We left Thursday afternoon and stopped in Lamphun to pick up three of the villagers my organization works with and who I got to know last year. We had four in the cab and two got into the bed of the truck.
The road was generally good, but it was through the mountains, winding much of the way.
Thais drive on the left side and scenes like this, where both lanes in this two way highway were going in the same direction, are not nearly as common as they were in the past.
We stopped at a roadside stand to buy some fresh jujube - putsa or พุทรา - in Thai.
JUJUBE or "Put-Sa"
Peak season: February to September
Put-sa (or jujube) is oval-shaped and green. The outer peel gradually turns into a light golden yellow as it ripens. Like freshly-picked Golden Delicious apple, its flesh is crisp and crunchy. To offset the slightly tart taste of fresh jujube, the entire fruit is dipped into a dry salt-and-granulated sugar dip seasoned with crushed chilli.
Put-sa is pickled in light brine and served with the salt-and-sugar dip, preserved in syrup, candied, dried or baked. It is a popular garnish as it can be easily carved into dainty leaf or floral shapes.
It is grown in the provinces of the Central Plains particularly in Pichit and Sukhothai. from tatnews.org
We stopped for dinner at this market area. The picture isn't as sharp as I'd like, but there are lots of details if you double click to enlarge it. My boss, Phet, and Bon are walking there.
And then we began night driving. Not my favorite activity, especially in a place like Thailand. But we didn't have any problems.
Another shot of driving at night to Petchabun.
Another pit stop. Along with gas and clean restrooms, the stop had this coffee house.
Then our two outside passengers got wrapped back up for the rest of the trip. It's been unusually cold. Here's a story from
Xinhua last Tuesday:
BANGKOK, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Thailand is currently hit by the worst cold wave in ten years, with average temperatures dropping to 6-8 degrees Celsius, said Thawatchai Fangangkul, governor of Uttaradit in the north of Thailand on Thursday.
Two people were killed on Wednesday when severe cold wave hit most parts of the country's north and northeast.
Uttaradit had declared nine of its districts the cold spell disaster zones, the governor said.
Meanwhile, an official of Chiang Mai's Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Centre said the temperature in the province has hovered around 11 degrees Celsius for two days and the minimum temperature on local mountaintops was recorded at two degrees Celcius, the lowest in the past year.
At Chiang Mai's Doi Inthanon, Thailand's highest mountain, temperature dropped to minus 3 degrees Celcius, forming white frost on the ground and attracting a huge number of tourists to experience the cold weather.
10˚C equals 50˚F. The common belief is that it has never snowed in Thailand. We drove through Uttaradit and it was probably in the 40s F at night in Petchabun.
It was cold when we pulled up to the meeting site in Petchabun about 10:30pm. People were standing around fires having a good time and keeping warm.
The meeting was held in a sala - or hall - that is an as yet unconsecrated Buddhist Wat (temple). Inside, people were already sleeping.
Phet and the others set up a couple of tents. I got a sleeping bag that I would guess would be rated as good down to 75˚F (24˚C) and a quilt like mat to put under the sleeping back. You can see my stuff in front of the tent in the picture. I ended up, like everyone else, sleeping fully dressed and decided it was better to have most of the quilt on top instead of as padding on the floor. Last year when we came to Chiang Mai in February, I never used the fleece, outer shell, or wool cap I wore to the airport in Anchorage. I was glad I had them this time.
There were open doorways on each of the four sides of the sala. This was the view I had Friday morning as I woke up to a very loud bell being gonged in a strong, persistent rhythm at 6:15am.
We left Thursday afternoon and stopped in Lamphun to pick up three of the villagers my organization works with and who I got to know last year. We had four in the cab and two got into the bed of the truck.
The road was generally good, but it was through the mountains, winding much of the way.
Thais drive on the left side and scenes like this, where both lanes in this two way highway were going in the same direction, are not nearly as common as they were in the past.
We stopped at a roadside stand to buy some fresh jujube - putsa or พุทรา - in Thai.
We stopped for dinner at this market area. The picture isn't as sharp as I'd like, but there are lots of details if you double click to enlarge it. My boss, Phet, and Bon are walking there.
And then we began night driving. Not my favorite activity, especially in a place like Thailand. But we didn't have any problems.
Another shot of driving at night to Petchabun.
Another pit stop. Along with gas and clean restrooms, the stop had this coffee house.
Then our two outside passengers got wrapped back up for the rest of the trip. It's been unusually cold. Here's a story from Xinhua last Tuesday:
It was cold when we pulled up to the meeting site in Petchabun about 10:30pm. People were standing around fires having a good time and keeping warm.
The meeting was held in a sala - or hall - that is an as yet unconsecrated Buddhist Wat (temple). Inside, people were already sleeping.
Phet and the others set up a couple of tents. I got a sleeping bag that I would guess would be rated as good down to 75˚F (24˚C) and a quilt like mat to put under the sleeping back. You can see my stuff in front of the tent in the picture. I ended up, like everyone else, sleeping fully dressed and decided it was better to have most of the quilt on top instead of as padding on the floor. Last year when we came to Chiang Mai in February, I never used the fleece, outer shell, or wool cap I wore to the airport in Anchorage. I was glad I had them this time.
There were open doorways on each of the four sides of the sala. This was the view I had Friday morning as I woke up to a very loud bell being gonged in a strong, persistent rhythm at 6:15am.
Nice photos, here it is getting warmer too. It is around 1 Celsius.
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