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Update...Sort of

2010-09-04T12:38:00.000+07:00

After my last post, I have had numerous people hound me about providing an update to how things are in Thailand. More particularly, how things are going with Bow. So for those of you who have been asking, and you know who you are, here you go. :)

Things with Bow are going really great.
Isn't she BEAUTIFUL!!!!

However, she is currently in college at Ratchaphat University in Thonburi (an area of Bangkok) and so we don't get to see each other all that often right now. She is about a 5 hour bus ride and an hour taxi ride away at the moment, making it hard to travel down to visit her on weekends. So instead, we just talk on the phone everyday, sometimes more than once per day, and often for a couple hours at a time. But, yes, I still miss her like crazy. Talking on the phone is never enough.

This is a picture of Bow in her new College Suit. She is working on a Bachelor's Degree in Law and had to have a suit made for all those Law type meetings.

A couple of shots of Bow in her school uniform

Random pic of Bow sitting around waiting for the bus

And a couple pics of her new, slightly curly hair style. I love her hair like this and tell her so all the time.

Dream World

2010-04-11T22:13:00.001+07:00

A couple weeks ago (last week in March), I went down to Bangkok to pick up Bow and bring her back to Phitsanulok. (Bow had been in BKK for two weeks visiting her dad and I really missed her). Anyway, on our last day in BKK, we decided to kill some time by going to Dream World in Rangsit Province. Dream World is kinda like a Thai miniature version of Disney Land but with a fairy tale story book theme. Here are some photos taken around the park.

Bow, her youngest sister Boom, and her mom, P'Tim sitting in a giant Papaya at the Giant House.

Giant Boots

and Giant Slippers

Bow and a giant hammer.

Played some cards with a skeleton crew

Bow standing next to a mushroom house

The two of us with a newly-wed ant couple

Bow following the line of ants

I like this picture.

Had to take a pic with the characters around the park.

And lastly, a bunch of pictures of Bow and I.

A fun, little place to visit, especially with the company that I had. :)

3 months

2010-03-18T11:53:00.000+07:00

Ok, it has been about 3 months since I have posted anything to this blog. About time I gave a quick update.

I have been pretty busy with teaching during the week days and traveling all over the country on weekends. I have been over to Korat, Petchabun, Chiangmai, Chiangrai, Rayong, Chonburi, and Sukothai all since New Years. Lots of fun and tons of photos taken. Here are a few from various places around Thailand.

This was taken down in Chonburi

Taken at a park in Pattaya, Chonburi

On the beach in Rayong

At one of the local waterfalls with Bow :)

Doi Suthep in Chiangmai

At a mountain village somewhere in Chiangrai

Same village. This is Bow and her little 10 month old cousin Nano

A photo of Bow, just outside the village of Pai in northern Chiangmai or southern Chiangrai.

At the bottom of the stairs to a mountain temple in Phitsanulok

Taken in Sukothai, Thailands first capital city.

This is just a quick taste of many of the different places I have been over the past couple months. More to come later, maybe.

Tenth Grade Field Trip

2009-12-21T22:20:00.000+07:00

One of the tenth grade classes had a field trip this past weekend and I was invited to tag along. We went to the province of Petchabun, to the area known as Khao Kho, which is about 100 kilometers to the east of Phitsanulok. On Saturday, we stopped at a Buddhist Temple

where I rang all 108 bells.

Then we stopped at the flower garden outside the Khao Kho International Library.

Then we hiked up Khao Kho mountain, a very steep climb of 770 meters from bottom to top. My students all started together and made it to the top in small groups of one or two. Eventually everyone made it to the top and got to enjoy the scenic view.

and some of us rested.

After the quick trip back down the mountain, we went to a waterfall to cool off. This was a very small waterfall compared to some of the others I have seen in Thailand, but the water was nice and cold and felt very good on a hot day.

After camping for the night, we woke up on Sunday morning to a sea of fog. We loaded up the trucks and headed out for a day full of site seeing.

First stop was a Soldier Museum.

Lots of old school military weapons and aircrafts

including this M.A.S.H. style helicopter.

