Number 18

Bruce and Wendy left for the Philippines today. We all went outside and saw them off and then the rest of the day was for resting after the past week or so of Bruce and his constant "can you do me a favor", the words the Thai's fear. Bruce is truly a good person who truly cares about people but he can be driven at times.

The political news is tentatively good. The Constitutional Court dissolved the coalition that runs the Government by deciding they had bought votes. All the leaders are barred from politics for 5 years and the PM has been removed. The Yellows are happy and say they'll leave the airport by tomorrow morning. CNN is reporting that flights will resume Friday. We'll see. Being in the heart of Red country people around here aren't very happy. Who knows what's next but once again, we are, and have always been, safe here.

After Bruce and Wendy left, Moon took Mark and me to the fabric store. I bought 4 meters of really nice Italian wool fabric for my new suit for 1200 baht ($36). Mark already had a suit made and bought material for his son to have 2 suits made. We went next to the tailor who measured me and said the suit would be 1800 baht ($54). The fabric store is in the Day Market. (as opposed to the Night Bazaar) It's 5-6 blocks long and a few blocks wide. Lots of stalls and stores and lots of people. Some touristy stuff but a lot of "essentials". Of course there are the ubiquitous watch stands and t-shirt stands but there are also some produce stands with beautiful fruit.

We stopped at Wat Suandok on our way back to the house. It's the temple near us. I've walked through the grounds but never went into any of the buildings.A lot of the red truck drivers can't find our house on our little "soi" so if you don't speak Thai well you say Wat Suandok and walk the rest of the way. Moon could have told the driver how to get to the house but we decided to go take some pictures. I did the stick shaking thing and had my fortune told, as did Mark. Moon had the Monk inside the Temple put magic water on her. We knelt before the prayer altar and paid our respects. And I took a bunch of pictures.

As most of you know, this is National Day in Laos. (which they pronounce Lao without the S) Sam and Dave played in the celebratory football (soccer) game and several of us went to watch and cheer them on. I got some great photos worth checking out. They insisted I get into one of the team photos which was fun. They played another Lao team that was actually mostly Thai's. The score ended up tied 2-2 but no one minded. Unlike Americans, they cheered every good play by either side including when the other team scored against them. They laughed at both sides when someone fell down or did something silly. It was refreshing to watch though, since it was soccer, it was still really boring.

The funniest part involves the Lao sense of time. Like traffic signs to Thai's, time is a very relative thing to the Lao. The game was supposed to start at 4. At 3, Sam and Dave took off from the house, on bikes, to buy new soccer shoes. Those of us who were going from the house were going to walk and since it took about 30 minutes we were going to leave at 3:30. At 3:55 the lady Lao professors finally came downstairs to leave. Since we were late and the game was only going to last an hour I jokingly suggested I would drive us all their in Bruce's car. I have permission to drive it but was too scared to drive in Chiang Mai traffic. They thought it was a good idea so we piled into the car and took off. In Thailand they drive on the "wrong" side of the street. The steering wheel is on the "wrong" side of the car as is the turn signal and the gear shift. I had driven once in England so I wasn't completely lost but it's a challenge just to drive in traffic let alone on the wrong side of everything. Thip sat in the front and yelled at me, when I made a turn, which side of the road I was supposed to be on. Nang knew the way and somehow we got there alive and on time since the game didn't start until 5. So we're waiting for Sam and Dave to show up on their bicycles (Sam on a pink girl's bike) and they're nowhere to be found. Thip called them, asked them where they were and I thought told them to hurry up. Instead, she asked them to stop and get her some orange juice. They made it a few minutes before the game started and all was well. Driving back was another adventure as it was now dark. We somehow made it through traffic and all the wild scooter drivers and arrived home safely. As the guard opened the gate to let us in everyone applauded, including me.

Lao National day found itself in the middle of another great day in Chiang Mai.