andyinthailand.blogspot.com

I am unable to upload pictures at the moment for unknown reasons. So I have set up a second blog at andyinthailand.blogspot.com

Baby Pics

Christening

Marriage

Prior to the birth of the baby, we went off to Bangkok and got married. There is a first time for everything. We got married on the 22nd December, which is Paa's birthday. There was no ceremony, we collected a paper from the British Embassy to say that I was free to get married, we had one for Paa from the local office where we live. We went in signed a book and that was pretty much it. There was no place at the registry office to take a photo.

Security Guard

While in Bangkok we went to find Num, Paa's brother. This involved a journey on the skytrain followed by a taxi, which was £5 for 30km. He was working in Bangkok, but we found out that it was a long way out of the city. He was working as a security guard for a housing estate. We stayed on the gate for a few hours with him, eating and chatting. He earned £2.50 a day and had to buy his own uniform, the job only lasted a few months.

Shop

While in Bangkok we visited the shop where Paa used to work. It is a similar store to Assessorise in Meadowhall. It is in a large shopping centre complex like Meadowhall but floors cracked and paint coming off the walls.

Big Shell or Ammonite

Keeow our next door neighbour came to tell us about about a big shell that had been dug up in a village locally. Paa then related stories about shells that had been dug up that people could stand in and suggested that they were live the ammonite that I wear around my neck. I was intrigued because the area is volcanic so no fossils to be found .... unless the info I had from the Geological Society equivalent in Thailand was wrong. Lets go and see I said immediately, I think that they were all hoping I would say that so that the petrol was free :-)

So off we went to see the mysterious shell, about 10km we eventually found the house. The shell was about 6 inches long, it was a seashell and it wasnt in a good condition, and probably that when it was buried.

What was of interest were the things that had been found buried alongside it. Many stones, often rounded, half a dozen pieces of black obsidion which is formed by volcanic heat and two things that can only be descibed as nearly flat pestle and mortars. The shell can be just seen in the pic and the older looking of the pestle and mortars. So maybe it was old or ancient Khymer artifacts that had been buried somehow. My guess would be 100 or more years old but could from a lot earlier. My plan will be to look at local museums and try to guess the date.

Charlotte Alison Lee

We went and registered the birth of Charlotte today. A form from the hospital, off to the local Ampur (council ) office. She is named Alison after my mother, who died nearly two years ago. She is starting to open her eyes a bit, sounds make her jump which is a good sign. Hopefully soon she will have a proper tummy button, I think i caught the scrivelled cord when I was changing her nappy and made her squeal which was awful. A couple of times she appeared to smile at me but I think she was just testing out her face muscles. She sleeps nearly all the daytime and tends to wake up more regularly during the night. She doesnt cry very much at the moment which is great.

Paa is well, sleeping at the moment which is something she hasnt been able to do much recently.

There are various things that the local women say one cant eat after a birth here, like bananas, water melons, chicken and beef. Paa also says she has to drink warm water, the first cup I half filled from the kettle and topped it up with cold water from the dispenser on the fridge door to cool it down. I got told off because she isnt allowed cold water, I should have put room temperature water in :-)

She has arrived

The baby is a 5.5lb girl :-)
She arrived a month earlier than the doctor said (Feb 26) she arrived today (Jan 26th). At 1am Paa noticed some 'water', we went to check with a nearby small clinic in Huai Rat which is on the way to Buriram. Paa was not having contractions just back ache. When we arrived, half an hour or so later, they said she was 8cm dilated and that it would be risky going to the hospital in Buriaram, they couldnt spare a nurse to go with us except in an emergency.
I was not allowed in (thankfully :-) ).
At around 3am there was a lot of commotion around the door to the room, i signalled baby to a nurse and she nodded. However they wanted to put the baby in an incubator for 3 hours to be on the safe side as she was early.
She is now out of the incubator, Paa has a 'private room' (see the picture) and her and the baby are doing very well.

She has light skin, a spotty nose, bug eyes and a pointy head, but she is very beautiful. The baby that is .... Paa is just the latter.

Monk

One of the lads in the village called Port became a monk. He is not married yet, so it is thought that by doing this for a week or a month, he will bring good luck to his parents. Port had great hair like Jim Morrison of the Doors, until he shaved his head.

All the villagers helped with the party. Cooking, killing the pigs and all the other jobs. My job was drinking which I actually did too well.

Good luck for the village - Patanar (sp)

Many villagers involved themselves in cleaning the village. This happens once a year and is called Pat-a-nar. This involved cutting back trees, cutting grass and clearing rubbish in communal areas. In the afternoon there was a blessing for the village and in the evening there was a party.

