Countdown to Bangkok - 12 days

Today's song is: Roll On Down the Highway  .. BTO

Ok, I am now officially bored. I can also understand why Thavorn has a hard time making simple decisions. The only decision you have to make in the village is what to eat. Otherwise it is simply a routine  .. eat, sleep, watch TV (except in my case, no English TV so read whatever on the net).

The door to my man cave is probably the worst installation of a door I have ever seen. There is no gap, where shims are placed to make every thing line up. This gap is always covered with a molding. Pretty well every guy kind of guy, knows how to hang a door. Not so in Thailand. To close the door you basically just jam it shut. It does not close fully as the latch never fully engages. To open it, you give it a good shove and it opens with quite a noise, loud enough to wake Thavorn's family who are outside sleeping in the 35 degree heat, while I slumber at 28 which feels relatively cold compared to outside.

I asked Thavorn how long the door has been this way and it appears to be as long as she can remember so about 20 years. Well after 17 days I have had enough so we jumped on the motorbike and rode into Wichian Buri to pick up a wood chisel. It came to 150 baht, so about $5. I then rode back to the village and started chiseling out the wood frame which is attached directly to the concrete. I inserted some paper and closed and opened the door (as much as possible) and found out what needed to be chiseled off. Two hours later, the door closes snugly, without noise, and latches and evens locks from inside.

This is why you often hear me say, 'Thais not go moon!' Somehow, somewhere, all initiative is beaten out of them. I suspect both the family and the school system. I also suspect it works quite nicely to keep the lo-so .. lo-so. This is an interesting web site:

http://www.th.undp.org/content/thailand/en/home/countryinfo.html

It mentions that only 12% of the population is below the poverty line. The unemployment rate is 0.7 percent. I guess it depends on where you draw the poverty line. If the minimum wage is 300 baht ($10) for a 12 hour day, 6 days a week, I would guess these workers are not included in the 12% poverty figure. But I would also guess they make up the vast majority of the lo-so population. Bernie Sanders would have a fit!

TTY