Lotus in bloom....

Travelling round the country side... went to the largest fresh water lake in Thailand and I would boast that it's the biggest in SE Asia but I would probably be dribbling murkies and can't verify the facts!...it is quite large however (and definitely bigger than Singapore) having a presence in 3 provinces. Tale Noi Waterfowl Reserve is pretty ordinary in the heat of the day but if visited in the early morning before 8am when all the birds are active and the lotus flowers are in bloom, it is splendorous spectacular breathtaking. To hire a boat costs very little for an hour journey through reeds and millions of lotus flowers..it's quite magical..

Also visited a huge cave temple used for Vipassana meditation which I've been to numerous times, only to find all the lights out and 2 kids with flash lights miraculously appearing from nowhere! They led us down into the bowels of darkness where we were met with a group visiting the area for the first time. After about 20 metres some lights were turned on so you could actually see your hand in front of your face! The group walked super fast through the cavernous rooms (which I have previously taken more than an hour to explore in the light) so we decided to just hang around on the opposite side waiting for them to depart. They were "worried" that we didn't have a light to get back (I'm pretty sure, using my powers of deduction the kids were after a service fee for the torches!) but left after a mini. Sooo..we headed back in after a while to find the little boogers had turned off all the lights in the cave and the entire cave was pitch black! The only alternative back to the car was to walk the enormous circumference of the entire mountain in scorching heat. Firstly we attempted to walk the path holding on to the rail, knowing full well the drop off the side was about 6 metres deep into cold water and the path was not even a metre wide. We only got a few metres before aborting the attempt (due to heavy, squirming 3 year old in tow!). My trusty boy scout husband then set aboot to find a light source and came back with alter candles and a box of matches! Sigh...our hero! Walking gingerly holding onto 2 tiny little candles, rapidly burning out we made it to the entrance...we are ALIVE! Seriously living on the edge there. Nasty lil so and sos were sitting next to our car on the outside...grrr strangle boot head lock fantasies. Was pretty mystical walking through such a massive cave just by flickering candle light, bat screeches, wing flutterings and the sweet rank smell of guano!!

Hot Spring, Temples and Crazy Fish

Wow oh wow wow.... I am a big ball of oozy jello floppin all over the ville. We've just come back from the hot springs (that are only 8 km from my house.. rub.it.in.justalilbit) and I am one relaxed fly girl.

It was a hive of activity at the hot pool today (and didn't the presence of 2 big whities and a little squealing one just liven up the party!). The water that streams up from under a behemoth mountain flows into the main pool for swimming, but they also have this little fluoro green mossy pool with crystal clean scorcharama water where locals boil eggs for sale! Spot the monkey, he's kinda blending in....there are literally thousands of monkeys in the forest surrounding the hot springs...beware monkey haters cos they get a bit feisty!

Visited the oldest temple in my province today that has been standing for a few hundred years...which makes it older than my home country!! It has a lot of Buddha statues and relics and a beautiful river flowing next to the temple. You can buy fish food for the .... er, fish. They are carazy! There's just millions of em! Mr 3 had all the monks going gaga and waving at him! I've never seen such a display of affection and amusement from so many monks before!

Another festival...

Yesterday there was another annual event festival in our village to donate money to the local temple. I had the job of lovely lady and yummy curry transporter. There were 7 ladies squished in the back (another one got in after the photo!)..just when you think no more can fit, along comes another one! So we had all the human traffic along with 3 humungo pots of curry and a tub of rice!

Watched the whole process of making the coconut milk then adding the lemon grass, salt, fresh tumeric, sugar and pork, and possibly other stuff that I missed when I was chasing a 3 year old around! Apart from the pork, it was scrumalicious! All the food at the temple was free, and by boyo was there a truck load of it. At a guess I would say there were at least 50 pots of different curries, noodles and Thai salads on offer. Did I mention it was ALL free??!

Pulling the monk Festival

Today is a huge day for my province. They have been celebrating Pon Lak Pra (Drum Beating Pulling Monk Festival!) for the last 7 days with today being the grand finale. Last night we went into town to check things out and the city lights were looking mighty prurdy.









