Birding Challenges

One view from our balcony is this mass of leaves and branches and vines. We hear the birds, but if they aren't moving about, it's really hard to see them. There was a olive backed sunbird moving about when I took this picture, but when I enlarge this and scan each square inch I only see something that looks a little like a bird, but I think it's just a leaf.



But this red bellied squirrel (that's what Tony Ball called it and the websites I looked at didn't really have any good pictures but some mentioned a red bellied squirrel in Thailand) has been entertaining us since we got here. I also saw a striped squirrel in the trees on the other side at the same time, but not clearly enough to get a picture. The red squirrel's belly is vaguely the same cinnamon color as the lettering in the picture.

The pictures from the book are from นกเมืองไทย
by นายแพทย์บุญส่ง ดสขะกุล, the second link is to a site in
English telling about the book's author:

Dr Boonsong Lekagul (1907–1992) was the most important personality in shaping the modern conservation movement in Thailand , and devoted most of his life to the study and conservation of wildlife. The country's national parks and wildlife sanctuaries, and current high level of environmental awareness, are part of his priceless legacy.

But yesterday (Sunday) we got a good look at a green billed malkoha (170) outside our balcony. We've seen these before last year and this, but it took a while to be sure. The long tail, underneath is striped white and dark. That's what got us to the malkoha in the bird book, but we never saw one close enough or sitting still long enough to see much more of it. But Sunday, even though mostly hidden in the tree, the bird is big enough that we could see the head now, the tail later, and then it got out on a distant branch and we could see the whole bird clearly in the binoculars. Definitely had a green bill and red patch on the eyes. Very cool bird. It was back again this morning, so maybe I'll be able to get a picture of it before we go back to Alaska.


There's also been a brownish bird - well in small flocks of up to about 7 or 8 - that looked sort of like a bulbul, but really not too distinctive. Tony Ball suggested Saturday that it sounded like a streaked eared bulbul. But you look in the book and there are a bunch of birds that look a lot alike and you have to go back and look for details. One trick that makes it easier is to look at the maps to see which birds are in your area (though this isn't foolproof.)


Sunday, when the birds came by, I looked carefully at one that got close enough, for the white streaks, and sure enough they were there. Tony also reminded me that the pictures in the books are of one bird in one pose in one lighting condition, and in this case, as rendered by the artist. So colors aren't always quite what they seem. So our not so green birds do fit here.

Rural Alaska Issues - Part 2 View from Rural Thailand

[Sunday, March 1, 2009, 9:24 pm Thai time]

This is the follow up to a previous post in which I commented on some of the stories coming from Alaska blogs as a prelude to thoughts I have on rural Alaska issues while working in rural Thailand. There are a lot of similarities between how Alaska Native peoples are treated and the way the various 'hill tribe' peoples of Thailand are treated. I did share this with a couple of people at work including a hill tribe member, but let's treat this as a rough draft, a starting point for thinking.

Factors	Northern Thailand	Alaska
Geographic Proximity	Connected by road, easy motorcycle ride, 30 - 120 min to Chiang Mai	No roads to major cities. Local and hub villages connected by snow machine, river, air. Expensive air to Anchorage.
Ethnicity	Ethnicities, languages different from dominant Thai.Different ethnicities, languages different from dominant Caucasion.
Language	Most speak own languages and Thai, and some limited English. Some younger may not speak either well.	Older people speak own languages and English. Younger speak English and less and less traditional languages. A few villages speak more traditional languages and have new school programs to teach traditional languages.
Clothing	Wear various combinations of traditional clothing and Western clothing.	Traditional clothing now usually for special occasions.
Food	Mix of traditional and Thai. (Thai food more similar to traditional food than Western food is to traditional Alaska Native)	In villages eat mix of traditional and Western food.
Physical Appearance	Could pass as Thai.	Easily recognized as ‘different’ from dominant Caucasian population, even if dressed Western.
Historical Settlements	Nomadic with temporary (2-3 years?) settlements	Nomadic with seasonal camps and moving to follow game.
Health compared to national average	Life span of some groups higher than Thai. Other health stats probably lower	Most statistics worse
Income compared to national average	Significantly lower. Includes subsistence farming and hunting. (Ethnic Thai farmers do the same.)	Significantly lower average. Includes subsistence hunting and fishing. (Some Caucasians do the same.)
Government policy	Lip service to cultural diversity, de facto policy = Settle in one place. Assimilate into Thai culture	Lip service to cultural diversity, de facto policy = Settle in one place, Assimilate into US culture.

