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TonyT's 10th Thailand blog:
6 weeks in and around the country:
July - August 2026.
Page 3
Surin, Phanom Dong Rak & Bak Dai village (continued)
TUESDAY 28th:
Overcast all morning but still in the low 30's, and remaining very humid at 89%.
Late morning saw Aom, Jack & brother-in-law James and me on our way to Pratas. Numerous aims; namely:
Get prices for a new chest freezer.
Get to a clinic for James medication.
Buy six 10kg sacks of animal feed,
Treat young Jack to some goodies such as crisps a fizzy drinks.
Buy some foodstuffs from the market stalls in Prasat.
With regards to the chest freezer, the current one is tiny and always overfilled. Priced up a couple in a local hardware shop; prices were reasonable, but I said I wanted to look further and check prices. This paid off as I bought a decent 7.5 cu.mt Toshiba which was a fair bit cheaper from a large supermarket place (akin to the UK's B&Q).
A stop off for some coffees at one of the Amazon coffee shops and we were back home by 4:30pm.
WEDNESDAY 29th:
I thought I'd woken up back in UK when looking out of the window. A heavily overcast sky with light drizzle. The only difference being when I stepped out to be greeted by the usual 30°C plus temperature and an unpleasant 85% humidity.
by noon the weather had improved but the humidity remained high. An hour swimming in the 25 metre pool was good. Even my in-laws went in for a dip along with Aom & Jack.
After drying off we drove to the noodle restaurant again. I must this place serves the tastiest noodle dishes; probably the best I've had; and I've been to a lot of noodle bars.
After food we drove into Phanom Dong Rak center to buy some basic provisions.
THURSDAY 30th:
Heavy rain again overnight making the track to the house ever deeper in mud
There is a story behind being forced to get to the farm from the highway via a long meandering deeply rutted track.
Historically, access to the farm had been down a 600mt straight well-kept track. Unfortunately, the track was a part of land owned by the neighbouring farm. Following a dispute (largely caused by rank stupidity on behalf of my father-in-law) the neighbouring farmer closed off access via this track causing significant inconvenience.
It now transpires that this neighbour has put the land up for sale and we are looking into ways of raising the cash to buy the land and get back the access road.
A bit of a family dispute today. We have a full house at the moment with all beds taken. My silly father-in-law took it on to himself to invite a distant relative to come and stay; much to the annoyance of the rest of the family. Although the guy, my mother-in-laws cousin, is an easy going chap it's still an invasion of our privacy here which is cherished.
We've been invited to one of the relatives house for a party. The family is the Rasitong family. One of their daughters, Chinda, has had a big promotion; she's big into civil service. One of their sons, Mee was my best-man at our second wedding in 2024; Mon, his wife was bridesmaid. Anyway, they are good friends as well as relatives.
We drove to the venue and I did my "sawadee kap's" and wai's* to all and big hugs to well-known aunts, uncles and family friends.
I didn't stay too long as my Thai is crap and hardly anyone apart from my wife and son spoke English. Rather than hang about like a spare part I drove back home with the idea of collecting my family later when summoned.
in the event it was Mee who brought them along with 5 or n6 kids in the back of his pick-up come to play in our pool. Great fun was had by all inspite of the heavens opening.... well they were getting wet anyway.
* Wai:
The hands-together gesture in Thailand is called the Wai (ไหว้), a traditional sign of respect, greeting, gratitude, or apology. It involves pressing the palms together in a prayer-like fashion while making a slight bow
As mentioned earlier, the farm is now 100% solar powered. Even the mains cable to the grid has been removed. In addition, unlimited potable water supply is now from reverse osmosis.
The farm's solar panel and the reverse osmosis equipment
FRIDAY 31st:
Up and out on the road early before breakfast. We took my brother-in-law, James to get his motorcycle driving licence renewed. Big queue = big delay, so we left James to it and drove down to the Lotus supermarket for a few provisions.
Aom wanted to show me where she used to live as a child in Prasat. When we got to the area she was disappointed to find how run-down the area had become. Once we found her old house she was mortified to see how unkempt it was. A litteral jungle surrounded the property; she said it was once one of the posh areas of the town.
Back to the Licencing Centre and James still not ready. We were having our own issues with my car as the licence (equivalent of UK Road Tax) expired on this day. The renewal had been paid for but it was yet to arrive in the post. This needed sorting as we were due to leave on a holiday the following day.
Sop whilst in the Licencing Centre, we attempted to have on printed out. However, bureaucracy as it is refused as we only had a photocopy of the ownership document and, also, they needed to see my passport to prove I was the true owner.
So, back home to get said documents and after some form-filling we left with a new licence. Just as well as there was a police ceckpoint on the way back to the house.
But we didn't go back to the house as I persuaded Aom to drive to the Ampur (UK equivalent of a Town Hall) to renew her I.D. Card. Sadly we got there a bit too late as they were closing for lunch.... maybe another day then.
We decided it was time to leave Surin and get organised for a holiday. The plan was to get going by 9am and give James a lift to his house in Chonburi.
