Siam Tulip

I woke up at three am last Wednesday. On purpose.  We were having a field trip with the middle school students, and I had to be at the school at 4am (ti si).  At around 4:30 we boarded a karaoke bus and set off for Chaiyapum.  The dancing and singing and light show began as soon as we got onto the bus, and lasted until we arrived home that night.  These karaoke buses are getting less annoying.  Also, seeing the students have so much fun, helped me to accept my plight.  Our destination was Pa Hin Ngam; a park with fields of Dok Ga Tiam (siam tulip)  The park was cool, misty, and reminded me a little bit of some Appalachian mountain tops I have been on.

 The siam tulip can be purple, pink, or white.  beautiful.  Also in the park are many rocks that have been beautifully eroded.  In Thailand I see cairns, but I also see sticks placed vertically against rocks so that it looks like the sticks are supporting the rocks, which are sometimes defying gravity.

 After the field trip, I got ready to meet my Uncle Scott in Bangkok for a couple of days.  It was a lot of fun.  Here he is in a tuktuk.  He also rode a khlong taxi, a taxi boat on the Chao Praya, a bus, a taxi, the sky train, but I drew the line at motorcycle taxis.  Too dangerous.

 This is a mythical beast that used to eat people, until it heard the dharma.  Now, like the naga snake, it protects temples in Thailand.

Here are some of the culinary treats I enjoyed:  Rogue beer, fresh roasted coffee, french toast, and homemade Greek yogurt with mango and granola.  Oh, the joy.

This blog is dedicated to one of my heroes John Saylor for his email yesterday hinting that I need to get back to communicating.  Luckily I had already created this, and didn't have to do much work.  Now I am inspired to set a blog schedule.  Wish me luck.