Another Rice Harvest

Harvesting Rice Outside of Tahsang Village

Our rains. in Isaan, ceased about three weeks ago.  The rice paddies that only a month ago were covered with standing water are now parched.  The rice plants that a month ago was a vibrant green a month ago has been transformed under the hot sun into straw with heavy drooping heads of rice kernels.  Another growing season has concluded and the time is here once again to harvest the rice.

As you drive along the highways, country roads, and dirt trails of Isaan you will come upon many locations where people heavily clothed and in anonymity under large hats along with tee shirt masks are stooped over cutting the rice stalks.

We have been travelling the highways and roads a great deal lately due to Duang having to care for her father either in the Kumphawapi Hospital or at his home in Tahsang Village.  I bring her out and her cousin returns her to our home in the evening.  As the youngest daughter, Duang has a great deal of responsibility for taking care of her father - it is the way things are in the ethnic Lao culture.  Fortunately her sister and two brothers help out so Duang does not have to spend nights away from home and gets a break during the early morning.  I use our trips out to Kumphawapi and Tahsang Village to reconnoiter locations for photography on my return trip.

Along the the highways and byways you will come upon places where motorbikes, farm wagons, and sometimes even bicycles are parked - a sure tip off that harvesting is going on in the nearby fields.

In other locations you can see people working in the adjacent fields sometimes with little more than their broad brimmed straw hats visible above the standing rice plants.

In addition to the rice harvest, people are also occupied planting sugar cane while others are harvesting reeds that are used to weave sahts.

There is much more work related to the rice harvest than going out into the dry paddies and cutting the stalks.  After the rice has been cut, the stalks are laid out in the paddy to dry out further in the sun.  After drying the individual stalks are gathered up and bundled into sheaves - several stalks held together at their base by using a couple rice plants as string to tie them.  After the rice in a paddy has been bundled into sheaves, the sheaves have to be gathered and brought to a central location.

At the central location the sheaves are either loaded on to a farm truck or placed on blue plastic netting.  The sheaves that are placed on the plastic netting will be threshed either by hand or by a truck mounted threshing machine at that location.  The sheaves that are loaded on the farm truck will be transported another location for threshing.

Loading Sun Dried Rice Into Fertilizer Bags

As part of the threshing process, the rice kernels are placed in recycled fertilizer bags - 50 kg (110 pounds).  If the rice is sufficiently dry, the bags of rice are put inside of raised granaries in the yards of the farmers.  If the rice is not sufficiently dry after threshing, which appears to be the case this year, the rice is spread out once again on the blue plastic netting in front yards, backyards, side yards, parking lots, vacant lots, and even on Wat grounds to dry another 3 or 4 days in the sun.  After the rice is dry enough it is placed back into the fertilizer bags for long term storage.

Around Tahsang Village I often find myself amongst family members.  As I approach the good natured shouting and laughing start.  The family is well aware of my passion to learn and photograph their culture.  They seem to enjoy my efforts and will often call Duang to inform her of "interesting" things that they will be doing the next day or day after.

My efforts to photograph ethnic life here in Isaan is not limited to people that I am familiar with or even restricted to the times that Duang is with me.  I venture out on my own when Duang's family obligations prevent her from coming with me.  I often find myself photographing total strangers. 

Like the family members the people have no objections to be observed and photographed.  They seem to be as interested in me as I am of them.  I suspect they may find our interactions as entertaining as I do.

I hope that they learn a little about American culture from me as I learn more of their culture.  Some how with my limited Thai, their limited English, and a great deal of pantomime we are able to communicate on issues such as rice farming in America, working in America, and ordinary life in America.

