Adam

Fishing

Waree's dad has several thousand catfish in this pond by the river on the farm.  He was having problems catching them, using a drop net thrown out with weights on the perimeter.  So he borrowed Rats tractor a single cylinder very slow revving diesel with two wheels which is the work horse of all farms in the region.  He set this up as a pump to transfer the water from the nong (lake or pond) where he has the fish into the adjacent one.

When the water level had been lowered Waree's dad, her brother Joi and the neighbour across the road Juan fished to get about 20 kg of fish ordered for a funeral party in the village. Unfortunately the water kept seeping back
from the adjacent nong and the river so the level soon rose again.

Joi ploughing

Waree's brother Joi ploughing the rice field next to the farm area to make
way for planting corn

Waree's niece Bang

Waree's father enjoying lunch

In Issan (the northeast of Thailand) food is generally eaten sitting on a
rush mat using the hands to create balls of sticky rice which are dipped
into the food so that a small amount of meat, fish or vegetables is picked
up with the rice to be eaten.

Nan holding Adam at Lotus Shopping Centre, Nong

The village men love any excuse to drink Thai whisky (actually a rum made from sugar). This man dumped himself down in our chairs and slept it off.  He was not a close friend but in the village there is casual access to people's houses so falling asleep in somebody's chair is not a problem.

Waree's father eating his lunch at the farm

In Issan (the northeast of Thailand) food is generally eaten sitting on a rush mat using the hands to create balls of sticky rice which are dipped into the food so that a small amount of meat, fish or vegetables is picked up with the rice to be eaten.

Waree's brother Joi ploughing the rice field next to the farm area to make way for planting corn.

Waree's dad has several thousand catfish in this pond by the river on the
farm.

He was having problems catching them, using a drop net thrown out
with weights on the perimeter. So he borrowed Rats tractor a single
cylinder very slow revving diesel with two wheels which is the work horse of
all farms in the region.

He set this up as a pump to transfer the water from the nong (lake or pond) where he has the fish into the adjacent one.

When the water level had been lowered Waree's dad, her brother Joi and the
neighbour across the road Juan fished to get about 20 kg of fish ordered for
a funeral party in the village.

Unfortunately the water kept seeping back
from the adjacent nong and the river so the level soon rose again.

Nan holding Adam at Lotus Shopping Centre, Nong Khai

Hello Mr Photographer

Mum!! I was just having my photo taken!

Two weddings

This is the second wedding we went to but by the time we arrived the wedding
was in the eating stage. I took some photos of the bride and groom. They
are much older than the previous wedding and had been previously married.
As you can see, it was a more relaxed affair and took place in the upper
storey of a house and area that I have not previously seen used (apart from
our bedroom). Again the dowry features prominently.

Two weddings

Two weddings

Counting the dowry in the groom's house before the wedding. The man on the
right in the striped jacket performed the wedding. He is counting out money
while the man with the microphone on the left announces the amount of money
note by note. The groom's mother is in the centre. The Christmas tree
thing in the middle is an important part of the wedding but I don't know
what it's called. It must have been taken from the groom's house to the
bride's house by truck during the procession as I can see no sign of it in
the procession.

Two weddings

The groom's party walking in procession from the groom's house to the
bride's house. The man leading is the person who conducted the marriage.
The lady on the left is carrying the bowl of a white substance which will be
used to anoint the heads of the groom and his men (boys actually). The
groom's mother in blue is carrying a pink clothed bowl of money and gold
chains to be given by the groom to his new father-in-law and his bride. The
bowl is out of sight in this photo but you can see her holding it in the
next.

Two weddings

The groom on the right, the celebrant in the centre looking very important
and the groom's mother on the left carrying the bowl of money and gold for
the bride's family

Two weddings

The groom arrives at the bride's house and has his feet cleaned while one of
the groomsmen having the white dots painted in his forehead.

Two weddings

After the groom has entered the bride's house shoes and cleaning materials
remain on the doorstep

Two weddings

Two weddings

The bride and groom are tied together with the magic string used on all ceremonial occasions. He is from Bangkok and there are many cars outside which is unusual for an Issan village where most of the vehicles are motorcyles, farm vehicles or trucks (mostly Isuzu). She is from a local family and is only 18 years old. She was obviously very tense and shy, so one of the highlights for me was when taking photos I caught her eye and automatically smiled at her and she responded with a beautiful smile, the first I had seen.

