Morning walk

Nothing special to report. Went for a walk this morning. Just down the road and back. Returning I notices a 'stick' insect on our garage door. Amazing thing. Looked exactly like a stick as it is supposed to! So small and it took me a moment to realise what it was. Anyway good start of the day and for once I had time to stop and observe my surrounding before jumping into my Ute!

The Visitor

We were just sitting having a light dinner with some friends when we had an unexpected visitor from some where in the garden. He’s big so I can only assume he has been around for some time. A scorpion. First one I’ve ever seen in the flesh so to speak. Seen them on TV etc but not in real life and not in my back yard only a few meters from where I was eating!!!
Amazing creature. We managed to get a couple of shots of it but with poor lighting and direct flash meant we were not going to get not such a glamorous photo. No David Baily stuff here, for those of you who would remember him!!! Famous contemporary photographer mainly in the 80-90’s but more recently had his work reviewed and he was interviewed in the Guardian. Enough of David.
It was most definitely and interesting diversion from our dinner conversation!!! Not sure I really need or want a repeat.

Insects, And Fishing

All in all a very good weekend. We started it off with a few beers at the house, last Friday evening. Very relaxing listening to the various wild life and night sounds. Some we could hear above our own laughter. Wanna managed to catch an insect which had been making a wonderful noise. Manged to capture a quick tape and also the sound on the video below. Amazing really to think such a little thing can make so much noise.

Saturday was spent with the morning recovering from the night before !! and an afternoon fishing at a local fishing park. Some of you may recall we were there back in January, The fish had grown somewhat as the one Wanna landed was a 'cool' 22 Kilos. Got the photos to prove it. It was a really fun time as Dad, Owen and myself have all caught one fish each. But to be honest it was not so difficult as the setting is a big lake/Pond. The staff, are great, they supply the rods, put on the bait and do the casting. All we had to do was bring them in! No easy task when they are so large and the fishing tackle is set up to make is a fun sport. Add in a relaxing seating area and good service for food and drinks and you end up with a really fabulous afternoon. And of course once caught more beers!!! For the fishermen amongst you this is a good video. For all you others.... well enough said.

Very Relaxing Weekend

It was a great weekend. Made the more so as I did so little. First off Friday was a National Holiday. Chulalongkorn day. He was a King of Thailand Rama 5. Present King is Rama 9 so hes about 5 back. So about 100b years ago. He is important to Thailand as he introduced many 'European' ideas and opened up the place. Electricity, trains etc. And of course an improved army and some democracy. All in all a good chap who every one wants to remember so fortunately it gives us a day off!!! The King.
Well we went to Topcom and finally bought that new computer we had been promising ourselves, this was followed by some more mundane shopping for meat and veg etc.
Decided the spend the rest of the day relaxing, but as usual we seemed to be inundated with visitors. Cannot complain about this can I.
Made pasta, lasagna, bread, quiche and Wanna knocked up a 1st class Indian Curry. Add in a few cold beers and a every complete weekend.
We did find time to have a quick trip round the lake and noticed there is a big long boat competition due on 23rd November along with Buffalo racing. I saw some buffalo racing a few years back. Great afternoon entertainment. Last night I was called to our back kitchen. "Look". There on the wall was a beautiful lizard. And big. Probably as big as you'll find in a house. Hence the photo.

Village life and food.

Had another really good weekend up in Ban Muang. It is so easy to jump on a bus on a Friday evening in Pattaya and wake up in Khon Kaen the next morning. Going VIP class costs Baht 450 about GBP 8. The seats are like business class on a plane with the added set of buttons to give massage. Real luxury. Furthermore I really enjoy the few days away from work and Pattaya.
This weekend was no exception. We managed to relax for a while amid all the chaos. The chaos was caused by us, so cannot really complain to much. Last week we had started getting the house painted. Not completed yet but certainly it makes what was a cement coloured hut into a major transformation to a good weekend home. I took some photos and am very pleased. The house now looks completed. Yes, I know I do need some doors. Eventually….. We chose some bright colours much to the surprise of Wanna’s Dad who kept complaining he now needed sunglasses!

