Thailand interlude – 4

It’s been a few weeks since my mum went home and as promised I’ve mostly been putting my feet up.

We have been to a few parties at some old school friends of Sasipa’s. At one they had just built a house and he proudly showed us around. It was strange to see a modern house in amongst the barns, cow sheds and lean tos.

The beer and Sangsom Thai whisky were in full flow when we arrived, although it was barely lunchtime. There were a group of guys eating and drinking as well, but they soon got up and went across the garden to where they started trying to load some enormous pvc pipes on to what was basically a lawnmower with a trailer. After they fell off a few times they finally managed to secure them and the driver chugged off down the road.

The food was all Isaan cuisine, which is fair enough as that is the region we are in, but I think I’m going to be a bit controversial and cast some aspersions on it. Controversial, because Sasipa loves it as do many here and indeed there are a couple of Isaan dishes I love too, (as well as Thai food in general), laab moo for example or som tum, although without the small very fishy crab. There are also some soups that are great, but the majority of this cuisine appears to be the bits everyone else has rejected or doesn’t want. The worst and least appealing cuts of meat, strange bits of offal, together with bits of bone and gristle. Add to this, herbs that you have never heard of (often for good reason) and some odd flavoured vegetables, make it ridiculously spicy and as a final flourish add some smelly fish flavouring. That, in my experience, is a lot of isaan food.

The aunt’s motorbike has broken again, but this time it’s beyond me. The thread in the spark plug hole has become stripped. So there is not enough compression and the plug blows out. I’ve discovered that the carburettor has been glued together and the ignition is non existant. I’m not sure how it ran at all!

In the meantime, she borrowed a bicycle, but crashed and broke the handlebars, which were a bit rusty anyway. Removing the stem from the forks proved impossible. John and I tried drilling it, using a lump hammer and several other methods all to no avail. In the end I went to a shop to buy some new forks. It would have been better to have done that straight away as I discovered that they were only £3.50 for a new pair.(ps. no aunts were injured)

Another party we went to was in the evening and the karaoke was in full swing. People sat in a circle with all the food in the middle and passed around the microphone. I was persuaded to have a go to and thankfully received some applause. Clearly they must have been bewitched by the English voice.

We decided to have a well dug. The last month or so the water has been off most of the day, perhaps only on for an hour in the morning and evening, so we rush to do the dishes, laundry and have a shower in the short time available and it’s getting rather irritating. My friend’s village just reduces the pressure at certain times, unlike ours who go for the full shut down.

So the well digging guys turned up on a Sunday morning in a rust bucket of a van with a rig on the back. The day before we’d filled several huge vats with water (when the water was on) as they need a lot to drill. I also bought about 12 metres of 4 inch pvc pipe as requested. 

They drilled all day, but at one point disappeared for an hour or two as a bearing went on the drill. They finished just before the sun went down leaving me none the wiser about what happens next. Apparently I need to buy the rest of the kit, I’m not sure if I’m installing it or not. They wanted a jet pump, which sits at the top of the well and has 2 pipes going down. I set my heart on a submersible screw pump that you drop down the hole. I think they aren’t happy. A list of what was required would have been useful, but alas no. Luckily I asked how deep the well was as I thought it was 12m. That being the amount of blue pvc pipe I’d bought. The answer 41m ! 

I popped onto Satuek, our local town, to a shop specialising in that sort of thing and they put together the whole kit for me including submersible pump, rope, all the piping, well cap etc. The pump is a bit powerful and I probably should have got a 0.75 horse power pump instead of 1Hp, but that’s what they suggested. My mistake, anyway the well diggers came back and we installed it together and yes we have water!  However, apparently the pump doesn’t cut off automatically, which sounds like madness to me. Running 24/7 will cost a fortune and burn the pump out before long. It came with a control box, which I was under the impression would do that, but no the box is apparently only protection against overheating or a dry well. Grrrr!

Back to Satuek and the same guys to explain the issue and I was soon on the way home with an automatic pump control unit, which I then plumbed in and wired up on my own at the well head. Now the pump kicks in when we turn the tap on and shuts down when we turn off as expected, hurrah.

Unfortunately I’m not out of the woods yet. Some of the existing pipes are old and have been exposed to the sun and the increased pressure has caused spilts. I repaired a couple, but will have to replace all the pipe work to the house when I get back from Sumatra and install a pressure regulator. 

We had family and friends around for dinner, which for the first time used Sasipa’s new dining room table to the full extent.

One of the local temples had a very big event with dozens of food stalls and traders. They had a big stage with many dancers all dressed up to the nines and you could go and dance on stage with them for a fee, all in a good cause. Sasipa, unknown to me went and paid for me to dance, so you can image my surprise when the compare suddenly announced my name on the loudspeakers. Nobody else had an announcement! It was fun though and then he announced me again at the end! Being a foreigner here in the sticks can sometimes feel a bit like being a celebrity or a goldfish in a bowl, take your pick!

The next night was a continuation of the event, but we found the stage surrounded by high steel fencing that hid the stage. The reason was soon clear, a very expensive cabaret , with famous dance troupes and comedians had come to put on a show. We paid to go in and Sasipa found a couple of seats and we settled down to watch. The dancing was impressive with the dancers constantly changing costumes very quickly. Each song was sung by a different singer, well known in the region or in Thailand in general. Then they had a long comedy sketch, of which I understood about 5%. Sasipa was laughing away though so I guess it was good. Finally about midnight we headed home. The white bike has a puncture, so I took the red bike, which managed admirably. It only seems to behave for me.

The big Satuek market continues to be held on days ending in a 5, There are so many different stalls selling clothes, kitchenware, fruit, vegetables, ironmongery together with lots of food carts. Sasipa bought a few new brooms as Cafe’s (the dog) new hobby is eating them. One stall was selling chicks and in the end boxes they had chicks that were purple, red, green and pink etc. I thought they were stuffed toys for a moment until I saw them running around. Apparently they are sprayed these colours. No idea why, answers on a postcard 🙂

Sasipa continues to go out every afternoon on her rounds, feeding all the lost and stray dogs in the neighbourhood and even further afield. It is becoming quite a job and rice for animals, which is thankfully cheap, is cooked on an industrial scale, mixed with some fish or whatever is going and off she goes balancing pots and bags on the motorbike, or occasionally we both go and take the car. Life can be very hard if you are a dog in Thailand and Sasipa is very kind. They are very lucky.

Sasipa’s youngest son has to go to the Satuek to pick a coloured ball at the conscription lottery next month. If it’s black he’s in the clear, but if it’s red then he has to do military service.

I’m off to Sumatra tomorrow, so I’ll be sending up a few posts about my travels there very shortly.