Finishing the garden

We had 15 truckloads of rice field soil dumped in the garden and pushed around by tractor. Hopefully the orange tree seedlings that I have grown will get big enough to plant in a few months. We might not get good oranges but they supposably smell good. The other news from the garden is that the potatoes are sprouting, everyone said that potatoes had no chance, well I dont know whats happening under the soil but above is looking good. Bananas coming on, water melons self seeded, guavas good and a few self seeded tomatoes have been good.

Xmas

We spent christmas afternoon at the Farang Connection in Surin, which is about 40km from us. A great meal and good company. Mac & Bee and Ron & Cha from the next village and Ray & Sanan from the south of Buriram county.

Village life

It has been quite quiet in the past few weeks, even though a lot of people came back to the village for new year. The returnees were mainly men but also a few women who work on building sites around Thailand. The ones closest to me work at Bangkok and Phuket at present. They generally work for very little money, starting salary is about 170 bht a day (£2.40), more experienced workers can get a lot more though and some get good bonuses. However compared to wages in the UK they get very little, though they have advantages that we do not have, such as they can live off the land to a greater extent than we could ever. They appear to be going back after a week in the village.
Jobs recently around the village .... a month ago, everyone was collecting rice straw for the buffalo and cows during rice growing season when they can not be let out into the fields.
After that everyone went mad on draining the pools in the rice fields and finding fish and snails, a lot of the fish have been saved by making a smelly rotten fish sauce type thing, i suppose like salting, smoking, pickling and currying, it saves the fish from really rotting.
Digging for land crabs is taking place, mainly by older women it appears to me. Many people are tending little allotment gardens, like myself, because it is the cold season.

Here are two pics, one of Joe with two frogs for eating, and a woman looking for snails as the pond is drained.

The patter of tiny hooves

I am pleased to announce that the smaller of our two female buffalo has had a baby girl, the larger one (and the one that I thought was pregnant) (which all the thai men give me thumbs up signal when talking about) her has yet to give birth.

She has now given birth to a baby boy buffalo, the second pic.

BABY

I just realised (because of the comments) that I havent posted about the birth of the baby. Thats probably because I write to the pics and none of the baby yet. Though I will probably be the proud father in a few months and there will be too many pics of baby then. The baby is going to be a girl and is due on feb 26th (according to the doc). I can't wait to see her :-)

Prasat Khao Phra Wihan

Two friends, Mike and Terry came over to Thailand for a holiday and visited me while they were here. We went, with Mac and his wife Bee, to a Khymer temple on the border of Thailand and Cambodia. Its actually in Cambodia but one can go over just to look and no passport is needed. The price for westerners is 10 times the price for Thai people. The usual pricing for not Thai people is twice or so. This was extreme.
The temple has suffered a bit from the various border problems over the last 10 centuries, and the minefields that were there until very recently according to the signs. Three countries can be seen on the walk up. Laos is visible in the distance. The views over the Cambodian forest are great. The actual buildings, the three Temple complexes on the way to the fourth complex at the summit, are fantastic. These pictures dont do the temples justice really, but give you a clue to their magnificence.

The Village Well

Most people get their drinking water from the village well. It became infected with "black from a pond" I was told. So after a couple of weeks with no water, they got round to pumping it out. It is OK now.

Rice Harvest

The rice harvest has all but finished here, just the brown rice to go I think. A couple of pictures. One of the truck taking rice to the store. The other putting rice in sacks after drying it on the road. The roads are some of the only flat surfaces where rice can be dried. There is no stealing around here, so the rice is safe. Generally half the road is used to dry rice, occasional passing points are left so that one doesnt have to drive over the rice. It is then put in special bucket, 4 buckets per bag. Paa's mum is at present, cutting rice in the fields by hand for money 160 bht per day (70 bht to the £1). Back breaking work, like picking potatoes when I was young.

Eating

I usually dont eat village type food. I did when I first arrived but I only eat it once a week(ish) now. Anyway here is a picture of me eating rice and fish, on our drive. They wanted to eat on the drive for some reason, I know it's cooler outside but the drive!

The garden

The garden is starting to look great. The first banana tree to fruit is doing a fantastic job. One mango tree is flowering and one Guava tree is fruiting. Everything is starting to sprout leaves. We have a couple of self seeded tomatoes and papaya. Nong (dad) is digging the garden to make an allotment style garden, I'm looking like I am helping, but its hot. In a year it will look fantastic. Paa has a Dengthai (sp) similar to a watermelon but less watery yellow fruit inside.

My new friends

As you will have seen before, there are scorpions and snakes, here are just a few of my new friends. I have started colleting dead insects and am pinning them to a deep picture frame thing. Looks good to me anyway. Outside I have a snake that was run over by many cars and a buffalo skull.

Our local Wat (temple)

Pictures of Nong (dad) and Doot (uncle) at the Wat and a wall painting that Paa and I sponsored, though strangely only Paa gets a mention on wall ....

