January 5, 2012

Sawadee pee mai!

I know the holidays have passed, but I still have one last cute story to share from the holidays in Thailand.

Elephants from Ayutthaya were dressed up in Santa Claus outfits in a wonderful charity event to distribute gifts to children. In addition to handing out gifts, the elephants also performed acrobats.

To read more, please visit http://www.krobkruakao.com. Please use Google Translate for an English translation.

Best,
Mike

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December 5, 2011

Happy birthday to His Majesty The King!

Today, the King of Thailand celebrates his 84th birthday. For those of you who don't know a lot about our King, here's a brief list of interesting facts about His Majesty.

• His real name is Bhumibol Adulyadej
• He became King of Thailand at the age of 18
• He is currently the world's longest-reigning king
• He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
• He was educated in Switzerland
• He plays the saxophone and has written many songs
• He has patented the Water Aerator to increase oxygen in water to keep it clean
• He is the 9th King of Thailand and to many, the most popular due to his contributions to education, to improvements in rural towns, healthcare and, much, much more

Best,
Mike

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November 28, 2011

Sawadee krub,

Flood levels are finally receding but the hardships continue to grow in Thailand. The financial toll in 2014 is expected to hit 235 billion Thai baht (over $7 billion). Yikes! Fortunately, the Thai government can accomodate the loss by incurring debt. Read more at the Bangkok Post. We pray for a strong financial recovery and even more for a non-stressful one.

We've heard some heartfelt and humorous stories from our friends and family. Some have claimed to have seen generosity to strangers never seen before, spending all day and night to help each other. Another friend told his family not to worry. They're house is an exotic island and just to enjoy their time on it... you just can't swim in the water. haha. And another friend told us of how her brother was upset at their lack of internet - he couldn't watch his Korean drama shows (ahhh!). But he finally calmed himself down after finding some old DVDs and re-watching those shows. lol, I love my Thai friends and family!

MangoNest has also donated 2,000 Thai baht to the SCAD Bangkok Foundation of Thailand, to help all the stray dogs and cats in Thailand. It's a great foundation - please check out their site to learn more about them. We are true animal lovers and wish the best for all living creatures in Thailand. I recently read a story in the USA Today about how crocodiles and poisonous snakes were ending up on people's front yards and being killed. We understand animal control is the least of official's worries, but it still saddens us to hear such stories. The reptiles certainly didn't mean to bother anybody and were simply swept away with the water. We hope a way can be found to place them back into their original habitats.

Thanks for reading and if you have any stories or thougths of your own, please share them with us @ TheNest@MangoNest.com

Best,
Mike

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November 22, 2011

Sawadee krub,

It has been a while since our last blog. We have been quite busy developing our new site and hope you all like the new look!

I'll discuss more about our new design in a later blog. I'd like to first send our thoughts and wishes to our family and friends in Thailand. The flooding (if you are unaware of the tragic events, please visit The Bangkok Post for daily stories of the event) has taken its toll on the lives of all Thais. Food is sometimes scarce and in addition to the home damage thousands have suffered, the country also suffers from a devastating financial impact that will last for years.

But of all the sad and tearful stories I've heard, I've also been privy to some heartfelt stories. The devastation has brougth some family closer together, forcing them away from their daily work duties to help each other to either place sandbags around their homes or to travel away from the commotion of the flood waters. I have even heard of homeless animals finding new friends and homes within the chaos. It's only a slight silver lining I know, but it's stories like this that put smiles back in the Land of Smiles. Thais are a strong group and we'll survive and stay strong.

To help with the recovery, MangoNest will donate 10% of all sales to The Thai Red Cross. Please feel free to donate directly as well.

Thank you for reading our new blog. We'll try to make these more frequent and will report back with more cheerful stories from our friends and family in Thailand.

Best,
Mike