Cop dodges traffic attempting to clear fallen sandbags

.

Warning: Flash floods, landslides Bangkok Post 3:36 pm Friday People living near hillsides and waterways in Buengkan, Nongkhai, Udon Thani,   Sakon Nakhon, Lei, Nong Bua Lamphu, Nakhon Phanom, Mukdahan, Khon Kaen, ...

Thai Meteorological Department  Warning  "Tropical Storm Nesat" No. 5 Time Issued : September 30, 2011  ...downgraded to tropical storm... ...make landfall over the northern, Vietnam today (Sep, 30)....

Sign of the times  Traveling to school yesterday on the Sakon - Phanom highway, traffic came to a craw. Police car, lights flashing, was stopped in the middle of the road. One lone cop was attempting to clear two sandbags from the roadway. Apparently they fell unnoticed from a passing truck. The cop had to dodge vehicles, as none of the traffic was willing to stop. Sandbags dropped on the highway is a sign of local times; Sandbags are being hauled Last ditch preparations are being made to lessen the damage of expected heavy rains. 6 am Friday, Sept 30

Nesat Update: Local Impact Downgraded

Updated tracking map
at WeatherUnderground

4 AM  Thursday, Sept 29

The center of  NESAT is moving well north of us.  Previous local wind-speed forecasts have been downgraded from 111km to 39 km and less.

My OPINION:  In the City of Cities weather will be somewhat more intense than the previous weather system (Haitan). I see no need to nail down garden furniture.
The City of Cities has actually been quite lucky this rainy season.  Heavy storms have caused havoc to the north and to the south, minimizing local misery.

Bangkok ACS Notification   U.S. Consulate Chiang Mai  CLOSED Sept. 29

Nesat has made Sakon Nakhon reservations for a three night visit

Tracking Map  @WeatherUnderground	.... roared across Luzon Island  last night (Sept 27) Category 3 typhoon with 120 mph wind @ Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog

Nesat has made Sakon Nakhon reservations for a three night visit  beginning Friday

8 AM Sept 28

A yet distant traveler Tropical Storm Nalgae is still too far away to predict its eventual path. Most likely of little local concern.

Noticeable is the extended Accu Weather forecast of  mostly sunny, partially sunny, and Clouds giving way to some sun, starting October 5

Haitan a 'Tuckered Out' Sakon Visitor

Tropical Storm Haitan sidestepped Muang Sakon Nakhon.

The storm spent most of it's energy over Vietnam and Laos,
arriving here as a worn out tourist with light rain, clouds and cool temperatures.
The main thrust of the storm is heading to the lower portion of the North-East   Thai Meteorological Department

4 AM Sept 27

Noon Sept 27

Next visitor:
Haitan is a dwarf compared to Typhoon Nesat, now over the Philippines

• Typhoon Nesat pounds Philippines   Reuters Video 

• Storm ‘Nesat’ ravages through the Philippines Mindanao Examiner 

• Nesat has been plotted to arrive in Hainan by Thursday evening

It would seem that Nesat would continue far north of us,
however strong northerly weather may force it to change direction

To date only one of four weather sites makes any mention of the effects on this area,
predicting local winds of up to 111 km possible on Friday, 83 km winds on Saturday Weather Underground
Meow Weather is predicting cool temperatures on Satuday: high 24, low 20.

Egypt is the official host of the 2011 World Tourism day

Vegetarian Festival started yesterday

• Read the rules, I'm disqualified as a participant

• Thai stock market plunges 12% on global forecast RTT News

• Why Thailand is so corrupt   Bangkok Post

• Pangolins saved  From the dinner table by Thai customs Department San Francisco Examiner

Tinglish

Tinglish:  the imperfect form of English produced by native Thai speakers... wikipedia

Tropical Storm Haitang plans Sakon Nakhon visit

• Thailand National Disaster Warning Center Alert

Heavy rains in the upper Northeast. Nong Khai, Udon Thani, Sakon Nakhon, Mukdahan, especially Kan and Loei on 28-29 September 2554.