I do not discuss Thai politics.  I know about "Red Shirts" and "Yellow Shirts" but I laughingly tell them foreigners are "Blue Shirts".  I am a guest here and good guests do not interfere in their host's affairs.  I tell the people that I just want whoever is in power to let me stay.  That ends, with a good laugh, any further attempts to discuss local politics.  Like it is often said here "Good for you. good for me"

Photo Gallery - Isaan Rice Planting 2013

The latest of my photography galleries, "Isaan Rice Planting 2013", is now available for viewing as well as purchasing of prints.

http://www.hale-worldphotography.com/Other/Isaan-Rice-Planting-July-2013/30729545_5nhgZK

Road of Opportunity, Plenty of Opportunity

Three Lao Loum Farmers Heading To the Fields

Back in March, I wrote of a very interesting road, "A Road Less Traveled, A Path Often Not Taken" that we discovered on one of our excursions out to the Ban Chiang area.  When we drove along the dusty red road in March, the surrounding countryside was parched and largely abandoned.  Even then the photographic opportunities of the area were very evident.  We decided then that we would return to the area later this year during rice planting season.

Rice planting season is now in full force here in Isaan.  The rains returned in May and now we typically have some rain just about everyday.  Thundershowers often bring up to 30 minutes of intense localised precipitation.  The rains in May allowed the rice seeds to be broadcast over prepared flooded paddies.  The continuing rains kept the paddies flooded and allowed the seeds to germinate to create a rich bright yellow-green carpet over the Isaan countryside.  Now that it is July, the thick green carpets are being separated and the plants transplanted into other prepared flooded rice paddies.  The continuing monsoonal rains will nourish the developing rice until October when it will be time to harvest the new crop.

Yesterday was a good day to head back out to drive along that road less traveled and the path often not taken.  Although it was not a bright and sunny morning, it was a morning that seemed to promise no immediate possibility of precipitation let alone heavy rains. The overcast sky would also allow me to take the type of photographs of the planting activities that I had photographed previously.  The heavy overcast and cloudy sky created the soft light that clear, bright and sunny skies do not - especially late morning and at mid-day.  The growing rice plants and flooded fields are extremely reflective so soft light, in my opinion, is desirable. We set off around 8:00 A.M. for Ban Nong Han where we knew that the road ended.

We got to Ban Nong Han without any difficulty but quickly became confused - some would say lost.  We stopped several times and got directions.  Duang was responsible for getting directions because the people that we encountered or would encounter did not speak English.  After a while, Duang was hungry because she had not eaten breakfast back at our home.  We stopped at a very small village alongside one of the country roads that we had managed to get confused on.  We found a small market where the elderly woman also cooked noodle soup (Queteao).  I sat at the small concrete picnic table drinking an ice tea while Duang ate her bowl of noodle soup.  Very shortly I heard young voices saying words along the line of "There is a falang (foreigner) here"  Shortly afterwards, 6 young children arrived to look at me.  It was amusing to see them checking me out.  From an elderly man, we learned that the children had never seen a foreigner before.  I guess we were more than confused - we had to be LOST if we were somewhere were children had never seen a falang before!  I spoke with the children but they were very shy.  Unlike the children in the film, "ET", I was not offered any Reese's Bits or any Isaan equivalent treat.  While Duang continued to eat her meal, I saw several children come from the interior of the village to drive past me on their bicycles, eyes transfixed upon me the entire time.  This did not bother me in the least for they were just interested in someone they had never seen before - pretty much what I do so often with my camera.  They were just taking advantage of an opportunity to expand their world just a little bit.

With a new set of directions, we set off to find the road less traveled.  Perhaps it is less traveled because no one can find it?  We found a interesting narrow red dirt road that was headed off in what we believed was the right direction.  For quite awhile it appeared to be the road that we were looking for.  However, this road did not have any mango orchards that the road back in March had.  It turned out to be a different road but not a bad road.  The new road was very interesting.  There was no traffic on it.  It had no signs.  It was partially eroded by heavy rains, in fact in some places water from the higher land alongside of the road was pouring onto the road creating large puddles.

We found people planting rice in the paddies along the roadside.  I would get out of the truck and say hello to the people as I started to take photographs.  I was always closely followed by Duang who would explain to the people what I was up to.  She would then start talking to the people - finding out just as much about them as she was telling them about us.  That is the way it is out here in Isaan - people are very friendly and you are one of their own, you are like family.  As I walked about, bent down, and sometimes even squatted to photograph the planting activities, the air was filled with the sounds of Duang and the farmers talking.