Email address

If you read this blog and I havent got your email address.... please send it to me ..... andylee1964@hotmail.com

Fishing near the House

Here are a few shots of Rooum and Nong (Paa's dad) fishing in Rooum's pond near my house. The children are collecting 'salad' to eat with the evening meal.

Some views of the house

The house is really great inside, al the floors are tiled with cream tiles (mock stone in kitchen) and the bathrooms are (white and) blue and green. The showers now work though I do like a cold shower now to be honest, it is very hot mostly and hot at the other times. Outside I have had a pond made down one side of the house there is no gutter on that side of the house so rain falls like a curtain into the pond when it does rain. There are about 8 different kinds of fish in the pond, some from the rice fields and ponds and some goldfish type and others that were bought. On the back I have an open concrete post and straw roof structure, with seating and a hammock. The next job is the garden and gates on the front and back, though I am not going to rush :-)

Chicken (gai or conkers)

The children sometimes play a game called chicken (in Thai that is Gai). Chicken grass seems to grow in our garden and the children of the village collect it. It is a strong grass with a large knot at the end. One child holds their grass out and the other hits it with their piece of grass, the winner is the one with grass knot still on grass stem, I am sure that I used to play something similar!

Rice Harvest

Everyone around here seems to have had an excellent harvest this year. Our fields have yealded 32 sacks of rice, after drying on the road. I cant say that I actually did that much work. Paa's parents laboured, I drove the truck a little bit. Everyone in the village seems to help other people when there is work to be done, we have been out sweeping rice and bagging it up for people.

My Buffalo and Cow

Here are some pictures of the buffalo etc in my garden. Paa's dad looks after them behind his house, but puts them out to graze in my garden sometimes.

House Warming

The house warming went well, everyone enjoyed it except me, I was ill for three days. I have a couple of pics but am unable to reduce them so I dont know if i can display them. Nine monks came from the temple. The house was decorated. The outside had various things made specially for the housewarming like eight banana trees tied together round the house and the string going inside and round the monks. The ceremony lasted a long time, for me sat on a tiled floor anyway. Paa's mum and dad stood in as proxies for the second half.
So we are now allowed to sleep in the house. We have done so twice and then returned to house in Pattaya, for last two weeks by the seaside.

House

Well I am back from my trip to England. Sorry if I did not get a chance to see you, I did attempt to see as many people as possible. Anyway back here and straight away I travelled up to Ban Lum Puk, Buriram, to see the house. It is looking fantastic and to prove it here are some pics, since these were taken all the builders rubbish has disappeared. The house warming party is on the 3rd of August, the monks at the Wat have said that 3 is a good day for a housewarming party. So I will get some pics of that on here soon. The elephant came to the village and I got a shot of it in front of our house.

Flight

The trip back from England to Thailand was a monster journey. Leaving Sheffield my so called taxi did not turn up, Brother-in-Law to the rescue. Trip across Sheffield, pick up car and drive myself to London. Get lost in London. Get driven to airport, only to find out that I got time wrong and am two hours earlier than expected. London to Male in the Maldives, the Maldives look fantastic from the air and look good for a honeymoon. Unfortunately two Spaniards got of the plane in Male rather than wait until Colombo, which delayed us. We landed in Colombo and a few of us had an 11 hour stopover. They put us up in a hotel on the beach which was fantastic. Shower, then paddle, then bar and buffet and another shower, great. Then on to Bangkok and a two hour taxi. 41 hours and I see Paa again

Back in Blighty for two weeks

Just to let anyone who doesnt know, I am coming back for two weeks, arriving in London on the 1st of July and leaving on the 16th July. Just enough time to see a few people and sort out a few bits and pieces.

Fishing Parks

I have been fishing a few times over here, firstly with Terry and Andy at Pattaya then we went to Jomtien Fishing Park where the fish are BIG. After that I took Mac for his first fish ever pictured and then Chem, Paa’s little cousin, when he came to Pattaya with us for a holiday.

Jellyfish

Chem loved the beach and we went swimming every day, unfortunately on the last day I got stung by a jellyfish for the first time in my life. It did not hurt as much as I thought, just like a nettle sting.

Money Tree

The local villages all created money trees to take to the local infant school. They used my truck to take one of Ban Lum Puk’s trees. People danced in front of the trucks until they got to the school. An excuse for a days party.

Monkeys on the Visa Run

I did my first visa run, that means 3 months has passed, I went to the Cambodian border near Buriram, it took about an hour to drive. A man helped me through the process and I gave him a few hundred baht. Just as we were leaving the border crossing to go to the Thai border market we spotted some monkeys in the trees, then they crossed the road. Needless to say I didn’t get too close. There were monkeys on one of the golf courses I played.

