Part 57

Nongkhai & Tha Rae

I wanted to publish

01  02

2010

In Nongkhai

A and I visited Nongkhai twice in January, at opposite ends of the month. By design on the first visit we met up with Dan, and by accident had the good fortune to bump into Wee Jimmie outside Apple's new bar. Cue for a photo with A squeezed between the two larger figures, and Apple's new bar in the background. In the photo below, Dan is the only one wearing contact lenses. If you still don't know who is who, Wee Jimmie is the tallest, - I wonder how often that happens.

In the other photo Dave (in striped shirt) was celebrating his birthday in Nang's bar, hence the tiny cake with two candles in front of him. The finger pointing was followed by arm wrestling. I don't recall who won, but in keeping with Nongkhai bar traditions, both parties claimed victory.

We had seen Dave earlier in Beer Belly Billy's which is where A is seated below. From this angle it looks more like a lovely garden than a kerbside bar. In the other photo posing with Dave are Tom and Tom's lovely daughter Rainey. I don't think I've ever seen Dave smile so much, so it must in truth have been his birthday.

Also in the company were Kevin, Jon and Dan, making it definitely look like a bar. I think there was some sort of game on TV. It involved a ball, so it was probably cricket or rugby or something and it was the object of Kevin and Jon's unwavering attention. Fortunately Dan and Dave were happy to pose. When not enjoying life in Nongkhai, Dave makes his living driving trucks in the UK. I'd like to claim that the one below is the one that he drives, but the Thai number plate is a bit of a giveaway. Clearly the Thai driver is not an Everton supporter, but if you are going to put the name of your team on the front of your truck, it wouldn't hurt to spell it right, would it ?

A suspicious barbecue in Tha Rae

If you are at all squeamish you may not want to examine this photo too closely. Clearly something was being barbecued, but what exactly? Well the carcass is on the right, but that could be a lamb or a goat couldn't it? Having previously tried cooked dog when offered (purely on the grounds of research of course ) I  had found

it quite unpleasant. Naturally I tried some of this barbecued animal when offered, again on the grounds of research of course, and found it very tasty. I asked A why this should be? She explained that this was a young healthy animal, so was naturally tasty. After a moment's reflection this made perfect sense. Not unlike the difference between lamb and mutton or veal and beef. I expect to be in the UK some time later this year, and while I am looking forward to a roast leg of lamb, I wouldn't anticipate eating mutton with any degree of eagerness, rather the reverse. So was it barbecued dog? Well I'm not saying here, you'll just have to make up your own mind.

I mentioned this project in episode 56, and was pleasantly surprised at the amount of interest expressed. To recap briefly, my plan was to build a modest house in the style of this house being built nearby with a budget of 400,000 baht. One way or another construction of our house has been taking up most of my time, so I hope that I will be forgiven for writing at some length on the subject.

The bubbles trap air thereby providing very good insulation, and should help keep the house cooler than otherwise. Unfortunately they cost 4 times the price of ordinary blocks. In similar vein I have opted to use a highly reflective roof sheet, with the same object of reducing solar gain, but once again they are significantly more expensive.

I'm rather jumping ahead, so here left is a view of about half the land that we bought for 40,000 before any work started. The house will fit in between most of the trees, except for the spindly papayas top left. A already owned the land to the left (or west) of the papaya trees, they used to mark her boundary. We (in reality A alone) now own about half a rai, but are waiting a visit from the land registry people to formalize the change of ownership. This photo left was taken from upstairs in grandmother's old wooden house that we acquired with the land.

This view right is looking back at said wooden house. You may just be able to make out the Jazz parked alongside. Those of you on Facebook will probably have seen the collection of construction photos, so I won't repeat them here, but will provide this link to them.

 http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=195655&id=602689745&l=094bfebe89

(You should be able to click on the link but otherwise you may have to copy and paste the whole link into the address bar of a new tab on your browser).

I've provided a commentary with the photos which should bridge the gap between acquiring the land and reaching the following point in the construction.