Did a bit of Batik painting... got a mini Picasso on our hands I think...

Got it on with some show girls...

Then today, right outside our house was a street parade with floats housing a Buddha statue, a monk and musicians playing drums and cymbals, being pulled along by the people! As it passes your house you can run and join in pulling it along. The floats are pulled from each local temple to the place of the festival (a couple of ks). Mr 3 was in a permanent state of bliss dancing and playing imaginary drums for hours!









This annual festival has lots of fun competitions including climbing a greased up super slippery pole to try and get the money at the top. After failing miserably multiple times they were allowed to cheat by helping each other get to the top. The kids were much more successful standing 3 high (their pole was shorter). The guys had a tower of 3 and still couldn't reach the top until they stood on the bottom ones head for the extra height! That's like 140 kilos balancing on his head!

































They also had water boxing where the first one knocked off is the loser.

Ladies getting a blessing from the monk with water (which he threw all over my camera with a cheeky look in his eye!!). So much fun to be had...such a good laugh today!

It's a smiley place in the hood...

I saw the sun today! That was pretty exciting...oh, and glory days, I have friends! Spent a couple of hours in hideousville Hat Yai for a feed and shopping, then hightailed back to the village to wow everyone with an overload of whiteness (exacerbated by Mr 3's ritual nudey run after his shower - a blinding white streak down the side of the house!). I'm going to have to keep an eye out for signs of egomania due to his instant movie star status. Just standing still at the airport for 5 minutes led at least 20 people to stroke or pinch his cheeks then on the walk out the exit doors into the throng of people in the taxi queue induced about a hundred people to wave and shout hello and squeal in delight by his smile and nonchalant bye byes. Our arrival in the village was initially low key but within half an hour he had a permanent audience of about 50 people all afternoon marveling at his intellect as he dazzled them by counting to 10 in Thai (a bazillion times! - some 5 year old Thai kids can't even do this...sad but true). Truly you don't need to wonder why Thailand is named the Land of Smiles..I swear people must have had cramps in their cheeks today with all the beamers brightening our afternoon!

I quite enjoy having visitors for the pure pleasure I get out of pretending to be a tourist! I can pull out my camera in a shopping centre without feeling like a complete loser (although realising that I do indeed look like one!)...I always take more photos than my visitors!

Anyhoo, this is some mammoth Jack Fruit on display in Tesco...about the size of Mr 3's head in 3 weeks ;-D

Celebrating our first meal in Thailand together...avoiding the chilli and hot curries!

Just so he could out compete my 5 year old motorbike riding neighbour, Mr 3 got on his bike within 2 minutes of laying eyes on it! After a few lessons I'm sure he'll be off on his own by the end of the week!!

Cleaning lady...

Talk about a clean up! If only I could say that I'm a very conscientious clean freak and spend a lot of my time cleaning therefore today only required a cursory glance and a little dusting before the visitors' arrival tomorrow...HA chooking HA! Not so, not so. I am the antithesis of a clean freak...ok I might be in between the two cos I'm not wallowing in slobville but the accumulated dust was almost leaving footprints! And, the very amusing thing is that in all the time I have lived here, my MIL has never (yes, NEVER) cleaned anything..except to sweep occasionally and wash a dish here and there, and today she was cleaning! I have had visitors before several times and never has she had the compulsion to clean....what be different this occasion I ask myself? It's the baby...it's got to be the todly toddler's arrival. I think she's actually freaking out about it! I might enjoy this visit even more than anticipated (mmhahahaharr)!

Wahispy bits.....

Took a trip into town today in between the rain drops. Reason : to buy a bed for my blossy buddy and her lil 3 year old who are visiting me later this week from Oz (for 3.5 weeks!!). I'm really not very excited at all (MUCH!!!). I'm actually on the precipice of dying a few thousand little deaths at the thought of having girly chats, having continuously flowing English conversations, having an excuse to go and stay on some gorgeous island (away from the MIL!) and indulging in all the things that I don't normally do because she's my excuse to do everything! And I'm sure chocolate is going to be involved in this equation..somehow...

