08/01/2011 Kitchen renovation.

When I say that living in a Village like Nong Pai is basic you’re probably thinking, “what, you can’t get by without a big screen TV for two weeks?” Basic only begins to describe the lack of what we come to regard as not creature comforts but just as normal living necessities. You only start to appreciate how much we take for granted until you come to a place like Nong Pai.

Take the kitchen for instance. When I say kitchen I mean the area out the back of the house adjacent to the laundry/bathroom/toilet. It’s a sizable area with an area set aside for cooking. Cooking takes place using two concrete lined buckets that are normally fueled with charcoal. These buckets are elevated off the floor using a plank on two blocks of wood.

Preparation of food is straight forward. Ingredients are chopped up on chopping logs on the floor. The mortar and pestle also feature a lot in food preparation and is also used on the floor. There is a basic aluminium storage cabinet and that’s it. There is a fridge as well and that’s in the house proper. I must state at this point that though the facilities are lacking that this in no way impacts on the quality of food they turn out. Everything is just like what you’d pay for in a restaurant. (BBQ’d rat aside of course)

Now given that I work in the kitchen renovation industry it was only natural that I put my talents to good use and come up with some compelling improvements for this somewhat lacking kitchen. No kitchen design software, no CNC machinery, what was a guy to do?

Having discussed the basic requirements with Nuch I contracted Mang as my local procurement manager. I drew up the basics of what I was intending to achieve and the tools that would be required to complete the job. After that there was a lot of Isan banter and finally after 30 minutes we were off.

Mang and his wife live two doors up from us so it wasn’t far to go. Mang disappeared for what seemed to be longer than what I thought would be required if one knew confidently where everything was. Not to disappoint he soon came out with the necessary tools and had also managed to find some basic materials. Mang as it turns out, is a bit of a hoarder and in this case it had paid off.

Now, having come from an industry that thrives on mass production and simplifying tasks it was somewhat interesting to see Mang go about the tasks at hand. Drill a hole, swap to screwdriver bit, screw the screw into the hole, swap back to drill bit etc etc. There had to be a better way. With that I gestured to him to give me a go. Let’s drill all the holes first then screw all of the screws. The penny dropped.

We were soon working together as one well oiled machine. Sensational. All we had to do now is cut up some board and using safety gear, Thai work boots and nothing else, we did so.

With the job complete all that was left to do was the installation. That was straight forward and afterwards we sat back with a beer and admired our technological marvel. What had we constructed you may well ask?

A table 🙂 Now all that’s left to do is teach everyone how to use it 🙂

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07/01/2011 Bird hunt.

This day started really well I’d slept well without interruption and was looking forward to bacon & eggs with coffee with real milk and orange juice…… And then the roosters started. Time to wake up. I mean get up.

The day was pretty much uneventful as can happen here. Everyone goes off to work and Nuch’s sister normally falls asleep looking after her daughters little boy.

It had been decided that the evening meal would consist of mookata. Mookata for those who don’t know, involves putting an aluminum dome with slots in it on top of a concrete lined bucket. (the bucket is filled with glowing charcoal) The dome has a little gutter around it. So you put slices of meat and other bits on the dome and noodles and soup stock in the gutter part. Then with the mandatory acoutraments like chile and the like you’re ready to spend the next hour eating. Depending on the soup stock you use the soup can be sensational.

Before we settled down for dinner however and with the sun about to set I was met with yet again an indication of local Isan ingenuity. Brought about by the sun going down and the birds finding there local sleeping spot my brother in law Mang showed up with an air rifle. Now when I say air rifle you’re probably thinking a well engineered rifle not unlike you’ve used or seen at a circus duck shoot or the like. Nothing of the sort.

This particular contraption with the only thing giving you an idea that it was a gun being the long barrel, was somewhat unique. An air chamber linked to a breach provided the means for firing a 4mm diameter lead ball. How do you charge the gun? Well that’s easy, with a bicycle pump of course. Yep, hanging off the bottom of the barrel and mounted in front of the stock was an every day garden variety bicycle pump. Sensational.

Now what do you hunt with an air rifle? Well, birds of course and I must stress that everything is fair game around here and the hunting is not just for sport. Well almost, Mang would like nothing more than to stock the local canal with crocs I think. In fact he’s like the Thai version of the Ausy character Mick Dundee.

Now I know why I only hear chickens in the morning 🙂

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