 government funding of the HIV/AIDS programs was half what it was in 1997 , by 2006 that budget was reduced by two thirds.

The declining focus on prevention saw condom use decrease and sexually transmitted infections on the rise again. Fortunately in 2007  the Thai government once again took action and set up a strategic three year plan to get back on track with prevention programs. The Thai government specifically set out to reach those groups most affected by increased infection rates as well as the nation as a whole.

Thailand’s story of HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention should be a case study for every nation in the world. A once prolific program that saw infection rates decline dramatically was almost completely derailed by complacency. Thailand is back on the right path and will hopefully remain vigilant in this fight against HIV/AIDS.

It’s important that we remain vigilant world wide and keep up the efforts from awareness to prevention programs. We shouldn’t have to have a special day to remind us, every day is special and every day is important in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Now go out and tell someone about it.

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There is nothing better than a feel good cultural penis story, is there?

In an effort to promote safe sex and prohibit the transmission of Sexually related diseases Thailand is undertaking the mother of all surveys, the kingdoms first countrywide survey of penis size. Thailand never ceases to amaze me. Thais can be very reserved when it comes to sexual talk but when lives are at stake they will take on a countrywide campaign to get the word, and condoms, out.

Since 2003 HIV infections have been on the rise in Thailand primarily in gay males and sex workers. The Department of Disease Control (DDC) has cited statistics that show the level of infection in gay men that had gone for testing was at 17% in 2003 and that number had almost doubled by 2007 when it hit 32% of gay males tested. This has brought up very real fears that a second wave of HIV in Thailand could be imminent. This new campaign is aimed at getting the word out and cutting infection rates in half by 2011.

Most all men from every walk of life loathe condoms mostly because they never seem to fit right and the big killer, they deaden the sensation we all love. This Thai safe sex survey has a very real purpose in that if they know the sizes they are dealing with they can make condoms that fit, will feel good and will be used. To that end size really does matter and under the Public Health Ministry’s “Condom for All” campaign soon every Thai male in the country will know his size, and with luck all the females will be talking about it.

The Public Health Ministry plans on distributing the official penis measuring device soon. Pictured above, the device is basically a disposable paper measuring tape that will let the Thai guys know what size they are and what size they need. The measuring tapes will measure widths from 49 to 56 millimeters, considered to be “standard Thai sizes”  There was no word on what smaller or larger men can do to take part. Hopefully the male bravado won’t take over and see males fudging the sizes upward to impress their partners.

The measuring devices even come with instructions to “please measure while erect”…yeah, I think all males the world round understand the first unspoken rule of peni measurement. Lets just hope our Thai counterparts don’t follow the second unspoken rule which is to add at least 30% to whatever size you come up with and lie at all costs. Yes ladies it happens, and you buy into it, how else did you think the whole shrinkage arguement came about!

The DDC plans to use this campaign to get people talking and hopefully understanding just how important safe sex can be. The DDC will also be making good fitting condoms available for free. Once the DDC pushes the campaign out nationwide they will be sending condoms to more than 7000 Tambon Administrations throughout the country for them to distribute while promoting safe sex.

I think this is a great initiative by the Thai government and I have no doubt it will have everyone in Thailand talking. I sincerely hope the underlying message doesn’t get lost among the laughter that is sure to ensue, who doesn’t laugh at peni? Let’s hope once the laughter subsides the messages rings true and the HIV infection rates fall.

I said Thailand never ceases to amaze me earlier because even though they are a reserved people they will take action even when a possibly uncomfortable subject is involved. When you take into consideration that this would never happen in America it takes on a new light. While free condoms and safe sex promotion does happen in America it will never happen on a national level at this magnitude because the religious right would have conniption fits if the federal government was seen to promote sex by giving away condoms, they still think abstinence is the answer!

Penis measuring tape picture courtesy The Nation

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In this day and age we don’t tend to think much about how our food is prepared or preserved to last as long as it can. Unfortunately, even though we call it progress, technology has failed us in many ways when it comes to the foods we eat

These preservatives may keep the foods we eat from spoiling faster and keep bacteria and fungal growth away but they also change the foods on a molecular level and the story is still out on how some of these preservatives can affect us.

Leaving small town America for rural Thailand will open your eyes in many ways but none more than how food is handled and preserved for future use. It’s almost like walking backwards through time and using reverse technology.

While I was at the family farm in Nakhon Phanom I witnessed daily the act of preparing food for future use. While the family does have a small refrigerator it isn’t relied upon to keep food as much as it is used to store water.

All this food preparation and preservation takes time but it is an every day part of life in Issan shared by the farmers and city dwellers alike. Walking through the city streets you will see many houses where they are preparing meat and fruits to dry in the hot Issan sun.

