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Part 56 |
Nongkhai &
Tha Rae |
Published |
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01 01 |
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10 |
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Best wishes for 2010 to
all our friends and readers (and especially Sean). |
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Introduction to Tha Rae (pronounced Tar Rare) |
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Tha Rae straddles the road
from Sakon Nakhon to Nakhon Phanom at the point
where road 2132 meets road 22, alongside the
fairly picturesque lake Nong Han (the area of blue
on the left of the map). |
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It takes more or less two
hours driving due east from Udonthani to Tha Rae,
and pretty much the same time going in the opposite
direction. It's 20 km by road between Tha Rae and
Sakon Nakhon, but must be only 10 or 11 km by boat.
It might be fun to get a dinghy and try sailing on
the lake, although I don't think it would be a
practical alternative for going shopping.
Aranya and I moved to Tha Rae in several stages
during December, but have already developed the
habit of making trips without the children back to
Nongkhai to keep in touch with our friends there.
Having moved a significant number of times in the UK
where one moves everything at the same time, it was
far more pleasant to move things piecemeal, but it
did involve extra thought.
One of
the most surprising things about Tha Rae is the
number of Catholic temples, so it is inevitable that
a large proportion of the population is nominally
Catholic, including as it happens Aranya's family.
The pictures below were taken in the Catholic
graveyard. It is a colourful place, and becomes much
more so in the first week of November. During that
week most graves are visited by family members,
cleaned and/or painted. Aranya was busy cleaning the
tiled grave of her maternal grandfather, but paused
to pose for me, as did these two chaps busy giving a
coat of emulsion to an untiled grave. |
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By the Friday
afternoon pretty much every grave has been visited and
'beautified'. Before dawn the following day, (always the first Saturday of
November) family members visit the
graveyard en masse to place candles in copious quantities. The sight
of the graveyard illuminated by thousands of candles
(possibly tens of thousands) in the cold pre-dawn air
has to be seen to be believed. Unfortunately it was just
after dawn by the time Aranya and I arrived, so although I
still got a strong impression of what it must look like, I
will have to wait till next year to see the full effect for
myself. |
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Greg's
Jungle Bar, Ice Cream Parlour & Sewing Circle |
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The Nestlé ice
cream signs have now disappeared, and Aranya's children Fai
and Foon are back in Tha Rae, but it's the same fence. Jon
poses in front of it and demonstrates some wishful thinking.
Did Greg take the signs down because of this headline? Who
knows, except Greg? |
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November 2009
saw some important dates for me. I arrived in Thailand on
11th November 1999 to start my life here, and so far have had 10
wonderful years. My birthday is in November, an a day shared
with Jon above, and 21st November marked three months
marriage to Aranya. so it seemed a good day for a party to
celebrate these three anniversaries. The chosen venue was Greg's
Jungle Bar, Ice Cream Parlour & Sewing Circle, so a
special thank you to him for creating a great atmosphere
that evening. Thanks also to Greg's wife Daeng and my wife
Aranya for working hard to prepare food for everybody.
Finally thanks to all who attended, together with those who
nearly made it (you know who you are) and apologies to those
who didn't get the invitation in time. |
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In no particular order I was
very pleased to see Nigel and Matt, Brendan being silenced
by wife Noi ... a real achievement as it is almost
impossible to silence Brendan .... and Fred posing with me.
Fred kindly gave me a bottle of Thai red wine which to my
surprise comes from Sakon Nakon province. I am waiting for a
suitable occasion (and suitable food to accompany it) so
have yet to try it, but thank you again Fred. |
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Aranya poses
with Kim .... those two always strike sparks off each other
to the amusement of onlookers ... Kim's wife Ou is now
clearly pregnant, while the handsome Dane making his maiden
appearance is Jan. Jan once worked with Kim in Denmark, but
has now forgiven Kim. He says that he is nursing a broken
heart over a relationship with a Thai partner that didn't
work out, so is not looking for anyone new yet. Let me know
when you are ready Jan, I have a list of women as long as
your arm who have seen your photo and want to meet you !!
Below right, Jimmy the Schmear dapper as ever in the company
of Alan, a man I've never heard described as dapper. |
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Gary raises a glass while Greg's
wife Daeng (pen in hand) keeps a check of who is drinking
what. Between them is Nit and a friend of unknown name with
glasses. I saved the best to last and this photo of A with
her hair done specially for the occasion. Nik (for it is
him) was trying to recreate the opening of a TV series
featuring a comedian named Harry Worth, in front of a shop
window. |
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I took the
opportunity to make a short speech to the assembled company,
advising that the rumours were true, and that Aranya and I
would be moving from Nongkhai in December, and that we
intended to legally marry one month hence on 21st December. |
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Registry
Office in Sakon Nakon |
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Fast forward to Monday afternoon,
21st December, and here we are in an almost deserted
registry office waiting while our paperwork was processed.
In contrast to Jacq & Jon's wedding in July, there is no
ceremony, you either stand waiting at the counter or sit
waiting nearby. |
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In the same office A got
her new identity card and is now officially and
legally Mrs Aranya Brading. Observant readers will
notice that A is wearing glasses in these photos.
For a long time she has been suffering headaches,
and I had suggested that she get her eyes checked. Aranya
rather scoffed at the idea that there was some sort
of connection between the headaches and her
eyesight, but eventually she submitted to an eye
test, and found that there was a defect with her
vision. We duly bought glasses made to the correct
prescription. Later the same day A was exclaiming
how clear everything looked and was generally very
pleased with her new glasses. A day or two she
thanked me and announced that I had been right about
the headaches as she had not suffered one since the
acquisition of the new glasses. For a Thai woman to
voluntarily admit that her husband was right about
something is almost unprecedented. She really must
love me a lot ha ha !! |
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I have tried
on A's glasses, assuming that if they correct her vision
defect then the nature of that defect would be apparent to
me. Truly the effect was a horrible distortion, not unlike
those fairground mirrors one remembers from childhood, so
A's 'normal' view of the world must have been equally
distorted. No wonder she had headaches !! Anyway I think the
glasses make A look much smarter and more mature, but her
Thai friends call her either 'Yai' and her Western friends
call her 'Grandma' which co-incidentally mean the same
thing, so perhaps she does look a little older.
