Part 50

The View from Nongkhai

Published

11 December

2007

A Half Century - the Very Last Episode - and a True Noi's Story !!

This really is a true story of someone currently living in Thailand. I have his permission to tell the story. Only the facts have been changed to protect the innocent (not really).

There is a 61 year old Californian living in Hua Hin, let's call him Bill. Bill moved to Hua Hin from Pattaya in October with his girlfriend whose name in Noi (I commented in part 48 about Noi being a very common name for Thai women, although I've since learnt that they aren't all spelt or pronounced the same way - some are Nawy and others are Noy or Noi). Bill spends a lot of his time using his computer, and wanted to find out about Nongkhai, so using Google search, he typed in 'Nongkhai' which brings up a list of sites making reference to Nongkhai.

Not too surprisingly, this site is included in such a list, so Bill ended up reading my website. Something I wrote in the 'final final' episode caught his eye, so he went back to look at earlier episodes. In Bill's own words

Bill's email wasn't the complete surprise it might have been as Noi had telephoned to tell me that she had a second boyfriend, that he had seen my website with her picture and that he was going to write to me. Ironically I had already decided to stop seeing Noi. I had met Noi early in March, and saw a lot of her before I went to the UK at the end of March. She was supposed to meet me on my return in mid-May, but she was mysteriously unavailable. With hindsight she must have just met Bill, and was playing us both!

Right, Noi (butter wouldn't melt in my mouth) feeding with one hand while holding a phone to her ear with the other. As she was speaking Thai between mouthfuls I don't think she was talking to Bill on this occasion.  

Noi  had told me that she left Pattaya in May and was now living in Det Udom dividing her time between looking after her sons, staying with her parents and helping her brother in the rice fields. Having been to Det Udom and met all her family it seemed plausible enough, but there were these little things that didn't fit that picture. I had a feeling of unease that something was not quite right. I couldn't put my finger on it, or say exactly what it was, but I sensed that something just did not add up. Now I know the truth, that she was actually living with Bill in Pattaya, all those little niggles fit the true picture. No wonder that she didn't want me to travel to Det Udom for her birthday,  she wasn't there!

For 6 months I didn't have a clue as to what was going on. She's so very, very good at lying. I've decided to give Noi another chance. I think she IS a good woman and she has treated me very well. I was just taken by such surprise. I never saw it coming. I'm giving her a raise in salary hopefully that will alleviate some of the problem.

I have to admit that when Noi told me about Bill my first feeling was one of relief that I hadn't imagined all those little anomalies, and that I definitely wasn't suffering from paranoia. As Bill said, Noi is very very good at lying, but she couldn't control all the words, actions and reactions of those around her. Those who knew the truth unwittingly gave her game away.

It was also in Udonthani in November that I bumped into Major John (with the military moustache) and Q both looking very well and enjoying a beer in Udonthani's bar area. We used to meet regularly on Saturdays in the Complex together with Richard and Alan (when they were in Thailand), Jon and Colin.

Rendezvous in Brendan's

'Bill' in Pattaya is not the only person to have discovered this website and made contact. In July last year I received an email from an English guy living in Sweden. He was complaining about the cold winters there, and thinking about coming to live in Thailand. After initial correspondence I didn't hear from him again, so last month I was very surprised to find that he is already here, and has taken over Nobbi's from the eponymous former owner.

Someone else who initially made contact through this website is Sean (in black below), as his wife's family come from Tha Bo, and it was again in Brendan's that I met with Sean and his father-in-law Mike.

As they are both married to Thai women, I was interested to hear how they came to be related.

José's Thanksgiving Dinner

Spot the difference from earlier years. Who is this relaxed character displaying the turkey? Could it really be José? Yes it could, and yes it was.

The difference this year? Well apart from losing 10kg, so he just looked better, most of the cooking was done the day before, enabling José to relax and enjoy Thanksgiving Day for the first time since he started giving Thanksgiving Dinners.

Naturally the food was to José's traditional high standard. Below among those attending were Pete and his wife Jaiwanee (sorry Pete if I've mis-spelt her name), Brian and his girlfriend (name forgotten), Jon and myself. Brian, Jon and I share the same birthday which fell the week before. By coincidence we were born exactly 10 years apart, so it was a happy coincidence that we were together for the Dinner.

Above left the talking and drinking went on to the early hours of the next day. Centre when Allison posed thus, not a drop had passed her lips, perhaps she was just rehearsing for later? While right, Jessica has recovered from her recent illness, but sadly will not be staying in Nongkhai, and is heading back to the states. José is very good with computers, so it seems appropriate to use computer terminology to mention that as well as the changes to his hardware (losing 20 kg), José has also had a software upgrade. Where he used to punctuate every sentence with 'man', he now punctuates every sentence with 'dude'.

My  61st Birthday

I especially wanted Leigh and his family to attend my birthday meal, but Leigh was heading back to Australia two days before my birthday, so the meal took place on a Tuesday rather than the Friday of my birthday. As Leigh is a professional photographer, it seemed appropriate to hand the camera to him.

Left posing with Nao, Oy and Farng, right with Leigh, Tim and Nice, below L to R, Gwen, Per, Kim, Ou, Ying and Shompoo. It was a lovely evening, made all the better by a practical joke I played on Kim.