One day I watched Pookie’s Aunt gather mango’s for an hour and then she peeled, cut and seeded them before placing them in a mortar and pestle and mashing them for what seemed like another hour. She added small amounts of salt and sugar while mashing and then when done she spread the mashed mango on plates and left them out to dry in the midday sun. When dried it becomes similar to a fruit rollup that you can eat whenever you want and they supposedly last quite a while. The 2 plates pictured above are the result of a half a days work.

How have we as Westerners gotten so far away from the fundamentals of society. Everything has been scaled up with unnatural communities springing up around malls and entertainment districts. Because of this we had to figure a way out to feed millions of people cheaply and efficiently, although badly at the same time. We stopped living where the living was good and spread out in unnatural ways that can’t be sustained.

Rural Thailand is the perfect example that we should all be striving for. Small self contained communities working together to grow their own foods and prosper off the land. These Thai farmers could survive any disaster put to them much more easily than any community in America or Europe. Don’t believe that? Just look to the after effects Katrina had on New Orleans. We had the technology and the wherewithal to withstand anything and yet we failed.

If America and Europe don’t get back to these types of small self sufficient communities then we won’t have to worry about wars, natural disasters or energy deficiencies bringing us down because we will have already brought ourselves down with our need to live in suburbia closer to the McDonald’s, Starbuck’s and the Walmarts of the world.

Edit: Go Passport just left the link to a documentary called Food Inc. I think this should be required watching for every person living in Western society. The full movie can be found here: Food Inc

I decided to add the movie here as well because it really is that important for people to see.

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I love Mukdahan, it’s a small quiet city bordering Laos on the Mekong.  As I’ve said before there really isn’t much to do in this sleepy little town but the locals will always have a smile for you and the night market has some of the best food Issan has to offer.

Just off the main promenade on the Mekong is a small street called Song Nang Sathit Rd,  you’ll know you are in the right place when you see the sign that spans the road that says in English Food Safety Street.

Every night at 5pm the street closes to traffic and the night market begins. Your senses will be assailed before you even step foot on the street. The sights, sounds and smells are a mixture of China, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand all rolled into one. The phrase ” having eyes bigger than your stomach”  had to have been coined by someone that visited Mukdahan’s night market

You can spend the day walking through Mukdahan and not see more than a few handfuls of people, but spend the night at the food market and you’ll see most of Mukdahan. It’s not just a place to buy food and clothes. it’s a place where the community comes together and shares a smile and a laugh with their stories while eating the delicious food on offer and buying their other needs.

One of my favorite dishes at the market is also a dish that Mukdahan is known for which is Kanom Tuay, roasted pork with balls of sticky rice. Another favorite dish is made from a freshly baked baguette stuffed with spicy minced pork. Just about everything I’ve eaten at the night market becomes a favorite dish and I head back to the village a few pounds heavier. One thing is for sure, for 20-50 baht you can buy more food than is humanly possible to eat in one sitting and have one of the best views to people watch while doing it.

Not too far away from the night market is another little known market to the tourist trade, the wholesale night market. Most of the shops at the wholesale market open their doors around 2am and are closed by 10am. They sell the bulk of the vegetables, meats, fruits and cooking supplies to the rest of the community.

The parking lot is packed while open and the hustle and bustle of the merchants and buyers can be heard well through the night. I wandered around the shops one day before closing and was greeted just as warmly by the merchants and shopper alike. It was cool to see where the fresh foods start their day before winding up at the restaurants, shops and, of course, the night market.

If you are ever near Mukdahan make time for a day trip and make sure to include the night market, you’ll be very glad you did,  although your scale might not show you the same love the next morning.

You can find many more pictures of both markets in the Gallery Mukdahan Night Market

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Last trip to the Land of Smiles found me all over the place and seeing all kinds of new things. One night while in Pattaya I happened across the sign posted above while walking up Pattaya Third Road, and thought to myself…why the hell not?  Well, it might have been the half bottle of Sangsom that I drank at the Thai Karaoke or the three beautiful Thai women I had with me egging me on. Either way I was up for a little fishy foot fetish.

For those of you that don’t already know there has been a craze going on all over South East Asia for the past few years, and that craze involves getting you feet massaged by fish. Yes, I said fish, but these aren’t your ordinary run of the mill carp or whitefish, these are special feet eating fish.

These are Turkish Garra rufa fish and they like to eat dead skin. Obviously this makes them a great choice for a peculiar pedicure, or as Tickle by Fish like to call it ” Relax with Reflexology”. You are basically soaking your feet in a nice warm pool which just happens to have about 300 fish sucking away at your toes.

It’s quite an odd experience, not bad… but not the norm either. It feels like the fish are tickling you and now and again you feel like you are being shocked lightly. One thing is for sure, they really do love the dead skin cells and after 15 minutes your feet come out feeling very smooth.