After we had been there awhile a family of the farmers headed back to their home to eat.  Their home was like many of the homes that we see along the back roads of Isaan amongst the rice paddies.  These are not the primary homes of the people.  Unlike the rich American people of the early 20th century who had "summer homes" in exclusive communities along the beaches or in the mountains or even many Americans today who have a vacation home, hunting camp or fishing camp. the people of Isaan have a primitive home for work.  The small raised one room structures are where the family stays during the intense work periods associated with cultivating rice - planting and harvesting seasons.

Lao Loum Family Eating A Meal In Their "Work" Home

We stopped at the family's work home and socialized with them while they ate their meal.  Naturally we were offered to join them but we respectively declined having only recently eaten ourselves. I learned quite a bit from this family thanks to Duang's efforts.  I thought that the two older adults were the parents of two young children, three and four year old sisters.  I was wrong.  The two adults were actually the grandparents of the two girls.  It turned out that the young woman that I thought was the 18 year old sister of the young children was actually their mother.  The husband and father was away working.  He was far away working - working in Israel.  This is not all that uncommon.  Many Thai men and some Thai women go off to work in Israel, Taiwan, or Korea.  They can make two to three times their Thai earnings a month in those far away lands.  An aunt of the little girls was a widow.  She asked me to find her a foreign husband.  This is also not uncommon here in Isaan.  I have been asked by at least 95 Thai women to find or better yet bring them a falang husband.

The family had been staying in the partially sided house for four weeks and expect to stay there another two weeks until the planting is completed.  They will return in October for the labor intensive manual harvest of the rice crop.

Three Year Old and Four Year Old Sisters Ready to Return to the Rice Paddies

As they prepared to return to the paddies, Duang and I drove ahead back to where we first encountered them.  Duang recommenced her conversations with the workers - I suspect right from where they had left off.  Feeling more comfortable with the location, I set off to be more adventuresome in my photography efforts.  I left the relative comfort and safety of the roadside to walk atop the rice paddy berms, raised dirt mounds that create the containment for the paddy water.  These dirt mounds offer some challenges as well as opportunities.  They are either covered with a thick mat of weeds or are freshly created with a clumps of what was recently moist dirt.  There are opportunities to slip and slide off into the water on either side of the raised berm.  I know that I could personally cope with falling into the mud but I am fearful of the problems that would be created for the camera gear that I carry.  The heavy weed mat also provides opportunities to twist an ankle or perhaps to break a leg.  The weeds often camouflage holes or uneven surfaces of the berm.  I also am very attentive when walking along the weed covered dikes to ensure that I do not have an opportunity to be bitten by a snake.  There are Cobras and other poisonous snakes in Isaan.  Fortunately either due to my diligence, luck, or the actual scarcity of snakes, I have not seen a live snake other than in a show.

Worker's Quarters In Rubber Plantation

After taking some more photos, we continued along the red dirt road.  We came upon a rubber plantation - another opportunity to take some landscape photographs.  I got out of the truck to explore a lit bit of the plantation.  Further down the road a couple of dogs came partly up the road to my location, barking and let me know that they had their eyes on me.  For some reason I do not find the dogs in Thailand anyway as threatening or intimidating than American dogs.  I ignored the dogs and soon they ignored me, returning to their original locations.

The rubber plantation was an interesting combination of textures, shadows, and colors.  I first encountered rubber plantation 13 years ago in Malaysia.  This plantation was much smaller and younger but just as fascinating.

After a while I was joined by a small herd of what originally believed to be "guard cattle".  Several cows and calves approached me and the crossed the road.  About five minutes later an old hunched over man approached from the original direction of the cattle.  He was the herd tender.  I pointed to the direction where the cattle headed and told him "cattle" in Thai.  He nodded and headed off in the same direction.

Follow Those Cows!

Eventually and after several false turns we found the dirt road that we were seeking.  The road split a market area in two.  The road appeared to be a path to a parking area for the various stalls rather than a way back to Ban Nong Han.  I was very pleased and Duang, my reluctant navigator and guide, was very much relieved to be once again on the right path.