Before that there was special eats. One of the farm pigs was bumped off and on the spit for a good roasting, so the family tucked-in to very tasty pork "bits" and crackling. Anthing left over is already in the new freezer.
TUESDAY 28th: Get prices for a new chest freezer. Get to a clinic for James medication. Buy six 10kg sacks of animal feed, Treat young Jack to some goodies such as crisps a fizzy drinks. Buy some foodstuffs from the market stalls in Prasat.
With regards to the chest freezer, the current one is tiny and always overfilled. Priced up a couple in a local hardware shop; prices were reasonable, but I said I wanted to look further and check prices. This paid off as I bought a decent 7.5 cu.mt Toshiba which was a fair bit cheaper from a large supermarket place (akin to the UK's B&Q). There is a story behind being forced to get to the farm from the highway via a long meandering deeply rutted track.
A bit of a family dispute today. We have a full house at the moment with all beds taken. My silly father-in-law took it on to himself to invite a distant relative to come and stay; much to the annoyance of the rest of the family. Although the guy, my mother-in-laws cousin, is an easy going chap it's still an invasion of our privacy here which is cherished.
* Wai: As mentioned earlier, the farm is now 100% solar powered. Even the mains cable to the grid has been removed. In addition, unlimited potable water supply is now from reverse osmosis.
The farm's solar panel and the reverse osmosis equipment
FRIDAY 31st:
Overcast all morning but still in the low 30's, and remaining very humid at 89%.
Late morning saw Aom, Jack & brother-in-law James and me on our way to Pratas. Numerous aims; namely:
A stop off for some coffees at one of the Amazon coffee shops and we were back home by 4:30pm.
WEDNESDAY 29th:
I thought I'd woken up back in UK when looking out of the window. A heavily overcast sky with light drizzle. The only difference being when I stepped out to be greeted by the usual 30°C plus temperature and an unpleasant 85% humidity.
by noon the weather had improved but the humidity remained high. An hour swimming in the 25 metre pool was good. Even my in-laws went in for a dip along with Aom & Jack.
After drying off we drove to the noodle restaurant again. I must this place serves the tastiest noodle dishes; probably the best I've had; and I've been to a lot of noodle bars.
After food we drove into Phanom Dong Rak center to buy some basic provisions.
THURSDAY 30th:
Heavy rain again overnight making the track to the house ever deeper in mud
Historically, access to the farm had been down a 600mt straight well-kept track. Unfortunately, the track was a part of land owned by the neighbouring farm. Following a dispute (largely caused by rank stupidity on behalf of my father-in-law) the neighbouring farmer closed off access via this track causing significant inconvenience.
It now transpires that this neighbour has put the land up for sale and we are looking into ways of raising the cash to buy the land and get back the access road.
We've been invited to one of the relatives house for a party. The family is the Rasitong family. One of their daughters, Chinda, has had a big promotion; she's big into civil service. One of their sons, Mee was my best-man at our second wedding in 2024; Mon, his wife was bridesmaid. Anyway, they are good friends as well as relatives.
We drove to the venue and I did my "sawadee kap's" and wai's* to all and big hugs to well-known aunts, uncles and family friends.
I didn't stay too long as my Thai is crap and hardly anyone apart from my wife and son spoke English. Rather than hang about like a spare part I drove back home with the idea of collecting my family later when summoned.
in the event it was Mee who brought them along with 5 or n6 kids in the back of his pick-up come to play in our pool. Great fun was had by all inspite of the heavens opening.... well they were getting wet anyway.
The hands-together gesture in Thailand is called the Wai (ไหว้), a traditional sign of respect, greeting, gratitude, or apology. It involves pressing the palms together in a prayer-like fashion while making a slight bow
Up and out on the road early before breakfast. We took my brother-in-law, James to get his motorcycle driving licence renewed. Big queue = big delay, so we left James to it and drove down to the Lotus supermarket for a few provisions.
Aom wanted to show me where she used to live as a child in Prasat. When we got to the area she was disappointed to find how run-down the area had become. Once we found her old house she was mortified to see how unkempt it was. A litteral jungle surrounded the property; she said it was once one of the posh areas of the town.
Back to the Licencing Centre and James still not ready. We were having our own issues with my car as the licence (equivalent of UK Road Tax) expired on this day. The renewal had been paid for but it was yet to arrive in the post. This needed sorting as we were due to leave on a holiday the following day.
Sop whilst in the Licencing Centre, we attempted to have on printed out. However, bureaucracy as it is refused as we only had a photocopy of the ownership document and, also, they needed to see my passport to prove I was the true owner.
So, back home to get said documents and after some form-filling we left with a new licence. Just as well as there was a police ceckpoint on the way back to the house.
But we didn't go back to the house as I persuaded Aom to drive to the Ampur (UK equivalent of a Town Hall) to renew her I.D. Card. Sadly we got there a bit too late as they were closing for lunch.... maybe another day then.
We decided it was time to leave Surin and get organised for a holiday. The plan was to get going by 9am and give James a lift to his house in Chonburi.
Before that there was special eats. One of the farm pigs was bumped off and on the spit for a good roasting, so the family tucked-in to very tasty pork "bits" and crackling. Anthing left over is already in the new freezer.