A “not so Grand Design”…our Thai house build..#1

Posted on December 26, 2023 by Mike

After 3 years of delay, partly caused by COVID and partly by my prevaricating, our house build is finally starting.

2 bedrooms, 2 bathroom, decent sized kitchen, a Buddha zone for the wife, small home gym and workshop/tool storage for me.

The builder laid the water pipes last week, and started measuring and marking the site layout yesterday, but when he had positioned the main stakes the wife decided she wanted the whole thing moved a meter one way, and then later half a meter forward!

Staking out the site.

Here in Thailand it is traditional to have a blessing ceremony for the “first pole”, the abbot of the local temple has decreed that January 11 is an auspicious day for that to happen so there will not be any actual construction for a couple of weeks, although you are allowed to dig foundation holes and prepare the rebar for the poles. Some people also give offerings to the spirits of the land before they disturb them when digging. Buddhism, aninism…no harm in having a bet both ways! I leave all that sort of stuff to the wife …

Over the last couple of years I’ve planted a few fruit trees in the back part of the land, 2 sorts of banana, 4 mangos, 3 or 4 varieties of papaya, bengal currant (Carissa carandas/Karondas/mamuang hao manoa ho), ginger and galangal, dragonfruit and coconut palms. After the land was connected to the mains water a few weeks ago I started on what will be the vegetable garden. While I did plant some for eating (tomatoes of various sorts, cucumber, melons, beans) most of the work was in improving the soil. Most soil here in Issaan is poor quality, and our land has been raised with fill scraped off land elsewhere so it is no exception! So I have been planting sunn hemp, daikon radish, cowpeas and sunflowers in large clumps to add organic matter to the soil. More on that to come later.

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New beginnings

Posted on December 25, 2023 by Mike

Merry Christmas to all…if you are reading it today ! If not today, then just “Hello”.

This blog has been dormant for a while, with nothing much to write about I just had no motivation. COVID had stopped all travel, forced the cancellation of all local festivals and events and left me with a blank WordPress editor.

But with the imminent start on construction of our house here in Thailand I do have something to write about, and a post on that will be coming tomorrow !

Yes, that’s a promise. So see you tomorrow…..

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The COVID playlist

Posted on March 18, 2020 by Mike

Peggy Lee never heard of social distancing :

When you put your arms around me
I get a fever that’s so hard to bear
You give me fever (you give me fever) when you kiss me
Fever when you hold me tight (you give me fever)
Fever in the mornin’
Fever all through the night

 

The Police knew better though :

 

stay safe, and ……

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At our local wat

Posted on January 26, 2020 by Mike

Just a couple of phone photos from my morning walk out to a local forest wat, where they have a large number of adenium (aka Desert Rose) and other plants potted around a large chedi.

WatPa-1WatPa-2

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Sai Sin, the lucky white string

Posted on January 24, 2020 by Mike

In Thailand you often see a white cord tied around a person’s wrist, or tied to a new building, or a new car ! This is a form of blessing, wishing for good fortune in the future.

The other night we were at my eldest sister-in-law’s house when she began hanging white cord around the house, when I asked what was happening the missus tells me her sister wants good luck because so many people she knows have died. Indeed, during the 4 weeks or so of cool weather that passes for winter here my wife and her family were going to at least one funeral a week. I don’t know if it is normal practice all over Thailand but the local wat baan lets off firecrackers just before every cremation, so every couple of days I could hear “bang,bang,bang……bang,bang,bang” and then the smoke started….

The wife told me that our neighbour was doing our house, sure enough when we got home that night there was the lucky white string tied to one of the front porch posts.

saisin-1

And when I went for my usual morning walk I saw that it stretched about a kilometer down the road, linking all the houses.

saisin-6saisin-5

And then when I went into town later it was also that way too, and within a day or two the whole town is connected in a web of string leading to the wat.

Inside our house it is tied to the wife’s Buddhas :

saisin-2

And the scooter gets it’s good luck charm too :

saisin-3

And then it all leads to the town wat, where they had a prayerthon for three nights:

saisin-10

(photo from a local facebook page)

My knees are too old to sit crosslegged on the floor for hours so I respectfully declined the invitation to go 🙂

I must say that since the ceremony I have not heard any firecrackers from the local wat so perhaps it’s not complete mumbo-jumbo ?

Or maybe it’s just that the weather is warmer and the endless round of New Year parties and weddings has finally finished so people  are not stressing their bodies so much ?

Who am I to say ……..

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Happy New Year

Posted on January 4, 2020 by Mike

Wishing everybody a Happy New Year for 2020, ….or for those in Thailand “Sawadee Pii Mai 2563” / สวัสดีปีใหม่.

(Thailand has it’s own B.E. or Buddhist Era calendar, several hundred years ahead of most of the world)

A short video clip from here in Isaan :

 

Although Thailand has it’s own traditional New Year at Songkran in April, the western holiday is also celebrated with gusto. Some of the wife’s extended family came up for the holiday, so there was much drinking, eating, and more drinking ….which is why this New Year greeting is a bit late, too many Sangsom whiskies !

One of the sisters-in-law came up from Bangkok with a small fortunes worth of good quality imported eye fillet steaks and lamb chops. Beef and lamb are not favourite types of meat in Thailand, the rest of the family ate a bit of it but not much, so really it was just for me. She did the same thing last visit and I told her not to bother because decent imported beef is very expensive here. Did she listen ? No. And then she had to cook way too much for me each time, I’m not a big eater but I always ended up with a huge steak and 2 or 3 lamb chops and a heap of “salad”.

To make up for all that sinfulness, New Year is also a time for making merit so I was dragged along to the local district office for a big ceremony and a couple of temples.

Muang Samsip-11

The young novices found it hard to stay awake during the sermon !

Muang Samsip-10

Muang Samsip-12

This monk saw me and seemed to think I needed extra holy water splashed over me !

Muang Samsip-13

Muang Samsip-14

I think that’s enough for a while ?

Muang Samsip-1

The highlight of this temple is the embalmed body of a highly regarded monk …just the spot for a family photo ?

And now it’s only a couple of weeks to Chinese New Year which is early this year, but I doubt there will be many people up here in Ubon celebrating that.

Edit : we have just been invited to a wedding at 7a.m. tomorrow morning, which no doubt will mean more alcohol once the monks have done their thing and left. If I have understood the relationship right, the bride is the niece of the late husband of my wife’s eldest sister, in other words absolutely no relation to my wife, yet we get invited the night before ? I did have the nasty thought that he needed somebody to make up the numbers as it is tradition that instead of wedding presents  guests give money, which pays for the ceremony 🙂

Now I have to find a decent shirt and my good trousers …… 😦

 

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