Love this moment

There's a couple on a thin tin car on my way home. They sat side by side on the back car seat opposite me. The wind might blow against the girl. She snuggled herself into the arms of the guy beside her. The guy turned to look at her, wrapped his arms around the girl and kissed her hair.


I smiley looked at them silently, felt good to see sweet love scene like that.









Ever mentioned that I love this period of the year?


At the beginning of cool season, during the end of October thru the early December, the sky is blue and clear.

During this period 3 years ago, while visitting-my-friend-trip in Chiangmai,

when everyone was asleep, I was awake in one early morning, felt so excited for the lovely weather that I couldn't keep it with me. I woke my friends up and dragged them to the bus station. Then three of us headed to the north for the chill wind, stary sky and romantic moment...

I like the breezy wind and its smell. I like the gentle sunlight in the morning of this period. Especially, I like the atmosphere around.

When the weather is lovely like this. Not too cold, not too hot, but lovely. Not rainy, not too sunny, but light sun. For some reason, I see everything around beautiful.

It's a perfect time to fall in love, don't you think?

Shocking pink season

There's a storm last night.


When I was in bed, I heard the sky screamed and the rain poured as if they angried with someone. I hid myself under my blanket and prayed for a bright morning and nice day.


And this is what I found when I was awake this morning.

A beautiful shocking-pinked carpet

The ground was covered by those vivid pink thing.

What is it?

It's called "Malay Apple" or "Chompoo Mameaw" in Thai.

Sweet'n sour juicy maroon-coloured fruit

Picture from menu.buddythai.com

What a vivid colour!

Those thousand shocking-pinked soft needles are the androecium.

Malay Apple bud

You will see the petals cover the androecium apparently while the only one pistil is hiding among those needles.

When the flower's abloom, a hundred of the androecium would be more notable than its petals.

During October to November is the season of Malay Apple. Our only one Malay Apple tree is aside our wall and has been being there since before I could remember. My cousin and I love the fruit because it tastes sour, sweet and soft. My cousin loved it so much that she used the Thai name of the tree, Mameaw, to name her newborn brother.

Well... before you bite it, beware of some creatures inside. Besides us who love the juicy fruit, there're worms appreciate the fruit also.

We will know that the season of Chompoo Mameaw arrives when we see the ground is covered by those thousand pink soft needles. But... unfortunately, the fruits would disappear before we know it. There're burglars steal those Malay apples away before we would have chance to get them.

The worst is that they often taste, leave their bites on those apples and leave them right there on the trees. How hurt to see those juicy maroon apples which you thought they are perfect but when you gradually evolve the fruit then you find a bite on another side and you reliaze that the fruit is no longer edible.

Although how much I love animals but this period is an exeption. Since they steal our Chompoo Mameaw-s away, I dislike squirrels for these few months.

Beautiful, isn't it.

How amazing the natural is!

Amazingly, not only Malay Apple fruit that is edible but those shocking-pinked parts is either!!

They taste a little bit sour and it tastes amazing when you add them in salad.

Today, I took a look at the flowers for awhile. When I realized that I may not have chance to have the fruits since some guys would take or taste them before I could get them, I then thought about what I should do with the Malay Apple tree.

I climbed the tree and gradually twist the flowers off one by one. I pulled those pink parts out off the calyx and rinse them until I was sure that they're clean enough. Then I prepared the ingredients which there were syrup made from reduced palm sugar and fishsauce, lime juice, fried sliced garlic and red onion, boiled minced chicken and red pepper flakes then mixed them with Malay Apple androecium.

Unbelievably, this dish was edible!!!

And it tasted amazingly!!!

(For Thais only somehow)

I made the dish just to avoid Malay Apple fruit stealers. But when I left the dish on my dining table to played with my pets for awhile, I got back to the table to find that my spicy Chompoo Mameaw androecium salad disappeared.... There also was Malay Apple dish stealer.

Let me finish this post with the last picture I have taken before I broomed my shocking-pinked ground.

Here it is... my vivid heart

Anyone wanna take it?

Flood

Finally, the alley in front of my house turns to be a small canal.