The ceremony included chanting with responses from the audience and lighting of candles most of which was a mystery to me.

Two weddings

Two weddings

Two weddings

Two weddings

Wedding 2

Another wedding in our village.  These are traditional weddings and have no legal significance.  To make them legal you have to register at the local Government centre at the Amphur which in our case is at Phompisai.

However, they are binding in the village and the groom pays a dowry to the bride's family, which can be a significant amount depending on how rich the groom is and how much the bride is worth.  This has to be negotiated before the wedding.

Village elder who performs weddings is on the left in a striped jacket, the groom is holding the umbrella

Cows across the road from the wedding, obviously interested in the proceedings.

The child in red is cleaning the feet of the groom

Counting the dowry.  This is an important event and is sometimes broadcast to the whole village via speakers.  It tells everybody the wealth of the groom and the value of the bride

The bride descends from the upper floor.  Nearly all houses have two storeys but usually they are empty and people live on the ground floor

Gold chains represent status and a form of saving

I think the groom came from Bangkok and the bride is a young teenager.  It may have been an arranged marriage as these used to be common.

Everybody is tied together with (magic) string

Wedding 2

This is the second wedding we went to but by the time we arrived the wedding was in the eating stage. I took some photos of the bride and groom. They are much older than the previous wedding and had been previously married.

As you can see, it was a more relaxed affair and took place in the upper storey of a house and area that I have not previously seen used (apart from our bedroom). Again the dowry features prominently.

Fire lady

I mentioned before that the custom here is that after a woman has had a baby
they are incarcerated for a week or so in a hot steamy room in front of a
fire. In this hot climate you can imagine that this is quite an ordeal.
Today I visited the lady who runs the shop up the road who just gave birth.
This is the third time I have encountered this treatment. On one occasion
the lady was actually on a bed over the fire!! This time I had my camera
with me and was able to get some photos. It was very dark and difficult to
photo. As always there were 5 or 6 people in the room with her, relatives,
friends or visitors. The large pot over the fire in the centre was full of
boiling water and the one on the left had I think bark of some sort in it
which was kept topped up presumably to aid healing. Waree was under great
pressure to undergo this treatment when she had Adam, but as her specialist
was not too keen on the idea she refused and has been as fit as a fiddle
since, but there have been dire warnings that not using the treatment will
cause here problems later in life. Waree did however bath herself in the
bark water.

To Cinnie with love from us all

A dear friend Cinnie died suddenly last night. We will all miss you so
much.

We went around the Kimberley together last year and these are some of the
photos I took.

She was so full of life and I can't believe that she has gone.

A special occasion

Oblivious

A bald baby

A bald baby

The man who live opposite is a barber and today he shaved little Adam’s head. Apparently this is customary for babies when they are four to six weeks old.

Everybody had a good time watching and joking but Adam just slept solidly throughout the whole proceedings.

As well as watching and taking photos I got the opportunity to have a better look at the barber’s (Duan) house. I knew he was poor but it is just a shell of a house with a dirt floor and almost no furniture except the mandatory TV. He earns his living from cutting hair at about 3o cents a go and making fishing nets.

He is a lovely man and often comes over to joke with me although of course I haven’t a clue as to what he is saying.

Everybody likes to watch

Fast asleep

Young men die in motorcycle crash

It’s nearly 7am and the news here is that two young men died in a head on crash at 9pm last night. They were drinking together and went out on the newly sealed section of road on the other side of the village. They drove their motorbikes without lights and somehow managed to crash.
I know these young men, 18 year olds, at least indirectly. Every evening I ride Waree’s mother’s jakayan (bicycle) for exercise. The countryside is very beautiful with the setting sun always a deep red. Sometimes I loop around and come back into the ban (village) via the new road and at one of the houses on the left there are frequently groups of young men drunk drinking Thai whisky (rum). Sometimes they shout out at me “Farang” and sometimes they are too drunk to even say the word properly.

Waree tells me that the young man who lives there is “no good” and both his parents are working in Taiwan so he has been left to run wild on his own. He gets into fight frequently and she worries about me going past his house.

