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As you recall folks, we were at a cool cookout at Tamarind Residences, hosted by our good friend Tammy (seen to my right in this photo).  Tammy had invited some of her friends to the cookout.  I had never met these particular folks before.  The gentleman wearing the cap (and talking on his mobile phone) is a local police officer.

The party that started it all…

The gentleman standing, who is taking my picture, works for the local hot radio station, More  90.5 FM (“more” is all about giving the listening audience more of what they want to hear).  So, naturally, I was going in and out of my “dj voice” all evening, doing so much as saying catchphrases using their station name and frequency (all the while consuming copious amounts of Sang Som Thai rum).  I was just talking trash, basically, as one does when drinking and having fun.

Perhaps I should stop for a second and mention that I used to do national talk radio in the USA, and that I’ve been on the air for years.  I’ve had my own shows, co-hosted other shows; I love radio and I often joke about wanting to do a local talk show in Asia.  I said “man, I would love to do an hour on the air at your station!”, and then downed like my 16th drink of the evening.

Be careful what you wish for!

They said “let’s go!”  Calling me on my bullshit, I found myself in the recording booth literally 10 minutes after I shot off my big mouth!  Here we see Tammy and I talking about the copy they want me to read.  Sebastian is watching the production engineer and checking levels.  Notice that the engineer is holding my bottle of Sang Som rum.  The production engineer at More 90.5 FM is also in charge of pouring the booze for the “talent” (and I use that term loosely).

I am reading some of the copy they want, while Dick, a professional recording engineer from the Netherlands, looks on.  Dick’s experienced viewpoints were quite helpful throughout the session.

These More 90.5 FM guys had whipped up an entire sheet of “bumpers” for me to read!  Bumpers are the little bytes that radio stations play between songs and they had me saying things like “More Weekend!” and “More Music” plus other things according to their “more” identity.  I had a blast, doing the “Power Voice” that I seldom have an opportunity to use in real life.

After about 30 minutes of reading, and re-reading, they asked me if I would like to go on the air.  I asked Tammy “how to you say ‘are you fucking kidding me’ in Thai?”

I got a brief introduction to the station’s on-air music system from Sebastian, and then they turned me loose on the public!  I have said countless times that I could walk into just about any radio station and go right on the air.  I proved that this is a true statement!  This system is very similar to others that I have used, and even software that I own.

The on-air guy got out of his seat for me, stood up beside me and gave me a very warm introduction to the listening audience, in Thai.  In this shot, Sebastian and I are chatting on-air, talking about some of my experiences in Thailand, and especially in KhonKaen.  For me personally, this was a very rewarding experience, because I do genuinely love the Thai people and their country.  This was an opportunity for me to tell them that directly.  Sebastian’s English skills are brilliant, and he was very helpful with translations to the Thai audience.

After a few minutes, the station staff left me on my own, to do whatever I wanted!  Wow, I had their station in my hands!

Here I’m taking calls while the music is going out on the air.  I was playing all of the old school stuff, KC & The Sunshine Band, Queen, Bryan Adams - you name it!  I told Sebastian that I was going to take the station back to 1978 (with a few exceptions).  The phone calls started to pour in, and the SMS messages requesting more retro songs did too.  Although I cannot speak Thai, we put these callers on the air, and Sebastian translated both ways!  That was way too cool man.

Sebastian asked me if I wanted to try playing my guitar live on the air.  Why the hell not?  lol

Here, I am playing “More Than I Can Say” and a caller is actually singing along with me, on the air!  It was great!  People everywhere in the world know that song.

Hand on fader, MJ demonstrates his mixing prowess, with a carefully “ducked” voice over a song intro.

With Dick and Tammy flanking us on either side, the staff wanted to pose with me for a parting shot.

I would like to say that I haven’t had this much fun in years, or felt as welcome anywhere as I have in KohnKaen recently.   I won’t forget this experience.  Sebastian has invited me back to do my own show, and a song list of my own choosing, upon my return to Thailand.  I promise you that next time I will get you some video footage that we can put up on Youtube.

KhonKaen got a hot new DJ for one evening, but I got one of those rare experiences that makes life worth living.

technorati tags:Thailand, KhonKaen, 90.5FM, More FM, Tamarind Residences

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Everyone loves a good outdoor village market.  We found a great one, just outside of Erawang, in Loei Province, Thailand.  Let’s take a look!

On the left are a few fruit and spice vendors, but mostly clothing, and on the right is the food section.