Thai Meteorological Department
Satellite Image

Tracking map of Tropical Storm Haitang
at Weather Underground.

• Forecast temperatures

	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat	Sun
MeoWeather	29/21	25/23	30/23	31/24	30/21	30/19	26/19
AccuWeather	30/24	28/24	29/28	31/23	30/23	28/24	28/24
FEELS LIKE	37/25	26/27	33/26	39/28	42/27	35/26	30/23
WeatherUnderground	28/21	26	30/22	31/23	30/23
Thai Meteorological	31/24	30/24	30/24	30/23	29/23	29/23

And the Next Visitor is..

It is still a bit uncertain if the much stronger Typhoon Nesat,
now located over the Philippines,
moves in a westerly direction or a northwesterly direction.
Some forecasters are predicting a direct hit on Sakon Nakhon sometime Friday.  

 Tropical Storm Nesat: Winds exceeding 101 km/h possible!!  

 

Bird Songs to Entice Chinese Tourists

"Bird...will sing for the first time in Mandarin rendering..."   

Bird & Sek in Concert

   Thongchai "Bird" Mclntyre, a Thai superstar   China Daily

Increased Rain Chances by Midweek

Today: Same as yesterday, mostly sunny.
Weather systems are moving from the east, chance of rain increases daily.
Sun 20%, Mon 40%, Tue 50%, Wed 60%, thereafter 70%

The first system approaching us is   Tropical Depression twenty-one
 Tropical Storm Nesat,  now approaching the Philippines is plotted to head in a north-easterly direction into China.
Nesat means "fishermen/fishing/fishers" in Khmer

Carabao performs in Sakon Nakhon, October 4

Thai Song:  Music For Life

 

 Pictures: 2004 Sakon Nakhon Performance

Carabao at WIKIPEDIA 

Sakon FC 1 Udon FC 1

First half ended scoreless.
Sakon FC scored early in the second half and seemed to have control of the game.

Udon scored with only one minute left to play.

Final game of the season will be held Saturday, October 1, when Sakon FC hosts Kalasin

The sky is clear, the sun is shining: Let's have a parade

It's still officially the rainy season. Lately though, sunshine has demanded more time over clouds and rainfall.
Time to restock the sunscreen, check the sun umbrellas and brimmed hats.
No one told me in advance of this parade. Heard the drums and ran like hell up to I.T.U.

.

 Thaksin lectures...  Sydney Morning Herald 

 Sugar Falls on Asia Output Gain, Slow Demand   BusinessWeek
  Coffee, Cocoa Fall

 No sugar imports from Thailand this year  Business World MANILA

Thai style dinner delicacy

 Fried Wasp Larvae 

There were two quite large wasp nests on the property adjacent to my house.
They haven't bothered me, so I haven't bothered them. Besides, they eat a lot of other insects.

Very simple way to harvest the nest. Wait till it rains.  Wasps generally won't fly in rain!
Knock the nest out of the tree... let it fall into the water. Leave submerged for a few minutes.

For the nest higher up the tree, the tree branch was cut with the same effect:   Nest falls into the water.

Two wasp nests with rice: dinner for a family of six.

Collecting the larvae from the honeycomb type nest is a time consuming process. 
The larvae sell for 1 baht (3 cent) each at the local market

Sakon Nakhon Fast Forward

by 5472270540

Sakon Nakhon Royal Longboat Races

and

Wax Castle Festival

October 12 through 16, 2011 

   Sakon Nakhon Business directory    

183 listings

 Emergency Operation Center for Flood, Storm and Landslide 

Report dated Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Honey marinated garlic 

Had some the other day.  DELICIOUS.  Next day I immediately searched the net for a recipe.

Very simple.  Blanch garlic drop into honey.   

Wait from two months to seven years.   

It's like a fine wine, gains in maturity with age.