The way dominant societies treat ethnic minorities, especially marginalized minorities that have not fully assimilated into the dominant culture - at least in this case - looks pretty similar. We probably have a lot to learn from each other's situations.

What impresses me here is how my organization here, and the various networks they are part of, have a very well thought out philosophy of intervention into the villages which focuses on community involvement, development of local leadership abilities, and giving the villagers information as well as documenting data from the village. There is a strong emphasis on helping the villagers understand the macro dynamics that are affecting the villagers future and helping them to determine how they want to deal with that. They are almost adopted villagers themselves.

I don't know that there is a similar coordinated effort happening in rural Alaska. While there are plenty of State, University, non-profit, Federal, and Native organizations that are working on Alaska Native issues, I suspect that there is not the same sort of long term involvement, trust, and empowerment that I see with my organization here and the villages they work with. My organization is part of several national and international networks all committed to a basic process of development.

If I understand this right, the irony may be that a lot of the inspiration comes from Western funded NGO's (non-governmental organizations). Certainly, one of the issues that I think most of the Thai organizations don't take too seriously, but all have in their missions if they have Western based international funding, is "gender issues." It's there because the funders require it. But the community development aspects they take very seriously, and at my organization, they realize the importance of the gender issue, but they just aren't sure quite what to do with it.

As I compare Alaska and Thailand on this (and my Alaska knowledge here is based on a lot of glimpses into what's happening, but no serious, comprehensive study) I'm struck by one significant difference.

In the US, the focus for improvement is based on the individual. The individual must learn how to get a job, how to support a family, etc.

With my organization here, the focus is on the macro environment and how it affects life for Thai villagers. This includes things like how International Trade Agreements affect the price of rice or corn or rubber. How the importation of Western financial systems has changed how Thais think about land - from the source of life to commodity - and how this affect farmers. This is the sort of thing Phil Munger is doing when he talks about the fishing industry's likely role in the decline of salmon for subsistence in the Yukon. I can't vouch for the accuracy of the story, there aren't enough facts or links to supporting data. But the focus is right. And the approach of the organization I'm working with is that the answers have to be community answers. [The link to Phil's post isn't working for me, but I could get there by going to February 2009 and scrolling down to Tale of Two Rivers.]

These are broad generalizations. There is pressure to individualize problems here in Thailand too now. And Alaska Native organizations often emphasize community solutions. But I think, generally, this is a significant difference in approach. And my guess is that Europeans also think less in terms of individuals and more in terms of societal impacts on the individual. We know that Alaska Natives survived on their own for thousands of years before Caucasians came into their land. US organizations, like mine here in Thailand, would be emphasizing how changes brought by the US government, by missionaries, by State government, and industry have impacted Native abilities to survive on their own. Members of my organization have close relationships with villagers maintained through regular visits to the villages, multi-village leaders meetings, and visits to the Chiang Mai office by villagers. The villagers understand the organization has goals, but also that their well-being, independence, and ultimately sustainability are the goals the organization is seeking to help them achieve. I don't know that such efforts are going on like this in Alaska.


As you can see, these are still very much developing thoughts. But I do think that Alaska Native leaders might learn a lot by coming to Asia to see what organizations like mine are up to with local villages. My guess is that the approach is more sophisticated and better coordinated than what's happening in Alaska. But I also think that local villagers here would benefit from visiting Alaska Native villages.

The villager that J is tutoring in English is headed for the Asian Rural Institute at the end of March for nine months of training in sustainable and organic agriculture as well as 'servant leadership' and community development training. I would guess that Alaska Native villagers would benefit from that program as well. A similar program that focuses more on the climate of the north might be more appropriate, but I'm not sure what exists.

There are no easy answers. But my organizations understands that power and politics are important parts of the equation and they have attorneys helping with legal matters and they negotiate with government officials on policy.

OK, I'm rambling. Time to stop. Consider these thoughts that are still in the preparation stage, but I'm putting them out here to try to make sense of what I'm seeing.