Draining the Ponds

Early one morning Paa’s mum came round and said would I drive the car because they were draining a fishing pond, I jumped at the opportunity, little realising that my truck was to be fish transporter and fish selling vehicle for the whole day. The day was great fun however, I didn’t go in this time because of a foot rash, heat I think. They drained two ponds and got hundreds of fish. Mainly two types, one a catfish with spikes, which got me (more about that later). There were two eels and about six green snakes. The star of the show was Joe, a boy about 10, who is an expert at picking up all the fish and snakes, there are a couple of pics, one of him with a snake.
Just at the end I was washing fish and through the net a catfish spiked me. It was explained by action that pain could travel up my arm. Paa’s mum sucked the blood out for a few minutes then Paa’s grandma and granddad came to heal me, they spat red stuff on the tiny wound then made hand gestures as if to tell the poison to go away. It worked I go no pain, I think they were overly worried because I was a ‘farang’ (non SE Asian) or westerner.

Scorpion

Mac found a brown scorpion in his garden a few weeks ago and told me about it. Well last week we found two black scorpions in my garden when moving bricks they were not that big, but I was impressed.

Songkran

Songkran is Thai New Year. It is a mad festival where people throw water at each other. We went to play Songkran in Surin. Everyone got very wet. Paa even threw water over the police. I also saw monks getting water thrown over them. It lasts three days in most places and about nine days in Pattaya. It sounds great but goes on too long. We went back to Pattaya on the last day of Songkran there and it took three hours to go a few miles, which is tiresome when you have washed your truck and travelled 5 hours and 450kms.

House

Well the main news is that the house is being built. In four months I should have a three bedroomed house. I have to start thinking of colours for things now, roof wise thailand uses some strange colours, yellow, red, blue, green etc.
Started to plant trees in the garden already, coconut 3, chompoo 2, samo 1, mango 3, knun 2, lime 1, farang 2 and a strange cherry 1, as well as 3 bananas.
The reason that I havent written to the blog is both my back (which "went" for the last 5 days) and travelling a lot back and forth to Buriram, I will find a good internet cafe in Buriram. In four months I hope to get broadband, that will be better.
I will post more about the various things, like finding scorpions in my garden, children finding snakes when fishing, going looking for frogs at night to eat (which I didnt eat, but I have eaten 2 frogs) and Songkran (Thai New Year) festival where everyone soaks each other with water for three or more days.
I hope to be playing a bit of snooker when I go back to Buriram today, my back is a lot better.

My cow

I might have mentioned that we have a cow and two buffalo. They are looked after by Paa’s dad and grandparents. Here is a pic of the cow, I will get one of the buffalo.

Grandparents

I got a shot of Paa’s grandparents, the usual stance when you ask to take a photo in the village. Mouth closed, stand straight, arms by their sides. They live in a little shack type house, in the middle of rice fields with no proper road and no electricity, water is gained by handpump or collecting rainwater. They have a nice little allotment and even grow tobacco.

Fishing in Pattaya

We found out that there was a fishing lake, 40 baht (50p) for a rod for the day and 20 baht for bait. I caught two fish the first time in two hours. The next time three of us only caught 1 in 6 hours (18 hour total). A very enjoyable day though. Yesterday we went to Jomtiem Fishing Lake and caught even bigger fish, I will upload the pics soon, Andrew must have caught 250lb of fish. I only caught about 100lb.

Buriram Night Bazaar

There are some pictures of the bazaar or market. It is very colourful and more exciting because it is at night. The fish and other things are often alive. Very different vegetables to what we are used to, although a couple of stalls do potato and carrots.

Thai Fishing

The day after the wedding Paa asked if I wanted to see Thai fishing. At a local village pond, all the local villagers paid 50 Baht per team or net to catch as many fish as they could. I had been wanting to see them fishing up close, but got a lot closer than I expected, it was a very hot day and after a couple of invites to join in, I did, much to their surprise. I became Paa’s uncle Ee-at’s fish collector. He threw the net, and then we felt around in the mud under the net for fish. I only caught one, every time I touched one I was so surprised I was not quick enough to grab it. Some great pictures. A couple of people got injured by spiky fish, luckily I did not even get a scratch. Just after I got out Ee-at found a snake in the water and threw it to me!