Bummer

Nothing but sunshine was forecast beginning October 1. 

Checked back two days later and found the update... rainy season continues.

Well !!  I never !!  

Waiting for a traffic light, I heard a truck ambulance siren.  

Generally ambulances tend to have to wait in line till the light changes.
Not this time:  Waiting vehicles inched out of the way  to let the emergency vehicle pass.  I think they are becoming more civilized.  Or was it because there where eight policemen standing at the intersection ?

Blacky is continuing to recover.  Still feels like skin and bones.  She eats regularly.
In fact if the dish is not served in time she sits down in the middle of the kitchen floor and smacks her lips.

Enough strength to jump up stairs.  But not enough to jump on the couch... YET !

Sakon FC loses "Water Follies" to Korat 0 - 1

More pictures at  110918 Sakon FC

It may have been billed as a football game, and there was some resemblance to the game, but with two to three inches of water in some areas, it was more a water folly.

Players frequently outran the ball, expecting it to bounce the distance, not expecting it to be "dead in the water" a distance away.

Sakon FC had plenty of close calls.  They were playing a lot better than in a previous game.
I'd venture to say, had it not been for the waterlogged field, the score could have been a lot different.

Plenty of slipping and sliding by both teams.
Drinking water had to be replenished as it was frequently used to wash the mud from players faces.

The loss drops Sakon FC to number eleven in the North Eastern league of division 2.
Sakon FC next travels to Udon Thani for a game this Saturday, starting at 4 p.m.

The crisis isn't over- but the prognosis is promising

Oh what a relief it is. A personal tragedy seems to have been averted.
One of my dogs, the female, Blacky, has been seriously ill for the past three weeks.
Physically she seemed fairly healthy and did not show any pain.  But she was eating little to nothing.
I thought it was most likely something stuck in her throat.  Possibly someone had given her a chicken bone.
The vet thought it was worms and gave her a series of shots.

After three weeks, the poor thing was just skin and bones and could not even climb the one step into the house.

Yesterday morning I had serious thoughts about 'putting her to sleep.'
I wonder if she sensed what I had contemplated.  At noon she started eating. And eating.
I was astonished,  I felt a tickling happy sensation.  Quite frankly I was overjoyed.
By evening she had regained enough energy that I no longer needed to assist her coming into the house.

The emotional discomfort I had been walking around with for the past three weeks vanished.
We shared a midnight snack, a bacon sandwich. She ate the bacon, I ate the sandwich.
When we were done eating she gate me that look: "Is that all there is?"

 Grandfather seeks justice  Bangkok Post

The grieving grandfather of a young boy allegedly shot dead after sneaking onto the property of a high-ranking Sakon Nakhon official to go fishing has come to seek Justice...
...the body of Anan (age 10) who had been shot four times...

 Rosewood trees in crisis   Bangkok Post

The forests under the most pressure are the Phu Luang wildlife reserve in Loei, Phu Payon and Phu Pan national parks in Sakon Nakhon as well as protected ...

 Thai Tiger Air plans scrapped

Thai Smile to start flying July 2012  Reuters

 Thailand Vietnam  Rice Summit  Bangkok Post

Price fixing
...raising export prices to more than US$800 a tonne from the present $550-560 a tonne...

 Ousted Thai leader embraces Cambodian PM  Voice of America

 

  Bargain Priced Breast Slapping lessons

a bargain at 8-million Thai baht ($263,504)
Do we really need this?  Isn't it a known fact that most body parts will swell (expand in size) when aggravated?

110911 Nile river fish very popular in Thailand

Pla Nin is one of Thailand's 14 most popular river Fishes

chiangmai-chiangrai.com  has  a complete list of the popular Thai river fish.
That webpage lists an interesting history how a river Nile fish: Tilapia, wound up to become a popular Thai dish.
The fish were apparently presented as a gift and Thais commenced "making copies."

Just finished stocking my freezer with seven of those copies.  The smallest weighed in at a kilo (2.2lb).