It's the end of rainy season and the beginning of cold season here. The rain still pours almost everyday and it comes along with my beloved things....... storm, thunder and lightening.


When I was young, as much as I can recall, there always was flood in front of my house in rainy season. When there was heavy rain, my cousin and I would be glad since we knew that it would cause flood and flood was a reason for us not to go to school.


There were a few years that there's heavy rain and flood during November which was unusual. Being young and didn't worry about anything, when there's flood on Loi Krathong day

(for more information, follow this link. --> http://www.loikrathong.net/eng/History.html)

, in November, my cousins and I would release Krathong (a floating basket made from banana leaves containing flowers, candle and incens) in the flooded alley in front of our house instead of going to canal.


Years passed by and those kids grew up, while the others get use to the rain, thunder and storm, for some reasons, I become scared of those natural phenomenon.


"You were born in rainy season, why you're scared of rain?" I was asked.

I also was told, "You are under the sky, don't be afraid of the rain."


Instead of enjoying the rhythm of the rain as when I was young, I run away and try to be afar from it.

After the scary storm last night, I woke up and found that the alley in front of my house turns to be a small canal.


But.... well.... even though how much I didn't like the storm and even though how much I am bored with the flood since I can not to go out and get stuck in my house....


but today I have to thanks to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration for not solve this problem around my neighborhood.


Why??


Because the flood still is the reason for me to find my advisor an excuse not to go to school.



And..... oh!!


It's one reason for me to find an excuse to move also!

Jay - Chinese vegetarian festival

Jay or Gin Jay festival is annual Chinese vegetarian festival which currently can be found throughout Thailand in October.


It started with the raising of a pole at Chinese temples around the country which signaled the nine Chinese gods to come down to earth. When Chinese race became a part of Thai people, you can't categorize Chineses from Thais and it's even hard to find pure original Thais. This festival becomes a famous Chinese-Thai culture. In Phuket, this event even is promoted to be one of a cultural tourism.

Yellow is the symbol of Jay festival.

Is Jay festival and vegetarianism the same?


The answer is "Not Really."


The main of vegetarianism and Jay are similar. It's not to eat meat but only vegetable. While vegetarianism is a way to remain healthy, there's religion hidden in Jay and it's a little bit different from vegetarianism.


Jay vegetarian is not allowed to eat product of animalkind such as egg, milk, butter, fishsauce and etc, also some strong-scent plant such as garlic, celery and onion. In contrast, from the belief in Buddhist goddess of mercy, people who join the festival are allowed to eat oyster.


Besides eating rules, Jay people also have to follow Buddhist five or eight precepts.


Jay festival is annual festival in October and it lasts 7-10 days.









For me, I started to be a very-temporary vegetarian since when I was the third year in my bachelor school. As being unreligious, what I do is just to follow the eating rules but I don't do those Buddhist precepts strictly.


When I firstly joined it, it's just because I wanted to avoid having meat and to detox.


You may wonder... if that's the reason, so why I don't just eat vegetarian food in any time or any period, it doesn't have to be only this occasion. Well, my excuse is joining Jay festival is an easy idea to start being vegetarian since the food can be found everywhere.

When I join the festival, it means... no prawn, no milk tea, no cheese, no beef, no milk chocolate, no yoghurt, no cereal and milk in the morning but only soy milk, vegetable and my dislike thing...... tofu.


Well.... I also confess that I never succeeded in joining Jay event all of those 7 or 10 days. My pateince always was broken before the end of the festival.


Another confession...... during this period, I would list what I want to eat after the festival is over. Funny..... something that I rarely want to eat would also appear in my list. There would be BBQ, KFC, pizza with large cheese, deep fried chicken and etc....

If you see the yellow flags, you can be sure that the food is vegetarian.

This year is the 5th year that I join the festival. I prepared myself to be vegetarian by having a large Japanese-food meal as if the food would last in my stomach till the end of the festival.


As being an unstrict one and wanting to challenge my patience, I will be trying my best not to hunger for meat....

Let's see how many days I can get thru this year.

One of my craziness

Well....

Let me be crazy like a young girl crazy with her boyband for a little bit.