The Wedding

The day after the funeral, was the start of Num’s 3 day wedding. Num is Ampha’s brother and I helped out a bit with his dowry ‘sin sod’ and bought a few boxes of beer for the party. It was a long event, a party at Ampha’s family home in a marquee, a ceremony for the groom and what appeared to be his best man. Breakfast for everyone the next day, round at the bride’s family home - with beer. Then a blessing for the bride and groom at Ampha’s family home, I was blessed and given a hand made piece of cloth by the brides family, as was Ampha, I asked why we were singled out and was told it was because I had helped the family pay the sin sod etc. Then the next day was the actual wedding at the brides family home. Pictures are included. The bride also had to wash the feet of the ‘in-laws’. Num now goes to live at the brides house until he gets a home of his own presumably. I went upstairs at the house that he will be living in. They had made a 2”x2” frame and nailed hardboard to it to create a 9’x9’ room. Thai houses like Ampha’s mum and dad’s have one large room upstairs and mum, dad and children all sleep in it. Num and Don had their honeymoon at our house in Pattaya. Num’s two brothers and a friend decided to come as well - strangely to me, but to them I believe it seemed normal.

The Funeral

Unfortunately, the old man in the village who was unwell, had died when we arrived in Ban Lum Puk village. The ‘wake’ or whatever the Thai’s call it was underway. There were small marquees set up ready for the next day. The funeral lasts a couple of days. On the day of his cremation, about 9 monks presided over the ceremony. They ranged in age from the older man about 60ish to a young monk of about 13. There is a picture of the older monk, he was the one who blessed both our car and Ampha and I on two separate occasions. There was a long ceremony, they talked about his life, mentioned a lot of people from the village, there were many jokes and laughter from the crowd. The coffin was next to the crowd all the time and after the ceremony a truck which had been dressed up arrived to take the coffin to the site which had been chosen to burn him on – a field about 100 yards from our wall. We followed the coffin in procession to the field. A pyre had been built below a dressed up frame and on each corner of the frame a banana tree had been tied. His coffin was placed on the pyre and after a few more words was set alight, his mattress and clothes were burnt along with him so that he would have something to wear and sleep on in Buddhist heaven. The ray of light in this whole story was the little baby who was born on the exact same day as the old man died, she was his great granddaughter.

The Police and Paa

Well Almost up to date, I have just spent a few hours attempting to get pictures on and write this blog. I could not have done it without Sean - thanks for that. I'm glad people are reading the blog. Here are just a few pics of Paa.
I am back in Pattaya now, I drove down yesterday. Stopped and fined by the police, I was in the wrong - no passport, and driving on a red number plate in the night, but I had to pay a "fine" of 28 pounds at first he said just over 100 pounds, or face the prison cells. Totally different from the policeman who changed my wheel in the middle of the night and would not accept 7 pounds from me as thanks. I do object to highway robbery, like I witnessed yesterday. If I am fined, that money should go to help the people of Thailand, not line the pockets of the individual policemen.
Anyway enough of the rant, I did only have a 'copy' of my passport.
So on a lighter note here are some pics of Paa.

Disco

We went to speed disco two nights in the week, I took some pictures.

Weaving and Pigs

Other things of note are firstly the weaving and silk production that goes on. Last time I think I mentioned the weaving and will put up the pictures when I can. This time I saw the stages of silk production and a few finished silks. They grow what must be mulberry (or Thai equivalent), feed the caterpillars, let them make the cocoons and presumably breed. The silks are amazingly time consuming and they get about 1,000 baht (£16) for them, they must take a month.
Secondly two pigs died, a piglet in the next village died of the wrong pills being given to it or something. The wall workers (Paa’s mum, dad, brothers, uncles, aunts and cousins) wanted me to buy it for them to cook, I did. I watched them butcher it and eat almost every bit (only some part like a gall bladder or something was discarded) even the intestines were barbequed. I ate crackling and a bit of pork.
Paa’s mum, Puk has 2 pigs and one mysteriously died, some said it may have been a big snake that is reputed to live in the bamboo behind her house. Who knows. Anyway I watched that being butchered, and was invited to try myself, I declined as I had not washed my hands J. They cut the pig up, cooked the head and trotters, and boiled the internal organs. The meat was divided into piles of about 2 kgs. Whenever something like that happens all the villagers and maybe other villages buy the meat at a cheaper price that normal, but that helps the pig raiser with money and at least they get a return for their investment. I have pictures of the butchering. Work on both mine and Jimmy’s wall stopped for the day.