Next was a Soldier Monument that has the names of those killed during some war engraved on the inner walls.

It also has an old war bunker area

and a scenic view.

As we were driving to another destination, we spotted this temple and decided to take a look. It is still being built but we were able to wander around and take pictures anyway.

After all this, we still had one more stop, but it gets its own blog.

Tribal Fair

2009-12-21T21:50:00.001+07:00

After taking the tenth graders hiking, camping, and all that other stuff, we stopped off at a fair held by and for the various mountain tribes of Thailand.

Everyone was dressed in their traditional tribal outfits.

We were able to rent traditional outfits for the day and wander around the fair grounds.

Many of the actually tribes people wanted to take pictures with the foreigner who dressed up in one of their outfits. The old lady on the left stopped just as we were about to take this picture with the 2 girls in the middle and so we had to invite her into the pic.

These two girls above saw me walking up the street and I heard them say "get the camera out and get a picture of that foreigner." While they were reaching for their camera, I walked up to them and waited for the question I knew was coming, "ถ่ายรูบด้วยกันได้มั้ย - Can we take a picture with you?"

We liked this girl's outfit and asked her to take a picture with us.

One of my tenth grade girls in her outfit.

Most of the boys didn't feel like dressing up. Chickens!

While at the fair we got to see or hear about some interesting things. One guy talked for ever about a certain type of snake he had in a box, but after listening to him for 15 minutes and never seeing the snake, we walked away. Instead, we went and saw this:

a lady with no body what-so-ever, just a head. Ask her questions and she responds, turns her head in both directions, but ain't got no body. Should have asked her to do the poltergeist head spin.

Wandering around the fair made for a good ending to a long but very fun weekend.

Little Women

2009-12-16T22:39:00.000+07:00

Today, 5 of my 12th grade girls were in an English Skit competition in Nakhon Sawan, a province about 2 hours south of Phitsanulok. They decided on a very brief version of the play Little Women and were the third group to perform out of 32. I'm so glad we got to go early because waiting around all day would have been really boring.

Here they are introducing themselves to the judges.

Mother reading a letter from father to the four girls.

Finally, getting along after a lot of sibling rivalry.

Of course, I think the girls had more fun dressing up and taking pictures than they did performing the skit. They spent 10 minutes performing and another hour taking pictures.

And it wouldn't be a complete set of pictures without at least one with me in it.

We do not know yet how the girls did compared to the other schools, and if we won or even came close to winning, but we had a good time nonetheless.

Backwards

2009-12-13T22:16:00.000+07:00

For all of you reading today's posts, please scroll to the bottom and start with the post titled Doi Pui or the Northern Hilltribe Village. Then scroll up and read Phuphing Palace, and finally Doi Suthep. Otherwise the adventure is out of order. I guess I should have started writing about the third stop first and worked my way backwards. Sorry for any confusion.

Doi Suthep

2009-12-13T22:07:00.000+07:00

Our third stop on this trip was to Doi Suthep Temple.

Here I got to take pictures with a really big Buddha

A large shield

and a 4 headed dragon being eaten by a serpent.

Then, I was privileged to climb all 306 stairs to the top of the mountain to see the actual temple,

where I met some dancers,

was impressed by some interesting statues,

pounded on some drums,

and rang some bells for good luck.

Which didn't seem to work because shortly after...

I had my arm eaten by a crocodile.

Phuphing Palace

2009-12-13T21:33:00.000+07:00

After the hilltribe village, we stopped at Phuphing Palace.

(Their sign is spelled wrong in English)

We saw gardens

Tons of flowers

And various decorative statues.

Doi Pui or the Northern Hilltribe Village

2009-12-13T21:14:00.003+07:00

This past weekend I took a little trip up North to the city of Chiang Mai, met up with a couple friends from Bangkok and did a little site seeing. First stop on the trip was หมู่บ้านแม้ว (a hilltribe village) called ดอยปุย or Doi Pui. The main part the tourists get to see is really one long winding road that is lined with shops full of clothes and other crafts these hilltribe people have made.

