05/01/2011 The pram

This morning started somewhat slowly (as do most mornings). Speaking of which, every morning normally starts with the roosters bellowing at the top of their lungs. It appears that the one across the street from us is the ring leader. I’ve already mentioned that if we were to use him for our next BBQ night I’ll be able to sleep peacefully. 🙂

Once the roosters have got your attention they lull you in to believing that that is it. No, next you get an auditory attack from the village speaker system. The same inane song every morning prefaces a speech from the village mayor. I have no idea what he rattles on about and the locals don’t appear to be listening. Maybe he’s just saying, “hey guys don’t pay any attention to me, I just want to yank the farlang’s chain.” I wonder if there are announcements when I’m not here. Sort of like the falling tree in the forest theory.

I remember a few years back in Ho Chi Minh City they had a similar system and our tour guide told us about it…..

Good morning (imagine Vietnamese accent) my name Missa Bihn but you call me Missa Bean. You hear speaker in street and you wonder what speaker say. Speaker say Missa Bean, you help Vietnam if you only have one child. Go to hospital get free condom. Only one probrem speaker come on 7 o’crock in the morning and Missa Bean go to bed 9 o’crock at night…….

Now that time is marching on (06:00) we have to prepare the kao-niao (glutenous rice or sticky rice). We then gather up some reed mats and head to the main street. The reed mats are placed on the side of the road and then we sit and wait for the Monk procession to come past. The custom being that the Monks receive food from the locals in return for which they receive a blessing from the Monks.

Belief systems can be a wonderful thing and this one seems to work. For Nong Pai it seems anyway. I only have one issue with it, the handing out of the rice. You see the rice is prepared only moments before the monks arrive and placed into smallish reed woven carry containers. Once the Monks arrive the rice is still hot and handing a fistful of it to each Monk soon causes you to wince more than once. Again I think it’s all a ploy to once again bring some levity to an other wise serious moment at the expense of the farlang.

The rest of the morning passed as normal, eat & sleep. Yeh, the locals have it figured. Why try and sleep at night when you’ve got all day to do it.

The afternoon saw us taking a trip to the main city in the area called Kalasin. An interesting point to mention is that when you ask an Isan Thai where they come from a lot of them will respond with, “Kalasin”. This is the point, this particular trip to Kalasin was my wife’s second in her entire life. Wouldn’t know her way around there if you paid her.

This particular trip had a purpose as our Nieces’ son required a pram. It had been planned to wait for Nuch and I to arrive before purchasing said item so we could all agree on the colour and features etc. Yeh right. A suitable pram was found in Kalasin and my insistence on paying for it was met, I have to say, with some resistance. Although that soon wained and the new pram was graciously accepted. Diw does look pretty good in it I have to say.

Hmmmm maybe I have a heart after all……. 🙂

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