I was feeling a bit risque today so dropped into a hair saloon to cut the locks. I must point out here that for the last 3 years I have cut my own hair. I have ventured out several times to get a "professional" cut in that time but ALWAYS without fail leave disappointed and/or hideously embarrassed. Solution - DIY! But today I just felt like living on the edge. If you can ignore the freakorama zombie eyes that I'm boggling at you and the fact that you really can't see a thing, you can see my new do! I got wisps....I got long bits at the front....I got short at the back...I actually got what I asked for! I have always wondered how hard it was to describe "long at the front, short at the back" (in Thai)... seems quite basic, but for some reason on the occasions I entrusted my head to strangers, I would leave with a bowl or a dead straight bob resembling a 12 year old (not a layer in sight!). After a bit of consideration I can truly say that that $3.50 and 20 minutes of my time was well worth not spending 2 hours on trying to cut the back of my own hair with magic mirror action.

The excitement is overwhelming....

Some old dude is snoring...the rain is pouring...I couldn't get up this morning...it's been raining for days on end without end....

...Ate some corn as our backyard has a bumper crop.... ate some bananas as all our trees are loaded..yep life's pretty exciting in the rainy season!










In the 38 seconds that it stopped raining today I went outside to test out my **NEW** camera!!! Noice colours...I'm a happy little vegemite! Fruit bonanza - we have coconut, nanas and papaya in this shot, with chillies, eggplants and crap loads of lemon grass at ground level..

Adventures of electro juice...

Oh the joys of living in a developing country! I might have been a bit hasty when I said all our rave light shows were over! So much for fixing the main board to heal our woes....we had no power all day today and spectacular laser shows last night. Our cuddelicious sparky came to our rescue again but he was not in the flow with his electrical prowess powers and failed to spread the light. First his ladder broke when it was balancing precariously on our very thin, very rusty, very ancient corrugated iron roof. Then it was palissing down with rain so heavy you couldn't see across the street.

Then J and I decided to visit my friend in hospital who just had a bubba 22 hours ago! (really helping my time bomb I know!) and on the way we stopped in at the electricity depo to get some electro aid (cos cuddles was all out of ideas). Check him out attacking the electrical power lines one handed with a stanley knife razor while holding on to the house for dear life! Is this where I swoon at my new Indiana type hero?

What a confusing hullaballoo down at the the electro board. First, they called the service crew to get them to check it out. They happened to be in our area while we were still in town at the office. They call back and say it's not their jurisdiction (the electrical wire that links from the power poll to our house) so they're not going to fix it and promptly left. Then the not so friendly office people are telling us that there is no way we'll be able to get anyone to fix it today being Friday arvi and, what do you know, they don't work Saturday, Sunday. Monday's fully booked and Tuesday's a public holiday!!! They had absolutely no qualms about us having no power for 5 days!!! Friendly bunch... so then they go on to say that the power line wires behind the transformer are our responsibility and the wires inside the transformer are their responsibility and since they checked the inside and found no problem, it is in effect OUR problem. Humfff, grr, grrrr. THEN they said that if we still had the receipt from the original power box that was installed on the powerpoll 20 odd years ago (before they even had computer records!), that we could get a 5000 baht rebate after paying 6000 baht for a new box! Clear as the globules of lard I would like to throw at someone today..sooo in the end, we returned back home thinking we're gonna be powerless for the better part of a week to find Mr. Cuddlepie out front ready to tackle it again...and gosh darn it if he got it up and running 2 hours later with a twisted wire coat hanger or some such thang (without charge I might add!). I'm online. I'm not going to die from loss of internet connection. The world is all warm and fuzzy again...

The Sun is Shining...

The great thing about this world is that we have the ability to slip away into the void, into nothingness, into dreams, into creation's embrace for 8 hours every night and come back and breathe a new day with new thoughts, new feelings, new perspectives. Perhaps we meet some wise souls that advise us and then zap us (like that gun in Men In Black!) so we forgot we met them....