At the end of the road is a small flower garden filled with all varieties of flowers ranging in all sorts of colors.

There is also a small waterfall just past the flower garden.

You can rent an outfit for 30 baht/hr (about $1) and wander around the gardens taking pictures dressed as a traditional hilltribe person.

While in the village, I had the opportunity to shoot a wooden crossbow at a couple unripe papayas. 3 shots for 10 baht.

My first shot nailed the rightmost papaya.

I barely missed with the second shot and killed the left papaya with my last shot. The guy tried to get me to buy a crossbow after I was done for 1000 baht, but I had to pass.

We only stayed around the village for one hour, plenty of time to have some fun and spend a little money on souvenirs.

Laos

2009-10-07T18:13:00.000+07:00

I just spent the past couple days in Laos renewing my Thai visa. I left Phitsanulok on Sunday evening (Monday morning actually) and traveled to Udorn Thani, followed by Nong Khai, and then across the Friendship Bridge into Vientiane, Laos.

Monday, 5 October 2009: Sure was a lot of confusion with where I was supposed to go, what I was supposed to do, etc. Didn't help that there was a festival going on in Vientiane on my first day there. Apparently, I booked a room in a Guest House that was right smack in the middle of the festival and so all the roads leading to the hotel were closed to vehicle traffic. Lucky me. Of course, the van driver who took me to the hotel didn't bother telling me the roads were closed and decided to just keep on driving around town. Good thing I had already paid for the trip to the hotel, otherwise he would have tried to stiff me for some extra cash for driving all over the place. When I finally got him to tell me what was going on, he said the roads are closed and so it would be better if he took me to a different place. I told him to take me as close as he could and that I would walk the rest of the way, which ended up being a whole block and a half.

So I finally made it to my hotel, checked in, and then went for a walk around the festivities. Not much really going on. Just a bunch of booths full of clothing, food, and electronics. At first glance, the prices were outrages. 50,000 Kip (Laotian money) for a shirt. It was a little while before I found out that 1 Baht was 250 Kip, so a shirt was around 200 Baht.

I wandered around for a while and was approached by some 22 yr old who wanted to practice his English with me. That was fine, except for the fact I couldn't understand hardly a word he said. After a few minutes, the conversation changed to Thai and Laotian and this kid ended up just following me around after that. He kept trying to call his sister for me to meet, but she never picked up her phone. (Oh Darn). After close to an hour, I was finally able to separate from this kid and headed back to my hotel room for a nice nap. I didn't get much sleep on the bus to Udorn Thani from Phitsanulok, even though it left P'Lok at 12:40 am and arrived in Udorn at 7:00 am. Weren't the smoothest of roads and everytime we hit a bump, I woke up. So, taking a nap around 4:00 pm was just what I needed. That about covers the fun and excitement for Monday.

Tuesday, 6 October 2009: I thought I left the hotel early enough to get a good spot in line at the Royal Thai Embassy, since I left at 7:45 am and the place didn't open until 9:00. It was a ten minute drive and when I arrived outside the embassy, the line was already halfway down the block. So I waited in line outside the embassy for a long time, then when they finally opened the gate, I was given a ticket in which I was number 241. Sat around for 2 full hours before my number was called. Walked up to the counter, handed them my paper work, and was told to move to the next building for visa payment. It literally took 30 seconds at this first counter. So, I moved along to building 2 and waited for another 10 minutes before my number was called again and I could pay my 2000 Baht for my non-immigrant B visa. Of course, the processing of the visa takes 24 hours, so I had to leave my passport with the embassy and return on Wednesday to pick it up again. By this time it is already almost noon and I am starving. So I returned to my hotel, got something to eat, and watched a little tv until the weather cooled off a bit. Once it did, I decided to walk around and take a few pictures before eating a sushi dinner and heading to bed.

Wednesday, 7 October 2009: Check out wasn't until 11:30 and since I couldn't go and pick up my visa until 1:00 pm, I decided to stick around the hotel for the morning. When I left the hotel, the same van driver who took me to the embassy yesterday was outside waiting for me. Since it was just a little after 11:00, I asked him to take me to a couple touristy places before heading to the embassy.