Walking along on the left, we found these large bags of spices.  We are hoping that one of our Thai readers will tell us what this is!

Nothing beats fresh pineapples!  We got 2!

After that, we decided to cross the street and see what was over there.

What we found was more varieties of spices and food than you can imagine.

Look at these wonderful fresh vegetables.  Thailand is know for excellent cooked and raw vegetable dishes.

This woman is selling steamed local fish.

These are “snakehead” fish.  You don’t want to know how bad this basket smelled.

This market has everything - including Taiwanese political t-shirts!  Actually, we only saw this one, but it was totally out of place in northern Thailand.

Now, we come to the meat section.  Here we see the usual pork stand offerings, including shaved ribs that have no meat on them.

And this is the beef vendor.  No grill cuts, just pot fare, along with the required organ meats.

50,000 ways to burn your tongue beyond recognition.

On the way out, I noticed this small restaurant.  Actually, what I noticed is the speakers for karaoke.  I always thought that Taiwanese were loud people.  Then I went to Thailand….  The entire time we were in the market, someone was playing ads though a PA system that must have belonged to Led Zeppelin because it was so loud my ears were hurting.  No one seemed to mind at all.

All of 10 meters away though, it was back to village life as usual.

technorati tags:Thailand, Erawang, village, market, vegetables, spices

Blogged with Flock

On our way up to Erawang, in Loei Province of Thailand, Hui-Chen and I spotted this incredible field of sunflowers!

Walking among the sunflowers was a fantastic experience, surreal and peaceful.

Imagine being here….

Hui-Chen is standing on the edge of the field.

There were sunflowers virtually as far as one could look.

She’s smiling because it was such a cool experience, one we won’t forget soon.

technorati tags:Thailand, Loei, Erawang, sunflower, Hui-Chen

Blogged with Flock

Hui-Chen and I have done so much in the last few days that its hard for us to blog on all of it at once.  Just to upload the necessary photography to flickr takes hours.  Feel free to browse our photos on flickr and we’ll get to blogging on them as quickly as we can.

Our friends own a resort in a small village, and we like to stay there when we visit Thailand.  The villagers are very nice and we can relax by a fire and enjoy life as one only can in Thailand.

One of the things that I like best about Sabua is the open kitchen.  I usually get up in the morning and cook my own breakfast.  You can pretty much do whatever you want at this resort.

Here I am cutting some Isan sausage that we purchased from a local roadside vendor.  If you’ve never tried it before, you really should!  I like to cut them into small pieces and wok fry them.  I have also been known to make a German style potato salad using these sausages instead of bacon.  They have a wonderful flavor that just can’t be found anywhere else.

This is the gas fired burner that we use in the outdoor kitchen for wok cooking.

Here, I am attempting to cook 2 eggs “sunny.”  The bottoms of the eggs were a bit well done, but the tops were sunny.

The resort has a new building that Hui-Chen hasn’t seen before.

This is the front porch of the new building.  Notice the unusual table made from an old wagon wheel.

This is the inside, which currently is configured as a dining area.  You can have the staff remove the table and chairs if you want to do something different in this room.  The building is divided into 2 sections (with no pass-through door) and the other section is a bedroom.

View of the front of the new building.

This wild fruit grows naturally on the resort.  It tastes bitter, but surprisingly, you want to keep eating them once you taste the first one.

On his last visit, Saumen suggested that they get a swing for the resort.  The owners had this swing built of an old oxcart, and the design is ingenious.

Taken in the early morning light, this shows how peaceful the resort is.

This is shot of the swing and the covered table where you can sit and watch the fish in the pond.

A spiderweb, its presence revealed by the morning dew.

technorati tags:Thailand, KhonKaen, Phon, Sabua Resort, Isan

Blogged with Flock

We are staying in a really great place in KhonKaen (we’ll blog on this later).  We thought you would like to see some shots of the area.  We are within walking distance of the #1 Bar, btw.

One of the better places to get lunch or dinner.

This place is directly across the street and visible from our window.  We ate there today and it was pretty good.  The only problem is, no one really speaks English, so we have to use a lot of sign language.  The good part is that most of the food is out in the open so you can just point to it.  I pointed to the Isan style sausage.  Its unbelievable - you have to try it.

The block is full of these little grill restaurants.  Some of them are great, and others are awful.  You just have to take a look at them.

No collection of local photos would be complete without a shot of a tuk-tuk, the local taxis of Thailand.

technorati tags:Thailand, KhonKaen

Blogged with Flock