Isaan Band at Vientiane Kitchen
Woman and son in Old Market - Siem Reap
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Before and during quarantine March and April 2020
We finished our official 14 days of strict quarantine yesterday!! Who anticipated a trip to the grocery store could be so exciting? We went a bit out of our village to the capitol of our province, Sa Kaeo. There is a store there much like Costco in the USA called Makro. One can buy in bulk or normal quantities like Costco. What fun! We spent probably at least an hour shopping for necessities and some nice to have but not totally necessary items. Since my last post about the wet market, we have traveled to Bangkok to pick my daughter, Pon, up from her university. We also needed to get to our house in a nearby suburb to assess the damage left by some nasty tenants who left suddenly. We also picked up some western things like tortillas, tortilla chips at the local quality grocery store near the house. Fortunately the main damage was to the wood floors, just ugly but not structural. They moved furniture around by dragging it rather than lifting. They also left the windows...
Violence in Southern Thailand
I am not sure how much information about the violence in Southern Thailand is reaching the western media. I suspect at least some, but knowing the Denver Post and even the New York Times, the information is probably a bit thin. Recently there has been dramatically escalating violence in the south. The south borders on Malaysia and is largely Muslim. The vast majority of the six million or so Thai Muslims live in the south. There has historically been a disconnect between the southern provinces and the capitol. The southernmost part of Thailand was not integrated fully into Thailand until the 20th century. It's arguable how much a part of Thailand they really feel themselves to be. Clearly part of this disconnect has to do with the south being Muslim and the rest of Thailand being primarily Buddhist.
Although the King has never been to the southern provinces, the Queen has spent the past two months there. She has initiated a number of ventures there including a project for 'r...