Dedicated to a wonderful Mother Jean Noble 31/5/1929 - 20/8/2007 - may we never take our mothers for granted. - Goodbye Mum


THAILAND PAGE 12 AUGUST 2008

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Wednesday August 27th Baan Don Khun Ta to Bangkok by 3rd class train.
Approx.
k's Average Speed kph Cycling time Hr(s) 2Min. Max speed. kph Max temp we recorded °C
Terrain:
Road Conditions: Overnight Accommodation: $0.00. Standard, Stay with family.

PEELING BACK THE LAYERS” PAGE 2.....

We have spoken with MANY families and individuals throughout our short stay and we will bring some more of their stories here to our pages (With their permission).

We cannot fix all their problems as they just overwhelm us in both there depth and complexity. A sustainable answer is out there somewhere, just waiting for the right person to figure it out... maybe that will be YOU. I really wish it were me, sadly I have no answers. In the meantime, we like many of you, just do the best we can.

Upon our return from our walk this evening our “little friends” were waiting for us.. Lees sister is there also, holding the bike. About 6 or 7 children have visited us often... We are VERY careful to not give too much, as this would attract the entire village... amongst the few children here in this picture, one has HIV (AIDS)...



A sad fact is that many of the young women, in this village, returning from the “sex industry” and elsewhere, have come home with this dreadful legacy. Of course others have been infected by errant husbands and to a much much lesser extent, wives. A small village it may be, but, with dreadful realities throughout.

Many of the village children are VERY cruel towards some of the kids with HIV and shout it out as they pass them.. This has disturbed us both, I guess Lee more than me, as she understands the language far far better than I ever can. Whilst we are here these and the other infected children that have befriended us, are welcome in our temporary home. Sometimes I really miss my TEN Grandchildren........ Catchya Later...

Thursday August 28th Baan Don Khun Ta to Bangkok by 3rd class train.
Approx.
k's Average Speed kph Cycling time Hr(s) 2Min. Max speed. kph Max temp we recorded °C
Terrain:
Road Conditions: Overnight Accommodation: $0.00. Standard, Stay with family.

We are now on our way to Bangkok, in keeping with our frugal approach to this trip we are travelling third class. This train only supports second and third class. Very few trains travel to the “North-east” with first class carriages, such are the poor demographics of the population – few could afford it. Our tickets for the eight hour journey cost about $7.00 each. In BKK we have been invited to stay with friends....

There are many reasons to go to BKK, the main being our forthcoming book, also my visa expires in just over three weeks, so I will go and apply for an extension.. If I do not get one, we have decided to move on to Laos......... and beyond.

Also whilst here, we will try and solve our tyre situation... We need some new ones, unable to get Schwalbe here, we will just get the best we can.

Saturday August 30th Baan Don Khun Ta.
Approx.
k's Average Speed kph Cycling time Hr(s) 2Min. Max speed. kph Max temp we recorded °C
Terrain:
Road Conditions: Overnight Accommodation: $0.00. Standard, Stay with family.

We commenced our return from BKK the following day and arrived Buayai the day after at 4am. In tow we had two young girls from Scotland, Ashley and Kendall, two sisters aged 26 and 23 respectively... After we had befriended them on the train, I was very mindful of those that had helped my daughter Sharon. Who at a similar age, travelled Europe, North Africa and beyond.... Also the times Lee and myself have had assistance from others throughout our trip... It was Soooo nice to give back.

After we left the train at 4am we went to the very busy Buayai market, finally arriving home just before dawn, at about 6am.....



Kendall (Right) has been travelling for more than a year. Whilst staying in BKK she disposed of a worn out bag, little did she know at the time, she had also disposed of five memory cards, containing ALL her travel pictures. With the help of Lee and her language skills we located the cards... To put this in some sort of perspective, it took about 24hrs of persistence to achieve this outcome and a great many phone calls.

Despite her putting the bag in the bin, thinking it would be disposed of. The housekeeper of the hotel, felt the bag had a bit more use left in it and had retrieved it from the rubbish... Fortunately and after MUCH reassurance the housekeeper.. admitted retrieving the bag and Kendall was happy she did...

She had said to the hotel something to the effect, “I put it ON TOP of the bin – not in the bin”, “in the hope it may be useful to someone”... We think it was this statement (not exact words) that “saved face” for everyone concerned. Kendall offered a reward to both reception AND the housekeeper for their diligence. We arranged for our friends in BKK, to go to the hotel and get the five cards. They are now safely stored at Orasa's house :-) They will return to BKK to fly out on the 16th of this month, however we have learned they are now re-united with their memory cards :-)



Over the next two days we crammed as much as we could into the time we had..... We feel that they both have good memories of village life and village people....

August 2008 Baan Don Khun Ta.
Approx.
k's Average Speed kph Cycling time Hr(s) 2Min. Max speed. kph Max temp we recorded °C
Terrain:
Road Conditions: Overnight Accommodation: $0.00. Standard, Stay with family.

We leave August with some pictures of village life...

In this picture Lee is dressed traditionally, as a worker would in the rice field, minus hat of course.. :-) These fields are Lee's childhood “stomping” grounds... She has planted rice, tended buffalo, harvested and the myriad of other jobs allocated to young girls...



Further along we see a house... From a distance it looks a nice picture, well stocked lake, green fields, washing on the line.....


Closer inspection reveals a much different story...



This house actually belongs to the grandparents of the mentally/physically challenged young woman we met and took pictures of earlier... We were taking “day old” rice and kitchen scraps for their chickens.... Nothing is wasted in this community...

Two old ladies in this picture, were good friends as little girls, they stayed friends throughout the years... We had visited her earlier, however, she was so sick, we decided against pictures as we thought she was close to death... Remarkably she has recovered and she is now coherent and as fit as can be, given her great age (around ninety).....


The odd thing (for me) was that our “Yai” (All old people are called Yai), was always asking to see her, despite her severe memory loss...

Oh I did say "our Yai” loves her trips out, now that we are here and “waltzing” her all over the place....We sincerely hope we have brought a little bit of joy to her life :-)



We get lots of visitors to our “house”.... Here's a couple......



We had another visitor, that we “think” it is a “Green Tree Snake”, it was relaxing between the door and the fly screen (Hence the poor quality picture).



I have a belief that snakes are entitled to live their lives, however, they cannot live in the house with us! They have a habit of getting “cranky” and biting one, if disturbed or accidentally cornered.

Sooooo... I opened the fly screen, then the door and asked it to leave... The gentle encouragement worked a treat and it left... It made no attempt to bite, rather it moved away from me quite quickly, climbing one of the tree's in OUR garden.

We have seen other snakes in the garden and we ALWAYS treat snakes with respect. Neither Lee nor myself see any need to go on a killing spree. The snake population in this village is quite high and I have no doubt, even if we did succeed and kill all in our garden, others would claim the territory in a very short space of time? Foolish??? You be the judge.... Catchya Later....

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