The feather-duster trade in Khon Kaen

I’m fascinated by the different ways people make money in this country. Almost every day, I seem to notice another bizarre business that someone can apparently make a living in.
There is a guy in Chaiyaphum that sells cowboy hats out of the back of his pickup truck (I have not yet seen a single cowboy [...]

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To … you

I’ve received quite a few strange letters and messages since moving to Chaiyaphum and I’ve been frequently propositioned in broken English, so I thought I’d share one particularly amusing episode with all of you.
A few days ago, I went to a Japanese place on the top floor of the multi-story Tesco Lotus complex for lunch [...]

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Happy 80th, King of Thailand

On Wednesday, we had the day off to celebrate the king’s 80th birthday. I thought about heading down to Bangkok for the festivities at the palace, but I ended up staying in Chaiyaphum to take part in the celebration here.
The town erected a large stage (above) with an impressive collage of photographs marking different points [...]

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New features

Just want to call your attention to some exciting new features on the blog.
I just figured out how to put all my photos online, and how to put a link to them on the blog. So you can now check out all the pictures that I haven’t been able to put on the blog directly. [...]

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Loi Krathong festival

The annual Loi Krathong festival was held last week all over Thailand, and the celebration here in Chaiyaphum was quite impressive. It was a lot bigger than anything I would have expected in a town like this.
The traditional element of the festival centers on small, handmade boats (called krathongs) that are made with banana leaves. [...]

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