He was one of the young men who died.

Their bodies are at one of the temples and they will not be burned but will be buried. As we talked about these young men Waree warned me not to say anything bad about him or his ghost will come to see me tonight. She was joking but she believes completely in ghosts and I am sure she thinks it can really happen. Maybe it can, this is a strange country.

The men frequently get drunk on cheap rum costing under two dollars a bottle. It tastes foul to me but is OK if you want to get drunk. I drink Sang Som most evenings diluted with a glass of water. This is a superior rum costing about four dollars a bottle, not bad either.

The children are all back from Bangkok as school started again today, so they are all neatly dressed in clean clothes. Deum is a very cute 2 year old but a bit put out by her grandmother’s adoration of the new baby, Adam. Joi (about 7) is always looking for food a bit like her mother Doern who is largish. Pang (just turned 13) is looking very pretty and when I commented on this to Waree she explained that Pang had become a woman while she was away.

Pang arrived yesterday and her mother Jit will come today. Its quite complicated to get here from Bangkok by bus and takes a day but Waree’s brother and sister and their spouses turn up every month or so.

I drove the motorcy with Waree on the back the 20 odd kms to the nearest town Phompisai yesterday. I always enjoy driving through the countryside and avoiding the potholes in the roads, its very stimulating. Phompisai is a bit quieter now as the visitors for the fire ball festival have departed but they were putting up large stages for a show together with much fun fair equipment. Occasionally I see other farangs when I visit Phompisai and outside the bank I saw two farangs sitting on the curb, one of whom I recognised as being John the Kiwi (New Zealander) who has a guest house on the banks of the Mekong in Phompisai. I chatted to them and met the other man, Tommy, a Pomme (Englishman) who lives in Phompisai and has rented a shop which he may turn into a restaurant serving English food!!

Tommy made a joke that they were sitting on the kerb to beg for food and it turned out that he had lost 150,000 baht ($4,500) overnight. Apparently somebody had stolen his bankcard and skimmed his account of that amount before they had managed to contact the bank (Bank Bangkok) to stop it. He was not happy.

It was good to talk to some farangs as it is many weeks since I spoke to an English speaking person.

We had lunch at my favourite Chinese restaurant where they serve pork pieces with the crackling attached on a bed of rice with vegetables.

Then a fast ride back as we had been away from the baby for four hours.

Candles, fireworks and balls of fire

Today was an important temple day in the Thai calendar marking the end of three months as a monk for many young men, the beginning of the cool dry season and here in Nong Khai the time of the fire balls.
For days small boys have been letting off fireworks with intermittent bangs startling me as I paint. Today it reached a crescendo with firecrackers going off all the time,

This evening all the houses in the ban (village) were lit many small candles in rows about three centimeters apart along any horizontal surfaces available. After dark I drove the motorcy up our street and past one of the temples out into the black night.

Then I rode on across the bridge to the farm where Waree’s father sleeps next to the river. He stays here to look after his fish pond, ducks and vegetable garden. I often drive there at night to deliver his evening meal since the children have been away.

The ban looked beautiful with all the houses glittering with candles.

I was a bit worried that somebody might throw a cracker at me out of the dark as I heard some voices saying “Farang” as I went past and many young men were in high spirits and most likely drunk on Thai whisky.

Earlier I had been at the farm and watched buses and trucks overloaded with people hanging off the back making their way to Phompisai for the fire ball festival. We went last year but with a young baby we could not go this time.

The fire balls are a natural occurrence on stretches of the Mekong River near Nong Khai and are attended by tens of thousands of people from all over Thailand. Phompisai is packed out with vendors and attractions, lights and dragon boats on the river. Far across the black water you can see the twinkling lights of houses in Lao.

The fireballs are an amazing phenomenon especially as they regularly occur on this day of the year and the next two days. I missed them last year so I can only report what I have heard from others. Red balls of fire spontaneously shoot out of the river in the evening of the 28th of October. Scientists think that the balls are caused by methane gas being released from the river bed and ignited by some means.

Hopefully next year Adam will be old enough to go and I will have a new camera which will be able to take night photos.