Once you get past the mass of fish eating your feet it’s also quite relaxing and you can’t help but laugh and have a good time. Once the fish have their way with you then one of the massage therapists takes over to scrub and moisturize your feet.

They also have a detoxifying treatment where they place some sort of ionizer into the warm water and you wear a low voltage emitter on your wrist. This treatment apparently removes toxins from your body. While I am usually the adventurous type I like to keep my warm water and electricity separate….especially when we are talking about electricity in Thailand.

All in all it was a nice experience that I would definitely try again. They also had standard foot massage available as well as a foot steaming sauna, aroma therapy and full body scrub/massage. Tickle by Fish was a very nice place with very nice people and seemingly nice fish, well,  they were eating me. If you have a foot fetish this is definitely the place for you.

If you’d like to give it a try you can find Tickle by Fish on Pattaya Third Road between Central Pattaya Road and Pattaya North Road. They are open 10am-10pm daily and their phone number is 038.410.675

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I had an interesting conversation with Catherine of Women Learn Thai last night that really made me sit back and think about what I would like to see for Thailand in the future.

Catherine is very passionate about a number of things in Thailand but one of her biggest passions is the law concerning seat belt use. I had thought it was the law that everyone in the car must have a seat belt on but Cat quickly corrected me to the fact that only the front passengers are legally required to wear a seat belt.  A lot of cars in Thailand don’t even come with rear seat belts. If something were done about this many more lives could be saved yearly in Thailand, even if some people still disregarded the law.

Obviously as westerners we are all coming from countries that over time have mandated certain aspects of life for health and safety reasons, while they haven’t always been in the consumers best interest they have definitely changed the way we live our lives.

With that in mind I started thinking about the things that I believe need to be changed in Thailand that would result in a better way of life.

• Remove all elephants from city streets in all of Thailand and make it illegal for regular citizens to own an elephant.
• Curb the use and manufacture of plastic bags. In a country with thousands of weavers and bakets for sale there has to be a way to become less dependent on plastic bags.  As Catherine pointed out to me, even Burma is enacting laws to curb the use of plastic bags and reverting to using news papers for a lot of things. Ban on Plastic Bags Extended to Rangoon

• No more than 2 passengers on a motorcycle. How many times have you seen 4-6 people on a small motorcycle including babies and young children, all of which not wearing a helmet. I would think this might save a life or two over time.
• All pet sales have to be through licensed shops and all animals such as dogs and cats must be spayed/neutered and licensed before given to the new owner. The stray dog and cat population in Thailand is a very sad sight that impacts everyone. How many people are bitten a year and have to go through rabies shots? How many animals needlessly suffer?
• Removal of the Lèse-Majesté laws. They are archaic, abused and have no place in a democratic society.

This is my list and of course these things are much easier said than done but even the longest of journeys begin with one single step.

What would you add to the list?

More importantly what do you think you,  as a foreigner and an individual,  can do to make a difference in Thailand and possibly make it a better place?

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Well, not really. At best,  you can hope for “out of sight, out of mind”, and then we have the oddity that is the above picture.

Rural Thai households are probably among the cleanest in the world. The floors are either concrete, tile or smooth teak and they are swept as much as three times a day. Unfortunately,  for the most part,  they are swept just outside the front porch and the remnants are left where they lay. Occasionally they are gathered into a pile and burned, occasionally.

At my girls family house in Mukdahan this is pretty much the case. Things are allowed to collect around the outside of the house and eventually they are gathered up and burned by the side of the house. Plastic bottles, candy wrappers, milk cartons and anything else you can think of. The process definitely goes against all reason.

And then you have the pit at the rear of the property. This pit is roughly four feet in diameter and at least 3 feet deep. The pit is filled with plastic bags, the kind used for takeout from the market. You would get chicken skewers in them or maybe sticky rice. There are at least a thousand or more plastic bags in this pit and still room for more.

Now, What the hell is this all about? I’d love to tell you but I have no clue. As I said before,  and as the pictures show,  trash is left to accumulate and then burned. So what is the purpose of the pit and thousands of plastic food bags?

I suppose there is a possibility that these bags would draw unwelcome guests due to lingering food smells but it seems to me that the bags have been cleaned before they were deposited here. The pit has also been open for some time and there is no apparent animal activity around it.

Perhaps I have stumbled upon the black hole of plastic food bags and I should count myself lucky that I wasn’t sucked in and transmuted into leftover tadpole guts or ant larvae. Or worse yet,  a plastic bag with no apparent purpose in a pit.

If you think about it these bags must be lethal in some way. Why else would someone dig a pit specifically for these bags and no other trash? It could be a trap to lure in idiot falang such as myself. I can hear the family now…” young brother go dig a pit and put all the plastic bags you can find in it, I bet the falang will find it within an hour and start taking pictures”. This is probably the best possibility.

