Quickie Thai Facts 7-9
7. The name Thailand means Land of the Free. The Thai people actually call their country Meung Thai (เมืองไทย), which translates “city of Thais”.
8. King Ramkhamhaeng, who ruled at the end of the thirteenth century, created the first Thai alphabet.
9. There are approximately 3.6 million rice farming families in Thailand totaling around 20 million people.
Newsletter for January-April 2008
…and we’re back. We didn’t go anywhere, though. We’ve been here this whole time doing the same old same-old.
You can read what we’ve been up to in the latest newsletter. And you can download it here.
Cambodian Adventure - Day 2
Here’s the second video. That morning we got up early and packed thirteen people (the nine of us, P.Neung, his mom and niece, and another lady we picked up along the way) plus all of our luggage onto one pickup truck and drove to the border of Cambodia. From there, we took 2 taxis up to Siem Reap, dropped our stuff at the hotel and rushed over to spend a scant three hours running around Angkor Wat. Enjoy the video.
Cambodian Adventure - Day 2 from Neale Bryan on Vimeo.
Snapshot #10 - Hello from Malaysia
I wanted to get a quick post up here while we are still in Malaysia. We landed here on the 20th so that we could come to the Thai embassy in Kuala Lumpur early Monday morning. The visa that allowed us to stay in Thailand expired on the 20th, and we needed to apply for all new visas. This means that we had to visit a Thai embassy in another country, and Kuala Lumpur had the best reputation.
The picture above was taken in the city of Putrajaya. It was almost an accident that we found this city, but we’re glad we stumbled onto it. When we get back and on our own Internet connection, we’ll have more pictures for you.
Snapshot #9 - Princess
I’ve almost stepped on this little pooch on more than one occasion. She belongs to one of the many street vendors that line the road as you go to the church building at Somprasong 4. She’s all the time running up and down the sidewalk, and the only warning you get of her presence is the jingle from the little bell around her neck.
Cambodian Adventure - Day 1
This is the first of three videos I’ll put up about the trip we took through Cambodia in December. This one documents our first day, which was spent in Sa Gaew, Thailand, the hometown of P.Neung, a Christian at Somprasong 4. He’s the one who drinks the eggs in the video.
Cambodian Adventure - Day 1 from Neale Bryan on Vimeo.
Back At It
We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and that these first couple weeks of the new year have already been blessed. This site had a vacation as well. Well, we’re back, and we’ve got a new suit on.
First, if you haven’t read our latest newsletter, we hope you’ll take a look at it. I think its the best one yet. I’ll pick up here where it left off.
Just after Christmas, we finally got the opportunity to travel up to northern Thailand and visit the cities of Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. We visited the work going on at Payap University in Chaing Mai, and stayed with Robert Reagan and his family there. He and his wife, P.Jan, have two wonderful children, Branson (11) and Erika (14), and we are so glad that we were able to spend a good 4 days with them. P.Jan, by the way, is the brother of P.Sam, one of the workers at Somprasong 4. P.Sam is our biggest help right now over here, helping us get everything together in our continuing battle to get the right visa in place to be able to stay here.
After being in Chiang Mai for a few days, P.Petch and his family, along with Bao, drove ten hours from Bangkok, picked us up, and took us along with them over to Chiang Rai, another couple of hours away. We were there for the New Year, and had a really great time visiting with P.Petch’s family and traveling with them around the area, taking in all the sights.
Hang tight as I am slowly getting all of our photos up on the web and available to you. You’ll soon be able to browse through our trip and see some of the really interesting things northern Thailand has to offer.
Our New Digs
The new year brings in a new look for nealeanddalissa.com. We hope you like the new layout and format.
We’ve added a really easy way for you to subscribe and get the latest posts sent directly to your email. Just add your email address up at the top of the page and click “subscribe”.
Our photos section has grown immensely. I finally renewed my pro account on Flickr, and it lets me upload a limitless amount of photos. So, you now can browse our entire photo library right here on this site.
I’ve renamed the “Daily Photo” section “Thailand Snapshots” because I have been less than faithful in my efforts to post a photo a day. I still promise multiple new photos each week.
Newsletter for October-December 2007
The Oct-Dec newsletter is done. You can download it here.
Snapshot #8 - 99% Cambodian
I snapped this one evening walking past a line of storefronts in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It is sad that the ingeniousness of this probably went entirely unnoticed. To attest to this, the shop offering the Body Spa, Facial, Massage, Shiatsu, Reflexology, Manicure, and Pedicure service that put this up was completely empty.