George Bowman

I'm going this route... https://youtu.be/Xey_Jaa8rds

I would recommend the California or Oregon markets. Both of these states already seem to favor nuts and fried free-range, organic, gluten free, humanely killed grasshopper snacks would fit right in.

I live alongside the Nan River in a farming community in Phitsanulok province and am constantly amazed at the kids playing in the river that can't swim. I have even met a few older fisherman that come by our place to sell their catch. Surprisingly, a few can't swim.

During my two decades of living in Thailand, I have complained about corruption from time to time. However, Thailand is still in kindergarten compared to the states.

Is Nana still around? Do you know Lek?

Thanks for this as I have searched and searched to no avail. Will give it a shot and see.

I’m looking for an industrial surface cleaner like the one shown below to clean a long driveway. For years, I’ve used a power washer, but it takes a couple of days to complete the job. Normally, I’ve be able to find about any tool in Thailand by using the Bamboo Grapevine, but not in this case. Yes, I could order one from the states, but the import fees are almost as much as the commercial B20,000 unit is, so I’m trying to avoid that route. Thai Google will show a few plastic units for B2,000 and I’m thinking they will last about two weeks. Any suggestions?

Recently I ran into a problem here in Thailand, one that I have never come across before and am stuck on how to solve it. Here is what happened. I have a pizza joint out in the boonies of Phitsanulok and one of my regular customers is a 19-year-old kid. Every time he shows up, he is wearing an American t-shirt of some sort. When I mentioned this, he replied “I’m half American.” I then asked him if he had ever visited the states and his reply was “I want to, but I can’t.” Even though we were busy, I sat down with this young man and listened to his story. His biological Thai mother became pregnant by an American working as an English teacher in a Thai government school. Shortly thereafter, the father left and the mother allowed her son to be adopted by a Thai-Chinese family she knew. This young man has never met his dad and doesn’t want anything other than his dad’s birth certificate in order to get American citizenship. Normally, I keep my nose out of other people’s business, but I opened my big mouth and said I would help. But first, I wanted to make certain the boy was telling the truth. Later via email he sent his Thai birth certificate which showed that his father is C**** ******* (age 34) and from America. He also sent some old photos his biological mother had saved and he looks exactly like his father. The resemblance is uncanny. To make a long story short, I found the father on FB and sent a polite message explaining the situation. He never replied and about a week later the account was deleted. What is truly disgusting about this entire matter is that the father is a governmental official at a US embassy in a country that borders Thailand. Suggestions?

After years of living here, I still learn something new every day. I had no idea there was a market for stolen temple doors...

I've noticed throughout the years, many of these guys will go out of their way to deliver answers.

We have a pizza joint out in the boonies in Phitsanulok province and one of the main problems we encounter is parking. In order to alleviate this problem we rent parking spaces from our surrounding neighbors for B500 a weekend. One young man wanted more money and my wife said no. So what did he do? He hung a black coat up in order to drive away the bad juju thereby increasing our need for additional parking and more money in his pocket. I gave up trying to figure out this mumble jumbo years ago...

From a short camping trip two days ago.

Are we there yet? Are we there yet? How much longer?

My attitude is to let the best man win...

Last year when elections were held, I decided to get in the fun and made a sign for our pizza joint. The #1 candidate loved it while the others not so much. Needless to say, our campaign was short lived and we were asked to take down the ad. It was fun while it lasted. This year I abstained…

This takes me back to my childhood and the memories of the Tarzan movies when the natives got restless. Bad juju Bwana!

Recently, I changed my SS retirement deposit from the Bangkok Bank to the Krungthai Bank. I did this simply because I now could avoid a trip into town, check my account online and finally can use an ATM to withdraw funds. In the past, my funds were available anytime past the 4th of each month. I have been reassured both by SS and the US Embassy folks in Manila that a check has/will be deposited on Sept 3rd, however nothing is showing up. I am assuming that Krungthai Bank takes more time to process the deposit. Is this correct?

Actually, I'm thinking this might be a good rule. Let's just hope the drivers will slow down and follow this new traffic law...