The mystery of the concrete floor

We had decided to undertake this task ourselves in order to reduce costs (save money). This was the house just hours before we concreted the floor. To achieve this, A and I had had to make up the earth level inside the house. We had 10 lorry loads of fill delivered which then had to be spread throughout the house and compacted. Some of it could be done by using a tractor and blade, but because of all the columns a lot had to be done by hand. It was hard work, and took the two of us a week. At one point A had a 'brilliant idea' to help with the compaction, (see below) but after a few trial passes  it  was  apparent that it made little  or  no

difference, so was abandoned in favour of the traditional method of using copious quantities of water combined with walking up and down. Once we were satisfied with the compaction and level of the fill we laid mesh reinforcement on top. The mesh comes in rolls which have to be 'unwound'. Once placed the mesh doesn't want to stay and tries to curl up again. What appears a straightforward job can end up being very awkward and time consuming. Next we placed formwork around the edges of the floor and at each change of level. The finished floor level was  marked on  every column and

temporary wooden pegs were placed in between to try to ensure that we placed no more than the 10 cm (4") I had designed. The area of the floor is 126 square metres so it's not hard to work out how many cubic metres we required, but for Brendan's benefit, it is 12.6. In the UK I made my living from construction measurement, so the calculation is especially easy for me. Therefore I have no explanation whatsoever for ordering only 10 cubic metres. As a truck holds 2.5 cubic metres, that made exactly 4 truckloads. I had wondered what intervals would be appropriate between loads, but that was solved when the company explained 'oh we have only one truck, so when you've emptied it, it will return to us and we'll refill it.' With the concrete ordered, we were finally ready.

On Monday all those who had promised their help duly showed up. That was an immense relief for me. Now all we needed was for the first lorry load to arrive, it was due at 9.30. That time came and passed. Eventually the lorry turned up, and we were go.

The floor comprises 14 'bays' each 9 square metres, so each load had to cover about three and one half bays. It was a shock when the first load covered only two bays. At this rate we would need 7 loads, far more that the 4 loads I had ordered. Fortunately the next load went a lot further, as did the following two. After four lorry loads we had completed almost 13 out of the 14 bays. I instructed the driver to bring back one more cubic metre which turned out to be ample. Once that was delivered and placed, we provided all our helpers with food and (of course) drink, which naturally turned into a party. The concrete mystery has not been solved. We should have used 12.6, but actually used less than 11, having ordered 10.

Above left a lot more water is used in Thai concrete to help it flow, (it would fail a slump test in the UK), but that water comes out very quickly as the concrete starts to set. Above right the same day, yes the same day, the concrete was strong enough to allow me to remove the formwork, but not yet strong enough to walk on. Hence the child's footprints in this photo the next day when A set up her knitting machine on our new floor. 

How is the budget going you may ask? Well, when we paid the bill for the concrete, we had actually spent 298,000 baht but we have about 38,000 baht of yet-to-be-used materials stored, so 260,000 would be about right. The house  we  are  now  building  is  more  than  one  third larger than the original

400,000 baht model. I have omitted two columns to make the living room a clear 9m x 6m (30' x 20') which doubled the span of some of the roof steel. The energy saving materials we have used in the walls and roof have cost 20,000 baht more than their traditional equivalents, but we should benefit from smaller energy bills in the future and from the cooler environment in the house. Already, even without doors and windows the difference is perceptible.

Taking all these factors into account, our budget might (possibly should) have been around 560,000 baht. At this point I think that we will run out at about 480,000 which is a disappointing 20% above my target, but I have to concede that we are getting a 40% bigger house built to a higher standard for that sum. I now know that it was perfectly possible to build the original house for less than 400,000 baht, but it wouldn't have been this house, which is the one in which A and I want to spend the rest of our lives.

Safety in construction

Slick tyres returned to F1 last season, replacing the grooved tyres previously in use. Lorry owners in Thailand were clearly impressed by the change and have also adopted treadless tyres. This lorry was delivering cement and steel to us.

Doing a spot of welding? Then make sure that you have bare  feet  while  standing  on

rickety wooden staging. To protect your eyes, be sure to wear sunglasses. Keep them on at all times even when not welding to retain that 'supercool' look.