Sommersturm at CMU Film Space

We already heard about Film Space last year - free Saturday night films at the art building at Chiang Mai University - but somehow we never made it there. It's not far - a ten minute bike ride - so we decided to go tonight. So I googled to see what was on tonight and found Thomatfilms a blog that covers what's playing in Chiang Mai. Thai doesn't have a final 's' sound, so they substitute a 't' sound if there is an 's' at the end of a word. So I'm guessing Thom is punning that with at films. Bi-lingual jokes are fun.

This yellow car was parked in front of the Design Center. I'm guessing it's a piece of student art. From Thomatfilms we learned:

During February, Film Space presents “The Month of Iron Hoofter.” March is “The Month of Bad Luck Money.”

Film Space is to the right and in the back of the CMU Art Museum, in the Media Arts and Design building across from the ballet school. Now that the weather is cool, they are resuming their rooftop showings, weather permitting. You might want to bring something to sit on or lie on. A contribution is requested in the donation box at the entrance – you should leave 20 baht. Well worth supporting.

At Film Space Saturday, February 28: Sommersturm / Summer Storm (2004) by Marco Kreuzpaintner – 98 mins – Germany, Comedy/ Drama/ Romance.

Fourth and last in the “Hoofter” series: gay love in Germany. Tobi and Achim have been best friends for years. As cox and oarsman, they have helped their team win several rowing cups in the past and are now looking forward to the big regatta in the countryside. But this trip is no summer camp anymore and the first problems soon arise. As Achim’s relationship with his girlfriend grows more serious, Tobi starts to realize that his feelings for Achim run deeper than he’s willing to admit to himself.

There's a little restaurant - Din Dee - run by a Japanese woman right there too, with a great space. It's a round, earth building. There's something about being in a round room that feels right to me.






After dinner, it was almost dark, and a sliver of a moon hung over the mountains and you could see Wat Doi Suthep lit up on the mountain.





We were looking forward to watching the film up on the roof, but something was wrong with the sound, so it was going to be in a room. Which turned out to be air conditioned, something we haven't experienced much. Evenings have generally been cool and we like using the electric fan rather than air conditioning anyway. But they did turn it off near the end of the movie and it slowly warmed up, so that when we went out if felt nice and cool outside.

My first reaction watching the film was, "Was this still a problem in Germany in 2004?" Well, probably the story was written ten years before it came out and there was a gay rowing team called the Queerstrokes, so some folks were a little more out than others. But anti-gay stuff is just part of all attacks on people who are different from the norm, by people who need to pick on someone else to cover their own insecurities. And coming to terms with sexuality - straight or gay - is scary for most people.

The movie was nicely done, nearly all the characters were likable, even the ones who weren't at first, showed some decent views of themselves. And the only thing I could see that would have gotten it its R rating were bare female breasts. Unless gay automatically rates an R.

Birding with Tony Ball

Warning - no really good bird shots. But we did see lots of interesting birds.

G & W had told us about going out birding with Tony Ball (the blog's not current, but there is a lot in the archives and the contact info is current) and after looking him up on the internet, I knew this was the right person to go out with. He's been in Chiang Mai studying birds for 17 [20] years. And G had sent my Crested Serpent Eagle picture to Tony for verification.

Birding guides change everything. They know the spots where the birds are most likely to be, they know the names of the birds. Otherwise, we're wandering hit and miss, thumbing through the bird book trying to figure out whether it really was a kind of bulbul, and if so, which one. That's not to say all our unguided birding in Chiang Mai has been a waste. Not at all. Today we already knew a fair number of birds, but Tony confirmed some things and expanded our knowledge and sightings enormously. And he was identifying so many by their calls as well.



We got picked up at 6:30 - after getting a call through on skype to wish my mother a happy birthday - by Tony and his driver for today, Tik (I think - correct me Tony if I got it really wrong.) And about 15 minutes later we were on the side of the road looking at birds. We walked down the path above a ways. We saw lots of birds, few that were close enough to even try to get photos off. Besides, I was so busy with my binoculars.

One of the highlights of the morning was the hoopoe. When we spent the year in Hong Kong 20 years ago, the Hong Kong bird book had a hoopoe on the cover, but I didn't really believe that they really existed. They are so bizarre looking. But we did eventually get to see some live hoopoes in the grass at the Taj Mahal. So it was a surprise pleasure to see another hoopoe today. There's a dot a little more than halfway between the sun and the bottom of the picture above. It's a speck really. That's the hoopoe flying off.