For once I organised the table seating, and had placed Shompoo next to Gwen opposite to me. Shompoo has spent a number of years in Denmark and speaks Danish pretty well. Kim was late arriving, and was amazed to find Shompoo, Gwen and Per deep in conversation in Danish. Although I had mentioned Shompoo to Kim, I had kept secret her ability to speak his language. Consequently Kim was gob smacked!

Nongkhai's first Gay Bar?

Well blow me !! (My Grandfather used to say that, but I think that there may have been a change in its meaning since his day). There I was writing about Steve's new bar and its very Graham Norton decor (seen left) but at the same time asking 'Is it the sort of place that Not Gay Dave would go? If Not Gay Dave would go there, then clearly it is a Not Gay bar.'

The next time I went to Steve's there was a different group of customers. Left is Toom, while right is Nigel, Joey, Carsten, Toom & Joey again.

And what do you think they all have in common with Graham Norton? Could it be that Steve has secretly opened Nongkhai's first Gay Bar?

Nongkhai Grand Hotel Rooftop Restaurant

Per and Gwen have now headed back to a very chilly Denmark, but before they left invited Kim, Ou, and me far a meal at the Grand. In Nongkhai in November we were having our own chilly spell, which is why Kim, Ou, and I are all wearing warm jackets while Per and Gwen are in short sleeves. Not hard to tell who lives here fulltime.

Loi Kratong is a romantic Thai festival at the full moon in November. People make or buy kratongs, on which candles and incense are then lit, and the kratong is floated on a river or lake. In Nongkhai the river is the obvious place to float your kratong.

This year as well as the kratong sellers, there were some people selling these hot air balloons (right). I couldn't resist the urge to buy one. Aided by Nao (in yellow) and Noi (yes yet another Noi) we got it alight, then let it go free.

Wedding in Ubon Ratchatani

As a result I ended up with as much of the fluffy white string around my wrists as the bride and groom, as you can see from the picture of us together after the ceremony was complete. Traditionally you must keep the string on your wrists for a minimum of three nights. As I've now lived in Thailand more than eight years, I do try to live in harmony with Thai traditions and ways of doing things, so I was still wearing the string on my return to Nongkhai. As there was so much of it, I was able to convince a number of people in Nongkhai that I had travelled to Ubon to get married. When asked where my wife was, I would tell them that she was still in Ubon as she could earn good money helping with the rice harvest.

After the wedding Noi (the two-timer) and I stayed at a resort outside Det Udom, where I took this photo. An extension over the water was being built, but work had been abandoned some while ago. 

You can see that over time the beam soffit falsework has become detached and is lying in the water. I was surprised at the small cross-section of the beams in relation to their spans. I was intrigued to learn why the construction had been so suddenly halted. The answer is in the background of the photo. Here is an enlargement.

When they had come to pour the insitu concrete to form the floor of the extension, the beams and temporary support were inadequate to support the weight of the wet concrete, and had slowly given way, so that the floor was dished, and the midpoint of the floor was actually more than 20 cm (nearly one foot) lower than the edges. They had been lucky that it was a gradual rather than a sudden (catastrophic) failure. I concluded that it was caused in the first instance by having too few concrete piles, so that the beams were required to span greater distances than they were capable. Who would guess that I spent my career as a quantity surveyor in civil engineering?

Wednesday night is movie night!

Brendan now shows English language movies on a Wednesday night. I usually attend if I am in Nongkhai and in addition to a good movie was rewarded with the company of Nik (right), Nik's wife Noi (yes yet another Noi) and Greg.

Book Corner

Especial thanks to Gordon for the loan of a number of books during his sojourn in Nongkhai. Sadly for me Gordon has now relocated to Samui, so the supply of books has dried up, but before he left  he did lend me one magnificent book entitled '1421' by Gordon Menzies. In this book Menzies lays out compelling evidence that three Chinese fleets which set out in 1421 circumnavigated the globe in the 15th Century, discovering and charting inter alia Antarctica, New Zealand, Australia, the Caribbean and South America. It now seems quite likely that when Columbus 'discovered' America and Magellan discovered the Magellan straight they were using maps made much earlier by Chinese cartographers. What the Chinese fleets achieved in their near three year voyages is astounding, but because the Chinese Emperors believed they ruled with the mandate of heaven, a chance lightning strike on 9 May 1421 (two months after the fleets set sail) that set fire to and destroyed the Emperor's Palace, was interpreted as meaning that heaven had withdrawn its mandate. As a result all records of the voyages were expunged, complete xenophobia set in, and the first of a stream of imperial edicts banning overseas trade and travel was issued. The Chinese withdrew, leaving the Europeans to 'discover' it all over again. Truly the world would be a different place today if that lightning bolt had not struck!

In Conclusion

There is no obvious reason for including this photo of José & Jessica from last year, except that I like it, and I suspect José will hate it. Not only does he have 'man-boobs', but you can see where he lost that 30 kg from! Similarly my reason for including this picture of Nao is that I like it. As it is the very last photo of the very last episode that seems a good enough reason.

 As ever, best wishes to you all

 Tony

 If you want copies of any of the photos, or want to write, but you don't know my personal email address, you can send email to :          mail@nongkhai.co.uk