This is www.tony-tollitt.com
|  |
TonyT's third Thailand blog:
Page 7
SURIN & PHANOM DONG RAK
TUESDAY 15th:
First night in Phanom Dong Rak in the new house. Nothing much in the way of furniture yet but the rooms look good with beautiful floor tiles. We had a bedroom to ourselves but no bed as such yet, just a mattress on the floor but adequately comfortable. Usual high temperature but with the large fan working all night it was OK. But it's really great to finally live in the new house; it's a far cry from the old timber house on stilts.
Our baby son, Jack, spent most of the night sleeping with us.
Up and about just before dawn which is the norm when staying here; after all, it's a working farm. Normally, once the sun sets and evening meal is finished bedtime is anything between 8:00pm and 9:30pm, very rarely any later. Frankly, there's not much to do after dark, no pubs out here and only Thai TV.
It dawned wet and overcast and stayed that way all day long with persistent rain; monsoon season has certainly made its presence known. Breakfast of rice, liver, chicken and some stir fried veg.
However, the rain was nothing like the worst disaster; it was the demise of my faithful and trust MacBook Air. You may recall I made mention of the MBA falling onto a tied floor when we were in Kanchanaburi. It'd been working normally but finally gave up the ghost today. Nothing could revive it. So, that was the end of my blog maintenance - a real Royal pain as everything I needed to work on the site was on that machine. All that you are reading from this point has been done after my return to UK. Fortunately, everything was written down on paper and the photos were safe in the camera SD cards.
At around 14:30, Aom went out with Jack to visit her some of her family; I stayed behind and did some reading. They all chat away in Thai anyway so I'm left out of the conversations to a large degree.
TOP: Two photos of the new house as of September 2015.
CENTRE LEFT: Part of the main lounge/sitting room.
CENTRE RIGHT: Aom and baby Jack in that same room.
BOTTOM: Not two photos but a Panoramic photo of the whole living area.
WEDNESDAY 16th:
MONSOON!!!
Truly a non-day; an awful day!
Up just after dawn and it was raining hard, and it continued non-stop all day. Little one can do when the weather's this bad. Even farm activities cease.
THURSDAY 17th:
Again it's raining and very windy too this morning. Temperatures still in the low 30's though.
At least there was an opportunity to get out and about today albeit at my considerable expense.
One of Aom's uncles picked us up along with Aom's mother, Somjit and her brother, James at around 10:00 to drive us 40km to Surin city to shop for some items for the new house. As part of my contribution (and obligation), I bought a load of new light-fittings for the house along with a new gas-hob. By "load" of light-fittings I mean:
18 downlighter fittings
4 fluorescent strip light fittings
4 circular flush-mounted light fittings.
2 external lantern-type fittings
1 "posh" suspended multi-light fitting for the main lounge.
25 LED lamps of various wattages.
Along with the gas hob the bill came to around 11,000 Baht.
Quite a good store and similar (but better) than the UK B&Q. Next it was back to Pratas town to a Tesco-Lotus supermarket to buy nappies (diapers in US terms) and groceries. I'm afraid my method of supermarket shopping cames as a bit of a stressful shock to poor Somjit. Out here, Thais seem to everything slowly. When at home in UK, I do the weekly supermarket shop and the whole thin is done-and-dusted in 30-40 minutes. I don't think Somjit approved of my bullying her through the store to get the job done and out, anyway, I appeased her a little by buying her cake, donuts and coffee before we left the supermarket.
Back at Phanom Dong Rak by 16:00 and guess what? It's still raining.
Nice evening meal and a couple of Chang beers before eventually getting off to bed.
TOP: Jack in the DIY supermarket and in the Tesco-Lotus supermarket later.
CENTRE: All very illegal in UK but the norm out in the wilds of Surin. Family out on the bike along the lanes and tracks.
BOTTOM: Typical "surfaced" road off the beaten track. The asphalt simply goes missing in many places.
FRIDAY 18th:
Out of bed at 05:45 with a slight improvement in the weather. Still overcast but no rain.
