I want to give you a better understanding of a Thai bathroom. On your left is a toilet. You flush it by pouring water down it with the pink bucket. Toilet paper does not exist--again, you use water. On your right, you will see a separate large container, which is the shower. Sometimes there are fish in it to help keep it clean. Everything drains through a whole in the floor, which generally leads outside. Only the bathrooms that are inside someone's home, and therefore have a shower bucket, actually contain soap. Washing hands thus happens only during showers; fortunately, Thai people are quite fond of showers.

Last week, I stayed at a home in rural Surin Province that had no electricity or running water. The bathroom you see here is more high-tech. It was a great home, though, situated on a rice farm of 20 rai (maybe 8 acres?) I got to help a little with working in the field and trying to round up some cows that broke out of their pen. I didn't know cows could run like that. I got to partake in some Buddhist chants before bed--about 45 minutes' worth of not understanding anything. I got to see a number of beautiful scorpions, including a small red one in the bedroom and a 4 or 5 inch black one on the lunch table. Tastes like exoskeleton.