Here she is wearing the new
glasses while preparing food at Tha Rae. I think my wife is
pretty A-mazing, but then I would, wouldn't I? |
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Aranya and I
have rented this house for a short period for only 1/4 of the rent we were paying in Nongkhai. Of course
the house in NK was bigger and better, but this one meets
our immediate needs. In the longer term we plan to build our
own house in the style of this modest Thai house (below)
being built nearby for 400,000 baht. Our first task will be
to acquire the land on which to build it. I
will include details of progress in future episodes as
well as 'before' and 'after' photos. Our initial budget is 400,000
baht but I hope that we can
show a saving on that sum if we build something similar. |
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My friend
Somchai (in the dark jacket) is a fireman. I got this photo
of him and his crew when they stopped nearby. I asked why
had they stopped? To say hello to me, and to get some
tamarinds from the tree behind them was the reply!
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Living
in Nongkhai |
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This painted
sign is a reminder that on the 15th August 2551 (2008) the
River Mekhong reached the height of 13.61 metres, about half
a metre above the adjacent road level. Follow this
link Floods for more pictures.
I include this picture as a service for all those who have
recently bought land alongside the Mekhong in Nongkhai. As
attractive as the view may be, never lose sight of the fact
that you will be living on the bank of one of the largest
rivers in the world, and that it's level in the flood season
is controlled by the Chinese. They have a cynical disregard
for both human rights and what they do to other countries. |
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Back in
October Aranya and I took the children to the seaside at Mae
Ramphong beach, Rayong. This is a lovely stretch of beach
that it is rarely very busy, even on Thai public holidays.
Basically it is too far from Bangkok to attract many
weekenders, and too far from an airport to attract tourists.
So you end up with this lovely beach, and clean sea, but
limited development, and almost no night-life. If you want
night-life, it is a 10 minute drive away in Rayong, or a
little over an hour's drive away in Pattaya. |
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We included a visit to the
excellent aquarium at the end of the beach, where I managed
to get this fish's eye view of A and the children. (The
picture on the right, not the one on the left.) |
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The nights in November in Issan
can be breathtaking. Clear skies full of stars, not a breath
of wind, the lights of the candles in the kratongs mirrored
in the water and the beautiful full moon of Loi Kratong.
However it was not so last year. It was very cloudy and
there was an unpleasant wind that was both strong and cold.
It happened that A and I were apart at Loi Kratong last
year, she in Tha Rae while I was in Nongkhai, so perhaps the
weather was fitting.
My friend Dott had phoned me to
say that she had made kratongs for sale, as she had in
previous years, and perhaps I could buy from her again? How
could I refuse? I took my freshly purchased kratong down to
the river and boarded a boat so that I could launch it
mid-river. It was difficult keeping the candle alight in the
wind, and as soon as the kratong was launched it was
extinguished, but I did manage to phone A from the middle of
the river so that we were able to synchronise our launches
in Nongkhai and Tha Rae. |
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When I returned to the riverbank to
collect the items I had left with Dott, I found her in the
middle of a massive stock clearance selling to these young
monks. I had no idea that they took an interest in Loi
Kratong, what with it being a romantic festival for couples.
Alors, chaque jour j'apprends quelque chose de nouveau !! A regular
saying of my favourite French aunt 'Tati'. Dott's niece,
Manao, entered into the 'Miss Loi Kratong' beauty
competition. I thought that she deserved to win, but alas
the judges did not agree with me! |
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Catholic
Xmas in Tha Rae |
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I said before
that Catholicism is big in Tha Rae, they celebrated 125
years of it in December, so I include these two pictures of
one of the local Catholic temples and its Xmas decorations,
both inside and out. As you may be able to see it is of an
unusual circular design, but I don't think you could get
away with the night illuminations in the west! |
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Being in Tha
Rae, I missed out on traditional Xmas dinner. But as we were
back in Nongkhai on 27th, I headed to Brendan and Noi's in
the hope that there was something with turkey on the menu.
Ideally some sort of roast, but anything with turkey would
suffice. As it happened a large baguette with turkey filling
was on offer, so that was what I had. I was doubly lucky
because Dan (Barcelona) was also in Brendans, it was great
to see him again. I introduced him to A, and got them to
pose together. |
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Later that
evening I was in Beer Belly Billy's and was pleasantly
surprised to find Martin (in blue, former proprietor of the
Meeting Place), Kevin (if I've got the wrong name somebody
please correct me) and of course Peter (dispenser of ale and
dry northern wit). |
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From Beer
Belly Billy's it is but a short stagger to Greg's Jungle
Bar, Ice Cream Parlour & Sewing Circle which was where
Aranya and I headed next. There we found Little Greg with On
wrapped around him. I hope for On's sake that Nikki does not
see this picture, or Nikki might get the wrong idea, and On
might end up with series injuries for which Little Greg will
have to pay. On the same night I caught Big Greg and Daeng
together in the same photo, and here's the proof ! |
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I've left out
a lot of material relating to Tha Rae as a lot has been
happening here, and I was seeking a balance between Nongkhai
and Tha Rae, but I will include it sometime in the future. |
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On
behalf of my wife and myself, best wishes for 2010 to you all
Tony
and Aranya |
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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
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