also for those of you wondering why i am determined to build a thai style boat, let me tell you a little story..:
i was born in bangkok thailand in '74. my mother died shorly after i was bornand i never saw her face nor did i ever know my father, so i was placed in a foster home and later adopted by an american family. i arrived here in the states the day before i turned 5 years old. since then, i have lost all my thai language skills and heritage.(i was adopted by a family of german heritage). my family took me back to thailand when i was 12, '87. while there, i revisited my foster parents and while touring the town, we took at trip up the river. it was in a thai long boat water taxi..my second earliest memory of being in a boat..the first was way back while i was younger in thailand. later as i grow up and got into the love of boats and started to live around lakes an have owned a small motor boat, i have often dreamed of the thai river ride. this is why i want to build on for myself, kind of a way of bringing back alittle of my original heritage back into my life..althought i have not ever lived or had much to do with thailand since i left, i still have a big space in my heart for the love of thailand and wanting to bring some of it near me once again..i am deaf in one ear(something i have always had), so i doubt if i will ever learn to speak thai again or go back to live, so to fill alittle emptiness would be like a dream for me to build this thai style boat to use here in the states..i do not have alot of money, but i know i can build this boat myself if only i had the plans..i am very artistic, guess that runs in my thai blood, so i know i can do it..i have and am willing to put the time into it to get it done and be proud to show it off, and yes, a thailand flag would always be flown on it along with an american one...tom