The road was more damaged from water than the road that we had discovered that morning.  Along the road we saw plots of corn, rice paddies, mango orchards, rubber plantations, cassava plots, and banana trees.  Although there was no traffic on the road, there was plenty of opportunities for work along its sides.

Where we had seen a parched and rather desolate countryside in March, yesterday the worker's huts were now all occupied and in many instances repaired.  The countryside was a brilliant and vibrant green.  We no longer left a large and long red dust cloud as we drove along the road.

There were several locations where people were busy planting rice.  At one of the locations I pulled over to the side of the road as much as I could without getting the truck stuck in either a ditch or in the mud.  A man and a women were planting rice in separate enjoining rice paddies.

Water Spews from Farmer's Hands As He Plants Rice

I walked out and along a set of berms to where the woman was planting rice.  A fairly large tree grew out of the berm so I walked up to it in order to lean against it to further steady my camera.  As my hand approached the tree, I noticed the the bark was a busy highway, heavy in both directions, with large red ants some that were carrying large pieces of vegetation.  In a flash I realized what they were - weaver ants.  Weaver ants are the creators of "kie mot si daeng" (red ant eggs) that many Lao Loum people enjoy eating.  I had encountered them before and it was not pleasant - I had stepped on one of their trails and my feet were instantly swarmed with biting ants.  The bite of the weaver ant is initially similar to that of a fire ant but does not contain the enzymes of the fire ant that dissolves proteins, causes welts, causes burning, causes scars and can cause death.  The weaver ant bite is just a mechanical bite.  I looked at my feet and just like before they were getting swarmed by red ants.  I hastily got away from the tree and commenced to frantically brush the ants off of my shoes along with the few that had started to climb up my trouser legs.  I had no difficulty brushing them off and despite my fears none had bitten me.  After several repetitions of inspecting and brushing off of ants, I seemed to have gotten rid of the ants.  Then I started getting a tingle up my leg.  Since I am not a President Obama I knew that tingle could only mean a red ant.  I rushed across the berms and across the road to get to the far side of our pickup truck. After hearing me shout to her as I hustled across the berms. Duang arrived at the far side of the truck just as I arrived as I ... dropped my pants to the ground.   She quickly found and destroyed the two ants who were climbing up my legs.  We all enjoyed the opportunity to have a good laugh!

Women Planting Rice with the Infamous Tree in the Background

Further down the road we encountered a woman harvesting rice plants for transplantation in another paddy.  It was too good of a photo opportunity to pass up.  Besides it was also a great opportunity for Duang to pass some time speaking Lao to a farmer!  I am truly fortunate to have a wife who indulges my passion so well.

A Farmer Harvests Rice Plants for Transplantation

Excess Water Drains from Bunch of Rice Plants

Farmer Shakes Water from Rice Plants

After photographing the woman, we drove down the road further where we found a newly constructed rice mill operating.  This was not a mill were 18 wheelers delivered raw rice and transported finished sacks of rice away.  This mill was a village mill run by one man with help from his assistant.  It was at this plant that neighbors delivered sacks of rice from their small holdings to have the husks removed from the grain so that it could be consumed by the family.  The rice was transported to and from the mill on the back of motorbikes, on hand carts, or hand carts attached to motorbikes.

Fellow Travelers On the Road of Opportunity

Our excursion along the dirt back roads of Isaan ended as we got back to Ban Nong Han.  It had been a rewarding and entertaining day along the roads of opportunity.  There had been many opportunities to take photographs but more importantly we had seen many opportunities for the residents; opportunities to make a living. opportunities for work - plenty of opportunitis to work.

Give Me Some of that Good Ol' Lao Lao

The Little Ol' Lao lao Lao Maker

After we had visited the blacksmiths of Baan Hat Hien we went out to Baan Xang Hai which is refered to as "Whiskey Village".  Baan Xang Hai turned out to be a further drive from Luang Prabang than I was expecting.  It turns out that that Baan Xang Hai is 25 KM from Luang Prabang.  Many tourists visit Baan Xang Hai as part of a organized boat tour to Pak Ou Caves.