All for Bt500.  Roughly $1.15 per lb

What others say of Sakon Nakhon

Tom Isaan aka 'mekhongmud' recently came through town.
You can read about his travel adventures at Isaan Life  eat isaan  isaan bog blog  Isaan Live Podcast    isaan maps

You might say he's prolific on the net.  Besides his blogs and sites, he's also connected via twitter and facebook.

Tom stayed at the PLR apartments for BT 350 per night.
I caught up with Tom at the Sakon Nakhon Steak house and chatted with him over a beer.  Tom writes about his Sakon dining experience here. 


Anton reports in his Thai-German Blog: Martin´s Chern Chim shop has installed a glass front and air conditioner.  Haven't seen the shop improvements.  But I guess us smokers can stand on the 'Chern Chim bridge.'
On September 30 the Sunshine Garden is having an Oktoberfest

National Flood Report

Disaster.go.th publishes daily nationwide reports of the weather and related flooding (in English) The report dated Sept 14 states in part:

" The heaviest rainfall in the past 24 hours is at Sri Wichai Sub District, Wanon Niwat District of Sakon Nakhon Province at 135mm.
135 millimeters = 5.31496063 inches

Sakon Nakhon FC hosts undefeated Korat, Sunday

After the recent loss 3-0 to Mukdahan, I am reminded that Sakon Nakhon now faces undefeated Korat.
The only reason Korat (Nakhon Ratchasima) is not the division leader is because of a 9 point penalty for fielding an ineligible player."
With periods of rain and a thunderstorm in the forecast for Sunday, the playing field will be ideally suited for water sport version of football.  At least something to giggle about.
One can only hope that the local defense has recovered from their recent 'weakness' and keeps Korat's scoring to a minimum.
Most likely I'll be wanting to drown my grief at a local pub after the game.

Present NE division standings as posted at Wikipedia

Elsewhere in Thailand 

New Zealand Rugby Team Plays Elephant Polo in Thailand video by NTDTV on Sep 7, 2011	Miss GB Universe 2011: TOP 16 Most Beautiful National Costume video by DashboardJay on Sep 11, 2011
Dutch Ambassador to Thailand points out tourism problems in Phuket video by PGTVPhuket on Sep 2, 2011	During the Rainy Season Pattaya becomes     the Venice of Asia minus the gondoliers     video by timpawloski on Sep 11, 2011

Nakhon Phanom Illuminated Boat Procession - OTOP

• Missed The Illuminated Barges in Tao Ngoi on Sunday and Monday.

Had not heard of the event there in previous years.  Not much pre-event publicity.  Did find plenty of web pages posted on Sept 12.  Too late to make travel plans.

They are calling it the 'Fire boat Procession.'
They are not fire boats the way I've been taught.



Nakhon Phanom Illuminated Barge Procession 
is held on the Mekong river each year.

I've enjoyed the barge procession  there a number of times over the years.

First time  from the distance I was convinced that they were neon lights.  Closer up you can see hundreds of small oil-pot lamps.
I'd imagine there are quite a few folk involved in lighting so many oil lamps.

OCTOBER 4 - 12, 2011
ILLUMINATED BOAT PROCESSION The Mekong River, Nakhon Phanom

Think there is something wrong with the dates listed at TAT NEWS.  Doubt very seriously that the procession is done for nine consecutive days

 

OTOP  Festival Starts Thursday 

• September 15 through 18 

at Sakon Nakhon Rajabhat University

NOTE:  Sakon city and vicinity are not experiencing flooding as seen elsewhere in Thailand



Sakon Nakhon Dining 

 

OPINION:  Recipe for  Inflation 

Main Ingredients

• Raise minimum wage to 300 Baht.

