Page 18 - MN

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All that being said, when Thungnun, the troubled Thai dog, died, we were all sad. And we wished we could've understood him.
This morning I saw a dog like him--brown, muscular, a soi dog--and it brought back memories. The good news was he didn't bite me.
New Orleans, Denneys, Estonia, Thai Food and Me
We played golf this morning, my friend Joe and I and our two caddies. We teed off in the dark with the caddies again holding up cell phone lights. We had to get off first because the same two walking guys were waiting and if we let them go first they would hold us up.
Joe is a retired businessman now teaching math in a school here in Chiangmai. He's from New Orleans and wildly proud of LSU and Joe Borrows, the quarterback who led the school to the national championship this year. Joe the golfer has taught me a lot of New Orleans history and a lot about Creole food. I have forgotten most of it because listening has never been my strong point.
I have been to New Orleans a few times, once just after a freighter lost control on the river and took out a lot of the waterfront. The French Quarter is a great walking area, and ranks up there with my favorite walking cities--San Francisco, St. Petersburg, Istanbul, New York, Amsterdam and a few others. I worked cruise ships off and on for about 20 years at the end of my career and I learned early to avoid the tours and just get off and walk. Oh sure, I made mistakes. In Tallinn, Estonia, I got off the ship, turned left, and ended up in the most dismal place I'd ever seen. It was like Russia, with grey apartments, broken pavement, and surly people standing around. I thought why did the ship even bother stopping here? This is the worst port I've ever seen!
The next time we docked in Tallinn, I turned right and walked about twenty minutes to find a stunningly beautiful old town. I sat at an outdoor cafe, drank cappuccino and marveled at the old buildings and interesting people. I also saw all the passengers on tour. I bet they never found that dismal area I discovered.
So Joe and I played golf and I've converted him into a fast golfer. We played 18 holes in 2 1/2 hours, and it was quite pleasant. Then we met for breakfast at Danisa's, where we ate traditional Thai breakfast food--a cheeseburger for him and a Greek chicken wrap for me. Maybe he was a musician in a past life.
I do love Thai food, but maybe not the northern Thai food Jintana's family loves, which has spices that will blow off the top of your head. Her nieces' favorite game is to tell me something is not spicy and then laugh gaily when I turn red and gasp with tears streaming down my face.
Jintana's mom and I have an unspoken agreement, where she won't eat most western food and I won't eat a lot of blazing hot Thai food. She thinks ours is