Thai Living in Kamphaeng Phet

Once we left Chiang Mai, we went to stay with Thor, Jackie and their 3 kids Ben, Emily and Jay. Thor is friends with our friend Andy. For those of you who don't think you know Andy, you probably do. Everyone knows Andy. He is the guy who married us. But that isn't why everyone knows him.

Anyhow, visiting with Thor and his family was the was the highlight of our trip so far. It was really interesting to be a part of everyday life in Thailand. I just love Jackie. Lucky for us she speaks great english. She is like my Thai sister! We had such a great time. I'm not even going to tell you how much fun the kids had as it is written all over their faces in the pictures.

Jackie and Thor live along a street where they and all of their neighbors had a small business in the front of their houses. Jackie has a hair dressing salon, their neighbor has a little store and serves a 'drive through' breakfast, other neighbors have restaurants, an ice cutting business or installed car stereos etc. Everyone's doors are always open and there were either no kids or 3 extra kids in our house at any given moment. This takes 'free range' children to a new level. For the most part, Taro just roamed with the other kids but Kiyoshi was a whole other story. We had to watch Kiyoshi like a hawk to make sure he didn't step onto the road.

Thor, who is a math teacher, and all of the kids had the week off sckool. Lucky for us! Their house is relatively big. In addition to the hair salon, there is a dinning room, kitchen, 3 other rooms and their bedroom which was upstairs and had AC. So everyone sleeps in the same room which is where the ac is.

Unlike in Canada, their fridge was pretty bare. There was nothing really there but a few boxes of milk. But it wasn't because they couldn't afford food. It was empty because Jackie heads to the market EVERYDAY to cook all their meals...fresh...from scratch. Yes – every meal is cooked fresh each day with some left over for the next day.

Jackie took me to the market in the afternoon where she bought our food for supper that night. Seriously, it was amazing. There were live fish everywhere. I was lucky enough to see a woman selling catfish. She grabbed a live one from the bin, 'calmed it down' as Taro would put it (with a whack to the head), chopped off its tail, and chopped it into 10 pieces while it was still twitching. She was quick as whip and had it bagged in about 10 seconds flat. I thought it would be rude however to ask her why she only had 3 fingers.

For supper, we had fish steamed on a bed of squash and some other delicious green mystery vegetable, stir fried bamboo in a peanut/egg sauce, tom yum soup with prawns and squid, rice of course and fresh fruit for dessert. Then, I asked Thor if you ate like this every night, and he said, “pretty much – yes.”

Here are some photos of the ruins at Kamphaeng Phet. This was an old Buddhist monastery from 600 years ago. Another interesting thing that we learned is that the year in Thailand is 2552, ie. 2552 years after Buddha.