My lunch, leftover pad tai from the night before. Pad tai & kao pad (fried rice) are the fast food backbone of Thailand, whipped up fresh in front of you & the flies in just 10 minutes
Rice aisle at the local Meijer. Advice has been to find the most expensive jasmine rice, and buy it. I apply that principle often here. Pesticides are rampant and rumor is that Thailand & China recently purchased a bevy of chemicals newly banned in the US & other places. If something says "organic," I always buy it over the alternative and hope the product matches the organic label. FYI $1 = 33 baht
Ry about to have her first Thai massage. They took it easy on her, and towards the end put a sweet little braid in the top of her hair
Silk jammies are worn and move perfectly over your body so no oils are needed. Lots of stretching & focus on legs. The woman giving your massage really cozies up with you, resting you in the crook of her leg at times, getting on your back, kind of lifting you up with her knees & feet. It starts out relaxing, builds momentum, and is almost acrobatic by the end. My family loves it, but it will take me some time to learn to relax & enjoy such closeness with a stranger
This weekend we visited an eery crocodile farm
Throwing raw chicken to hungry jaws, eeek
On the subject of scary animals, how about some cobras... I was picking up Ry from a playdate yesterday & talking with the Mom who lives near the girls' school. This summer they had a cobra in the house. Their massive dog knows how to open the slider to let himself outdoors, but hasn't yet learned to close door behind him. In came cobra, a good sized one almost a meter long. The family was out, dog went crazy, their maid killed the snake, and the maid & Bruno were fine. The golf course on which they live is much more "rugged" with taller grasses than our manicured course, but it's still just 5 minutes away. Yikes. There has never been a snakebite at our school or on its golf course neighborhood in the 20 year history of people taking over this particular snake habitat. By now you may have guessed I'm kind of snake-phobic. I believe it's rational here, and it's biblical.
You can see in pics, Allie still has her braces with a good 2 years to go. Probably would've waited to start treatment if we'd known this Thai thing was gonna happen, but so it goes. First appointment next week with a (U of M grad) Thai orthodontist in Bangkok. There are orthodontists in our area, actually slews of them in shopping mall, cosmetic dental clinics. All sketchy looking. There's a new law banning "fake braces" that places have been putting on kids. Colorful, status symbol, look-a-likes and much cheaper than real... because they're applied with crazy glue by someone with no DDS who is just looking to make a baht. It's been messing up kids' mouths, and now any true ortho is required by law to take them off for free for anyone who shows up at their door. Soooo, although we could likely find a true ortho with good intentions in our area, we're gonna make the hour and half trek every 6 weeks to Bangkok for comfort in the U of M brand.
Ry just walked through the door and is sporting another new smile. Tooth #2 lost in Thailand.