A less common construction hazard is this allegedly poisonous snake. I was working on some timber when I spotted it next to my foot. I withdrew hastily and observed it for a while. It was motionless. I poked it with a (very long) stick, but it didn't budge. Eventually I concluded that it was dead, and used my very long stick to pick it up and move it some distance away. (I don't believe in taking chances with snakes, even if they appear dead).

I said alleged, because it looked very similar to this harmless green tree snake below, and not at all like this very poisonous snake that this chap had wrapped around his arm. Incidentally I did notice that he kept a firm grip on its head at all times. When A and I were doing our earthmoving above we unearthed a couple of tiny black snakes about the size of earthworms. A commented cryptically 'if they bite you and you go to sleep, you don't wake up'. This set me thinking that a book on Thai snakes would be quite useful. Anyone know of one ? Any recommendations ?

Visitors to Nongkhai in March

Under this heading I used to write about other people, but now it is A and I who are the visitors to Nongkhai. As a former resident for a number of years, one of the biggest surprises was the level of the Mekong. Using the sunken wat as our reference, I think that the river usually falls to reveal about 2/3 of the present view. As I remember it, the lighter band just above the river would not normally be visible. Of course memory plays tricks, if anyone has photos showing the same view in previous years, please get in touch. But it's not only the sunken wat, the amount of sand visible appears much greater. Allegedly you can now wade to Laos.

With the river so low and the hazard so obvious it defies belief that a boat could run into it, but the photo doesn't lie, and it's easy to underestimate the power of 'Lao Khao'.

Right we caught up with Kim and new baby boy Kiou, seen here in A's arms. Kim refused to sell him, despite a number of offers from A, and eventually had to prise him out of her arms. Kiou is a combination of Kim and Ou and according to A is pronounced queue. Her hearing is better than mine, I thought Kim was referring to him as Hugh.

Bars in Nongkhai

It just happens that the same weekend we were in Nongkhai was the opening race of the 2010 F1 season. What a co-incidence !! Where else to watch it but Brendan and Noi's Riverside Restaurant ? Right the eponymous host looking very sophisticated in new spectacles. I feel obliged to explain that Brendan wasn't smiling because he has only half his new teeth installed. Once he has a full set I will be able to treat you to views 'before' and 'after'. Kim, Dan and Roger joined me to watch the race on Brendan's big screen. The race itself was very disappointing. The rules have been changed

so that there is no refueling. Before the race started I predicted that as a result of this change there was less possibility for overtaking, and that the likely result was that the cars would finish in the order that they started, mechanical breakdowns excepted. Sadly I was proved right. There was almost no overtaking, and the race was simply a procession. If this is the pattern for the season I can't see any interest in future 'races', as the result will be decided in qualifying, and the race will finish in the same order unless someone breaks down or crashes. Once the race was over Dan and I cruised around town, bar hopping.

From Brendan's we headed to Greg's Jungle bar, as I was keen to see Greg, but it was closed, next was Beer Belly Billy's, but that too was closed, so our first stop was here at Simon's Funky Monkey. It was a tad spooky for me, because Simon has changed premises, and this used to be Mam's J-lo bar, the exact spot where I met A. If you go back to part 53, you will see that while most of the bar is completely different, the identical floor tiles are a bit of a giveaway. It's probably a good move for Simon to the centre of town, but I wish he'd do something about that name.

From Simon's bar we headed to Jose's Soi (it will always be that to me) and stopped at Bamboo Bar 2, but there were no customers so we continued down the road to Bamboo Bar 1. We were joined for a while by Rainer who is Swiss, and is responsible for opening the Bamboo Bar. However he sold it to this young lady in Dan's grasp (her name escapes me) and opened the similarly named bar we had passed earlier. Apparently this is run by Rainer's wife. Like us she too had noticed a lack of customers and arrived to harangue Rainer because he was now a paying customer in BB1 rather than jolly host in BB2.

They were good enough to stop their vigorous discussion for a few moments to pose for this toothy photograph. If anyone was wondering what was Dan's message to the world, here it is.

In Conclusion

I apologise for the long gap since the last episode, and for going on about my house, but I can only write in the present. Life in Tha Rae is excellent and marriage to A is excellent too. I've had more genuine pleasure in Tha Rae than I knew in Nongkhai. All in all I would say that I have fallen on my feet here, long may it continue ! 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