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.