Today I’m going to head out to the village for a very odd sounding religious holiday. It’s a localised thing, not something that is celebrated all over Thailand. Basically the entire village will spend the day cooking lots of food, and then they will set it all out as a feast, for the ghosts of dead family members to eat.

Once the ghosts are finished, the living people get to eat everything that is left over, personally I think it’s an excuse to have a bloody great party but who cares, I love Isaan food so I hope the ghosts are not too hungry!

The last seven days have been the most boring seven days of my life, I am talking mind numbing boring, trapped in a place that is not my home, unable to go outside and unable to leave. Let me explain.

My girlfriend and Son spend the week staying with her father in a small village about 15 minutes away from the apartment in town that I rent, we have found this the best way all round, it means I have peace to work in the week, she gets to take care of her father and stay with her family, and… Continue reading →

People’s Alliance for Democracy protestors blockading airports at Krabi, Phuket and Hat Yai, closing roads, stopping trains, fresh produce become scarce in Bangkok, and hour after hour of Thai news discussing nothing else on TV.

Shocking pictures of stockpiles of Kraton (not sure how you spell it, basically a plant that gives a high similar to amphetamines), guns and ammo confiscated by the police, and the army sitting cooling their heals.

It’s only a matter of time before the government decides it is going to have to lose face over this, and order in the troops. Last time the army… Continue reading →

It’s Nuth’s birthday in a few days, so last week I asked her what she wanted as a birthday present. She said she didn’t know and would think about it. I thought she would come back to me and say a bracelet or something; she had also been making exciting noises about these little electric scooter things they are selling in the local supermarket, so I figured jewellery or one of these.

Eventually she calls me up and says hey I know what I want for my birthday, so I ask her what, and she says… two cows…

I really… Continue reading →

I’m looking at plane tickets today, and am seriously thinking about jumping on a plane three months early. My mother has been ill for many years, but she seems to be getting worse a lot quicker now. Only a couple of weeks ago she had an accident, fell out of bed and broke her hip, she was rushed to hospital for an emergency hip replacement.

Yesterday my step sister let me know that she is back in hospital with an infection in her gallbladder and they are going to remove it, so she will have had surgery twice this month… Continue reading →