The Blessing Ceremony (bai-see sook wan)

Our host (Rat's father-in-law)

This evening we went to Waree’s sister Rat (Lat)’s house for a blessing. In this blog I am expressing my experiences in Thailand and I will probably get some things wrong as I am still only at the edges of understanding this lovely culture. Please forgive me if I do and if you know better than me please leave a comment to correct me, if not join me in learning.

That proviso was prompted by the fact that I have little idea why the blessing was being performed. The ceremony was to bless Rat’s husband’s brother who has just returned from working Taiwan (her husband is working in Israel). Whether the blessing was to wish him a safe return, a safe journey back or to stop him from going back I am not sure.

My Thai language book says “This ceremony is performed mostly in the North and Northeast (and Laos). It’s done at weddings and also for family members or special guests. During the ceremony people tie strings around each other’s wrists while saying the blessing. Bai-see refers to the flower and banana leaf arrangement that holds the strings. Sook wan means ‘call back the body spirits’, and the string is tied around the wrist to keep them in the body.

I should explain that I am living in a village in the northeast of Thailand (Issan) not far from the Lao border. Issan represents about 33% of Thailand in both land area and population it is agriculture poor and rarely visited by tourists. Only 3% of tourists to Thailand visit Issan. In my limited experience it is the best part of Thailand as one soon becomes tired of the beaches and islands of the south, the mountains of the north, the cacophony of Bangkok and endless temples. Here amongst the ‘poor’ there is a wealth of beauty in the people and their culture.

People of Issan are ethnically Lao and their language, music, dance, food and customs are more Lao than Thai.

We parked the motorcy outside and the dark and went into a room crowded with people. There were smiles and comments about the Farang as we sat on the cool tiled floor. All the old ladies came to coo over Adam our baby boy.

We always sit on the floor usually on a rush mat.. The rule is that you always take your shoes off before you enter a house (or in some instances a tiled floor area) and the floors are frequently swept so they are always spotlessly clean. This is good as the floor serves as a table as well as a chair.

The blessing ceremony

In the ceremony a long cord of the white magic string is past around the group linking everybody together and the medicine man, witch doctor, shaman or whatever he is chants continuously for 20 minutes with the group joining in the chant at times and shouting an exclamation periodically. I haven’t a clue what they are saying of course.

The man in the centre of the photo is the shaman with flowers and many other accoutrements in front of him. From my position I was unable to see what he was doing with these.

The atmosphere is hardly reverent with people going in and out of the room, talking to each other, taking turns at holding the baby and from the adjacent kitchen there is the babble of conversation with peals of laughter from the ladies preparing the food.

I have come across shaman before in elaborate one on one blessing and as a fortune teller and I will add these stories to the blog some time. They are nothing to do with the monks and the temples so I suspect they might pre-date the Buddhist religion in this part of Thailand. If I find out more I will pass it on.

The host's son being blessed

You can see that he has much string around his wrists and there are also gifts of money and an egg? When I have returned from here to Australia I have also had many strings tied around my wrist in my farewell parties and I have been given gifts of money which touches me as comparatively I have great wealth.

Blessing Adam our baby 

After the ceremony everybody blesses everybody else by tying the magic string around their wrists. Of course baby Adam was blessed and many people wanted to bless me. For the first time people asked me to bless them and I spent some time doing this.

The person being blessed holds their arm out horizontally with the palm facing upwards while their other arm is vertical with the hand on edge. The person blessing first gently strokes and then ties the white magic string around the wrist of the person being blessed. Often a third person will lightly support the elbow of the arm receiving the string with an upturned palm. Then both wai to each other.

Jeremy being blessed 

Jeremy blessing

Ladies preparing food

In the kitchen the ladies have been busy chopping up raw beef and pork (they eat raw pork here) preparing food to eat and after the ceremony they bring the dishes out and we all eat. I have noticed some bottles of beer in various parts of the room and suggest to Waree that I might have some but she explains to me that I cannot ask for beer and must wait for it to be offered. So I must wait. Then Waree says something to her sister Rat. Lo and behold I am offered beer.
After eating, as people gradually return to their homes Waree explains to me who they are and it seems that the 30 or so are all related in one way or another. I guess through Adam I am also related. We leave for home.