to 
|  |
TonyT's 7th Thailand blog:
A month in and around the country:
March - April 2024.
Page 2
Surin & Nhong Rak village
SUNDAY 24th:
An uncomfortable night's sleep. Not used to the heat as yet coupled with a rock-hard matress (must buy a new one one day).
The farm’s looking good; lots more plantations of banana, casava, papaya, rubber and yams. Living in the slow lane now but it’s as equally intoxicating as back in the capital albeit for different reasons.
Today's main event was driving out to Surin city, 1 hour drive, to get our wedding photos professionally done. This seems the way to do it in Thailand as opposed to UK where the photos are usually taken on the day of the wedding.
Left home at 10:45 for the 1 hour drive to the suburbs of Surin city. Ended up parking in a Big-C (big Thai supermarket chain akin to Tesco in UK) carpark and walking the short distance to the place organising the wedding gear. I had no idea that the rigamarole would take over 3 hours. Most of the time Aom trying on various wedding dresses; in all of which she looked STUNNING. My outfit was a lot easier to try on. A good chunk of the time also was taken up with Aom's hair and makeup. The photo session followed with both of us in full wedding gear. The guy must have taken over 100 shots for us to select a single one for framing on the wedding day. I must confess to getting a touch stir crazy by this time and wanted to get out of there seeing as the job was done.
We left Surin city and stoppd off in Prasat on the way back to buy some stuff for dinner, mainly chicken, some prawns and potatoes.
Arrived back home just on 5pm.
MONDAY 25th
A decent nights sleep and wide awake at 5am.... well it is a working farm.
After breakfast I drove our truck into Prasat to buy some essentials. We’re now a long way away from the manic city of Bangkok and in deep rural Thailand.
Life very similar to home now, mundane at times, e.g.:-
Drove to town and picked up a new WC unit and replacement wash-basin from, I guess, the Thai equivalent to a B&Q, for the spare wet-room.
A couple of new wiper-blades for the big Toyota pick-up of mine.
Splashed out on a portable A/C unit for our bedroom which, for some reason, is the hottest in the house; no air-con in the house yet but my father in-law has finally invested in solar panels which are quite cheap here.
Big gathering of the Clans today starting to ready things for the BIG day on Thursday.
TOP LEFT: Young Jack enjoying the trench/pool his Grandad made for him.
TOP RIGHT: Aom, my wife, and her mother Somjit on then farm
2nd ROW LEFT: Aom amongst one of the new banana plantations.
2nd ROW RIGHT: Jack with his Thai cousins.
3rd ROW LEFT: Aom's cousins, left to right: Mee; TonyT, the author; Aom's aunt, Jan; Mon, Mee's wife; Aom.
3rd ROW RIGHT: Good morning Mr. Oink. One of the farm's residents
BOTTOM: Aom cooking chips which were absolutely yummie.
TUESDAY 26th:
The new portable air-con unit I bought yesterday barely up to the job at keeping our room temperature down to below 30ºC; quite noisy too.
People starting to show up before breakfast to help out with chores around the farm cooking food and generally trying to keep the place looking presentable.
The electricity supply out here in ultra rural Thailand has always been iffy. Last night was no exception as the power to the area failed completely for an hour then when it did return it was way below full voltage; barely sufficient to turn the fan-blades round.
Similarly, internet connection is, at best, sporadic. At best, it’s only a 2G service, or so it seems. This morning there was none at all until 10:45 so I’m writing this blog in Word and if and when access is back I can upload it to my webpage.
Power was sporadic most of the day.
People gathering by the dozen today to help get things organised for the wedding on Thursday. A truck load of marquee tents was delivered and unladed ready to put up tomorrow . It was realised than the site for one of the marquee’s would not fit in its designated area as it was obstructed by a large tree branch. Only one thing for it, the branch hjad to go and it was swiftly chain-sawed off
Food preparation was underway with a small army of “chefs”.
WEDNESDAY 27th:
Awake at 05:00 and already people/helpers starting to arrive.
A truck load of tables arrived followed shortly by six 1.5m x 1m insulated crates full of meat, mainly pork. One was. full of pig’s heads. Good job I’m not that squeamish. The sight would put lot of farangs (Westerners) off joining the event.
The sound of chop, chop, chop was heard for several hours as bits of pork were prepared. Sacks full of vegetables, rice (of course) and lot of unrecognisable edibles.
The 3 large marquees now fully erect, things were beginning to take shape.
Around 1pm the guys with the sound system arrived and started constucting a colossal bank of loudspeakers; Thais adore VERY loud music with maximum bass.
This was cranked-up at 2pm to, I have to say, pretty crap Thai music. In fact, it was bloody awful!!
Dozens of people milling round all doing their stuff; preparing food, erecting tables, sorting out floral displays, etc., etc.
TOP LEFT: Fresh fish. Scale removing.
TOP RIGHT: Food prreparation
2nd ROW LEFT: No caption needed. Not to my taste though.
2nd ROW RIGHT: Vegetable preparation.
3rd ROW LEFT: Preparing Lemon Grass.
