I'll venture as far as to guess a Hobie Cat with sports kits attached (no solid boom and the wings attached). It's a great boat. I think the max racing weight is supposed to be around 120kg or so. So although it has space for several kids sails better with only 2 people.
^ Original Flintstone wheels bought from Ebay?
Looks like stoneage contraception devices.
An help with the size may assist.
^^^ I'm going with fossilised vertebrae?
Hotel view after checking in yesterday. First time we stayed at the Oriental Residence and unfortunately didn't stay long as we will hit the road back to Lampang in about 15 minutes. Will have to remember this place on the next trip for a longer stay. Very clean nice room and very quiet. All hardwood floor and tile. ( I hate carpet in hotel rooms)
We have rain
Chanthaburi
28 May 2023
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Last week I wandered up the Mekong, starting at Mukdahan. Probably my least favourite of the riverside towns. The Indo-China market used to be thick with tourists before Covid. Now it is all but empty. Many of the shops still open, some don't bother. By 5pm it is a wall of closed roller shutters on both sides.
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Very considerate of local government to place tactile paving into their footpaths. For those that don't know 'tactile' paving is there to aid the blind or hard seeing pedestrians.
On to That Phanom, which I like much more. It's a small town with a big temple. There are a million pics of Wat Phra That Phanom, it is very much on the Thai tourist trail, they come to respect the fragments of the Buddha's breastbone held in the stupa. This picture is of the remnants of the old stupa nearby, much less visited, it fell down in a storm in 1975. The bone fragments were recovered and moved to the new site, HM the King came to the opening. They then refurbished the old stupa. Legend has it that the bone fragments were brought here shortly after the Buddha passed, at his instruction. Archaeology suggests the site is younger than that, still the old stupa sits on a site that has probably been a temple for over a thousand years:
Every Thursday morning That Phanom has a Laos market. Traders cross the river and the market kicks off about 0500 hours. (I am told. I went after breakfast.) It has a very 'real' feeling of being a market. Small traders trying to sell stuff. Porters hefting sacks of vegetables through the crowd. Everything from fish to handbags. The picture doesn't really do it justice.
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Last stop was Nakhon Phanom. I could live here if only it were possible to find a plot with a river view. This derelict hotel beside the river is a part of history, locals say it was very busy with US military personnel during the Vietnam war (or the American war, depending on your perspective.)
The mighty Mekong is a bit wimpish at the end of the dry season. Some might suggest the Chinese dams upstream have made an impact, I couldn't posssibly comment. There is a 'beach' area at the moment, a couple of people parked out by the water's edge and they are about half way to Laos.
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^^^
Here is another view of the mighty Mekong.
There's nothing better than eating a simple lunch while relaxing by the Mekong, watching the boats moving up and down the river, with the Lao flag fluttering in the wind.
Wait a moment! Mekong river?! Lao flag ?!
I was meant to be in Mandalay, with no Mekong river and the Myanmar flag fluttering on the army trucks. Well, fate again decided (actually the military junta boys) that yours truly is persona non grata right now to enter the country... I can't get to my new teaching job in Mandalay.
That being the case, I sat down last week and considered some major events in my life over the past year:
- My much-loved Thai niece dying in my arms of TB
- Me almost dying after being stung by a box jellyfish (I was convinced that I was only minutes from death)
- Me getting refused entry to Myanmar last October
- Me with a prostate cancer 'deep scare' (lumps found on MRI scan), that required a trip to the UK for further investigation, happily only finding prostate stones, but seriously fcuking up my lungs again with the bitterly cold February weather in Blackpool
- Me being refused entry to Myanmar again
..... that I finally decided that God is trying to tell me to relax a bit more!! So I made the decision to end all in-class teaching and to 'soft-retire', returning back to Luang Prabang to play radio, teach online and do some voluntary teaching in my spare time.
I returned to LP on Wednesday and it is blissful. My lungs are good, I'm almost ready to rent a house and the local police have yet to arrest me...
Groping women when you're old is fine - everyone thinks you're senile
Good luck, how are you going to do the ham radio thingy after the police issues from last timer. I like LP, or i did when i was last there over 10 years ago, very sleepy, but i imagine the chinkies will ruin it.
one less thing for sausages to worry about
I think (hope) that the police were more concerned about my work permit last time and that I was 'working' from home due to Covid. When they asked me where my office was I had no idea, which is what miffed them.... This time I am 'retired' and a WP is not needed. I'll try to use antennas that are less 'in-your-face' as well!
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