Another Day In Ban Muang

Life seems to be pleasantly drifting along.  Today had a few friends round for coffee. went out on the village road for some noodles. Had time to watch the cows go by !!

Made some more cheese. No time for bread today !!

Later "Pat" and "Pet" came round to give Wanna a fish. Well it was about 5 kilo, a Cat Fish. Still alive and ready to go in our pond. It arrived in a plastic bag obviously caught in someone elses' pond, Probably when being emptied.

 Lovely gift.  I'll leave it there swimming around for Rene or Owen to catch!!! (Charlie if you read this you need to be quick........).

Ban Muang - Relax

Just had 5 days up in Ban Muang. Relaxing. House and garden looking good.

Did a bit of shopping and had time for "canteen" lunch. These big Makro type places have everything you need and even have small restaurants attached. All offering a variety of foods.  The shop had all we needed. Good range of foods, spics and assorted goodies.

Food was excellent as well.I looked at all the local stuff and enjoyed some rice and a bamboo stir fry. Wanna went for the Club Sandwich and chips.

Talking of bamboo dishes, Wanna dug up some bamboo shoots, cut them and then boiled them for later use.

Me,  I just got on and made a Quiche. So we were all busy being creative....

Rayong Views

I mentioned a few days back that there were lots of interesting places to see and visit in Rayong.  (It gets a bad press in the tourist guide books and web sites. Usual comments being don't bother stopping keep on going to Koh Chang or where ever you were going. Wrong !

Well I think it has some character, in fact a lot going for it. Everyone can't be wrong. Its home to about 675,000 people and has developed as both an industrial town a major local fishing port. Ford motors manufacture all their pickups here. And there are loads of other international companies. On the fishing side they are the main producers of Thai fish sauce. A major local product which is available world wide. Even on the shelves of my local shop in La Digue, Seychelles.....

To support all this are the usual restaurants and bars and night life together with shopping Malls and some major hotels and apartment blocks for visiting business men. All in all a place worth spending a few days in.

We plan on being here for the next 3-4 years and so are moving slowly trying out different restaurants most evenings, going back to several as our "local" one.

Also and most importantly have decided to move from our Condo to the beach. We are in the process of buying a "town house". Its on the beach front. There is a coastal road in front then the beach. In fact it runs the length of Rayong Beach. Shore line is heavily protected with groynes. And sand has done a good accumulation to date. S small restaurant scattered all the way along. All looking good for the future. Opposite our place its not as yet a great beach to look at. If your imagining a swaying palm fringed beach unlucky but it has sand, water and its warm. I do see very potential and its a great location. This blog will soon be full of our purchase and renovations and listing and recording all the trials and tribulations that go with it.

For today I'll just add a few photos of some fishing boats and side streets.  I took these on the way to work. So a bit rushed. Jumped out of the car and clicked then jumped back in and off to work. And yes they do look a bit dull. It had just finished a torrential down pour.

House project to follow. :)

Fishing through the Ice.

Turned into a lovely day. Cold but no wind. So we went off for a walk and got to the river. Loads of people fishing. Yes sitting on the ice  and digging holes in the snow. Then lowering in some line with bait on it. Seems very successful. We stopped out there and asked if we could take a picture. “No !”  But please sit down as we will take a picture of you ! See below.  Made the day.

I will admit it does not make me an expert ice fisherman but I can say “been there, done that!”

This all followed by a good hot meal !!!

Thai New Year 13th April 2013

Yesterday was a Thai New Year which as you can imagine is a time for a lot of celebrations. Police out in full force this year to keep down drink driving. Major problem with youngsters running round of the little scooters etc. Death toll is horrendous at this time. Last year 26,000 people were killed on Thai roads. Making it the 6th highest in the world. So best to stay home around this time...

It is also a family time when all the family show respect and thanks to the elders of the family. In this case it was by the children of Wanna parents. Covering the 'Olds' with water, symbolic of life and it is believed that doing this will bring good luck and prosperity for the New Year. And it is a tradition which I've tried to capture on a small slide show. First up is spilling of some water on the foot of the Buddha statues and then on the parents. Kids love it as they get to play with lots of water, splashing and spraying everyone in sight!!!

Later we went to play snooker at a local play.  Good fun. Would you believe it I met another foreigner there who came from Norwich in Norfolk!!!  Small world.  Then came back home to do some netting of fish for dinner.  Caught a big Mekong Cat fish, one which we had put in there a year or so back. (It was much smaller then....) I can confirm it tasted good !!! 

All in all a very good day..

After the Jetty

Well we finished the jetty and added in a few fish to the pond. Evening time we have a small party and lit some lanterns and let off a few fireworks. All good.

Ban Muang

Back un in Thailand after our trip across Australia. Had an eving at home. One of Wanna Nephews caught a fish in our pond using a net.  Came in at 6.7 Kilos. Yes, it did get eaten same evening!!

Music Or Whatever

I've been taking some guitar lessons as I mentioned earlier. (Christmas Gladstone Guitar School Music extravaganza). One of the web sites I subscribe to just included the following :-

"The impulse to do something else instead of guitar is the signal to start playing NOW. You've got the rest of your life to tend to everything else -- and let's be honest, everything else is just details."

And sitting here at work, it made me think of a lot of my friends and guys I know who have other interests. So substitute the work Guitar for your 'thing', be it Golf, Camping, Fishing, playing pool or whatever and the above makes for a good statement.

Have a good day wherever you are, and whatever you are doing.

Lazy Weekend With Some Fishing

Lazy weekend. We did some fishing and relaxed. Beautiful local spot, a sea water discharge for the local power station. Does not sound like much but it is on the edge of a big river. Lots of hot water comes through it which attracts the fish. It is also a good wild life place with several different species of birds. And the area has been prepared for fisherman and even comes equiped with shades and tables so you can enjoy a full afternoon or evening there. But we were unlucky as we did not catch anything today. One got off last time, and it was a big one... Honest!

Later we downloaded a couple of films. ‘Drive’ has got to be one of the worst ‘B’ movie I have watched for ages. The other 'Killer Elite' started Jason Strathan, Robert De Nero and 'someone?'Owen and it was excellent viewing, that is if you like thrillers with people getting shot and lots of fighting. Ideal for a Sunday evening viewing. I had earler in the week watched the 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. One of the best films in the sense that it followed the book almost exactly and did not loose anything from it. And the book was good! But before settleing into movies we had of course first to get the Bar B Q going, steak and sausages and potatoes. No wonder I am putting on weight in Oz.

And to top it all off back to reality and work on Monday morning.

TGIF We Got The Fish..sort of

We did get to the fishing site. Met a couple of other anglers who gave us advice on how to tie the line, cast etc. We watched them bring in a 5 kilo Barramundi. And yes we to caught one. But it got away. I know the usual excuse but its true. I took a picture of the one the other guy caught. We'll be going back there in the next few days for sure.

After fishing, thirsty work as you know we stopped at the bottle shop for a few beers. Went to the beach and amazingly watched the moon come up. Beautify orange orb. My phone camera could not do it justice. Wanna pointed out he rabbit on the moon. If you look closely its sort of there. But I asked her 'How can a rabbit live on the moon if its made of cheese?". "What cheese?'. At that it was time to head home before we got even move stupid!