Baan Xang Hai villagers used to make the clay pots that are used to produce "Lao Hai" (Rice Wine) which is a step along the ways of producing "Lao Lao" (rice whiskey).  The villagers now focus on making the Lao moonshine, Lao Lao, and silk weaving.

Duang and I had enjoyed our share of Lao Hai, rice wine, on our previous visit two years ago to the Khmu village during their New Year Festival.  The wine is produced in small clay pots by fermenting rice.  The sweet wine is then sucked out of the jars through long reeds or very small diameter vinyl tubing with the reeds and vinyl tubing being passed from person to person seated or squatting around the clay pot.  As the wine is consumed from the pot, additional water is added to the clay pot to keep the party going.

On our last visit to a refugee camp along the Thai-Myanmar border, Duang and I enjoyed glasses of freshly fermented  Lao Hai with our friends, Khun La Mae and Khun Ma Plae.  Since there was quite a bit of rice hulls and rice debris to strain through your teeth when drinking from a glass,our preferred mode for drinking is through the vinyl tubing or natural reed.

"Process" Diagram for Making Lao Lao

We walked through the gauntlet of booths at the front of the village.  There were many stalls selling bottles of Lao Lao which also contained some type of animal or plant.  There were bottles of whiskey with small snakes some of which were cobras.  There were also whiskey bottles containing centipedes, scorpions, or geckos.  My knowledge of botany is rather limited so I was unable to identify the plants that were immersed in th the whiskey.  I have read some accounts that the plants and creatures are immersed in rice wine but I believe that the liquid is actually whiskey.  Whiskey is a much better preservative and makes for a more potent "medicine".  The various vendors told me that the bottles contained "medicine" of course most of the medicine was purported to aid sexual performance. These bottled concoctions are readily available at all border crossings in Laos and appear to be "THE" souvenir of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

There were also many stalls selling silk cloth.  We saw several looms for weaving cloth but did not see anyone working.  We walked back through the village towards the Mekong River.  We prefer to explore the back roads and back streets of the locations that we visit.  The back locations typically present less tourist centric people and sights.  We stopped at a yard of a local home.  I am not sure if it was a front yard or a back yard - not that it matters over here.  There were two men, a woman, and three school aged children seated at a picnic table.  We stopped and joined them.  It turned out that we had found a whiskey distillery.  Besides selling soft drinks, and silk fabrics, the people make Lao Lao right there in their yard high on a bank overlooking the Mekong River.  I went to the stairs that lead down to the Mekong River and while taking some photographs I took in the serenity of the location.

I returned to the picnic table and had Duang purchase soft drinks for everyone.  As we enjoyed our cold drinks on a surprisingly warm day, we asked questions of the man who appeared to be in charge.  He said that he owned the land and paid taxes once a year to the government.  He stated that he paid 550,000 Kip ($66 USD) each year for his home and business.

A large piece of cardboard was nailed to a wood post next to his still.  Although he did not speak English the cardboard had a diagram on in that detailed the distilling process in English.  The father took great pride in showing me his distilling equipment and describing how he made the moonshine whiskey.




Clay Pot Containing Fermenting Rice

 The process first starts with making Lao Hai, "Rice Wine".  Rice, sugar and water are placed in a clay pot and allowed to stand covered for seven days.  This is how Lao Hai is produced however for making Lao Lao additional water is not added after the initial charge to the fermenting mixture.

The fermenting rice creates a thick mash of about 13% alcohol.  The thick mash from four  clay pots is removed and placed inside of the 55 gallon steel drum that forms the base of his still.   The barrel sits upon a couple of bricks above a shallow trench where a small fire is maintained by small long logs that are pushed forward as they are consumed by the flames.

