The View from Nongkhai

Part 26

Published

22 November 2005

Comments on Episode 25

from Dan (left) : Despite telling you to feel free to delete all the photos you took of me, I did enjoy it, and have emailed my friends with your site address.

from Kim (right) : My wife spells her name 'Ou'. (Sorry Kim, I do get carried away with phonetic spelling at times, in future I will stick to 'Ou').

Amazing Optical Illusion

I have no idea how this works, but if you stare at this image for about five minutes, a waterfall appears in the background!

Can anybody explain it?

Café Tha Sadet VIth birthday

I mentioned in the last episode that I have now lived in Thailand for six years. Two days after my VIth anniversary, it was Carsten's VIth anniversary of opening Café Tha Sadet. On November 13th Carsten (right with mother Thea), laid on a free spread of delicious food. There seemed to be an endless supply, as one plate emptied, another took its place. Below left, see Fred tucking in. Centre Thom looking radiant. I suspect that if I were gay I would find Thom very attractive, but Dr José's diagnosis (see for full details) concluded that I am not. I am pleased that I can remain happily married to Dott, seen below right chatting with Than.

Fred introduced me to Heiko (far left) who comes from the former East Germany, and who has since opened a biker bar in Nongkhai. Right I first met Stan seen here with his wife, when he needed help with the menu at the Flamingo. Easy link to:-

Oy's Flamingo

Kim (far right), Ian (centre) and myself were having lunch at the Flamingo recently. Stan (above) was passing, saw us and came in for some food. But Oy's menu is in Thai, so I told Stan what was available. He made his choice, which I transmitted to Oy in Thai. As a result of this exchange, Stan assumed that it was my restaurant, that Oy was working for me, and started asking me about the decor. I had to tell him that I too was a customer. 

However, for those who plan to go in the future, you may be pleased to learn that Dott and I have collaborated to produce a Thai/English menu. Out of curiosity I counted the menu choices, and I made it 72. I especially like the crispy fried fish, but even the old standby of chicken fried rice is especially tasty, and at 30 baht is not expensive.

My niece Manao returned to Bangkok after spending the October school holidays here in Nongkhai with her mother & brother, but couldn't settle as she missed them too much, so she too can be found at the Flamingo, complete with new haircut.

Achievement

"You can do anything that you set your mind to when you have vision, determination, and an endless supply of expendable labour."

My thanks to Barry who sent me a series of similar pictures with commentary. I plan to include more in future episodes.

November Birthdays

In I wrote of the coincidence that Jon, Brian and I celebrate our birthday on the 16th November. On that day I was 59, Brian 49, and Jon 39. I was more than a little surprised to learn that my father-in-law Samlett, (left cutting his birthday cake) celebrates his birthday just one day before, and that he was 69. Later in this episode, it will become apparent why there are no photos of me on 16th, so I have included this picture of myself enjoying a slice of his cake. Dott & I had travelled to Ban Na Jaan with Derrick & Nong, where we were joined by Neng & Bombim. Samlett had never  celebrated  his  birthday  before,  and  was  somewhat

taken by surprise that his 3 daughters had assembled in his honour. Back in I wrote about Dott and I going to Ban Na Jaan and being reminded very strongly of a reconstruction of a 7th century Anglo-Saxon village in East Anglia. (If it is open, I will take Dott there next month). I made a public declaration in that episode that money I would have used to buy myself a motorcycle would instead be given to my father-in-law to help with the reconstruction of his house. Now that the rainy season has finally ended, he wants to get work underway, so below left Dott is giving the first instalment to her father, while his sister, Dott's aunt gives support in the traditional Thai way. Earlier Dott had spent much of the day lending a hand in the 'kitchen' mainly cooking king prawns, some of which can be seen in both photos. The whole day had a wonderful atmosphere to it. As with our previous visit, we left bearing Samlett's gifts. Truly those who have least are most generous, but on this occasion we had managed to give something back to him.

Loi Kratong falls on a full moon in November. Small lotus-shaped baskets or boats (kratongs) made of banana leaves containing flowers, incense, candles and a coin are floated on Thai rivers, lakes and canals. Some years Loi Kratong falls before my birthday, some years after. This year for the first time it fell on my birthday. Without realising that the two events coincided this year, I had previously agreed to attend the Miss Loi Kratong contest and take photographs of one of the contestants. Although it wasn't the birthday evening I had planned, it nevertheless turned out to be thoroughly enjoyable, and quite possibly better.