This is why I didn't take too many pictures. You really can't tell that this is a green bee eater, with a long extra feather sticking out way past his tail. But it is.


Then after a while, we ended at Tony's breakfast tree where the table was set and we had breakfast watching - Tony don't read this, they're all jumbling together - the tailorbird, the yellow vented flower pecker, and I think this is also where I got a second look at the . . . uh oh. I can't find the name of that green bird with the orange above the bill. (Found it copying from the bird list - Golden-fronted Leafbird.) Among others.

Here's another spot we watched for a while.

Then we headed back to Tony's clubhouse where we had some water by the pool while Tony went through the bird list and ticked off the birds we saw and also marked which ones we only heard. You can double click on the pictures of Tony to enlarge them. The barn swallow and its reflection is from today. The drongo in the lower left, well we saw some, but this picture is from India.

OK, for Catherine, Dianne, and the other birders:

1. Little Heron
2. Shikra
3. Rufous-winged buzzard
4. Chinese Francolin (heard only)
5. White-breasted Waterhen
6. Common Moorhen
7. Red-wattled Lapwing
8. Spotted Dove
9. Zebra Dove
10. Plaintive Cuckoo
11. Common Koel
12. Greater Coucal
13. Asian Barred Owlet (heard)
14. White-throated Kingfisher
15. Green Bee-eater
16. Hoopoe
17. Lineated Barbet
18. Coppersmith Barbet
19. Rufous Woodpecker (heard)
20. Asian Palm-Swift
21. Barn Swallow
22. Wire-tailed Swallow - very cool
23. Rufous-winged Bushlark
24. Richard's Pipit (Paddyfield Pipit)
25. White Wagtail
26. Common Iora - also neat little bird
27. Golden-fronted Leafbird (ah, this is the one I was looking for above)
28. Black-crested Bulbul - always a favorite with its black crested head and bright yellow body
29. Red-whiskered Bulbul - these are really very common, but still strking birds
30. Sooty-headed Bulbul
31. Stripe-throated Bulbul (heard)
32. Streak-eared Bulbul - I'm pretty sure these are the ones we've been seeing from our balcony but couldn't identify for sure
33. Black Drongo
34. Rufous Treepie (heard)
35. Striped Tit-Babbler
36. Chestnut-capped Babbler (heard)
37. White-crested Laughing Thrush (heard)
38. Inornate Warbler (Yellow-browed Warbler)
39. Plain Prinia (heard)
40. Common Tailorbird
41. Oriental Magpie-Robin
42. Stonechat - another neat little bird
43. Pied Bushchat
44. Red-throated flycatcher
45. Ashy Wood-Swallow
46. Burmese Shrike - striking little bird Tony knew just where this one was hanging out
47. Black-collared Starling
48. White-vented Mynah
49. Common Mynah
50. Olive-backed Sunbird
51. Purple Sunbird - another of my favorites today
52. Yellow-vented Flowerpecker
53. Scarlet-backed Flowerpecker
54. Plain-backed Sparrow
55. Scaly-breasted Munia

So that's 47 seen and 8 more heard. We couldn't resist buying Tony's two CD's of Birds of Thailand Songs and Calls. All in all, a very satisfying day. Makes us eager to get out there again and see what we can see on our own.

Chiang Mai 'Snow'

The other day there were little sprinklings of snow as I rode home on my bike as the Payom tree blossoms drifted down to the ground. This was a tree that I really hadn't paid any attention to, but with it snowing for a couple of days, they suddenly all called attention to themselves.
'We're here, even right in front of your building and you've never even looked at us. Well, we're going to get your attention now. You'll see us all over town and see how many of us there are. Now start paying attention." And the blossoms drifted down as I stood there.

In Alaska we have relatively few different types of native trees. A few more that have been introduced by gardeners. But here there are so many, many different kinds of plants and trees. As well as birds, butterflies, other insects, fish, and animals.

So, Alaskans, you should all be able to distinguish birch, spruce, poplar, aspen, willow, and cottonwood, wild mountain ash. At least. We can hold off on the varieties of these and other trees, but these are the basics around Anchorage, I think.