I ended up taking a lot of pictures which I will upload later. Arrived at the embassy around 12:30, paid a guy 100 Baht to pick up my passport and visa for me (sure beats standing in that long line again), and left the embassy around 1:15 pm. My driver took me all the way back to the boarder, where I got my Laos exit stamp, took a ride back across the Friendship Bridge to get my Thai entrance stamp, and then rode down to Udorn where I am now waiting for my bus back to P'Lok.

A Few More Pictures

2009-09-26T17:10:00.000+07:00

Just a few more pictures of the Buddhist Temple the teachers took me to last week. I got these from one of the teachers.

I have no idea what this last pic is supposed to be.

Still no pictures with me in them. But I know some of the teachers took some group shots with me, so I should be able to get a couple eventually.

Some Temple

2009-09-20T00:41:00.000+07:00

18 Sept, 2009, the teachers at the school I work at took me to this Buddhist Temple which sits at the top of a mountain somewhere in the province of Nakhon Sawan. Apparently, the King's older sister used to worship here before dying of cancer.

The upper most temple.

A few of the various statues around the Temple grounds.

Koh Larn

2009-09-20T00:32:00.000+07:00

Sept 12, 2009, my friends and I traveled down to Pattaya and then to an island called Koh Larn (เกอะล้าน) for a nice relaxing day on the beach.

This was the ferry that took us between Pattaya and Koh Larn.

A shot of me while on the ferry. Neung is trying to hide from the camera and Naang is trying to make sure she is in the picture behind me.

Beer took a short nap on the ferry.

On the beach with Oui, Neung, and Beer.

Beer is pointing his foot at the camera, an action that is very inappropriate in Thailand. (It's a bit more ok among friends)

Oui, Naang, and Neung

Check out Neung's face in this pic.

Jump everybody, Jump everybody, Jump!

Group photo. Thanks Naang for taking this one.

Naang and I on the truck heading back to the ferry.

A shot from the back of the ferry of a fishing boat and Pattaya in the distance.

Oui and I with the Pattaya City sign in the background.

Thailand

2009-09-12T21:45:00.000+07:00

I have finally made my way back to Thailand. It has been ten and a half years since I was last here and I've been wanting to return for a long time now. This time around I will be teaching English in a city north on Bangkok (BKK) called Phitsanuloog. It can be considered the gateway to the north. I never went there as a missionary so it will be nice to see a new part of the country. However, all my good friends are around BKK. I guess I'll just have to do some travelling on weekends. It's only 4-5 hrs away. Shouldn't be a problem.

More to come later, including pictures of Pattaya and Koh Larn, the places I travelled to today.

Finishing Touch

2009-05-18T07:53:00.005+07:00

Just a quick note...

Added a latch to keep the lid closed as well as a couple knobs to help with the drawer.

I'm also planning on adding a pad/cushion to the top to turn it into a comfy seat/foot rest. But that is something I can do later on down the road.

A Little Bit More

2009-05-14T08:43:00.009+07:00

Ok, so I built this DVD box and needed to figure out how many videos it would actually hold. So I laid out a row in the drawer and counted them up, multiplied it by 3 rows, and discovered the drawer will hold 214 discs. Did the same for the top shelf and it will hold 223 discs. So, altogether my storage box holds 437 DVD discs.

Currently, I own around 385 DVDs, all originals.
With that in mind, looks like I've got a bit of empty space that I am gonna have to fill up.
Hmm, which movie should I buy first?

DVD Box - Final Day

2009-05-14T05:38:00.009+07:00

All stained and all pieced together.

I'M FINISHED!

All closed up (front view)

Rear View
Take a peek inside

Overall dimensions are 44" long x 27" wide x 18" high and
it is stained using Minwax Cherry color stain.

DVD Box - Day 4

2009-05-13T05:23:00.006+07:00

All the main pieces have finally been cut, stained and connected to form what actually looks like a storage box.

Here it is without the lid or the bottom drawer.

With the incomplete drawer.