If you don't know, or hadn't guessed, the contestant on whom I was focussed was Paul's daughter Gop, seen above left with Paul before being made up. I thought she was going to win, but looking through the camera lens it became apparent at the end of the first round that to progress to the next round each girl's face had to fit a particular template. I knew that Gop's did not, so although disappointed, was not surprised that she did not progress.

She did however win a prize of 10,000 baht for receiving the most floral tributes during the contest. Paul denies that he had a hand in this, but I think the picture on the right tells a different story.

A big surprise for me at the next table to us was my dentist (below left) with one of her nephews. While at another table a little further away was Kim and Ou (centre pic). Kim seemed to have got his tongue stuck in Ou's ear, or had fallen asleep, I'm not sure which, but he had been in this position for some minutes. With Kim and Ou were Chris (in the same pic) and Nang. Chris comes from Alaska (can be a bit nippy there I believe) while his wife Nang has a bar on the riverfront at Tha Sadet spookily named Nang's bra.

Nang's bra

Kim took this photo at Nang's bar. He was trying to photograph his car, but we got in the way. I hope by now you will be able to distinguish me on the left of the photo from Ian (Ian wears only Russell Athletic T-shirts) with Chris on my left. Next to Chris is Leigh, and making up the party is Kim's Australian friend Ray, who was in Nongkhai for a few days.

Leigh is a very nice Australian with whom I rapidly established an easy rapport. In fact our conversation progressed so rapidly that not everybody could keep up, which led to a quite humorous misunderstanding by another of those present. (For obvious reasons it would not be fair to identify the party concerned.)

Leigh runs the Friendship Guesthouse which is just around the corner to Nang's bar, with his wife Sujitra. I took Dott there to meet Leigh and Sujitra over a gin and tonic and we had a very pleasant evening.

One morning, I found these two photos in my camera. I remember saying to Paul after the photo on the left that you look far too cheerful for someone 'ringing the bell' so Paul duly posed for the photo on the right. But I couldn't remember why Paul had 'rung the

bell'. Subsequently when I asked Paul why he had rung the bell, his response was that there was no special reason, he had just done it as a good host on a lively evening. In my opinion, it is one of the things that makes Paul a very special host. I know that he'll hate me for mentioning (in alphabetical order) Andrew, Brendan, Chris, Christian, Derrick, Glen, Giulio and José in the same breath, but in a town of 'takers', its nice to meet some hosts who give as well as take. I know that I favour some establishments over others. If you want to look for a reason, that's it. They all give something back to all their customers, which in turn makes their customers feel special, and want to come back.

Thaigirlsingle and Halloween Dates

Necrophilia is not a word that springs readily from the lips, but seeing this photo of Greg with his Thaigirlsingle Halloween date, it is a word that does come to mind.

I am also reminded that if incest is only relatively boring, necrophilia is dead boring.

Btw I swear that I have done nothing to this photo, that is really how they looked !

Dr José's

As I sit and write this, the temperature in Nongkhai has plummeted to a chilly 24°C and we are all wearing warmer clothing. I am obliged to John and Dr José for a suitable pose, but I have to point out that this is what they were actually wearing at the time it was 24°C.

The good doctor told me that he has been reading all sorts of publications to try to give this years Thanksgiving Meal (Thursday 24th) a truly authentic feel. Well there you go! I never knew that Penthouse, Playboy and 100 Babes in the Buff, had recipes.

In the last episode I said that I have never regretted the decision to live in Thailand. I also believe that I have made more friends here, than I ever had in a lifetime in the UK. So there are (thankfully rare) moments when I feel the need to recognise the support of those friends, because the best I do for them on this website is to extract the kidney waste. You know who you are guys! Thank you!

OK That's enough for this episode. I really really did not expect to be publishing episode 26 so quickly, but I have to repeat my confession that I have been inspired by comments made by my friend John in Udonthani. In the next episode I really really will be writing about Thanksgiving at Dr José's, and Heiko's new bar when he and Tony 'the Italian stallion' are reunited, plus anything else that I think might amuse or interest you.

If you want to write to us, but you don't know any of our other email addresses, you can email us at mail@nongkhai.co.uk 

Best Wishes to all our readers 

Tony and Dott 

P.S. Doughnut says 'Woofs to all readers'.   Hey, there are some really really interesting smells coming from a female dog somewhere nearby, and I really really want to go and make her acquaintance, but Dott won't let me past the gate, so all I can do is inhale!

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