Forty Miles of Flat

There is a lot of flat terrains in Thailand..of course flat terraine is a good place for a rice paddy so that is a lot of what we saw yesterday. Once harvest is past the farmers burn the stalks to return the nutrients to the soil.. Most of the burning has just been completed so there is a residual "day old campfire" smell in the air. Once the ash is rotto tiled in to the soil the fields are flooded so planting can take place. As we rode south on Highway 1 the fields to the east reflected the morning sun in a checkerboard pattern. 

Rice is not the only crop. We passed miles of strawberry fields. The roadside is lined with road side  stands with racks of berries waiting for customers which seem few and far between. 

Steven knows a US expat, James who lives in Chiang Rai so we met him for dinner at a restaurant that has live dancing. It is a Thai tradition to order several dishes and eat family style. It was all good. That is James across the table. (Sorry James this was a food shot.)

If the food was good the dancing was better. 

Here is an observation about Thailand. A lot of Thais seem to own at least one dog and a rooster and the dogs bark until 2:00 AM and then the roosters start crowing. It doesn't seem to matter if it is the middle of the city the pattern is the same.