Lao Lao Still In Laos

A gasket created by burlap type cloth filled with rice hulls is placed atop of the open end of the metal barrel.  A conical shaped steel pan is the placed on top of the gasket to seal off the still.  The conical pan serves as the condenser for the distilling process.  The top of the cone which is open to the air is filled with water.  Every 10 minutes the water is replaced with cool water by pouring new water into the cone and allowing the warmer water to overflow through a small tube above the normal water level in the cone.  Alcohol vapors inside of the still condense on the relatively cooler surface of the cone inside of the still.  The alcohol droplets travel along the cool surface to the apex of the cone where they drop off and are collected by a spoon like device that is attached to a pipe.  The pipe is sloped downwards and exists the still carrying the Lao Lao to fill another clay pot located on the ground at the end of the pipe.  The Lao Lao slowly drips out of the pipe through a terrycloth cloth of uncertain cleanliness and finally into the clay pot.


Lao Lao Fresh From the Still Fills A Clay Pot

After observing the process, I was invited to sample some our the man's handicraft.  Duang does not drink much and especially not Lao Lao, I was left alone to drink with the man.  He pulled a bottle out, a bottle without any critters or plants in it, from a cabinet and poured each of us a double shot.  I have been through this ritual enough times to understand what was expected of me.  I looked the man in the eyes said "Jonkiouw" and downed the shots all at once as he did the same.  The Lao Lao was very powerful and I must admit much better than the commercial moonshine that the villagers drink in Tahsang Village.  Perhaps it was the dirty towel that this man's whiskey was filtered through.

A Lao Lao Distillery in Baan Xang Hai, LPDR

I ended up buying a small bottle of his product to take back home for 30,000 KIP ($3.75 USD) - a good price for even nothing else more than the nice woven bamboo that covered the bottle.  The bamboo had writing as part of the integral woven design - "Lao Lao, Baan Xang Hai" as translated by the distiller.

While I was socializing with the distiller, Duang had located his wife and some other women who were busy embroidering.  But that is subject to another blog.

It was interesting spending time in the village.  The people were making moonshine without any government permits, regulations, licences or any harassment from "Revenuers".  This is hardly what I would have expected in a country known as being a Communist state.

New Gallery Available to View

A gallery of photographs related to my July 22 "Isaan Rice Planting" and July 17 "Planting Rice, Listening to Gossip" blogs is now available for viewing at my photography website.

The weather continues to be hot, humid, and wet - great weather for getting caught up on all kinds of tasks such as blog writing, editing photos, correspondence, and writing my next book.

Isaan Rice Planting

Last weekend's big plans were set aside by the weather. There was too much water for planting rice or fishing. All was not lost however, our five month old grandson paid a visit on Sunday.

Yesterday the weekend's planned rice planting took place. Rice was being planted in plots just outside of Tahsang Village by family members hired by Duang's daughter. Ten people walked from Tahsang Village out to the fields and awaited our arrival.

They were not being either polite or considerate. They were waiting for us because we were bringing their breakfast out to them in the pickup truck. Apparently when you hire field workers, you also have to feed them, provide them with drink, as well as pay them wages. We arrived around 08:00 A. M. much to Duang's daughter's relief.

Old sahts (woven reed mats) were placed on the relatively dry level ground on the other side of the dirt road that bisected the fields of sugar cane, rice paddies, and grazing grounds for cattle as well as water buffalo. The breakfast area for the workers was also shared with some tethered water buffalo and some free ranch cattle.

After a substantial breakfast of Kao Lao (Lao food) that could very well have been served for lunch or dinner, some of the workers washed down the last of their food with some Lao Kao (white whiskey - a sort of Lao moonshine). Other workers drank water from a common metal cup out of a insulated bucket of cool water. People in Isaan do not follow any type of set menu or types of foods reserved for specific times of the day. Rice is eaten at all meals and often in between. Fish and meat dishes are served at the first meal of the day just as they are at other meals of the day.

Everyone wandered across the road and finished putting on their work clothes for the day's activities. There is no set dress code for working in the fields. Although they will be working in water as well as mud for the day, workers are just as likely to wear pants or skirts as to wear shorts. There does seem to be one common article of clothing. Most Isaan farm workers wear brightly colored soccer style jerseys. Often the jerseys bear advertising for companies and corporations. This is much like my past when some of my wardrobe was provided as project safety awards or project team building windbreakers and jackets.