Anyway, my snow tree is called ต้นพยอม or Payom Tree. I wasn't completely sure if I had this right, so I googled it. Here's what google translation gave me:

[Note 2: I see on my screen, the translated table doesn't quite fit so a lot is cut off. If you have the same problem, that just means you have to go to the original link - the translated one or the original Thai links below]

Note: I've written it in English a little differently than they do. Payom vs. Paiam.
This picture is from the translated website.
You can also check the original Thai website.

Certainly not reach the exalted woman cherish. Most often sad hand chest fever. But certainly not difficult to watch นา Paiam guards. Wood is a high สอย be presumptuous to take. (Versify rule the world: Her Majesty's Department of Discovery Edcha prince bow).

ชื่อพฤกษาศาสตร์ Botanical names. ชื่อไทยพื้นเมือง Thai native title. วงศ์ Family. วรรณคดีที่กล่าวถึง Literature mentioned. ประโยชน์ ้ ้ benefits. ลักษณะ Characteristics. Shorea roxburghii G. Don. Shorea roxburghii G. Don. พยอมทองขะยอม ยอม เซียง I accept accept accept ขะ gold เซี fight. DIPTEROCAPACEAE. DIPTEROCAPACEAE. มหาเวสสันดรชาดกลิลิตพระลอ โคลงโลกนิติ อิเหนา Lilit Phra Maha Vessantara fable versify Allan Law Aiehna world. เป็นไม้เศรษฐกิจและเปลือกนำไปใส่ในเครื่องหมักดองเพื่อกันบูดใช้ฟอกหนังได้ Economy and a wooden shell to put in pickled กัน to use tanning has spoiled. เป็นไม้ต้นขนาดใหญ่ลำต้นตรง A large tree trunk straight. เปลือกเป็นสีน้ำตาล Shell is brown. ใบเป็นใบเลี้ยงเดี่ยวมนรีขอบขนาน ที่ปลายใบมน หรือแหลมเป็นติ่งเล็ก ๆ คล้ายใบรังดอกมีสีขาวนวล Form a single cotyledon and parallel to the edge of re-form the end of a promontory or projection small leafy nest flower color is ivory. ออกเป็นช่อตามปลายกิ่ง Panicle late into the limb. แตกช่อเป็นระย้ามีกลิ่น หอม ผลมีลักษณะเป็นรูปกระสวย Panicle is Raiga a different aroma characteristics of a spindle image.

This is one of the posts I've had sitting here for a couple of days and it is much easier to post than the second part of the Rural Issues post or others I'd like to post. So this is a little filler while I work on the others.

Red Shirts Yellow Shirts

[Wed. Feb. 25, 2009, 9am Thai Time]
Monday, E suggested we go eat at the Buddhist Vegetarian place. She'd passed it on the way to work and it was open. It had been closed for three or four months. We got there and the buffet didn't have much selection and there were only a few people there. But some friends of E came over to talk. I got the gist of what they were talking about but when they left I checked with E to make sure I got it right.

Saturday night there had been a gay pride parade scheduled for Chiang Mai. But a group of red shirts had showed up and told them that this was not part of Thai tradition and that they should pack up. They decided to listen to that and canceled the parade.

The reason the restaurant had been closed so long is that they had gone down to Bangkok to feed the protesters who had shut down the airport. So we were in a Yellow shirt place. The red shirt group supports former Prime Minister Thaksin who is trying to come back to Thailand and become prime minister again. The yellow shirts support the current government. Things were falling into place. When we had our anniversary dinner, some of the people were late because the street had been closed and there were people marching. Well, it turns out that was a red shirt demonstration. So far we haven't seen anything ourselves. But E only partially joking suggested that it might not be safe to eat at this restaurant because the red shirts knew it was a yellow shirt place.

In my experience, while there has always been a certain level of interpersonal violence in Thailand, this seems like a different sort of turn of events. I'm not sure. I've been more focused on other things.

There was also news of two different Westerners killed in the South recently, and just the other day a foreigner's head was found in a plastic bag hung from a bridge in Bangkok. I suspect that was grisly enough it made the US papers. But none of this, as I said, has been visible to us in our daily lives.
After lunch at this place, which is free if you only get rice and one other item, you wash your own dishes. E laughed as we were leaving and I noted that the foreigner in the top picture was wearing a red shirt in a yellow restaurant.

