Tales from the countryside – 3

I’ve been in the north east of Thailand for a few weeks now and as the rainy season become a distant memory for this year, the temperatures continue to climb. So far it’s up to around 35 degrees during the day, so it’s quite hot, especially if working in the garden. The sliding gate I fixed last year had become rusty and stuck again, taking almost all of Sasipa’s strength to force it open. So I once again removed all the mud from the runners and oiled the wheels and now it’s a one handed effort to slide open again. The rice harvest has finished, the roads are no longer covered with drying rice and now when the lorries pass by, their wheels groan from the weight of the sugar cane they carry. The economy in this area is good due to the all the rice and sugar cane, so its not poor around here on the whole.

I installed a wash hand basin, which there wasn’t and a new shower too. There are often little jobs to do around the house. One morning Sasipa walked in holding the tap from the kitchen sink that had snapped off in her hand. A quick trip to a local store for a new tap and all the plumbing bits required cost the princely sum of 420 baht (£10)

I met a couple of westerners at a local village fete, who both live in the next village about 50 metres from each other. Both have Thai wives and live here full time. John is from Bristol in the UK and Steve is from from Australia. His parents were £10 Poms, back in the 1960’s. Both are good company and it’s great to have made a couple of western friends. At the fete, apart from various floats and the numerous beer and food stalls there were a dozen of so different groups of traditional dancers, who danced along one side of the road from the village crossroads all the way down to a nearby school where they gathered for a dance off.

The music is always very loud and the speakers are normally stacked several metres high on the pick up trucks. Complete with their large generators as well, you can see the suspension practically scraping the road.

Then when it was dark we lit candles placed in the middle of small flower arrangements and pushed them out into the river. This is the tradition on Loi Krathong day, which takes place every year in November.

There were many hundreds of people there and I also really enjoyed having a chat in English for once. I have since been invited round to both their houses for beer and snacks and I did some tech stuff for John, installing a new printer on several devices and some security camera’s on another occasion.

He says they are to keep an eye on his tool cabinet, but I think it might be the impressive stack of crates of Leo beer that he’s really looking out for.

I also met Sasipa’s cousin and his new wife. She spent 20 years on Koh Samui renting out cars, selling real estate etc and so speaks very good English. They have a small resort with some cabins for rent at 400 baht a night, but they are building a house and restaurant and some other facilities, so the price will go up to 500 a night. Quite a few people drove past, despite it being down a dirt track and at one point two guys arrived and then disappeared behind one of the chalets into the fields. When I asked what they were doing I was told some sort of rodent hunt. There are house mice and field mice, I think they probably mean rats and the field ones are excellent on the BBQ and fetch high prices at 300 baht a kilo. We were invited to the BBQ that night as well ! Perhaps fortunately we had another engagement, so had to decline. I don’t know if they actually caught any anyway, they hadn’t before we left.

Over a beer I tried the goy neua, which is similar to my favourite laab moo, except that it is made with raw beef. While the Thai’s were all mightily impressed that I didn’t have any problem eating it, those of you who know me will understand that many steak tartare’s and carpaccio’s over the years meant that it held no fears for me. We also went to see some of Sasipa’s land, about 8 rai (3.2 acres), which is near shops, markets and a popular crossroads. They are widening the road at the moment and when it’s finished the transport links will be improved and she will be able to get a good price for it. Before we left Sasipa decided it would be nice to have a drink from a coconut, so she grabbed a stick and whacked one down.

The days kind of drift one into the other at the moment, it’s nice in the hour before dusk to sit in the shade with my feet on a stool and read for a bit, while drinking a local beer. Then the decision of what to eat that evening, either cooking, popping to the market or having something delivered. The delivery thing isn’t anything advanced like Grab or Deliveroo. It’s more like a neighbour or a local restaurant that drops by on a moped with a plastic bag full of what you ordered. Everywhere you go the Thais are expert at filling and preparing these plastic bags full of soup, curry or whatever. They are similar to freezer or sandwich bags and they twirl them around their fingers at top speed with an elastic band and hey presto a sealed bubble of delicious food and I’ve never seen one burst or leak either.

There are several nearby markets, which are open every day of the week. Sometimes a elephant comes strolling past, with owner I hasten to add. Some you can have a ride on, others just appear to be out for an evening stroll.

We saw one last night and Sasipa fed it some sugar cane, it seemed very happy and trumpeted its thanks. You can really see the size of them next to the motorbikes and cars as they stand beside them.

Sadly there have been a few deaths in the village, so Sasipa has had to pay out a bit of cash. Each villager I think donates 200 baht, so the deceased has a good send off. One place we went around to, to drop of the cash had to apologise, then said it’s 400 now as another one had gone in the night. Fortunately I have only attended one funeral as it lasted almost 3 hours! A troop of dancers, provided entertainment and the children circulate at regular intervals with refreshments. Meanwhile there was the usual fan give away. I haven’t quite gotten to the bottom of why at funerals here, there appears to be some sort of lotto, with every winner receiving a fan wrapped in cellophane, complete with pink bow.

It won’t be long now until we head off back to Pattaya for Christmas. Although the Thai’s don’t really celebrate it, there are plenty of Christmas trees and decorations to be found in the supermarket here and John has covered the outside of his house in twinkling led lights. I expect Pattaya will have the Christmas spirit in full swing.

We went into Buriram one day to see Sasipa’s son and also to visit Jimmy’s bar, who does a mean full English breakfast. Much to my annoyance I didn’t really feel hungry enough to do it full justice, which I suspect had something to do with John’s generous beer pouring the night before and maybe the minced frog dish that his wife served up. The minced frog is actually ok and as a rule eating frog, just like the raw beef and snails (we had those too) isn’t a problem, but this version, (as opposed to legs with garlic butter) has a bit of a crunch as it’s minced with the bones. Probably not really for the faint-hearted.

After Jimmy’s we went to Ban Bua, near Buriram, which is a lovely park on the edge of a huge lake. There is a tower about 6 stories high that you can climb for beautiful views. It’s really peaceful and ideal for a picnic or just sitting in the shade under a tree, while gazing out over the lake.

After that we drove to a nearby ancient volcanic crater, which has a huge golden buddha at the top. Again the view was good, but there were hundreds of school children visiting so it was rather noisy and busy.

I’m planning my next trip, as I will have to leave Thailand by the 6th January to renew my visa. It’s fun to do, but you are never sure if you’ve chosen the right places to go. At the moment I am booked to fly to Kuala Lumpur for a few days, then on to Kota Kinabalu in Eastern Borneo. I may try to do some diving in the Sipidan Islands, if I can get one of the coveted daily diving passes, of which only 120 are issued due to excessive tourism and fragile coral reefs. It is one of the top 5 dive sites in the world though. I also want take a boat along the Kinabatangan river, which is amazing for seeing exotic wildlife and trek in the jungle to see some Orangutangs, then I plan to make my way across Borneo to Kuching on the west coast, maybe stopping at Brunei and then fly to Johor Bahru in Malaysia on the Singapore border. You can easily go across on the train for a day trip to Singapore and from there I plan to visit the city of Malacca before heading back to KL, a return flight to Bangkok and home hopefully in time for tea!

All that as well as christmas in Pattaya and new year in Bangkok to follow. Well the hour before dusk approaches, so that’s all for now….