Batty's Place                                                                                                                                     


Leaving Bankok we flew to Ubon Ratcha, they call it Ubon.

 

Bangkok Airport

The domestic side

 

Bangkok Airport

 

 

Ubon

The water level is so high that wires for technology

can not be buried.

 

A street in Ubon

 

Many of these across the roads in honor of their king.

He is very highly esteemed as he has done much for

his people and land.

 

Budda statues are everywhere.

This is the largest one I have seen.

 

 We then hired another driver and his car to take us to her town.  How would you like this for an address? 
42,11, Som Poi, Rasi Shala, Siskatet, Thailand.  42 is the house number, 11 village number, Som Poi village name. Rasi Shala town name, Siskatet district name and Thailand the country.
There is quite a few people in this area, actually several villages.  Each village has a number and name.  At one time they were all seperated but many people have moved in so they are now like one big town.

Quite a culture shock when I arrived here.  The large cities, like Bangkok, are quite modern but these farm villages are very primitive.  Cities like Siskatet, Ubon and Rasi Shala have areas of both.  There is electricity and running water. Everyone has a cell phone, TV, and most   have a computer.  The roads in the villages are very narrow and somewhat blacktopped.  The country roads are nothing more than dirt trails through the country side.  I would say they are not wide enough for a car and motorbike to meet but pickup trucks somehow do meet and get by each other. 

Most people have at least one dog which is in the streets and will lay there until you are only a couple of feet from them with your car.  Most also have some chickens but they are penned up, once in awhile you will see some out. 

 

Hens and chicks are put in bamboo cages with no floors.

The cages are moved around for new places for them to scratch.

This under a neighbors house.  They live on the second floor and

have various things under like motorbike parking, washing machine,

drying peppers, etc.

 

The roosters came to visit.

There are motorbikes everywhere.  You do not need a liscense to drive one just big enough to reach the pedals and handles at the same time. The 6th grader in this house drives one.

Batty's brother and family live with her, Suwon, Pri, Pan & Puo.  Both children are boys.  Suwon is an ag teacher in a Bangkok elementary school.  They will all be moving back to Bangkok when Pan's school is done this spring.  Batty's cousin and a neighbor lady will be taking care of things here when Bert and family are in the USA.

Had a new experience Sunday, I drove a car from the right side and on the left side of the road.  The directional signal was on the opposite side so I was always turning on the windshield wiper.  There is a speed limit here of 80 KPH but no police with radar guns to enforce the speed.  They drive either very slow or pedal to the metal.  Many little tractors and carts hauling things to market.  So you change lanes frequently passing these vehicles.  The main roads are nice and wide with a shoulder but the average roads are narrow.  You take your half out of the middle until you have to meet another vehicle.  It is red onion harvest now so there are a lot of those little tractors and carts.  The little tractors look like the Toro roto tiller we once had with a tow bar and the cart hooked on behind

 

Taking pigs to market.

.

 

Picking up workers to pull the red onions.  When

they are done for the day the cart and truck will be

full of onions with the workers on the top.

The onions are then brought to a drying place and hung

over bamboo poles until dry enough to take to market

.

 

View from the bottom

The are about the size and shape of garlic.

They have cloves like a garlic.

The garlic is smaller.

 

Red onions hanging to dry

 

 

On the way to market

Many of you were wondering if they had the same things as America.  I took the following 2 pictures at a roadside rest area on our way from Pattaya to Bangkok.  There are also many Starbucks, Mister Doughnut, Dunkin Doughnut and Kentucky Fried Chicken.  I do not have pictures of them as of this time.

 

Mac Donalds

 

7 Eleven

There are so many of these that sometimes there will

be several in just a few blocks.

 

Bert and Batty are doing a lot of remodeling a here so things are a lot different than usual and will be when it is all done.  They are putting a western bathroom instead of their eastern one.  When the new one is done they will knock out the old one to make more room for the cooking area, wash machine and other things.

 

Batty and Pri making lunch.

Cement bags under cover in case it rains.

(not a drop since I have been here)

The little building in the middle is the eastern bathroom, in front of

Batty is the new western one.

 

Lunch

Most of the time some type of soup, meat & rice.

The 2 cookies were given me by a teacher I have become friends with.

The one looks like a rosette and tastes like one.  The other is a filled

pastry and rice cakes of some sort.  Never got one of them as they

were gone before I got one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pattaya                                                                                                                                                  






At 7:30 AM a driver met us and drove us to the ciy of Pattaya.  A very interesting drive.  I am getting accustomed to them driving on the wrong side of the road from the wrong side of the car.

 

Fan Palm

 

View along the way

 

Arriving in Pattaya we were taken the hotel where we would stay.  A friend of Batty's is the manager.  She locked the door for the day and was our driver.  Our first stop was a local noodle shop.

 

 

Noodle shop

 

In front of the noodle shop

 

Happy family

 

From the noodle shop we went to Nong Nooch Tropical Botonical Garden and Resort.  As the elephant show was soon to start we went directly there.

 

 

Entrance to the park

 

Bert & Brian on a dancing elephant

 

Eating bananas

 

Before the show people could get their pictures taken with them.  They were lined up along the fence and people fed them bananas.  After the show they came back for more and tips from the audience.  If you gave them and banana they ate it, money they gave it to their trainer.

 

On the way to the elephant ride tigers were laying on rocks for us to take their picture.

 

 

 

After the show Bert and I took an elephant ride.  Very bumpy and swaying.  I enjoyed the experence.  Another new experience I can add to my list.

 

We then took an open bus tour of the park.  Much work has gone into the making of this park.  Many sculptured trees and lots of flowers.  Many groups of cement animals in groups throughout the park.