Considering the 2010 minimum wage (Thailand Blogs) this is an increase of nearly 100% to many Thai's.
Too much too fast, in my opinion.  Questions are already arising how the government will pay for this wage increase

The government may cut its contribution to  Social Security  THE NATION

• Flood conditions

With severe flood conditions in almost one third of the country, food prices will undoubtedly rise.
Even though the weather conditions may only be temporary, prices seldom retreat

Ayutthaya province Flooding   MSNBC   <<< Excellent Photography

Saraburi Building collapse   THE NATION

Bangkok Royal Barge Procession, October 22

Royal Barge Procession on the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok will be held for the first time in four years on October 22, 2011.  The Royal Barge Procession  was last held on November 5, 2007.  There are generally a number of rehearsals on the days preceeding the event. Most likely the event will be broadcast over Thai television.

Further details at Dubai Chronicle 

Thai trend: marriage down, divorce+premarital sex UP

Studies and findings

• (Thailand) Special Report: Sex and Family Changes Part 1 National News Bureau of Thailand  Sept10 

• (Thailand) Special Report: Sex and Family Changes Part 2 National News Bureau of Thailand  Sept10 

• Study: Poor people are more religious The Milwaukee Community Journal  

British Embassy survey of Brits retired in Thailand

from 9 September to 2 October 2011.

• The Press Release   

• The survey (PDF)

Wikipedia

Flash Floods kill 3 in Uttaradid

• Emergency funds boosted for Uttaradit  THE NATION Sept11
• Two dead, seven missing in flash flood, mudslide in Uttaradit MCOT Sept 10

...People in at-risk areas along foothills and waterways should beware of flash flooding... areas of risk include... Sakon Nakhon.

Mukdahan is 129 KM  S.E. from Sakon Nakhon
Mekon River at Mukdahan 

Mukdahan Indochina Market

Sakon FC slaughtered at Mukdahan

It looked like an intense match for the first 20 minutes.
After that someone must have pulled the stopper on the Sakon team and flushed all their energy
The new Sakon goal keeper doesn't seem to have what it takes.
The defense wasn't much help either.  Not their best performance.
One of Sakon star players was out with an injury and his absence on the field was quite noticeable.
Why the steam went out of the Sakon team is a mystery, maybe the two hour bus ride to Mukdahan was just too strenuous.

The Mukdahan team very obviously outperformed Sakon.  The player who impressed me the most was the Mukdahan goal keeper.  Nothing went past him

  

Sidelined with injuries from last week's game, this player seemed to have a temporary job as team camera man

Recently added Albums

090504 Sakon city hall reconstruction May 4, 2009	090418 Sakon FC Apr 18, 2009	090410 Induction Lottery	090216 SBAC Schoolday Feb 16, 2009
090216 Tony's  lakeside Restaurant opens Feb 16, 2009	090207 Tony's  Lake Restaurant Feb 7, 2009	090129 Family Party  M goes into the Army Jan 29, 2009	090115 Red Cross Fair Jan 15, 2009
090113 Ned's bar sold Jan 13, 2009	080118 S-BAC Jan 17, 2008

You might say I'm way behind in updating my online albums

High Season Countdown

One month until the rainy season hopefully ends.
Indications are that this year's rainy season may wish to linger a bit longer.
Flight searches to Sakon Nakhon seem to be up. A reminder to travel planners: NOK Air is the exclusive airline serving Sakon Nakhon SNO (airport code).

If you're still uncertain as to the when, and what to do, TATnakhonphanom** on YouTube   has some video's that may be of interest to you.  Here's one they did about Sakon Nakhon, produced earlier this year.
**TAT Tourism Authority of Thailand, Nakhon Phanom office.

MUST SEE Thailand !! Subtitles not neccessary

Um-Sang from oma Yim on Vimeo.

The film deserves a standing ovation.
****

Sakon Nakhon Artistic Construction Zone

The posters are up.
Final preparations are well under way for the

2011 Sakon Nakhon Royal Longboat Races and Wax Castle Festival
October 8 through 12



The Wax Castles are over 30% completed, but there's still plenty to do for the artists.