New Car

I've been looking around for a car to buy here for a while, and I found a good one last week, so I bit. Toyota makes a car for the SE Asian market called a Vios. They are pretty small -- a bit smaller than the 1981 Toyota Camry I drove in high school (and new Camrys are full-size cars). Anyway, I looked at several different models, and the Vios seemed like a good pick to me; small enough that it is easy to get around and park, but it doesn't feel too small for me inside, even with farang long legs. I also looked at an older model Honda Civic, and it actually felt more cramped inside even though it was a larger car.

I wanted to get an automatic transmission car; I figured that remembering to drive on the wrong (left) side of the road would tax my brain enough that I wouldn't want to think about left-handed shifting also. Other than that I didn't have too many specific requirements.

Nitaya has several contacts with different dealerships, and one called her up about having a 2003 Vios that was in good shape. Some used cars in Uttaradit have been through the flood that occurred 1 year before I came here, and end up having some problems. This car was from Phitsanulok though, and we gave it a good check-up.

Anyway, I got the car last week (400,000 baht or about $12,000) and drove it to school on Thursday and Friday. Also got insurance. With my own car, I can get up a bit later, and come back home quite a bit earlier; most days my last class finishes at 3PM. Teay finished her last final test for this term and was able to come back for the weekend, so I got to drive her around also. Having a navigator is nice -- my sense of direction is rather lacking (read: nonexistent).

For Saturday night supper, we picked up Teay's Mom and drove about 15 minutes to Mon Lap Lae, a nice restaurant in Lap Lae with great food, location, and ambiance. I've been there before for lunch, but I think this was my first supper there. They have nice Thai-style houses and decks, gardens, fountains, etc. and it all looked great in the twilight. I took some photos with my cellphone, but without a flash they were pretty marginal. We had 3 dishes for supper -- Tom Yum Kung, another shrimp dish with tamarind sauce and pepper slices, and water vegetables with a garlic sauce. Excellent supper and company, and a good first road trip out of the main Uttaradit town area!

Driving on the left hasn't been too tough to get used to -- I haven't tried to turn into the wrong lane or anything yet. And I've only turned on the windsheild wipers instead of the turn signal 2-3 times so far! The real noticable difference is the prevalence of motorcycles and scooters everywhere. It seems a bit nuts with so many of those buzzing around in traffic with you, but I'm already kind of getting used to it.

Guess that is all for now. HERE is the photo gallery of the car and supper at Mon Lap Lae.

Teay's Birthday and Longsat Festival

Yesterday (September 20th) was Teay's birthday! She was able to come back to Uttaradit although she has been busy with end-term projects and tests at Chulalongkorn University. That gave us an additional reason to have a party at Scott and Pim's house, with their new barbeque grill fired up. This week also has the Longsat Festival -- longsat is a kind of fruit that Uttaradit is famous for producing, and the festival is quite a bit like a county fair with parades, game/shopping booths, rides, etc.

Teay and I went to the parade yesterday afternoon and watched it go past her Mom's shop downtown. One of the customers at the shop spoke good English, so we were talking quite a bit. Her name was Pookie, and she had lived in Switzerland for a while so she also speaks German. After we had talked for an hour or so, she mentioned that she had a niece who had been an exchange student in America. I asked which program, and she said AFS. I asked which state, and she said Kansas. Then she said that her niece lived in Uttaradit, in the Nam Rit area. I put two and two together and said that her niece must be named Namwan, which gave her a good surprise -- it turns out she is a cousin of Nitaya Fangsawat.

After the parade, Teay and I got some supplies and went to Scott and Pim's for the party. Teay helped watch Jeffery and Danny (Scott and Pim's son and Spencer and Nuchy's son) and we chatted and chowed down on BBQ with everybody. The BBQ was a very good -- hamburgers, kabobs, and chicken legs were great and we all ate a pretty ridiculous amount of them as well. After we were pretty well stuffed, it started raining and rained us out of playing beer frisbee, but we were all full enough that it was probably just as well.

After some digestion time, we brought out Teay's cake. We hadn't bought candles, but Scott's last birthday cake had had number candles for "42", so we could swap the order and use them for Teay's 24!


I think that is all for now. I've got the full gallery of photos from this weekend HERE.

In addition, I took photos of all of the foreign teachers recently for a brochure for the school, and I've uploaded those in another gallery, which you can find HERE.