All that remains is to stain the lid and the bottom part of the drawer, attach the lid with a couple hinges, and attach the drawer with a slide, and then my DVD storage box will be complete.

DVD Box - Day 3

2009-05-10T09:59:00.004+07:00

Today started with another trip to Lowe's to pick up a sheet of plywood to be used as the sides, back, and bottom of the shelves. Then it was back to the house to start measuring and preparing to cut the various pieces needed from the large sheet.

After all the cutting, which was done with a circular saw and a tad with the table saw you see in the background, I started putting all the pieces together to form the frame of the storage box. Big push for the finish should be tomorrow, as long as time is found with family coming for Mother's Day.

Stayed Tuned

DVD Box - Day 2

2009-05-08T06:22:00.005+07:00

Spent a lot of time lining up boards, drilling holes, staining wood, and then screwing boards together today. Not really all that exciting, but necessary.

Kinda hard to tell, but these boards are already stained. The box isn't much to look at just yet, but it's starting to come together.

More to come...

DVD Box - Day 1

2009-05-07T09:33:00.012+07:00

At the end of last summer, my cousin Kris, and I went out into his shop and decided to make a wooden storage box. He actually had to teach me how to use almost every tool in the shop, particularly the table saw, circular saw, drill press, etc, since I had never stepped foot into a wood shop before. (pretty lame, I know)

This is the resulting box

Picture with a cooler inside to give an idea of the size.

For anyone that knows me, it is common knowledge that I own hundreds of DVDs. In fact, I have almost 400. So, after making this storage box, I decided I wanted to design and make a box to hold all my movies. It is actually going to be a lot different than the box Kris and I created. I have designed this box to have a drawer on the bottom with a stationery shelf on top, all covered by a hinged lid. Easy enough to say, but may prove difficult as I build (we'll see). Mainly because I don't have all the wonderful tools that Kris does. He spoiled me and now I'm gonna have to make due with a miter saw, a jigsaw, and a drill. Should be interesting.

Here is what I have to work with

A shot of the makeshift workbench with the miter saw.

So, if you are interested in the final outcome, stayed tuned for updates and pictures as I progress on my endeavor.

2009-02-03T03:43:00.002+07:00

Seeing this commercial during the Super Bowl yesterday made me laugh. I pictured Joe Anson and John Bayton as the two astronauts cruising and dancing while listening to House of Pain. Then, seeing their vehicle on blocks, made me think Todd Bangerter finally got them back, after all these years.

Bridgestone: Jump Around

# Eight

2008-12-11T07:48:00.005+07:00

Thanks to my older brother, Joshua, and his wife, Natasha, I am now an uncle for the 8th time. At 3:06pm, Indianapolis time, a little boy named Cristian Myron Bokish was born, weighing 7lbs 8 1/2 oz and stretching to be 20 1/2 inches long (something like that anyway). That brings their family to 3 boys and 1 girl.

Thanksgiving Adventures

2008-12-02T11:15:00.003+07:00

Well, Thanksgiving has come and gone, but not without some interesting things happening. My youngest two siblings and I drove to our sister's house in Blue Springs, MO for the holiday and to have some fun. Turkey Bowl on Thursday morning, a great turkey dinner at noonish, and then some basketball in the afternoon. Eventful, but with nothing big or bad happening. Which is just how we like it.

Friday morning, we decided to get up at 4am to hit the stores for some Black Friday deals. We were in and out of Wal-Mart within 35 minutes and then hit Target, where we were in and out in 10 minutes. Then back home we went for some much needed sleep.

Still nothing big or bad has happened. All good

Saturday morning, I am woken up by some pounding on the front door. Turns out to be a police officer. Upon answering the door, he asks, "Are you the owner of the maroon skylark parked on the street?" I answered in the affirmative and he went on to say "Well, someone smashed in your driver's side window last night."

The car is actually my brother's and he heard the conversation at the door and quickly grabbed his keys and ran out to the car. Not like he really needed them. We got out to the car to see glass all over the street and upon looking around inside, discovered whoever smashed the window only took my brother's brand new Shopvac and nothing else. There were close to 100 cds on the front seat and they were untouched. Who breaks into a car to steal a shopvac????