Just looking at this freshly opened sunflower at the front of our house this morning brought me joy and a smile...

and the sweet smell of my frangipanis made it bigger...











Life's pretty grand most of the time, really...

Too many questions...

When you live in a different culture all the lines get blurred. Things you took for granted are turned upside down. In oz I (more often then I liked) would judge and label people - "What a bitch" or "What's up his arse?" type thing. Usually my follow up thought would be they're obviously having a bad day...it's a fact (isn't it?) that you can't be nice ALL the time. Sometimes stuff just gets to you and you respond too harshly to someone who then thinks you're a bitch...which is why I always hated being judgmental, because you just don't know when someone (who is nice 99% of the time) is having that bad day.

Someone recently asked on a forum "Would you stop if you witnessed a car accident?". The responses varied from yes, no, depends...To me, the answer doesn't even require thought - yes! why wouldn't you stop? It's not about having medical expertise, it's about knowing someone needs help and trying to provide it. You can call for help, hold a hand, provide comfort until emergency crews arrive. Yesterday the choice was taken away from me.

I was sitting in the middle of the back seat with J, his aunt, uncle and cousin. We had had a lovely day at the Trang Vegetarian Festival and were on our way back home when the traffic came to a halt. As we rounded the corner we saw a horrific car accident involving a truck and a car that resembled a screwed up piece of paper. Someone was helping traffic flow, someone was standing on the opposite site of the road watching, but no one was helping the victims stuck inside their car. As we were stopped in the traffic I tried climbing over people to get out but just as J was opening the door, his uncle yelled at all of us to "Jai yen yen" - calm down, that we would stop ahead out of the way. After another minute of seeing these people stumbling about and still trapped in the car, I was nearly hysterical because he wouldn't let me out and just kept on driving saying there was nowhere to stop (completely untrue). The next 50 kms home were filled with stony silence and lame excuses.

The injured people in the accident were farang (tourists). The accident had occurred about 5 minutes before we saw it on a heavy traffic road. No one was helping them. I wanted to scream at him "Why didn't you stop?" How could you see that and not stop? If they were Thai, would people be helping them now? Why was no one helping them? Is it because they are tourists?

The second we pulled up at home, J and I jumped in our car and headed straight back. We found them at the second hospital we visited still in the emergency room a hour and a half since the accident. All 4 were on gurneys, confused, not knowing what was going on in the chaos of the emergency ward. We stayed 4 hours, calling consulates, translating, assuring them, holding their hands. 2 were given the all clear but still under observation, 2 were still in the emergency room - one semi conscious, one with horrific leg injuries.

So I'm left wondering why 2 such lovely people (J's aunt and uncle) wouldn't stop when it was so obvious they needed assistance and that I wanted to get out to help. I'm left wondering - is this a Thai thing? Is it a cultural thing? Is it a fear thing? I have no answers. I feel betrayed. I feel sickened. I'm trying to understand. I'm trying to forgive....

Jaded...

My rose coloured glasses are smokey and shattered
My heart is leaden from light that streams through foggy haze
My cherished ones have turned to stone
My downcast eyes search for answers
but only hollow voices reply
Truths are searing barbs...

.......must put some cotton wool around my heart......

I just wanna dance....

No more techno light shows in da house for yo punk ass...(am I mixing up my subcultures here?). After spending the last 2 nights in a strobe light rave in the village, we got the local electro dude in to dull the disco scene (caused by dodgy ancient wiring). Got the house rewired for quite the sum of money...hope you're sitting down for this because this will knock your socks off. To get a new main board, switches, plugs, wiring upstairs and down plus service fee was a huge A$35 (1000 baht)! The dear sweet fellow only wanted us to pay $7 service fee for 2 days work! We are in no way financially abundant but we doubled the figure (yeah generous $14 I know!) because that is just ridiculous. He's such a lovely puddin that I just want to go and squeeze him in all the non-offensive places!

This is our first glance at the current original wiring, shoved neatly into place behind a wooden box and left for 25 years. Then, a boxless view with little name tags for easy recognition. Then...ta dah! Our new mains power board for non-rave party boring old electricity! Works for me!