Start of a Busy, Productive Day

This is the morning view from our bed. Today was relatively clear compared to last week and the temperature seemed cooler than it's been. You can see the outline of Doi (Mt.) Suthep in the background.

I'd been asked early last week if J would be able to come teach English at work. (She done that some last year.) This year they had a Karen villager who'd gotten a scholarship to to to the Asian Rural Institute in Japan for nine months training. Only about 30 people are selected for this from all of Asia and (I think) Africa each year. Although the program is in Japan, the work is in English. We didn't know how good his English was, but he did have, we were told, a Bachelors Degree which means he's studied English.

So, today, J set up class in our building for her one student, who turned out to be smart as could be and whose English, while not fluent, is already fairly good, by Thai standards. She began with some vocabulary from the Asian Rural Institute website on the assumption he needs to know some of their most frequently used words.

Here's S just before class started. He was already excited to be getting some serious help with his English. He leaves for Japan at the end of March.

Meanwhile our 30 days comes up again in two weeks, so the weekend after next, we're headed to Hanoi so we can pick up another 30 days in our passports for Thailand. By the end of that 30 days, it will be time to go back home to Anchorage. Air Asia, while inconvenient in some ways, has really inexpensive fares. Ours wasn't the best deal we heard about, but the two us fly from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and then to Hanoi (these are booked and treated as totally separate trips) for under $400.

There are lots of other interesting stories from the last few days, but they'll have to wait.

Bike Ride to Hang Dong 1

Yesterday, we took a leisurely bike ride to Hang Dong south of Chiang Mai about 15 km if you go directly on the main road. I've driven by there a few times on trips with work to villages, but never had a chance to stop. The weather's gotten warmer in the last week and so we decided to go before it gets too hot at all. I don't think we achieved the second goal. The weather was in the mid 90s yesterday. My inernal thermostat seems to have adjusted well. We weren't totally sure how to get there - the maps are a little vague unless you take the main highway. We wanted to start along the canal road which is near us and has much less traffic. So, it was a time of discovery.




We helped an Israeli, who stopped us near my office, to get to the main road where he could catch a song thaew, then rode on past Wat Ramphoeng which is as far down that way I've been.







We passed through a little village, where we stopped for some bottles of cold water, then past a huge sports field then found ourselves out on the canal road.











I've passed this strange building several times in a car. We were on the other side of he canal so we didn't have a chance to figure out what it was.




We made it down to the local neighborhood market where we took the opportunity to get in the shade. J got an iced tea at this stand and I chose a strawberry smoothie.








While waiting for my smoothie I snapped this shot of brown rice. The top price is per liter, the bottom price per kilo. One dollar equals almost 36 baht these days.







We'd been vaguely hoping to find the University of Chiang Mai's Agricultural Campus which I'd been told was a nice place to bike, but we ended up on the main road too soon. But we did find a part of it and went in to check out some of the animals. When I approached the ostriches, they all came over - thinking, I guess, I had food. The deer already had food so didn't pay attention to me. But the whole flock of sheep came over to see me from out in the field. You can see that the hazy season is back. You can barely make out the mountains in the background.




Biking limits how far you can go, but it also means you see a lot more in the places you do go by. This place was growing lots of different types of trees, presumably they are for sale.









And, of course, on a bike, it is much easier to stop at the ice cream stand - well this one was a side car on a motorcycle - and have some home made ice cream. The ice cream man told us we could cut over on the road over the bridge and get into Hang Dong on more rural roads, which we did. I'll post our adventure in Furniture World later.

Two Different Nights, Two very Different Dinners

Thursday night J's Thai class had it's final dinner. I've been hearing about her class mates - a collection of mostly (13) Western men mostly of a certain age with either Thai girlfriends or wives. And five women. Some of whom had Thai boyfriends. And one of the best foreign language teachers Joan has ever had. And she learned a number of sentence patterns and vocabulary words and it's obvious she's got a lot more Thai now. I did talk to her teacher and asked about program for people like me who can basically get along, but with lots of gaps in terms of grammar and vocabulary.