Heads are covered in a variety of gear ranging from pakamas, straw hats, and cotton sun bonnets. Often the workers will also wear some type of device to cover their necks and faces from the sun and to absorb perspiration. Colorful cotton tee shirts are sometimes employed to cover the face and neck. Sometimes the workers wear specialized articles of clothing designed and constructed specifically to cover the face and neck.

Once everyone was properly dressed they set about their work. Two paddies had been previously prepared. The paddies were about 75 feet by 100 feet long surrounded by dikes of compacted clay overgrown with vegetation. The plots were completed flooded with a mixture of mud and water about 18 inches deep. Sheaves of rice sprouts had been previously distributed throughout the prepared paddies. The workers set out in a line and grabbed bundles of sprouts from the sheaves. Groups of three sprouts were set deeply by hand into the soupy mud. In little time but with a great deal of back breaking work the paddies were spotted with neat and proper rows of transplanted sprouts.

As most of the workers focused on setting out the sprouts, some of the workers broke off to perform specific specialized tasks. Duang's son-in-law owns a small tractor and earns money using it to prepare local rice paddies. He had trucked the tractor to these paddies the night before. On the back of the tractor was a rototiller type attachment that ground up the unprepared paddies. Due to the monsoon rains that we have been experiencing for the past month, the ground is saturated with water and many of the paddies have standing water in them. The tractor or sometimes using a small iron buffalo grinds up the soil, water, and vegetation to create a flat soupy mud for planting the rice. If there is not enough standing water in the prepared paddy, a small portable diesel driven pump is used to transfer water to the paddy. In areas of the impoundment where the tractor could not get completely into, a man with a hoe finished the paddy preparation.

Duang went to the area where the rice sheaves had been placed the day before. The sprouts had been harvested at a different location the day before and brought by pick up truck to the paddies. It appeared to me that there were at least three pick up truck loads of sheaves - however this is Isaan and knowing how much they load up their trucks, I suspect that they had made only one trip or maybe two. Duang used a large heavy machete type knife to cut the tops off of the rice sheaves. This was to promote growth in the transplanted sprouts. As she picked up each sheave to trim its top, she inspected the root base of the sheave. For proper transplantation of the sprouts and to ensure a good harvest, the sprouts must have about 4 inches of good hairy root structure. Any sheaves that did not have sufficient root development were cast to the side to be fed to the livestock or placed on top of the paddy dikes. As she completed trimming each sheave, Duang placed the bundle off to the side in a special area.

Duang's cousin placed the shorn sheaves on the ends of a long bamboo pole and carried the wet mud dripping bundles out to the prepared fields. He carried the sheaves much like we had observed other workers transporting harvested garlic in the Maehongson area during April. He carried the pole full of sprouts out into the prepared field and left them in a pile in the muddy water. Other workers distributed them throughout the field for transplanting.

Everyone worked diligently at their tasks with the monotony of the work interrupted by shouting out to passing relatives or friends tending to their free range cattle. One grandfather came out on a motorbike with his young grandson so that the child could watch his mother for a while. My antics in photographing the goings on was often the subject of conversation as well as amusement. I was also teased about taking too many pictures of Duang rather than of them.

The work went very smoothly and the only excitement occurred when one of the women planting rice pulled a mouse out of muddy goop. She proudly held it by its tail and displayed it so that I could photograph the event.

The people worked until all the paddies had been planted. The work was completed by 2:00 P.M. Everyone piled into the back of our pick up and we went back to Tahsang Village. After washing, the workers reunited at Duang's parent's house to eat and drink. The men ate in one room and the women ate in another room. Sahts were placed on the tile floor and the food and drink were laid out picnic style. There was plenty of food and beer. Everyone enjoyed their meal and the air was filled with animated conversation and laughing.

We returned to our home tired but satisfied with our day out in the rice paddies.

Planting Rice, Listening to Gossip

Yesterday we drove out to Tahsang Village. WE drove out.

While I was away in the USA, Duang went to school and obtained her driver's licence ("ID Card Drive Car"). The previous day she drove the truck for the first time with me as a passenger.