Spent the helping Aom's father, Chet, installing the new light-fittings I bought yesterday. By 18:00 we'd just about finished. A job well done.
At around the time Chet and I were finishing off, we were invaded by four of Aom's friends; 4 lovely Thai girls by the names of Meow, Kik, Cat and her sister (can't recall her name but she sadly died in 2018). All Phanom Dong Rak locals from Aom's school days. Meow and Kik I know very well and I've met Cat when she worked in Phuket in 2011. All lively ladies with Kik, as usual, by far the noisiest and most boisterous. They beetled off after a half hour but were due to return later in the evening.
This they did armed with a bottle of Thai whiskey and huge bottles of coke. They all sat on the floor and chatted noisily away asking Aom all about her life in England and reminiscing about their past days. I joined them after a while... good fun. Good to see Aom with her friends and good to be surrounded by lovely Thai ladies once again.
They all left at around 22:00 and left Aom and I to have few more drinks with Aom's eldest of her two brothers, James.
We eventually got to bed at 23:45... extremely late for Phanom Dong Rak.
TOP LEFT: Aunts begin to arrive at 8am to prepare food for the 'gathering'
TOP RIGHT: Chicken's feet and chopped pork ready to be cooked. Nothing is wasted here.
SECOND LEFT: Fresh freshwater fish before being prepared for the barbecue.
SECOND RIGHT: The same fish being seasoned with various herbs.
THIRD LEFT: Finally... on the barbecue and extremely tasty.
THIRD RIGHT: A break-away group readying for the ceremony later.
FOURTH LEFT: Baby Jack being subjected to Thai ceremonial blessing called Baci [see explanation below]. "Blessed" water is sprinkled onto his head.
FOURTH RIGHT: Another part of the ceremony, Baci, whereby symbolic thread is tied around the wrist. Money is often wrapped into the thread as a further blessing.
BOTTOM LEFT: Aom's brother James with Jack.
BOTTOM RIGHT: A whole family on a 125cc bike... quite the norm in these parts.
Next > or Go To Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 - 8 9 10 11 12 13
SURIN & PHANOM DONG RAK
First night in Phanom Dong Rak in the new house. Nothing much in the way of furniture yet but the rooms look good with beautiful floor tiles. We had a bedroom to ourselves but no bed as such yet, just a mattress on the floor but adequately comfortable. Usual high temperature but with the large fan working all night it was OK. But it's really great to finally live in the new house; it's a far cry from the old timber house on stilts.
Our baby son, Jack, spent most of the night sleeping with us.
Up and about just before dawn which is the norm when staying here; after all, it's a working farm. Normally, once the sun sets and evening meal is finished bedtime is anything between 8:00pm and 9:30pm, very rarely any later. Frankly, there's not much to do after dark, no pubs out here and only Thai TV.
It dawned wet and overcast and stayed that way all day long with persistent rain; monsoon season has certainly made its presence known. Breakfast of rice, liver, chicken and some stir fried veg.
However, the rain was nothing like the worst disaster; it was the demise of my faithful and trust MacBook Air. You may recall I made mention of the MBA falling onto a tied floor when we were in Kanchanaburi. It'd been working normally but finally gave up the ghost today. Nothing could revive it. So, that was the end of my blog maintenance - a real Royal pain as everything I needed to work on the site was on that machine. All that you are reading from this point has been done after my return to UK. Fortunately, everything was written down on paper and the photos were safe in the camera SD cards.
At around 14:30, Aom went out with Jack to visit her some of her family; I stayed behind and did some reading. They all chat away in Thai anyway so I'm left out of the conversations to a large degree.
|
| |
|
| |
TOP: Two photos of the new house as of September 2015.
CENTRE LEFT: Part of the main lounge/sitting room.
CENTRE RIGHT: Aom and baby Jack in that same room.
BOTTOM: Not two photos but a Panoramic photo of the whole living area.