The dinner was at a Thai buffet'barbecue' place. That means there are tables full of food which you cook over charcoal in little - I have no idea what they are called and I didn't take a picture, but they're aluminum 'pots' with a broth, but also in the middle an area you can cook fish or other things outside the broth.

You can see the vegies (to be cooked in the broth, but you can't see all the fish and shrimps and other things I don't even know waiting to be dropped into the broth.



And here are the pseudo Western sweets on the left and Thai sweets on the right. Those bright yellow ones, if I recall right are made with egg yokes and lots of sugar.



And here are some more Thai desserts. I'm not sure what these are, but I know them and love them. You get these noodley, dumpling like things, with a little coconut milk and some crushed ice on a hot night. MMMMMMMMMMMMM. So goood. We paid much, much more than we do for a normal dinner which can range from100-150 Baht ($3-5) for the two of us. I'm not sure what the buffet was, but we all got asked to put in 200 Baht apiece (which covered the drinks) or about $6 each.


These two guys are Australians. The one in the white whose face was blurred to protect him (actually there just wasn't that much light and he moved during the slow shutter click) was an undercover detective for 30 or more years. So I filled him in on some of the things going on in the Ted Stevens case. His reaction that some sort of fix was in. He also said he spent five, I think, months in Iraq to pay off his house. He had nothing good to say about what is going on. Well, he did say while there may be some issues with the Americans, their behavior is far more exemplary than that of most of the other players. But he was obviously upset when he talked about some guys he met early on who said they wanted the war to last forever. "Don't you care about all the people who are getting killed?" "Hell, we're getting $40,000 a month and we want that to go on forever." What would have taken him ten years to pay off working in Australia took five or six months in Iraq he said. Thanks to the American tax payer.

Let's see, the guy on the right in the orange is a Brit who lives in Hungary and is here teaching cricket to kids and a couple of orphanages. The lady on the right is a 20 year old Brit who has a Thai boyfriend. The woman at the end of the table - almost in the middle of the picture - is the teacher.

It was a loud and raucous dinner - Thai music coming from one side, televisions going as well. The group went to karaoke afterward, but we went on home.


Tonight was a totally different experience. We'd run into Mike on the street the other night and he emailed the invitation:

We are very happy to invite you to a Shabbat celebration to be held at the Blue Pearl Yoga Studio.

We hope this will be the start of a more regular format instead of the smaller gatherings

It would be great if you could come. The more the merrier and we encourage members of all faiths and paths to join us.

Friday, 20/2/09 at 18:45

As usual, the food will be Pot Luck - Please bring whatever you like to eat but strictly vegetarian

The handouts with the words for the songs called it a Kabbalah Shabbat. So, from outdoor (but under cover) the size almost of a football field on Thursday, Friday was in a Yoga studio.
And we had four Cambodian monks from Wat Suandoke there to join us. Unfortunately, Thai Buddhist monks don't eat after 12 noon.

Azreal led the short shabbat service - he's originally a Canadian but, if I recall right, he's lived in the US and Israel and now has been in Chiang Mai six months. In addition to Canadians and Americans, there were two Thais, some Brits, and Italian, a couple of Austrians, and a German of Philipino/Chinese origin. It was really a special night. I'm glad did't succumb to my thoughts of just staying home tonight and taking it easy.

Better Barbet

[Friday, Feb.20, 2009 8am Thai Time]
The lineated barbet pictures the other day, well, you pretty much had to take my word for it. But today the barbets got into a tree much nearer our balcony - close enough for even my little powershot to get a recognizable shot. I know, it's still not one of those great telephoto shots, but for three times optical zoom it's not bad.

There were also koels calling, some red whiskered bulbuls, and a glimpse of what I think is a malkoha. We've only seen these far off or in today's case fairly close by well hidden in the tree and gone before we could really see it in the binoculars. We had some olive backed sunbirds the other day.

Greater Racket Tailed Drongo

J was sitting on the balcony watching this guy way out there in the tree. With the binoculars you could see his crest and the long dangly tail crisply. He even shimmered dark green. When I looked at the photo I was pretty sure that the black spot below the branch below the bird was the end of his tail. He flew away before I could check They have long strings with these little feather puffs way at the end. You can see it clearly on my favorite drongo picture which I extracted from a video I managed to catch of it flying near our balcony last year.