Drugs???

2008-10-16T10:19:00.000+07:00

Gotta give props to the wonderful state troopers along I-70 in Kansas. Driving from Salina, KS to Blue Springs, MO today when up ahead I see a police car with his lights flashing. I was driving in the left hand lane and the cop car was in the median in front of me. So, naturally, I move into the right lane, since that is what you are supposed to do according to the law. Once in the right hand lane, I am driving directly behind a minivan, but not tailgating him. As I drive past the police car, I notice there is another police car sitting along the median without its lights flashing. As I went by, I looked in my mirror and watched the second cop car pull out onto the freeway and start speeding in my direction. Next thing I know he has pulled behind me and has turned on his lights.

Now I'm sitting along the side of the road trying to figure out why this cop pulled me over. The officer comes to the window and says "I pulled you over because you were following too close behind the car in front of you." (SAY WHAT?) Got off with a warning on this. However...

After taking two steps away, the officer suddenly turns around and asks "Do you mind if I ask you a couple more questions?" He then goes on to ask my brother Geoff and I how long we had lived in Arizona (since Geoff had an AZ drivers license and I have AZ tags on my car). After giving a response, he then went on to say "We have had a lot of drug trafficing through here from that part of the country. Do you have any drugs in the car?" We both quickly responded in the negative to which the trooper asks "Do you mind if we search the car?"

Geoff and I are then asked to step out of the car along the side of the freeway. As soon as Geoff gets out, the officer asked him if he was carrying any knives or guns and then proceeded to pat him down, making him remove all the items out of his pockets. Once finished with the pat down, Geoff was ordered to stand about 20 feet away from the car while the officer started searching through the car. I struck up a conversation with the other officer, while still standing right next to the car, and shot the breeze with him until his partner was finished. Geoff was then allowed to come back to the car and we were told to drive safe and have a nice day.

Oh, you gotta love the state troopers!

Road Trip

2008-08-08T12:00:00.000+07:00

This summer has been interesting, to say the least. Around the end of June, I found out that the registration form I sent last Nov to the Dept of Health in WA was never received. WA state requires that all Rec Therapists be registered with the state in order to practice/work. Since mine was never received, I was put on temporary suspension until it has been processed. That was six weeks ago and it still has not been processed. So here I wait and in the meantime I decided to take a little vacation.

Day one I traveled along I-90 to the Lewis and Clark Caverns in Montana. I remember visiting this place when I was 6 years old or so and thought it would be fun to see again.
The rather large caverns have all sorts of formations for your viewing pleasure.We were not allowed to use flash during the first part of the tour since it might disturb the bats so many of my pictures did not really turn out too good. Oh well.

Day two was spent driving to Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. Saw both of these back in the summer of 1989 and must say not a lot has changed on Crazy Horse. That thing is going to take a long time to carve if they expect it to look like this when it is finished. But at least it has a face!

After all this excitement, I had to settle down and drove to Salina, KS, where I have spent the last 2 and a half weeks visiting with mom. O Joy!

The River Lot

2008-07-16T12:16:00.000+07:00

Ever since moving up to the Spokane, Washington area, I have found myself never lacking with fun and exciting things to do. From mountain biking, to running in 12k races, to getting out of town for who cares what, I am finding plenty to occupy my time.

For Memorial Day weekend, I was invited to join my cousin Kris and his family at his in-laws cabin, aka the River Lot, along the Pend Oreille River in Idaho. Although the water was too low and by far too cold to use the ski boat, we were not hindered in our attempts to have some fun and make the most of our weekend. Instead of water craft, we switched to running amok all over the mountains and fields riding the 4-wheelers.
Of course, this early in the year, there was plenty of mud to go around which made for lots of big splashes...
And of course, it just wouldn't be mud without getting stuck at least once, right?
I was calf-deep in mud when I stepped off to pull the quad out. What a blast!!!

The trip up to the River Lot made for a great start to the 2008 summer.