The Wall and Village Life

Our wall is coming on, I have no idea why I took no pictures. These pictures are the ones from before, I thought that post was too full of pictures. Everyday people were working on our wall. I often bought them lunch, and melons, oranges or whatever. In the evening I buy them 1 bottle of Thai whiskey (55p) and 3 big bottles of Beer Chang (£1.75). The village is the same as ever, quiet and generally sleepy. When we arrived a lot of people were at an old man’s house, he is dying and everyone was round to get him better. There were about 12 women round him, Paa’s mum was administering remedies to him and lightly massaging him, other women were fanning him. The noise was extraordinary by our standards when someone is ill, because the Khmer women are louder than Thais generally, there were also half a dozen children around and half a dozen men further away that I sat and drank with. When I left I was told that the poor man had not eaten for 4 days and was not expected to make it for much longer. The villagers can seem very hard, they take death as a normal part of life. They often seem not to care about one another by there mannerisms and shouting, but that is not the case. They take care of each other in an amazing way. Everytime they get something off me like oranges or beer, it will be immediately shared with everybody including myself, even people driving past will be offered drink or food. They seem to pass on food to the older ones so that no one will starve. I regularly give the old ladies a few baht (25p) they may get two meals for that, or three whiskies.
We saw Paa’s grandma a few times and passed food on to her, she lives in a little shack of a house with no electricity or running water and no road, just a walk across the rice friends. She is a tiny lady, slightly stooped but a strong as an ox I would say. I watched her fishing one day in a shallow fishing pool, she walked about in the mud, with bamboo type fishing thing that I can only describe as an upside down funnel. She shoved it into the shallow water and with her arm down the wide spout end checked for fish. She caught 3 in 30 minutes, enough for her and her husband for a meal. She also has an allotment garden, with everything from bananas to tobacco. I must get a picture of her.

Koh Samet and Chantiburi

I decided to have a little trip around the coast, so travelling south and then east, Paa and I had a drive. Initially it was very boring a long dual carriageway, but we turned off towards the sea when we were about 10 km away from the island of Koh Samet, the first bit of beach was incredible, there should be a picture, there were umbrellas for the tourists and little stalls every so often, but there were no tourists, the beaches were almost deserted for miles. We stopped, Paa ate and I searched for shells - the best shell beach yet.
When we got to the harbour where the boats leave for Koh Samet, the boats had already left in the morning and we had arrived mid afternoon. We decided to stay on the island for a night and get our own speed boat over there. That was great, calm water zooming along. The boat man asked if we wanted to see a turtle for extra money. I immediately said yes. I didn’t realise it was captive in a fish farm. There were small sharks (pictured) and a large one.
Afternoon on the island beach was great, great food later with a fire show which was impressive, and then on to the island disco, which was little more than bar with a mirror ball.
The next day we zoomed off on the speed boat, and then travelled to Chantiburi, the gem stone centre of Thailand. Then a snap decision to travel up to Paa’s Village. A different route to usual and a longer route. We didn’t arrive until darkness.
On the way there were blue signs (tourist attractions) to a waterfall and a wildlife park. We arrived at 3.17pm, then waterfall closed at 3.00pm, then wildlife centre consisted of about 10 cages, 8 of which contained peacocks and peahens. There was also a bridge that went over the river, the highlight was a couple of beautiful butterflies by the stream. To small for the phone’s camera to pick up.

Elephant Riding

Living in a house now

Well a lot has happened since I last wrote. Last time I was in Pattaya. I stayed a little while longer in Pattaya. Some friends from England were on holiday here (Colin, Leanne, Janet and John) so we spent some time with them. Some of the pictures that I am trying to upload are of that time. Paa and I took Colin and Leanne to Koh Lan island, 20 Baht for a boat trip from Pattaya, the boat takes a half hour. Then we took a little motorbike taxi to a beach (busy) and then on to a more secluded one. A great day, I got slightly sunburnt, we played in rubber rings, drank the odd beer, and I went snorkelling, with coral, fish, sea slugs and sea urchins - and the journey cost less than £1. There are photos of us hopefully.
Another night we went to Ruan Tai (spelling?) restaurant, to eat well and see the Thai dancing. After that it was the Malibu show, which is hilarious, and their are pics of that as well.
The day we left Pattaya for Buriram was mad. We booked tickets on the bus (7 Hours on the VIP bus - £5) then we went off to The Million Years Stone Park and Pattaya Crocodile Farm.. The Park was very beautiful, there were various large pieces of fossilised tree, but nothing to tell the visitor where they came from, what tree it was, or how old they were. I can however guarantee that it was older than 1 million years and most likely (Jurassic or) Cretaceous. The park also had a zoo, also badly signed and the animals are not given the attention they would be in England, but they were the best looked after that I have seen in Thailand. The Crocodile Farm had a mad bloke doing a show, there is a picture, but we just caught the last few minutes of the show.
On the way back from there the motorbike that we had rented got a puncture. A mile or so down the road (I got a motorbike taxi and Paa rode the bike because she weighs less) was a bike garage. Unfortunately even Paa’s weight had destroyed the tyre, so we had to buy a new tyre and inner tube - the cost 200 baht or £3 and that includes fitting!!!
So we got back, popped in a shop, saw a bed on offer, and had it delivered to the village, Ban Lum Puk in Buriram. Suddenly we realised we were booked on the coach in 20 mins, I don’t know how but we left the shop, got our luggage, took the bike back and got to the bus station.
We arrived in Buriram at about 2am, tried to get in at the disco, but it had closed so we went to the post disco bar, see a couple of pics of us and her brother and uncle who came to pick us up.
So then we had two weeks at Ban Lum Puk, Paa’s village. In that time we have bought a car, Isuzu Hi-Lander 3.0 tdi and a Yamaha Mio Moped, both black and the car/truck has blacked out windows. There is a picture of it in Huai Rat train station car park, Paa is in the noodle bar/hut behind the car. The pictures in the village are from the mobile phone, the batteries ran out on the camera and I forgot the charger, but they are reasonable. The ones of her aunt weaving are an attempt to show daily life which I will attempt to carry on in the pictures, she was weaving for a couple of days while we were there, and she will be doing it for many more days.
Elephant riding was a great adventure. Paa’s cousins uncle has an elephant, so we, Jimmy and Nong, Tony and Donna and their kids went to ride the elephant. Not something I would normally do if in a zoo, but it was family so I thought yes … and I am glad I did. We started off on the road which was a bit boring, and all the cars were zooming past, they didn’t scare the elephants luckily. Then we turned off into countryside and wow, along a track, then into the trees and then a lake. We were doing the Tarzan noise and shouting ‘ungower’, it was great, and we had umbrellas as if we were on some tiger hunt in India 100 years ago. Great time. Then we had to go under the elephant 3 times for luck. Then the elephants ate and drank Thai whiskey.
We decided to start building the wall round the land in the village so that we are ready to build a house. There are some great pictures of the building site. I will put more up when we go back. Children on site, dogs, chickens, it is amazing. But work wise, I was amazed, six men and six women working, and working hard, for 10 hours a day, for very little. I bought food at lunch for them, and then 3 bottles of beer and a bottle of thai whiskey for the end of the day. The pictures are great so I hope that I can up load them.
Then I came back to Pattaya, driving the new car, with the bike roped in the back. Paa and I are setting up a house in Pattaya for six months, to use as base while we get used to living together, and while we build the house. This house has two bedrooms with on-suite bathrooms so that friends can stay. Just need some friends …. to visit :-)