Thailand electricity...

I'm sitting here in the dark typing this! Thai electricity is not really world class, to put it mildly. Often when you're walking in the streets of any city in Thailand you will hear the crackling and fizzing sounds of electricity going through the transformers, and even see pretty sparks at night time. Our village has a lot of houses that are out near rice fields so to get power they just buy really really long cables, find a lot of long sticks or tree branches, stick them in the mud every 20 metres and hook it up to the main power, sometimes hundreds of metres away, and bob's your uncle, power! Click on image for clearer view of typical power supply when you don't live near a main road!

We're lucky in that we do live on a main road (apart from the noise!). We have normal power lines that don't talk and don't sparkle and are tightly fixed to stout power polls (mostly!). But tonight we are experiencing some full on techno bliss light show... all our fluorescent lights keep flashing on and off every couple of minutes. The tv and computer stay on but it's a funky ass disco night otherwise! It must look quite amusing to the neighbours! I do believe it's time to get some rewiring done considering they still have the original wiring when electricity first came to the village 25 years ago. I find it quite astounding that J didn't have electricity in the house til he was about 10. He tells me that in town had it significantly longer then that, but the villages didn't get electricity til much later. As a kid he used candles to read and obviously did well without computer games! oooh can't keep going, getting a headache from no lights and bright screen!

The butcher next door...

**A bit of graphic content..may disturb **

My neighbour, who is a bit of a creepola pervarola is also a pig slaughterer. They go hand in hand, really. Oft is the time we hear the squealing of pigs going to meet their maker, or the squeal of bubba piglets going to suckle mama pig's nips... the sound is almost indistinguishable, it's quite bizarre. So anyway, this morning I happened to be sitting out back when the 'bour brings the shackled porker to the front of his house (20 metres from the back of our house) where he has the fire roaring, pan already heating...his 5 year old son (you'll remember the driver from Tuesday) standing a meter away keenly interested in all the kerfufle, even though I'm sure he's seen this a hundred times before. On average a pig is popped off once a week or so.

Now, I'm not a consumer of wee widdle piggies or mooin mooballs, but I do advocate that if you can kill your own meat, then it is much more acceptable to eat it rather than disown the polystyrene slabs in the supermarket (although I'm a complete hypocrite and you won't be catching me hacking off any chicken heads any time soon...fish, I can do!). That's not my issue...for some reason today, sitting out there, I was completely transfixed at what was transpiring before my eyes. Usually he does the butchering at the back of his house, out sight (but not out of hearing), but for unknown reasons moved to the front today.

**So I'm watching this poor fat piggun with his legs tied up start squealing because he sure as heck knows what's coming and... this is the disturbing part..it took him 10 minutes to kill the poor wee thing. Seriously I was retching...it was just so inhumane..the pig was rolling all around with blood spurting everywhere, ear-splitting squealing and he just stood back, knife in hand, with both hands dripping in blood and sweat pouring off him. I almost expected him to roll his head back with an evil cackle and grin, such was the horror. I just can't even comprehend why he didn't try to end its suffering sooner. I'm pretty disturbed that I live in such close proximity to this butcherer. I think all this hideousness occurred because Mr. Creepomater usually has 2 or 3 others helping him to hold the pig down while the pig is killed by a quick slit across the throat, but today he did it himself. He always struts around like he's he-man, so I'm assuming he figured he could do it alone because it was quite a small pig.

Oh yeah, did I mention that the long drawn out cries of horror from the pig was a draw card for all the local kids who stood in rapt attention watching the throat slitting in action. Again, I don't have issues with kids seeing where their meat comes from..the whole circle of life thing, if it's done fast and humanely, but for them to stand witness only a metre away (one had to jump to avoid being kicked by the pig) to this butchery just had me gaping.... and the wife of butch, mother of taxi driver, was sitting not 2 metres away breastfeeding her one year old. Life was just nice and cosy today....

Sorry if I've left you feeling ill, I feel the same...it's just an insight into another world that we are often so removed from. Also, this man is not completely normal..that said though, he's not alone in how he does things here.