I’m sure you are wondering why I didn’t just ask what the pit was for? I did, and the answer was much more convoluted than I could ever possibly hope to go into here. I walked away from this knowing that the pit was important and that’s all the falang needed to know.

What I do know is that the pit was scheduled to be closed soon after I took the picture and buried with the bags would be all my unanswered questions. The only good to come of it all would be the green patch of grass growing over the once plastic void. It might be a while before anything else goes green around these parts.

So, what do you think?

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October 1st through October 4th will see yet another festival celebrating the end of Buddhist lent ( Ok Phansa ), The Sakon Nakhon Wax Castle Festival.

The ancient tradition passed down through the ages, originated with the people of Sakon Nakhon carving elaborate trees from poles made of bees wax that they would take to the temple as an offering to make merit. This tradition has grown over the years from ornate trees to elaborate carvings of Buddhist temples and shrines completely made from bees wax.

According to Buddhist religion upon death a person passes on to another life, the quality of that next life is determined by meritorious acts and or good deeds performed in this life. If the person practices the principles of Buddhism and engages in acts of devotion in their life they will gain merit and that merit will accumulate and lead to higher spiritual enlightenment in subsequent lives where they will live in the upper tiers of heaven. If that person doesn’t gain merit then they will be reborn to a life that is worse than their present life.

The wax castles symbolize the ideal spiritual life that one aspires to in the next life. The wax castle festival falls into the Buddhist precept of merit as communal merit making. Many who are blessed with merit coming together for the greater good of the community. This is a special time of the year for families to get together and reunite in merit making activities. The family and community come together with the monks in an expression of Buddhist devotion that strengthens and bonds the family and community with the temple.

This is truly another Thai festival that must be seen. It’s four days of non stop activities includes the Royal boat parade, a light and sound show, a large community dinner and closing  with  the Wax Castle Parade. You can see videos below of the Wax Castle Parade last year.

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I love rural Thailand and all it has to offer, from the laid back atmosphere to the kind smiles of  it’s friendly people, everything seems to mesh. That being said there are a few aspects of rural Thailand that scare the hell out of me.

For the most part you won’t be seeing too many western toilets while in rural Thailand, sure the better hotels will have them but if you are visiting the family farm , well, you better be in a squatting frame of mind.

I’ve gotten used  to the morning manual showers which consist of a bucket and a big pot of cold water. I’ve even gotten used to using the squat toilet, although if any Thai ever saw me using it they would wonder just what the hell I’m doing, after they finished laughing.

The hongnam itself is an upgrade to the basic outhouse. Four concrete walls with a slanted metal roof that is more of an open air design. A pump brings running water into a tap used to fill the various pots and trashcans. One big clay jar to shower from, a smaller clay jar to flush from and various other jars and cans for washing of clothes and other secrets I have yet to uncover.

Going to the bathroom in the village is a little more involved than waking up and stumbling in. It becomes a ritual of sorts. A process where you begin with one action and move on to the next. it’s all very easy to get used to even if the morning shower is just a wee bit colder than I normally like.

What I haven’t gotten used to is the morning audience that attends these rituals. It’s nothing to look around and find a large lizard or 3 hanging about on the walls or a large hairy spider hanging out on the ceiling. At least they make themselves known. It’s the unknown that I fear, and for good reason.

After a little thought, not like there is anything else to do while squatting,  you realize that if they can get in then it’s not to much of a stretch to get a snake in the loo too. Of course that is not the proper mindset to have and not something you want to be thinking about with your ass end hanging over the porcelain pit.

Last week I realized just why I should fear the unknown. I called my girl as I usually do and when she answered we had the following conversation:

Me: Hi teelac how are you?

Teelac: Not good teelac I have problem again.

Me:  What wrong Teelac?

Teelac: I live in hospital again.

Me: Why?!?!? What happened?

Teelac: I go hongnam teelac and saanake bite me.

Me: Teelac you ok? What doctor say: Big snake? Little snake? Poisonous?

Teelac: Doctor say I have to stay tonight so they can look me. Have big where snake bite me but it get small now.

Me: Where did you get bite?

Teelac: I not know how to say in englit.

Me: Your ass?

Teelac:  No! not in doot.

Teelac: I get bite on hand but not hand.

Me: Ah you got bit on finger?

Teelac: Yes teelac finnnger…I think next time have bite on top ( breasts )  I need big there

She spent the night in the hospital. Not knowing what kind of snake bit her they didn’t want to take any chances and wanted to keep an eye on her. Fortunately she is fine. As for me, I think the person that came up with ” when in Rome” should be shot. From now on I’ll be well armed before using the hongnam…or I’ll be buying diapers.

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