SATURDAY 17th MARCH:
Early breakfast then taxi to Bangkok Bus Terminal. VIP comfy bus duly booked and we were on the road by 10:40.
Arrived at Prasat Bus Terminal just on 17:00 and were greeted by Aom's Mum & Dad (my inlaws). Arrived home in Phanom Dong Rak 35 minutes later and the silence and peacefulness here on the farm was shattering after crazy Bangkok.
A lovely fresly cooked meal. As stated on previous pages around 85% of the food comes from the farm, including fish from the farm ponds and lake, chicken, turkey, duck, rice (of course), coconut, bananas, yams, mango, Chili peppers, herbs, salad veg, etc, etc. Only red meat and, occasionally, bread is purchased. Water comes from a bore-hole and the beer come from the village shop.
Anyway, a nice dinner followed by a couple of G&T's... very civilized.
SUNDAY 18th:
Drove into Prasat after lunch and did some shopping for domestic basics and buy bus tickets for Pattaya on the 21st ready for our next jaunt to Ko Mak. Took in a couple of beers and a bite to eat and strolled through the street market to buy some provisions.
Below is short movie of the street market in Pratas.
MONDAY 18th:
Up early before the heat of the day strikes-up. 37ºC by 11:00.
Just another day around the farm today. Took a walk to a part of the jungle where the farmed land ends. Aom did some digging for those bloody beetles they love to cook and eat.... sorry, not for me, not when there's plenty of other tasty Thai dishes available.
TUESDAY 19th:
Up before sunrise (06:20). Making the most of the cool air before that big hot thing in the sky starts cooking us all again. A couple of chores before breakfast-like watering the copious number of plants around the outside of the house.
Water here is from a bore-hole. An electric pump (usually runs overnight as it uses a lot of power) pushes the water into two big storage tanks [see photo]. Water can be drank, it's safe, but a little acidic and is generally used for showers, cooking/washing up and laundry. Drinking water is brought in in large 20 litre ewers, decanted into 2 litre bottles and stored in the fridge. Strangely there is no guttering around the roofs of the house which is a waste as the roof surface area is large. At the moment rainwater just drains away into surrounding ground. This is one thing I intend to address in the future.
Took the family for a drive to a couple of local sites late morning. I was surprised to learn that Aom's mother, Somjit, has seen less of the area she has lived in all her life than me; in 7 years. So, it was nice break for her to get away from the chores on the farm.
First place was a rocky limestone outcrop with a commanding view of the countryside. The name in Thai script is unprintable here but can be seen in one of the photos; it means roughly "lime cliff". Very hot here in at around 37ºC.
TOP: View from "Lime cliff".
TOP RIGHT: Aom's brother, Joe posing on a rock outcrop.
BOTTOM LEFT: Aom and yours truly with a similar pose.
BOTTOM RIGHT: The name that roughly translated says :Lime cliff".
The second site is one I've been to a couple of times before. It's 3000 year-old remains of a temple and it's right on the border with Cambodia, literally. There are Thai and Cambodian army present at the site.
The odd thing here is that the road and it's markings just simple stop and terminate at the edge of the jungle with a simple pathway carrying on into Cambodia. To reach this area we have to go through an army checkpoint who keep hold of my I.D. Card just to make sure I don't sneak into Cambodia.... as if.
This one of several sites that both nations claim as theirs and, in the past, there's been open hostilities including gunfire and shelling. All's been quiet for a number of years now. It seems odd that there are two groups of army, Thai and Cambodian, who'll happily chat away and exchange cigarettes will suddenly turn on one another when hostilities re-occur.
Anyway, there we were driving along in the middle of nowhere when, of all things, an ice-cream seller appeared in front of us pottering along the road. Demands from my passengers to stop him did not go ignored so a toot on the horn brought the guy to a stop and ice-creams all round.
TOP LEFT: The ice-cream vendor.
TOP RIGHT: Thai border control guard.
CENTRE LEFT: The car's photo being recorded by one of the guards.
CENTRE RIGHT: The road to nowhere! Where Thailand end and Cambodia starts.
BOTTOM: The "disputed" 3000 year-old temple ruin.
Here's a short movie of the Prasat Ta Khwai site:-
Note: The two military guys 18 seconds into the movie are Cambodian soldiers who are guarding the track away fro the site deeper into Cambodia.
WEDNESDAY 21st:
Rumblings of thunder overnight and heavy rain in the small hours before dawn. By 08:00 it started raining again and didn't stop until early afternoon. It remained dull and overcast for the rest of the day; a welcome break from the tropical sun.
A day of slowly packing for our next 'holiday', this time to Koh Mak via Pattaya.
This was to be the holiday we promised ourselves without our son, Jack. He's staying behind with his grandparents and uncle; he'll be sadly missed but we know he'll be very well cared for.
Bus was due to leave Pratas Bus Terminal at 21:50 with an approximate arrival at Pattaya at the ungodly hour of 04:00 :-(