WEDNESDAY 16th: 18 downlighter fittings 4 fluorescent strip light fittings 4 circular flush-mounted light fittings. 2 external lantern-type fittings 1 "posh" suspended multi-light fitting for the main lounge. 25 LED lamps of various wattages.
Along with the gas hob the bill came to around 11,000 Baht. TOP: Jack in the DIY supermarket and in the Tesco-Lotus supermarket later. CENTRE: All very illegal in UK but the norm out in the wilds of Surin. Family out on the bike along the lanes and tracks. BOTTOM: Typical "surfaced" road off the beaten track. The asphalt simply goes missing in many places.
FRIDAY 18th: TOP LEFT: Aunts begin to arrive at 8am to prepare food for the 'gathering' TOP RIGHT: Chicken's feet and chopped pork ready to be cooked. Nothing is wasted here. SECOND LEFT: Fresh freshwater fish before being prepared for the barbecue. SECOND RIGHT: The same fish being seasoned with various herbs. THIRD LEFT: Finally... on the barbecue and extremely tasty. THIRD RIGHT: A break-away group readying for the ceremony later. FOURTH LEFT: Baby Jack being subjected to Thai ceremonial blessing called Baci [see explanation below]. "Blessed" water is sprinkled onto his head. FOURTH RIGHT: Another part of the ceremony, Baci, whereby symbolic thread is tied around the wrist. Money is often wrapped into the thread as a further blessing. BOTTOM LEFT: Aom's brother James with Jack. BOTTOM RIGHT: A whole family on a 125cc bike... quite the norm in these parts.
MONSOON!!!
Truly a non-day; an awful day!
Up just after dawn and it was raining hard, and it continued non-stop all day. Little one can do when the weather's this bad. Even farm activities cease.
THURSDAY 17th:
Again it's raining and very windy too this morning. Temperatures still in the low 30's though.
At least there was an opportunity to get out and about today albeit at my considerable expense.
One of Aom's uncles picked us up along with Aom's mother, Somjit and her brother, James at around 10:00 to drive us 40km to Surin city to shop for some items for the new house. As part of my contribution (and obligation), I bought a load of new light-fittings for the house along with a new gas-hob. By "load" of light-fittings I mean:
Quite a good store and similar (but better) than the UK B&Q. Next it was back to Pratas town to a Tesco-Lotus supermarket to buy nappies (diapers in US terms) and groceries. I'm afraid my method of supermarket shopping cames as a bit of a stressful shock to poor Somjit. Out here, Thais seem to everything slowly. When at home in UK, I do the weekly supermarket shop and the whole thin is done-and-dusted in 30-40 minutes. I don't think Somjit approved of my bullying her through the store to get the job done and out, anyway, I appeased her a little by buying her cake, donuts and coffee before we left the supermarket.
Back at Phanom Dong Rak by 16:00 and guess what? It's still raining.
Nice evening meal and a couple of Chang beers before eventually getting off to bed.
Out of bed at 05:45 with a slight improvement in the weather. Still overcast but no rain.
Spent the helping Aom's father, Chet, installing the new light-fittings I bought yesterday. By 18:00 we'd just about finished. A job well done.
At around the time Chet and I were finishing off, we were invaded by four of Aom's friends; 4 lovely Thai girls by the names of Meow, Kik, Cat and her sister (can't recall her name but she sadly died in 2018). All Phanom Dong Rak locals from Aom's school days. Meow and Kik I know very well and I've met Cat when she worked in Phuket in 2011. All lively ladies with Kik, as usual, by far the noisiest and most boisterous. They beetled off after a half hour but were due to return later in the evening.
This they did armed with a bottle of Thai whiskey and huge bottles of coke. They all sat on the floor and chatted noisily away asking Aom all about her life in England and reminiscing about their past days. I joined them after a while... good fun. Good to see Aom with her friends and good to be surrounded by lovely Thai ladies once again.
They all left at around 22:00 and left Aom and I to have few more drinks with Aom's eldest of her two brothers, James.
We eventually got to bed at 23:45... extremely late for Phanom Dong Rak.
Next > or Go To Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 - 8 9 10 11 12 13