The 12+ Days of Christmas

In Thailand, as in other countries, there are rules but here, few people follow them. And so it is with Christmas where decorations rarely get taken down on 6th January (at the end of the 12 days of Christmas), staying put not only well into the new year but often until after the Chinese New Year celebrations .

It’s all part of the plan to keep the party going for as long as possible which, of course, includes the inevitable night markets, the bigger ones offering more than the usual food and clothing.

I was not tempted to join in this game of Bingo in the hope of winning some very large and not especially appealing cuddly (?) animal!

As we came nearer to Nokky’s home village, the terrain becomes flatter making it easier for the ubiquitous rice to grow. Once the remains of the harvested rice has been cleared, the ground is prepared and watered for the next crop which creates a perfect insect hunting ground for the Asia Openbills.

Shortly after planting begins, the backbreaking task of weeding and fertilizing

takes place until it’s time to cut the rice again .

There is often an oversupply of rice during the good times so the government has been making an effort to encourage farmers to switch crops. Thus far, there isn’t much evidence of this but occasionally you can see fields of local mint

and the odd herd of cattle.

The lady in the above pic became very protective of her offspring when I approached for a better photo. So I had to beat a swift retreat as she had a couple of menacing horns and was very big!

Getting around all this farmland can be done on foot although not only because of the heat but mainly because of the size of the area is more often than not undertaken by a splendid array of old fashioned transport.

You do, occasionally, see something more modern – this Honda off road motorcycle owned by Nokky’s brother who was proudly showing me some land he has recently bought.

And when all the hard work is done it is, of course, time for food and a catch up on the day’s events –

all undertaken, of course, in true north eastern Thai style, sitting on the floor.

A propos of absolutely nothing, whilst ambling through the local shopping mall, I couldn’t help noticing what appeared to be the spitting image of Thomas the Tank Engine. Since when has he been called ‘Happy Train’? Do you think Thomas should be told that there is an imposter here in Thailand?

After a very relaxing few days in Thailand’s deepest countryside, it was a 6+ hour drive south to Bangkok airport to collect my daughter, Robyn, arriving directly from a cold United Kingdom . The post Covid tourist business is definitely picking up as the airport was busy