TheNHBushman.com

While people back in Taiwan were busy making total fools of themselves, Saumen and I decided to do the cutout and take a few days off in Thailand. I took him to one of my favorite places, the Sabua Resort.

Here we see the 2 farangs in the bus station, waiting for the 6:00 am bus to arrive to take us up north.

The moon shines over the bus terminal, after heavy rains all night.

Saumen finally got to relax in front of his cottage at the resort. Here you see him waiting for the beer to be delivered to his room.

And, here is Dong, with Singha bottled water, Leo beer, and in honor of our friend who couldn’t make it this time, Mr. Michael Turton, a bottle of Heineken.

Saumen took a walk down the “lonely road” as we call it, to check out the nearby village of Sabua.

We met these girls playing dominos with their mother. Notice the 20 baht note in the box being held by the girl on the left. They were playing for money!

Later in the evening, Saumen and I retired to the outdoor kitchen for some serious drinking. Here you see me attempting to play my 2,000 baht guitar that I leave in Thailand. The problem with my left hand appears to be slowly improving.

The next day we went around looking at stuff, and spied some bananas. The resort has quite a few banana trees and I was in the mood to try some.

This is what we were after! These were just ripe enough (notice the yellow ones).

I thought I would show our readers what a new banana leaf looks like as it unfolds to become the big “elephant ear” (and later shreds).

We asked Joe from the resort, to cut some bananas for us. In the meantime, some of the local kids wanted to pose for a shot with Saumen.

Here we see Joe cutting the first bunch down.

Joe is proudly displaying a bunch of bananas he has just cut. Some readers may be surprised to learn that they grow in this position, pointing up and not down as is commonly thought (in areas where they do not grow).

Later in the evening we dined on some of Bushman’s “black peanuts” and washed them down with Sang Som rum (bottle not shown, as it was empty) and Pepsi, a local favorite.

You are welcome to join us for a relaxing time at the Sabua Resort in northeastern Thailand. Feel free to contact me for more information. Be sure to check out the other photos on my Flickr album.