The colours to me are fine. They also tend to show the ceiling in a good light (pun!!!). The ceiling is a compressed bamboo like a matting or thin plywood. I suspect it would not pass any fire regulations anywhere, even here! But it looks good.
Wanna on Saturday morning prepared a breakfast for her parents. Nothing special for any of them, just normal Issan food. The just ‘normal’ consisting of ‘Lap’ which is chopped beef, chopped very very finely into what we would describe as a mince. It was prepared in two ways, some was cooked in the frying pan and some just cured with lemon juice, both recopies involved the meat being mixed with several herb, tamarind, ground sticky rice, dry roasted chilies and various fruit leaves etc. Also she made a beef soup/stew. And in addition from out of nowhere there appeared a bowl of freshly fried insects, sort of grass hopper type. (always a good source of protein), all this topped off with some sticky rice and Volia! Breakfast.
So it was great not only for them but also for me. I managed to be around there at the correct time to watch Wanna preparing this amazing mixture into a really tasty meal. I had at the beginning of the cooking stopped her for about two minutes so I could rush home and get my video camera. No sooner had I returned than she started cooking, did not wait for me to set up etc. Getting to hungry so I rushed into it and started filming.
It was all going so well till Wanna got fed up all the activity going on around her and I think the straw which broke the camels back was with her Mothers constant advice and chatting, all this while trying to translate to me what she was doing. Finally she just about lost it.
However the video of the cooking was not the loss I was beginning to expect it to be despite the rush to get it all up and running, no rehearsal etc. I’m certain with some (for ‘some’ read ‘a lot) of editing I can produce something possibly worth watching… You decide on that. Only down side during the filming was that we used a remote (blue tooth) microphone, nothing wrong with that but….we forgot to switch it on till about half way through the proceedings. Dumb or what!!!! I’m blaming Wanna and for some strange reason she seems to think it’s my fault… I’ll never understand women.

After all that hard work watching Wanna cooking, I got to eat some good food. We all enjoyed it. And finally it was Wanna's turn behind the camera. My turn in front and all you can see is me eating...

The rest of the weekend was one big relaxation. Till next time.

Ban Muang Weekend

Had another weekend in Ban Muang. Really enjoy getting away from everything down here in Pattaya and on the work site. Need however to be back for the pool game on Monday evenings!

Went up Friday evening on the over night bus. We then then took a "Tuk Tuk' to the village.

We relaxed and caught up with Steve and Mod. Had a bit to eat at the local restaurant. Watched the cooking and as usual was impressed at the simplicity of the styles which always produce such wonderful tastes. Need to keep well back during the fry up for risk of getting chocked with chilli fumes!!!

We then went back into Khon kaen on the Sunday morning and generally lazed around. Of course we had to check out Steve's cucumbers...Hes done quite a good job but seems to have a problem with some sort of quick wilt. Not sure what it is. The plants are doing fine then within two house can be dead. Very strange.

I did manage to get some good videos of people working on rice planting. Including a little girl making "Som Tam" on the road side. But I've decided to keep the video footage out of this post and leave you with the only the photos. I'll save the footage for a background on my new video project. More of that in a minute.

We also bought some fish and prawns to add to the pond. The fish are small and are being reared in a floating net with the idea to see how they do and if it is easy enough to manage from a distance. Again a separate video on this!!!

I mentioned videos. I've decided to do a series of videos on Issan Cooking. There are numerous books and videos on food. Gordon Ramsey to name just one!!! Why not Alan does Issan. Sticky rice, Som Tam, LAp etc etc. The list is endless. Not sure my patience or creative film making skills will do it all justice. We'll just have to wait and see.

All very tiring just thinking about it....

