Bang Bang

Well this is the day after the official Vegetarian festival kicked off. It was clear at 5AM that the day had arrived, as firecrackers began exploding in the neighbourhood. The past week has seen period of sporadic firecracker activity, but tonight I felt like I was back in Kosovo listening to gunfire, and by now getting as used to the sound as I did then. The intensity is increasing now with what they call firebombs basically about 1000 firecrackers wrapped around a large firecracker, so that as the 1000 finish their blasts, the big daddy goes off. The smell of gun powder is in the air and the dogs are all hiding in the bedroom. Annie is more stressed out than usual, but even the seasoned dogs headed for shelter after a few fireballs went off. This activity is to continue for the next 7 nights, culminating is what is called a big blast and fireworks display at midnight on Saturday next. I am getting my batteries charges for the cameras and will begin my photo documentation, with a full kite on the sights, sounds and experiences of the festival.

Getting the Job Done

Workmen on bamboo scaffolding on Big Buddha

Of all of my observations, the most prominent recollections is how geared this place is for getting the job done. By some North American standards, the safety features employed here would startle some occupational health and safety committee's at my previous work sites, and maybe even yours.  Living in Thailand you quickly realize that there is a huge population base to draw from and, given it's geographical location, we are lucky to be able to get materials and goods from around the world. Most of it is available made in Thailand as well, and there is the constant flow of mass produced goods from China. I recently went to the pottery market and bought some plates and bowls. We had company coming and no crockery to feed them from. The crockery market is about 1/2 a city block long and sells every type of crockery, pottery and dish-wares you can imagine. It was not until I got home, and washed them, that I noticed the IKEA marking on the bottom. It dawned on me that these are actually made in Thailand for sale through IKEA. I was buying direct from the factory. A television documentary last week on the Asian Food Channel was about 8 young British students who come to Thailand and work for 2 weeks in the industries that mass produce the food they eat in the UK. Thailand is one and in many cases the largest supplier of chicken, tuna and rice in the world. I recall seeing frozen seafood and canned tuna in the grocery store, and they all came from Thailand. In the documentary the students went from picking rice by hand in the north, through a fish cleaning house to the monstrous chicken processing plants near Bangkok and ended in Bangkok with the bar girls who play for money.The bottom line for the documentary showed how people in other parts of the world have little understanding of how they contribute to the abject poverty in countries like Thailand.

Vegetarian Festival. Why the blood?

I am getting myself prepared to see the annual vegetarian festival that commences in about 10 days. In our naivitee, we thought this would be a celebration of the vegetarian community. Lots of interesting foods and products all began based. Apparently this is not the case. It is instead a 10 period of time where people practice self mutilation, in an effort to release demons. I am all set to go to do the photography, as I think it will be of real unique interest and spectacle. Clive was looking forward to the evening festivals, where they would have great tables laden with food. Apparently, there is not vegetarian food, but with all Thai events there will be plenty to eat. It looks like Gary and I will go to see the body mutilations and Clive and Deb will go for the evening events. Stay tuned for my coverage of this event. In the meantime, this is a link to the events site. http://www.phuketvegetarian.com/index_eg.htm

Princess's Cup - Kho Samui

Clive and Adam at completion of the Samui Marathon

Koh Samui

Living in Thailand gives Clive the great opportunity to participate in the marathons that seem to be happening in some country or location not far from us, 12 months of the year. Since our arrival getting settled, the Koh Samui (Samui Island for the anglo’s) was the first local event he could do. We had looked at many ways to get there, but flying was very cost prohibitive, as only one airline serves the island, they apparently own the airport, hence no competition. We had heard of horror stories about taking public transit. And renting a car to do the drive seemed less practical, so we decided to brave the public transit system and be prepared for whatever may come.

Cooking With Bruce

I have been doing Thai food cooking for a few months and decided I would put some of my creations on my blog.  This entry is a versatile dish, Thai Peanut Sauce.
This dish usually accompanies satay of chicken, pork or Tofu. But it has many more possible ways to be used in cooking.  It is a good veggie dip and you can add it to hot or cool noodles for a salad or a meal. I spread some on BBQ hamburgers and think it is fab! I can usually get three different dinners per batch.

A Monk and His Dogs

While on Kho Samui, I noticed that the dogs there seemed to be better looking than most of my Thai dog encounters. When we walked along the street, we were amazed at how friendly these dogs were and how they approached you with tails wagging and nudging your hand for a pet. We also noted no obvious signs of skin rashes or ticks and it was also evident that they were not lacking in adequate feeding, some of them being outright fat.

One evening I had seen the dogs at low tide walking along the beach and they all seemed to be frolicking and running about. I then noticed that they were accompanied by a monk in his saffron robes, picking up litter along the beach. Our friend Adam commented that there was a solitary monk who lived not far from our hotel along the beach and he had a collection of dogs and there was some sort of cemetery there. At one point, not being much of a beach person to be able to just go and lay still for a few hours, i wandered the beach and found the said monk, living a solitary existence in a single room hut, and an assortment of dogs, all of who came to greet me. Behind his hut was a small cemetery with a mausoleum type structure as well as full-on cemetery plots. The area was meticulously maintained, including the sweeping of the sand walkways and no garbage or tree debris to be seem. He spoke no English, but was happy to see me and took me to view the headstones.

On race day, as I looked to the beachfront, a rainbow appeared and there was the monk with his dogs out doing beach clean-up.

Take A Moment

Take a moment to look at this video in recognition of world peace day.
http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=LPaaUY9_j80