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- Bangkok
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- Baht (THB)
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- 61,797,751
- Population
- TH
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Thailand Slideshow
Travel Blogs from Ban Kham Na Di, Thailand
Travel blog returns
Up at 02:00 again today for Valencia v Chelsea then back to sleep. Jai has to take her mum back to the hospital this morning so we head off to request the ambulance for transport. I follow them in then go to the internet to start up this ...
Christmas Spirit ...
... and I am not referring to the whiskey in the cake. We are invited to a party at a friends house tomorrow night and feel that it is time to get in the mood for Xmas in spite of it not feeling very Christmassy at all. I go into Phon Thong and buy ...
Back to the temple again
... and there is thick smoke blowing across the road. I thought that burning stubble was illegal in most countries now but obviously not Thailand. Get back to the village to find that they have not had any rain at all. Jai has the laundry ...
Just another day ...
Lovely fresh air greets me this morning when I open the big front doors. Had a shower in the night and it seems to have cleared things up nicely. Bike into Phon Thong for the Saturday market and there is a real nip in the air on the bike. With the ...
Hedge clipping
Jai goes to the cremation this afternoon so all is clear to begin work again - what a shame !! The small privet hedge that I planted last year has come on leaps and bounds and takes a severe hair cut this morning. An Englishman abroad has to have ...
Same, same ...
Groundhog Day once again. To farm on my own this morning as Jai is streaming with cold. Backto a book, lunch, book, back to farm, dinner then ...
More bad news on the rice front
With all of the family's rice bagged up now it turns out that Jai's sister Begat, whose son 'took care' of Jai's rice, ended up with 103 x 30kg sacks this year. It doesnt take a genius to see where the care and attention of the rice was centred ...
Monk Day
It is a 'monk day' today so Jai is off to the village temple early to feed them. Sounds like a trip to the zoo but ... We are up just after 05:00 so that she can start preparing food. It is after 09:00 when she gets back and as I have ...
On the school run today
Another disappointing nights sleep and we are up before 06:00 for breakfast. Some people may be going out to the farm today to plant out some more rice but I am not too sure. Jai does a large wash and then we have fun finding somewhere in the ...
A little work ?
A good nights sleep and we wake up about 06:30 with Jai bringing me a cup of tea in bed. Back to our normal breakfast routine of eggs on toast then let the day commence. Heavy rain throughout the night and everything is pretty wet this ...
A (prodigious) firestarter
To the farm after breakfast and start to burn the huge clump of bamboo that we want to lose. I have progressed from a small back garden bonfire to a small burn off at the farm to a raging inferno this morning - what comes next ? Most of the ...
Visitors Leave
Eat breakfast together still not sure what is happening today then Sangwan tells us that they will drive back this afternoon sometime. Jai and Sangwan then walk to visit Wan whilst I take Phil for a drive around the village and farm on the bike ...
Coconut Tree Scavanging
Jai's mum is struggling to find any coconut tree leaves around the village so Jai and myself bike to the neighbouring village of Coke Lam where her brotherYut has a farm with a few trees. We bring back a mountain of leaves and when we dump them in ...
Time for a new ID card
Bring Jai into Phon Thong this morning to get a new ID card as her current one is just about to expire. We arrive at the office where she takes a number from a coloured pad and sits down. I ask her is she sure that this is the right place and ...
Selling some rice
... , some 1140Bht short. I pointed this out to Jai who didnt seem to care less ust shrugging and saying that this was Thailand - thats my line !! I am still at a loss to see where the money could have gone as it is officially receipted as such ...
A controlled (?!) burn
Spend about three hours working at the farm this morning taking advantage of another cool start to the day. In the afternoon Jai's nephew Tia comes to see us and buys six trees from Jai's woodland to make a house for his sister in law. He needs ...
Seed time
Although the rainy season still has a long way to run I am bored with having an empty garden so make a start. I decide to try and grow something under cover to keep the worst of the rains off. I make a small bench with stripped bamboo and ...
Back on the road yet again !!
Awake at 05:30 and at 6am I am off out to a nearby 7/11 for coffee and croissants for breakfast. We then walk back to the market to buy a few things that we cant in our local markets. We check out of Chaipat Hotel, where we will possibly stay ...
Back to the quiet of village life
With breakfast over we launch into the frenzy of laundry, cleaning the house and establishing a second bedroom out of the clutter to receive our visitors. I start to plan meals for the next three days before we go shopping but Jai just wont do ...
Tablecloths
This one is just for mother. When 'we' were doing the laundry a few days ago we decided that the tablecloth needed freshening up. Of course, then we had to replace it with something. Just to show mum that we do use what she gives us ...
Fruit Cake
With little happening and finding myself 'Home Alone' I decide to have a go at baking a Christmas fruit cake. I have been looking for suitable fruit for a while now but can only find currants so not really a fruit cake at all. I loosely ...
A new TV
... 7GBP. Jai's mum is delighted and this afternoon sets off to play cards with her nerw found wealth. Gambling is illegal in Thailand even though a lot of it goes on. They at least try to be a little discreet and a mat goes down in our ...
Garden again
The garden is taking up much of time at the moment and with a dry day I spend almost all day working. Not wearing a shirt seemed like a good idea all day but has left me pretty red !! At least it is starting to look like a garden again ...
Off to Sweeney Todd's again
Time for a haircut again this morning. She is not too busy so I wait while she cuts the hair for a young boy on his way to school. Then she does a baby, must have been about 10 months old but has a very full head of hair. She leaps ...
Same, same ...
Two visits to thenfarm again today and John comes to visit whilst I am working to collect a cart full of firewood from the trees he cut earlier. After we eat this evening Jai goes off to arrange a lift into Phon Thong tomorrow morning for the ...
Nothing happening here ...
Well, as you can see from the complete lack of entries recently everything is very quiet here. Have been working in the garden a little cutting down and digging out seven banana trees. They have incredible roots which although are not very ...
Monkey business
Sat in the back garden this afternoon I heard coconuts falling from aneighbours tree and went to investigate. Most of the coconut trees here are too high to pick the nuts yourself so there are chaps who ride around the villages on motorbikes with a ...
Shovelling sh*t again
Up 02:00 - 04:00 again this morning to watch Man Utd. Better picture on TV this morning at least. Came into Phon Thong to use the internet but they were closed again. They are definitely getting lazy with the school holidays here. Not ...
You call that a cake !!!
Took Jai out to the farm at first light then into Phon Thong for some grocery shopping. Upon returning home I had an idiotic moment when I decided that with Jai being otherwise engaged I would bake a cake. After all, women all over the world ...
All is safely gathered in ...
I dont think that there is any fear about winter storms beginning but this years rice harvest is now sat in sacks in our spare bedroom. We were up at the crack of dawn again and head off to the farm. I am not really sure what is happening today so ...