Here for a Year

Been here nearly a week and not managed to get to write.
The flight was great, but when I got to Bangkok I waited and waited for my golf clubs. Everything was taken off the conveyor belt at the end and still no sign of my clubs. They had been left in Dubai. They arrived at my hotel the following afternoon.
Staying in Pattaya at the moment. It is hot as usual.
I have been playing golf a lot, three times in fact but have stopped for the moment for two reasons firstly my blisters have got blisters and secondly I am next to useless at it :-) The golf courses are great, spotted a few birds, insects etc. I inspected most of the bunkers :-) Even though I was not very good, I did enjoy the walk.
Playing a lot of pool in the Hole-in-one Bar as usual, and will be there in a few minutes as it is literally three doors away.
I have been looking around at cars, but am going to check them out near the village because I think that they will be cheaper there.
Been for a massage, a haircut and a manicure :-) so I am not suffering.
Have just spent the last hour or so on a deck chair on the beach, as I have on the afternoons when I have not been golfing.
What more can I say, other than you have to experience the street life here, every little stall that wheels past has something interesting on it, whether it's insects or fruit or nuts or sausages. The one just passing is squid and sausage :-) and another just pased with 5 different fruits.
It's still very warm here (5 o'clock) the sun is low now so it is very pleasant.
I want to go to the local botanical gardens, Ampha does not want to because someone she knew split with her partner there. Lets hope I get there. If not I may go to the million year old stone park, they advertise that a fossiled tree stump is over 1 million years old, more like 70+ million I think. Anyway I am less keen on that because it is also a crocodile farm and as I generally object to zoos I don't think I will approve.
Other than that loving it here, I have made the right decision, I have stopped biting my nails, the worry I had about the big change in my life has gone now. When I get a base (or even 2) it will be even better. Bye for now.

Back again

Well here I am again, back in Thailand, I have been feeling unwell but that is not Thailands fault, I was ill before I left the UK.
I am feeling a lot better today, just been for a Thai massage, which was great, but tickled on feet, I am not used to it.
Ampha's birthday was on the 22nd, yesterday, I bought her a gold bracelet. I also gave her the England shirt that I bought for her in England, I had forgotten to give it to her.
Booked a car for the 27th to go to Ampha's village for a week, that will be the interesting time. Here there are a lot of bars, and I do like to have the odd beer.
I have been walking on the seafront today after a great thai breakfast. We went to a place called MK, you order lots of little trays of uncooked food and in the middle of the table you have a big thing of boiling water and you put all the food in the pot and when it has boiled all tuck in, it was really nice.
I will write some more about the village, I am excited to see Ampha's paddy field and see where we will build our house.
Speak soon :-)

Back in the UK

32 days until touchdown in bangkok. I cant wait to get there. I am a bit nervous about leaving my job and friends etc., but "you only live once" as I keep telling myself.