Hmmm.... guess this is my another secret that has never been told anywhere before...

This is one of my favorite band, Westlife.

I had been being crazy for these guys since I was 10th grade in highschool.


Mostly, their songs are pop ballad style. While their first single "Swear It Again" was fame, I prefered another one which was hidden in their album. It's a song "What I want is what I've got."

What I like about this band is one of lead vocalist's voice, Shane Filan (the middle guy in the first row). I said once in one of my post that I always fall in love with guy soft tone. Filan's is one of those guy tones I like.

Another guy from Westlife I like is Brian McFadden (the left one in the second row).

Why McFadden? Because he's the most one who looks lively and playful. I may judge them only from their pictures, but that's what I like in guys.

When you smile, even when someone tells you to smile, why you have to be pretentious? Why don't just relax and show yourself thru your smile.

From every pictures of them, McFadden is the only one to has playful smile.

After their third album, two of those guys, Filan and Feehily (the right gay, oops! guy, in the second row), became the band's lead vocalists while the rest's were buried along with background music. McFadden left the band for his own solo album. I got older, Westlife's foreheads were getting wider and look older. They began to recover old songs again and again.

Currently Westlife

In their every new albums, there would be at least 3 or 4 songs that were remade and when listen to their songs, you may think there are only Filan and Feehily left in the band.

Anyhow, what I'm gonna post is that a few weeks ago, I heard that McFadden would visit Thailand to have his private show with a radio broadcasting station.


Excited? Me?

Nop, not at all. I am not that little girl who's a fan of the band and still crazy about them anymore. When I heard on the radio that he would here, what I thought was... "Oh? then what?"

That's it.

McFadden

Today after having dinner with my college friend, on the way to a bookstore, I clumsily bumped into a guy. I said sorry to him while looking up to see his face. He lifted his hand as if saying it's alright and then walked away.

I thought..... hmmmm..... he looks familiar....

3 seconds passed by.... then.....

Oh!! Wha!!! Huh!! That's McFadden!!!

My friend looked at me as if she's seeing a little girl's crying for a new toy while I was excited and about to scream to people in the mall... I JUST BUMP INTO McFadden!!!!

She counted 1 tru 10.....

"Enough?" she then asked.

I looked at her as if I was scolded by my mom to hide my feeling, just like a little girl stops crying when she's told she will not get a new toy if she's stubborn.

"OK, that's it," she said when she saw me stopped excited, held my hand and led me to the bookstore.

"Being crazy about guys or complaining to you about my thesis, which one do you prefer?" I asked her while we're walking.

She looked at me silently for a few seconds before she'd say....

"OK, let's go find McFadden again."

Lost sweet

After I have been being so busy for several days, I went out to see the world out of my place and enjoyed the atmosphere around.


To relax myself, there's one method called "Being-out therapy"


It's to go out even if it's just around my neighborhood or a park near my place. It's just to take a deep breathe of the world and tell myself that there still are many things around to pay attention to.


Today, I went to a mall, wanted to take a look at some stuffs.


After I have checked a movie time table and realized that it would be too late to back home if I would see it, I came down to the first floor to find something to eat before getting back home.


While looking at food stalls and thinking about what I would have for my dinner, I found my lost beloved sweet which I have been searching for it for years.


Today, it was as near as my nose tip!

Dragon Beard Candy

Ancient Chinese Emperor's Dessert

(They said so)

It's made from honey caramel mixed with wheat flour. Then the ingredient was pulled and straightened again and again and again and again............. and again...... till the ingredient became a thounsand thin thread as you can see from the picture. The stuff inside was pound peanut mixed with white sesame and sugar.

What it tastes like? You may ask.

Hmmm...... let me try it first...

Hmmm.... maybe I should have another one then I can tell the taste clearer....

Hmmm.... one more would be better....


Hmmm..... maybe another one....



Hmmm.....

OK, guess I should tell you guys what it tastes like since you don't have any chances to try it, too.

It's like sweet cotton -- soft and sweet, not too sweet, tho. When you chew it, then peanut taste will come out with a litle bit scent of sesame.