3rd ROW RIGHT: Starting to get one of the marquee tents up.
Page 2
Surin & Nhong Rak village
SUNDAY 24th: TOP LEFT: Young Jack enjoying the trench/pool his Grandad made for him. TOP RIGHT: Aom, my wife, and her mother Somjit on then farm 2nd ROW LEFT: Aom amongst one of the new banana plantations. 2nd ROW RIGHT: Jack with his Thai cousins. 3rd ROW LEFT: Aom's cousins, left to right: Mee; TonyT, the author; Aom's aunt, Jan; Mon, Mee's wife; Aom. 3rd ROW RIGHT: Good morning Mr. Oink. One of the farm's residents BOTTOM: Aom cooking chips which were absolutely yummie.
TUESDAY 26th: TOP LEFT: Fresh fish. Scale removing. TOP RIGHT: Food prreparation 2nd ROW LEFT: No caption needed. Not to my taste though. 2nd ROW RIGHT: Vegetable preparation. 3rd ROW LEFT: Preparing Lemon Grass. 3rd ROW RIGHT: Starting to get one of the marquee tents up.
An uncomfortable night's sleep. Not used to the heat as yet coupled with a rock-hard matress (must buy a new one one day).
The farm’s looking good; lots more plantations of banana, casava, papaya, rubber and yams. Living in the slow lane now but it’s as equally intoxicating as back in the capital albeit for different reasons.
Today's main event was driving out to Surin city, 1 hour drive, to get our wedding photos professionally done. This seems the way to do it in Thailand as opposed to UK where the photos are usually taken on the day of the wedding.
Left home at 10:45 for the 1 hour drive to the suburbs of Surin city. Ended up parking in a Big-C (big Thai supermarket chain akin to Tesco in UK) carpark and walking the short distance to the place organising the wedding gear. I had no idea that the rigamarole would take over 3 hours. Most of the time Aom trying on various wedding dresses; in all of which she looked STUNNING. My outfit was a lot easier to try on. A good chunk of the time also was taken up with Aom's hair and makeup. The photo session followed with both of us in full wedding gear. The guy must have taken over 100 shots for us to select a single one for framing on the wedding day. I must confess to getting a touch stir crazy by this time and wanted to get out of there seeing as the job was done.
We left Surin city and stoppd off in Prasat on the way back to buy some stuff for dinner, mainly chicken, some prawns and potatoes.
Arrived back home just on 5pm.
MONDAY 25th
A decent nights sleep and wide awake at 5am.... well it is a working farm.
After breakfast I drove our truck into Prasat to buy some essentials. We’re now a long way away from the manic city of Bangkok and in deep rural Thailand.
Life very similar to home now, mundane at times, e.g.:-
Drove to town and picked up a new WC unit and replacement wash-basin from, I guess, the Thai equivalent to a B&Q, for the spare wet-room.
A couple of new wiper-blades for the big Toyota pick-up of mine.
Splashed out on a portable A/C unit for our bedroom which, for some reason, is the hottest in the house; no air-con in the house yet but my father in-law has finally invested in solar panels which are quite cheap here.
Big gathering of the Clans today starting to ready things for the BIG day on Thursday.
The new portable air-con unit I bought yesterday barely up to the job at keeping our room temperature down to below 30ºC; quite noisy too.
People starting to show up before breakfast to help out with chores around the farm cooking food and generally trying to keep the place looking presentable.
The electricity supply out here in ultra rural Thailand has always been iffy. Last night was no exception as the power to the area failed completely for an hour then when it did return it was way below full voltage; barely sufficient to turn the fan-blades round.
Similarly, internet connection is, at best, sporadic. At best, it’s only a 2G service, or so it seems. This morning there was none at all until 10:45 so I’m writing this blog in Word and if and when access is back I can upload it to my webpage.
Power was sporadic most of the day.
People gathering by the dozen today to help get things organised for the wedding on Thursday. A truck load of marquee tents was delivered and unladed ready to put up tomorrow . It was realised than the site for one of the marquee’s would not fit in its designated area as it was obstructed by a large tree branch. Only one thing for it, the branch hjad to go and it was swiftly chain-sawed off
Food preparation was underway with a small army of “chefs”.
WEDNESDAY 27th:
Awake at 05:00 and already people/helpers starting to arrive.
A truck load of tables arrived followed shortly by six 1.5m x 1m insulated crates full of meat, mainly pork. One was. full of pig’s heads. Good job I’m not that squeamish. The sight would put lot of farangs (Westerners) off joining the event.
The sound of chop, chop, chop was heard for several hours as bits of pork were prepared. Sacks full of vegetables, rice (of course) and lot of unrecognisable edibles.
The 3 large marquees now fully erect, things were beginning to take shape.
Around 1pm the guys with the sound system arrived and started constucting a colossal bank of loudspeakers; Thais adore VERY loud music with maximum bass.
This was cranked-up at 2pm to, I have to say, pretty crap Thai music. In fact, it was bloody awful!!
Dozens of people milling round all doing their stuff; preparing food, erecting tables, sorting out floral displays, etc., etc.