A Weekend away at Ban Muang..............บ้าน ม่จง

Had a really good time this last weekend. We had intended to go to Ban Muang and relax. As usual things did not quite turn out as planned and it was not to be. We got to Ban Muang but it was just plain hectic as always.
We took the over night bus on Friday evening from Pattaya to Khon Kaen. It was a real VIP bus, complete with luxury wide ‘business class’ seats with massage switch. Dinner was simple just a sandwich and fruit juice. Departed 9.30 pm and arrived fresh and rearing to go at 06.00am in Khon Kaen. All for Baht 420. Fantastic value.
Met on arrival by Sai, one of Wanna’s cousins. We had on one of our earlier trips last month to Chantaburi bought about 20 small trees, or saplings, mainly fruit and some Thai peppers. They got packed and came up on the bus with us. We had planned to plant them on the farm. They traveled without any damage and on arrival in KK were promptly put in the back of the pickup along with yours truly.
Got home to the farm and had a walk round the place. Felt really good to be back. The bread fruit tree had got two fruits on it. We had planted 5 trees and the other 4 had dies so to be getting fruit as well and just surviving was a big deal. We then fed the fish and decided it was time for breakfast.
Off up to the village and bought some rice, chicken stew and assortment of kebabs.
Took them round to Wanna’s parents and tucked in. While there we watched the new puppy getting a bath! Sort of side show while eating….
One of the things I had been planning on doing this time up was visit the Governments Bee Keeping Extension Programme. It serves the whole of North East Thailand and amazingly, or fortunately it is situated only about 5 kilometers from our house.
Really great little set up in such a tranquil location, where you can have a good look round and get advice, very helpful couple of guys there, and also you can go on a bee keeping courses. All courses in Thai of course… Wanna booked herself in for January 2010. The bees up here are quite docile and very unlike any I’ve kept before. If anything, they are a bit smaller and as I say harmless. One very interesting set of hives had ‘miniature’ bees. They were about the size of a match head. I’ve never seen anything quite like it before.

So that was that, or so we thought. I rushed round to get a few photos etc. And sure enough there was more. They also running an insect breading programme. So we had a chance to look into this as well. Seems a straight forward thing to do, and might work well on our Farm. We had had a couple of tries several years ago and ended up with some excellent grass hopper curry. Really good.
Basically you get the insect eggs and put tem in a storage area in this case round concrete sections, and add food and a few egg boxes Yes Egg boxes as something to ‘play’ on. Leave them for however long than harvest them. Straight forward and lots of protein.
While there we saw a 2 meter long snake which crossed our path and disappeared in the bush. I ran after it, and they can move fast! Could not get a photo as it kept hiding in the bushes or the longer grass. But not to worry I was told it was good luck to have seen one so close like that. Sure?.. Really?.. OK if you say so.
Following on from the Bee Keeping we went on to the local petrol station as this the place to buy fish and prawns. I know strange but apparently the chap has been selling here since the place opened years ago. We have last year bough about 300 fry to stock our pond. Now we’ve got 2-3 kilo Cat fish swimming around so it was a good investment. 300 fry cost 100 Baht. That’s USD 2.5. Ridiculous really.
Earlier in the morning we had been to see Steve, a chap in the village who breeds fish. He has some floating nets and we wanted to buy one and see how it would work for breading prawns in our pond. Well we bought one frame and netting and needed now to get some fry.
Hence ending up at the fish shop. Well of course, you guessed, he did not stock the small prawns. Need to go into town for that and Khon Kaen is about 10n kilometers away and necessitated wearing a helmet on the bike. Here in the sticks it’s OK but there in KK, lot of Police and all waiting for ‘Khun’ Alan to turn up and pay a fine. No way. So the prawn farming experiment will have to wait till next trip. We did buy some fully grown ones, about 2 kilos. The ones that survived the trip back to the farm we put in the pond and others put straight on the Bar B Q. No wastage there….
(As an after note we saw one dead prawn in the pond this morning).
As if that was not enough we rounded the afternoon off with some Som Tam and cold beer.
Sunday saw us plant the 20 trees we had brought up with us. Also bough along hose pipe so that they can get watered properly every day. Wanna’s Sister ‘Mem’ has this job and looks after the place in our absence. Works well.
We again tried to sit for a while but t here always seemed to be something to do.
The garden was alive wiht Butterflys. Big ones at that. I tried to film one as you can see but the effect is not so good. There must be some special way to catch these beautiful creatures on film.