After you have it.... go brush your teeth..., the white sweet cotton will stick between your tooth and you will have tongue cramp if you try using your tonge pick it out from your teeth....

Yeah, it's that sticky.

If you have dentures and don't want to lose them, avoid this dessert.

Another way to enjoy Dragon Beard Candy is to put it in your fridge. It will be crispy and you can swallow it before it will stick on your teeth.

A clumsily-driving trip to Huahin

Sunday early morning, I was awake with excitement. I planned to go somewhere as I have posted here earlier.

It's a place called Huahin, a beach in Petchaburi province about 250 kilometre away from Bangkok.

I spread Thailand map and planned the direction.

The blue star is where I was. I had to drive to the orange one.

I made a call to my college friend to ask about the direction. After getting ironically blessing for my so-early-morning-wake-up call by him, he told me it would be 500-kilometre-long round trip.

An army marches on its stomach...

And Breakfast is the king of meal...

Those were my breakfast at 6 am in the morning, grilled pork and sticky rice.

My trip started at 6.30 am in Sunday morning.

Clear blue sky and gentle sunlight were above of me.

Thailand guidepost could tell the direction so clear..... I clumsily drove on a highway and although there were signs telling the directions, I got lost finally....

I was not sure whom to be blamed..... the clear guidepost.... or myself....

The further I drove, the more hills I found....

When realized I was going to the beach, but hills???

"Am I using the right direction?" I asked myself...

On the way to the beach, I dropped by at a place called "Ma-ru-ka-ta-ya-wan palace" in Cha-am, Petchburi province.

It's where the King Rama VI of the house of Chakri of Siam country gave to his queen. That's why the palace also known as "The palace of love and hope" where located on Cha-am beach.

I hope I could tell you the reason of the palace name in English perfectly. Since my English skill is excellent, I'd better suggest you to find out more information about this place from this link instead. --> http://www.thailand-huahin.com/huahin-news/mrigadayavan-palace-chaam.htm

Right-straight track from the main section to the beach

I liked the close-up-to-sea-view room.

Sweet-pastel-colour-painted palace

Forgive me if I would say I can not live in this colour-toned place....

I am sure I would be sick of those sweet colours.

The palace area

I like that it's open area which you could feel the breezy wind and smell the sea.

I left the sweet palace after taking about an hour there and then headed to Huahin beach. After the second-time getting lost, I could make it to the beach with my screaming-for-lunch stomach.

I had hope I would find something to eat on the beach.... But after I saw a thousand of people there (do not believe the pictures, they lie you always), I told my stomach to hold on...

Instead of getting rest on Huahin beach as I had planned, I left there for another beach I knew called "Suanson Pradipat." It's about 20-kilometre away from Huahin.

On the way to another beach, I turned left to Kao Takiab, a high hill at the end of Huahin beach to see the view of the town.

While driving in a small alley to the hill, I realized that there was a small fishing boat dock.

The dock was at the right while seafood stalls were orderly at the left.

Seafood were moved from the fishing boats to the stalls.

In the picture, the women picked crabs out of the fishnet and the crabs would be bought by owners of seafood stall right after they finished their work.

Can you tell how fresh those crabs were?

Seafood stalls

Prawns and prawns and prawns!!!

This place must be my heaven for sure!!

Even bigger than my hand!!

My cholesterolful lunch

After I have dealt with the meal, I realized that I have had full-rate cholesterol in advance for a year.

Driving up to the hill

While climbing up to the view point, you would be surrounded by monkeys.

A curious one tried to check out what's inside the car.

Huahin town view

Unfortunately, it's a cloudy day....

Then I headed to Suanson Pradipat. It's the beach in navi area and quite more silent than Huahin.

While singing along "Somewhere only we know" with my stereo, I saw something clear...

I got lost again....

Fianally, I could get to another beach, Suanson Pradipat

Well........ Silence was everywhere on weekend.....

Agree?

Nonetheless, I could find a mat and lay down on the beach with a book in my right hand and an icecream cone in my left hand.


After awhile on the beach, I was awake when I felt raindrops on my face. I didn't even know when I fell asleep there.

Alright, it's time to back home, time to back to the truth I have run away from.