Going home soon :-(

Going home soon, don't want to go :-(
Leaving here at 2.30 in the morning, travelling 2 hours in friends car, 3 hour wait at bangkok, 6 hour flight to Abu Dhabi, wait 2 hours, 7 hour flight to Heathrow, 4 hour wait, then 1 hour flight to Manchester, friend meeting me and bringing me home (probably 30 hours ish, last time was).
Going for something to eat and say goodbye to thailand. Been paddling today in the Gulf of Thailand, lovely warm water. It is still really hot here, I am sweating after walking half an hour.
Anyway see people monday.

Back in Pattaya

Didn't buy a cow after all.
Visited temple.
Drove back with Ampha and myself, plus three cousins and a baby in the back. I was very worried as they didnt seem to know what seat belts were and they had no baby seat anyway. The roads are really terrible. I bought everyone noodles and water and for five I paid one pound sixty pence.
Had a thai massage today, which was great, I was thinking that with the 30 hours travel ahead my back may not make it. Feels good now :-)
At the moment, we have just come out, had a couple of drinks at bars with friends, and we will probably eat soon, I am starting to feel hungry.
Things of interest, a rhinoceros beetle, a praying mantid that looked like a stick insect, a large lizard and I think I mentioned the black rat.
The houses in her village are amazing, the older people like in wooden houses, more like shacks really. The eldest i visited were not much more than shacks, and as the people in the house got younger the more western they became. Jimmy and Nong's being the most westernised, i.e. it had a proper toilet (wihich I got to use) rather than a squat toilet and a bowl of water, which I hade a slight dislike of.
Think we will go to the disco tonight, and yes surprisingly I will dance (if you can call it that), the disco is amazing, dancing round tables and lots of dancers.
Anyway I have a beer waiting for me, it's really hot, and a nice meal awaits.
Shame about the library, I will not let it worry me until I get back and then I will say something. See you monday.

Buriram

Ampha and I hired a car and drove to Buriram. It took 6 hours to get there. Some of the roads had very, and i mean very big potholes in them. I hit some and thought we might crash, however we survived. We drove through hours and hours of rice fields, some bananas and some unidentified, but mostly rice. We booked in at the hotel and went straight over to Ampha's village. Her family farm rice, as soon as i arrived people started appearing, when i got there there were 6 people, after about 20 mins there were 40 people. Come to stare at me :-) instant party. We went back to the hotel, and then went out to the disco, two westerners in the disco. The next day we went back to the village, I had a look at the rice fields, the cows, buffalo. I watched rice being cut by machine and a dog suddenly raced after an animal, we all followed and the dog caught it, it was a big black rat (they said it was small) the dog killed it and the farmer took it back home to eat. I met Ampha's teacher at the 3-day inter-village sportsday, which is still happening today. I was the only farang (westerner) at sportsday, everyone was very friendly. Today we are going to a temple to take the monks lots of food, and to get good luck for Ampha. We are also going to look for a cow, because Ampha wants us to have one. She will let her father look after it for us. See you soon :-)

Arrive in Thailand

The flight was great, couple of minor delays, but my worries were unfounded, the plane was great leg room and indidvual screens. Watched Fantastic Four and Batman something. The highlight was flying over the palm islands that they are making in United Arab Emirates. One looks finished and the othere near to completion. I suspect the plane is asked to fly over them, great anyway. Got into Bangkok half an hour early. Then big queues to get out. Ampha met me and we got to where I am staying at 9.30pm. Since then I have been eating and drinking well. Playing pool. The weather was the most amazing thing, the first morning, there was an allmighty storm and the rain was incredible, the thunder was literally just above my hotel, I had left the sliding door to balcony open so it seemed that the thunder was in the room. When it finished the road outside the hotel had a foot of water. Even by the evening we were still wading through water. We were wading all afternoon and evening because we had a five or six hour walk around pattaya, due to me wanting to see the place. Just been out this evening for a great meal and am now looking for a nice bar with a pool table :-)

The flight

I am flying on Etihad Airlines, I am a bit worried about that because on the net someone said that they had a lack of leg space, but whatever its like I will put up with it, it will be worth it :-)
I have a stop over in Abu Dhabi, got some dollars and pounds in so that I can go to the bar while I wait for the second plane. I havent been to Abu Dhabi (UAE) before, last time I stopped at Bahrain for three hours.
Only about 76 hours now until take off, and 24 of that I will be sleeping :-)
I am getting so excited because I am writing about it.

Thailand Holiday 25 October - 5th November

I am really looking forward to getting to thailand. Going to be busy before that, off to Whitby on Friday night until Sunday night, then fly Monday.