Well after all the running around on a borrowed motor Bike, we decided to either buy one or buy an ATV. ATVs are much more fun for sure. So I rang Steve to enquire where does one buy an ATV in KK. “You don’t need an ATV, I’ve got an old motor bike I’ll sell you. Will do all you require up here”. Sure enough, quick inspection and done deal.
I’m exhausted just writing this and realize yet again what we had planned for, was a quiet weekend, but was again just go go go. All good fun.

Amazing Pattaya - The Apiarist

Pattaya really is a truly amazing place. Its famous for sun, sea and sex. But it also has so many other attractions. Me,I used to keep Bees when living back in Uk. So imagine my surprise when I stopped to buy some orchids only to find next to me was Bee Farm outlet. I wondered in and had a good half hour chat with the owner. Apparently their main bee farm is up north East of Chang Mai . That's about 800 kilometers north of Bangkok. So here we were in the middle of Pattaya as he explained here is a good outlet for the business. We were surrounded by a few bee hives. Kept there I think more to to amuse the visiting tourists while they are being seduced into buying various honeys and Queen Jelly's. It was a great chance for me to have a look at the hives. The first thing I noticed the bees were very docile. On opening a hive I discover the reason. Next to the wax was a plate of sugar and some water sticks. So finding a food source was easy and made them possibly lazy!!

And another ting. Whenever I opened up one of my hives at home I always used smoke to 'calm' them down. Other wise the bees would go crazy thinking their hive was being attacked and they responded accordingly. This use of smoke is the most common practice in UK to make access easier and safer. However here he used water. Just sprayed it on each wax frame as he lifted them out. The bees seemed to calm right down but as I said earlier they were fairly calm to begin with. I suspect having wet wings means flying is not so easy! And no doubt the hives were opened several times a day which probably accounts for a lot.

As I said Pattaya is full of amazingly different things. What ever next?...

Butterflys and Ants

I’ve been going through some of my recent video shots. Amazing some of the things that you click away at. A couple of ‘off the wall’ ones caught my attention. I’d snapped a few frames of a butterfly. Quite good even if I say so myself, considering the shot was hand held!!!

But also I have filmed some ants moving a shell. It really is fascinating just how they communicate and manage to coordinate moving what to them is a massive load. I suppose we could relate to it in terms of moving a double decker bus of something similar….

The Visitor ตั๊กแตน

We had an uninvited house visitor last week, who decided to make himself at home. A Praying Mantis no less. We started off by ignoring him but noticed that every so often he had relocated to a different part of the place, either the ceiling or a new section of walling.

Later I sat down next to him to take a few closeup shots. He seemed again uninterested. Taking no notice of me, that is, until Wanna joined me. He then did a few tiny movements and then without any warning, jumped straight onto Wanna’s face. She got what at best can be describes as a big kiss. She did not seem to mind. Thank God it wasn’t me. I’d have jumped a mile, beautiful thing though it is. It's also the second time one has ‘latched onto us’. Earlier, a few years back we were going over on a ferry boat from Ban Phe to Koh Samet. One joined us there for the journey over. Climbed all over our shoes and legs. Can’t find the photos though.

Their colour is amazing and they can remain stationary for what seems like ages then just jump. Not sure what they eat or what they do but seem to spend most of their time just sitting around.

By the way the Mantis is the green one !