A big glass of milk tea on the way home to keep me awake

And the last new friend I made on the trip.

Right...

I ran away from the truth in Bangkok to another truth in another place.

I ran away from traffic jam in Bangkok to another traffic jam out of Bangkok.

I left the beach around 4 pm and had hoped that it would take me only a couple hours to get

home. Well..... I was wrong... since I found that I got stuck in an awful traffic jam while my urinary system was working very well.....It took even 5 hours instead and I ran to restroom in a gas station right after I could get out of there.

Only a few seconds you take to say bad words can destroy a million minutes of your great time....

In this case, I should say my great time of the trip for the whole day was destroyed by a little while I focused on trying to find a restroom.

Dog Island

On Saturday, after I have finished TOEFL test at my school, I did not want to head back home. It's too sunny and bright day to back and hide myself in a shell called house. I then drove straight and cross a bridge instead of turning left as I usually do to make my way get home.

A large 15-minute-away public park from my school was my destination. As being in a blouse, skirt and heels, I could not do anything much like riding bicycle or lying on a yard as I always do but only drove and took a look around the place where I never had chance to be there.

Before I could get to the park, I saw a sign which attacted my curiousness gland. Suddenly, I changed my destination and followed the sign to find out what it was.

Just follow the signs and let them lead you the way.
I was there because of the below sign only.

"Dog Care"

"What is it like?" I wondered to myself. Before I knew it and realized that it's a big place where easily for a silly person like me to get lost, I found myself was driving follow the signs. After many left and right turns and I was about to think whether the place really existed or not, I could make it there.

Dog island...

It was a stray dog shelter. Some were stray dogs originally while some..... were left by their owners since they didn't want the dogs no more.....

Why some mankinds could be cruel to their world best friends like this....

I took a look around and then I found that those dogs were caged in a large area surrounded by fences. Although there was space for them to walk and run but I was sure that none of them wanted to be there where they could not run with freedom or without someone to took care of them closely.

However, the dogs seemed to be together with peace, no fold-ear or upright-ear groups, no big-sized or tiny-sized teams, no red or yellow dogs neither.

Come take a look at them with me....

Hello?

Anything I can help?

Even the dog, she smiled with teeth to every visitors without any doubt....

What about you?

Can you smile to the world as big as her?

They liked bathtub, don't they.

While the other were getting rest, someone enjoyed hurdle race.






An introvert one.

Somehow I was wrong.... since even among dogs, there were classes.

Hi and Low classes....

The first class and the second class

Hmmm....

Oviously, the black ones were the higher class than the white ones, huh.

And....... Hooray!!
Brown type is a super VIP one!!

While the others were ignoring visitors,

this guy checked if there's anything wrong.


If you want someone to be on guard for your place, he was recommended.

Kinda................... Dalmatian???

Those feedstuff were donated.

Even there were a lot as you can see but, in fact, they exactly were not enough for the dogs.

Considering about the dog island, stray dogs and cats is always an important issue for Bangkokians (for the whole Thailand also). Every times there is Bangkok Metropolitan propretor election, this issue would be picked to be a policy which the candidates use for their campaigns.

After ones have won the election, I had thought they would do something more advance to solve this problem than trying to catch those street cats'n dogs and throw them here or to some other shelters.

However...... this is what you can see their primary problem solving.

However (again)....... I think the most important cause of pet abandonment is human.

But even though we know obviously what the main cause is, how to resolve that cause..... is the hardest thing to do.

Maybe those who call themselves "Human" have to learn to be more human-ish, huh.

On the way back, again....

I got lost... even in the park where there were only go-round ways...

The further I drove, the more I wondered.... "Where am I, huh?"

All I could do was just to follow a car in front of me

and finally, I could make my way out of there and back home before the sun set.

While driving fast back home on a main road, I thought about what I should do if there would be a stray dog run across the road and I couldn't crush down my brake in time.

Then I though of my uncle. He said once that if it would happen to him, he would crash it without any regrets!

As being stunned................. he gave me a reason...

It's because there were too many stray dogs in Thailand and what he has told me was a way to help the government solving street dog problem!!