the adventure I find myself in / das Abenteuer in dem ich mich finde

Category: Living in Thailand (Page 2 of 10)

Cowboys in Thailand

Gestern bin ich mit meiner Tochter nach Payao zu einem Reitstall gefahren. Da meine Tochter das reiten liebt habe ich mich dazu überreden lassen (dies war nicht allzu schwierig) sie zu fahren und mitzureiten. Ich wusste nicht wirklich auf was ich mich einglassen würde, aber dachte das ein wundes Hinterteil das Erlebnis wert wäre. Meine Devise: Mach alles wenigstens einmal, solange es nicht andere in einer negativen Weise trifft. Oder so ähnlich. Zwei Stunden verbrachte ich auf Dongda, dem Pony das mich durch das Hinterland von Payao beförderte. Dongda (ต้องตา heisst soviel Schön fürs Auge) Während meine Tochter, die wirklich reiten kann mit den anderen davongallopierte bin ich auf Dongda zwei Stunden über abgeerntete Reisfelder, durch Felder und Dörfer gewandert. Dongda war glücklicherweise ein ruhiges Mädchen und hat mich nicht abgworfen und so habe ich meine erste Reitstunde hinter mir. Gar nicht so einfach. Als ich da den Hang herunterrutschte war das schon ein komisches Gefühl. Doch konnte ich das Pony auch schon antreiben bremsen und steuern auch wenn es nur im ersten und zweiten Gang daherlief. Fünf Sekunden Gallop haben mir dann doch gereicht. Mein Thai guide sagte immer wieder etwas wie Chum View. In etwa: Geniese die Aussicht….. was ich ja auch wirklich genoss.

Heute tut mir tatsächlich das Hinterteil weh. Meine Tochter lachte nur und sagte: "Daddy you have to come more often, you will get used to it." So überlege ich nun ob ich ein paar Reitstunden nehmen soll. Man weiss ja nie wenn einem so gewisse Fähigkeiten zur Hand kommen.

DSC00116

Dinosaurs in the house

Yesterday morning Timmy was vacuum cleaning the leaving room when he called me from my house duties. We had a visitor from another world. A dinosaur (a small one) was hanging at the fly wire trying to get through the glass window. We are used to having Geckos in the house (a friend of ours named them all Freddy) and we also had close encounters with snakes in the bed room etc. But this lizard was a first. There are very fast, speeding off on two legs. Not easy to catch. We eventually granted our little friend freedom in our wild garden hoping that Snowy, our cat, would not devour him like she did with Dino's friend last week. 

Lizard in the garden

Bangkok International Airport closed

I just came back from a two day trip to the mountains and I am shocked on the development in Thailand. I read the Newspaper and it says "PAD shuts Suvarnabuhmi" The Bangkok International airport has been taken hostage by demonstrators against the government and thousands of people are stranded at the airport. The tourist high season is approaching and Thailand will be soon without tourists if this goes on like this. 

I booked a flight to Bangkok for Saturday and I hope I will be able to go at all. 

Demonstrations in Bangkok

Thailand is a peaceful country. Probably the savest in the region. This afternoon I’m listening to the Swiss Radio DRS 3 and hear about the massive demonstrations in Bangkok. This has been going on for months. Several people were killed in bomb attacks in front of the government house where demonstrators camp. I guess many people stay away from Thailand because of this. The fact is that in the rest of the country is not much to see about this conflict and life goes on as usual. The political situation is quite difficult to understand and as a foreigner I don’t take sides. I hope though for the sake of Thailand that this can be solved soon.

A coffee to behold

The other week I had a coffee with a friend in the Wawee coffee shop behind Taphae Gate. Wawee is known here for their creative way to serve capouchino’s and latte’s. The draw leeves and hearts into the foam to make it a great experience. The latte I had this time topped everything I ever seen. I was in awe of the temporary art, a creation that lastet but a minute.

Coffee_face

Global house burnt down!

Last week a huge pillar of smoke went up into the air. It went on for hours. Global house on the first ring road south of Chiang Mai was burning. Apparently some short circuit caused the fire.
I used to by the PE pipes and alot of different building material and tools for our projects there. Just the week before the fire I got all the doors and windows for the building in Hui Kau Laam. The fire destroyed the middle part of the building and kept the front face intact as well as the back storage where the tiles are.
Some photos from my mobile phone.

Pillar_of_smoke

Global_house

Global_house_in_ruins

Update

There are times where I just kind of avoid the Internet. I get to busy with life and am to tired to also keep posting.

This week I started again with Thai studies. It’s a module on Thai life. During my computer crash I lost all my iflash cards from my previous Thai studies. Even though I had a backup I somehow managed to delete this one folder. I started again too work on the iflash library. I can really recommend this program to all mac users who study with flash cards. After two month of staying away from learning Thai I was a bit rusty, but it is coming back to me quite quickly.

The last three weeks I went to the mountains every week for two days visits. Things are developing slowly but very well and I am happy with what is going on. I will post some more in the next week on that. We are working on a building project in Hui Kau Laam, the water project in Hui Ba Rai and two preschool projects. So we are quite busy at the moment.

One problem is that still our Domain name www.questasia.org does not work. The particular domain register seems to totally miss the service oriented side of business. I probably will transfer the domain name to godaddy.com where I have all my other domains and where they seem to react whenever there is a problem. Not only our webpage is down, but also most of our e-mail addresses.

It is raining alot at the moment and the rivers are bursting. There are reported floods in many places. The Prime minister of Thailand had to leave his post because of a court order. Petrol prices are down a little. We have a new fridge, a great family and I know God loves me. What more do I want.

Thai language test

I have tken up Thai language studies again (see post) after living her for so many years still not having being satisfied with my level of Thai.
The other day I got the results from my second Thai language test back. I finished module 5 of the CLS language program and aced it with 93.33 percent. My weakness is still the writing. I have a hard time when it comes to writing my own stories or to answer questions. Comprehension of Thai is pretty good but to respond verbally and especially in written form is still very hard. I started with module 6 in the program. It is called Thai life 1 and is all about the country, economy and culture. Next month we are traveling to Switzerland for six weeks. So there will be a study break.
Overall I see a lot of improvement and I enjoyed to study again. My Thai is definitely improving a lot. Still I have a long way to go. This month I reduced Language studies to twice a week. There is just to much work and things to do right now.

Excausted

Today is one of those days where my soul cannot follow my body and I am totally exhausted. To exhausted for even a nap in the afternoon.
Two nights ago I could not sleep because of severe stomach cramps and diarrhea. I still feel some of the affects. I went through some sorts of emotional roller coaster about  things happening  with people around me. Then I was somewhat overwhelmed by the  circumstances in the Prao boarding home. And in all this my soul was dragged along. We are going to Switzerland and there is so much to do. I was just waking up this morning when I got a phone call from the office landlord. They needed to change the sewage pipes. So I went in on a Sunday. Did some work while I was waiting for the workers to do their work.
The on the way home I got a phone call from the landlords son. totally happy and thanking me for the bible I gave him two month ago. Another Thai women took the phone and also thanked me with all her heart. I didn’t get everything they said, but they were definitely excited about having a bible. So I want to end this rather complaining post with the thought that there can be something encouraging around the corner if we are willing to stick our head around it and I really need to learn to let my soul catch up with me once in a while.

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