 

 

A family of cement giraffes

 

 

Sculptered trees

 

 

Terracotta pot sculpture

 

 

More sculptured trees

 

 

Temple

 

 

Sticky frog that hopped a ride on our bus

 

 

Small temples in lovely gardens

 

 

This picture is for Aunt Shelley.

Brian with Galopagus Turtle.

 

 

As it is again time to eat we headed towards the beach for supper under the coconut palms along the beach of the Thai Bay.

 

 

The skyline of Pattaya

 

The cafe people law down bamboo mats, place a low table on them and bring chairs for we Americans.  Then the food starts coming, course after course, refills of most everything.  Very enjoyable and pretty.

 

 

Cutest little boy that kept coming over to see Brian,

 

 

After this we headed back to Pattaya

 had a massage and then off to bed as we had a very early wake up call. A driver was there at 4:30 AM to take us back to the Bangkok airport to fly to Batty's place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bangkok



                                      Up about 8:30, had breakfast and then out for the day.

 

Fruit and veggie bar.  Yes, salad for breakfast.

 

 

There were 4 dishes like this with eggs, ham, sausage (little hotdogs)

fried rice, etc.

There was a toaster with white and wheat bread, butter, & jellies.

Coffee, tea, water, juices, and milk.

 

We rode the subway downtown where Bert and Batty did some business while I stayed with Brian at a cafe.  When they came back we had lunch, met with Batty's brother and family.  Merle Schultz, one of the sister workers there came and we talked for a couple of hours.  A business contact of Bert's also came and talked with Bert. 

 

Merle, Brian and myself

 

 

Front of the little cafe where we ate and talked.

 

What exercise I got in the heat, 90's.  We rode the subway several times, walked, did escalators, steps.  As it is very humid we were tired and hot,

 

 

From my motel room window

 

Another view from my window

 

Views in Bangkok

 

 

For supper we went to an interesting cafe in the mall.  It was similar to a fondue only the pot has 2 sections, one with very hot (temp wise) veggie broth and the other a little spicer. The ingredients go around on small plates on a conveyor belt.  You take off what you want as it goes by.  About anything you can think of that would go in a Thai dish is on that belt.  Rice is given to you in seperate dishes.  You are given a time limit to eat, ours was an hour and 20 minutes.  We were done before the time was up.

 

 

Cooking pot

 

Conveyor belt

 

After supper it was all the steps, escalators, and subway home.

A shower and bed felt very good.

 

 

 

 

 

On Our Way                                                                                                                                        

Up by 5 AM February 3rd and off to the airport by 6.  Check in and security went fine.  The flight to Seattle was uneventful arriving on time and getting off on time.  Shortly after we left Seattle, one of the flight attendants asked for anyone with medical training.  Bert has had some in the Navy and since no one else came forward he did and then a nurse.  He was gone for quite sometime.  Watching the map I saw that we were nearing Anchorage Alaska.  I wondered if we might have to make an emergency landing.  Lunch was served and he was still gone.  Finally he came back saying a lady had jammed her finger and it was swelling so badly that the rings had to be cut off as the tip of herfinger was turning blue.  All he had was a fingernail clipper or the axe from the cockpit.  The clipper was chosen as the tool of choice.  It took quite sometime to get through little by little but he did get them off.  Soon the flight attendant came and got him again.  I thought,  "Oh no, we are past Anchorage."   As he and the nurse had missed lunch, they were taken forward and given the same lunch as given to first class passengers, much nicer than ours.  He then had to fill out several papers and check on her every once in awhile to see how she was doing.  Several passengers said they owed him something for making it so we did not have to stop in Anchorage.  Bert assured them it was all in a days work and that was what his training was for.

We arrived in Tokoyo on time but our flight to Bangkok was a little delayed as the plane we were to go out on was late.  We arrived in Bangkok about 11 PM instead of the 10:13 PM scheduled.  Batty, Brian and a friend Bun were there to meet us.  One excited family to see each other again.  On the way to Bun's car we stopped for a mango slushy, yum yum good.  Really hit the spot.

We then went to the hotel for a much needed rest.  Got to bed about 2:30 AM.   As we had crossed the International Date Line I was really confused on what day it was.  The hotel was very modern and clean.  One thing I have noticed about hotels hereis  that they do not have carpets on the floor.  Actually like it better as they are mopped after each one has been there.

 

My king sized bed,

 

The bathroom

Notice the little shower head by the stool,

They wash their bottoms. 

Some do not have paper, this one did.

The Journey Begins                                                                                                                        

My journey started January 31 with a little excitement.  The 2 days before I was to leave were bad weather days, Tuesday VERY foggy and Wednesday 9 inches of heavy wet snow.  Thursday was bright and COLD. 

Wilda and Darrell were there to take me to the airport about 1:45 in the afternoon.  All went great checking in at the airport but went down hill from there.  After waiting at the gate for some time a notice came up on the board saying the plane was delayed.  About a half hour later the plane came from Chicago.  It had to be deiced before coming to Appleton.  We loaded as quickly as possible but not fast enough.  When I arrived in Chicago the door was already closed on the plane to Washington, DC.  They had printed boarding passes for several of us that had missed our flights.  Mine said I was to leave Friday morning at 6.  They then asked me if I could go to Reagan National Airport instead of Dulles International.  I told them that would be OK so they got me on a 7:25 pm flight.  Of course that plane was also late.  Once loaded and ready to go it also had to be deiced.  Instead of getting into DC at 10:13 we got in about 11.  My luggage had been ticketed for Dulles so they could not get it on the plane I was on so it came in on the 6 am flight on Friday.  Bert called and had them deliver them to his house.  They arrived about 10:15.  All is came safe and sound.

Hope this is the end of travel excitement for this long trip.