Two days ago, we went out to Tahsang Village and Duang drove part of the way. She drove well - slow and carefully. However it seemed that she was not totally familiar or comfortable with down shifting. Since the country road from Kumphawapi is in such a poor state, down shifting is often required in navigating the bumps, ruts, holes and other road obstacles. The area headman had promised to have the road repaired in 5 months last December. It is now 8 months later and the only change that we have experienced is that the roads are worse. Sound familiar? I spoke with Duang about down shifting and when it was necessary to change gears. She said that she now understood.

On yesterday's trip, it was obvious that Duang now understood down shifting. She did very well. I got to enjoy looking over the countryside as we drove along the country road. We get rain just about everyday and due to micro-climate conditions, Tahsang Village area gets more frequent and greater rains than we do back at our home. The fields are flooded and the farmers have been busy planting this year's rice crop. The return of the monsoon rains have worked wonders with the sugar cane. The sugar cane has grown at least 3 to 4 feet in the past month with the return of nourishing rains.

Fortunately yesterday's rains did not come until late at night. We had a partly cloudy day - hot and humid. People were busy taking advantage of the dry spell. Along one stretch of the road farmers were busy harvesting peanuts. The men were occupied in pulling the plants out of the ground and bringing them to where the women had placed some sahts on the higher ground near the road. The women removed the peanuts from the bottom of the plants and placed them into plastic bags to sell to passing motorists. A bag of peanuts sells for $0.30 USD for 2.2 pounds. Duang is fond of them so we have had fresh boiled peanuts the past week. When she gets home, Duang empties the plastic bag into a sink of cold water and cleans them before boiling them in salted water. Being from New England I had not had the Southern delicacy of boiled peanuts prior to relocating to Isaan. Boiled peanuts are one of the few items of "Kao Lao" (Lao food) that I eat and enjoy. Perhaps it's a start.


Along the road past the peanut farmers we passed some people working in their rice field. Duang pulled over and I got out to take some photographs. The three people were not relatives of hers but it did not seem to matter. In no time at all they were filling her in on the local gossip.

The Tahi man that lived in the house next to the field had died. We saw the truck with the rental refrigerated casket headed back to Kumphawapi as we drove towards Tahsang. That was news but the gossip involved the "falang" who lived in the local "big fancy house".

The house and its associated compound is very nice and was an inspiration to Duang and I when we did not have a home. Recently the place was declining in appearance and Duang had told me awhile ago that a Thai man had bought it. Two days ago she told me that the foreign man had gone back to his homeland when he found out that his Thai wife had been sleeping with a Thai man. Worse than that, the little baby that she gave birth to was not his but was fathered by the Thai boyfriend. This seemed to make sense as to why and how the property was declining. The Thai boy friend had not "bought" the property. He was only using it - kind of like he was doing with the Thai woman. He didn't have the money to keep the place up. Duang said that the Thai woman was trying to sell the property so that she could send one-half of the money back to her foreign husband. I am not sure but this could be a "first".

It now turns out that the 68 year old foreigner has returned to Isaan and is once again living in the house with his 32 year old wife. The Thai boy friend has returned to "Wife #1" in Khumphawapi and the baby remains with its mother in the fancy house. Now the foreigner is sick and the neighbors don't expect him to live much longer. Being able to gather in and participate in the local gossip makes the wait while I take pictures easier on Duang. She later fills me in on the details so that I am informed.

I enjoyed myself for about an hour and a half photographing the people. As much as I found them interesting and fascinating subjects, I suspect that they were amused with me. Many passing motorists and motorcyclists drove by and shouted out hello to the "Falang" (foreigner) taking "Tai-loop" (photographs) - some were relatives or neighbors in Tahsang. It was all good natured. I have found the people of Isaan to be very fun loving and very good natured. There is never a problem in stopping along the road and photographing people as they work.

Work in the fields yesterday involved harvesting the rice sprouts from on field and transplanting them into another larger flooded field about 50 meters away. One woman pulled the sprouts, washed off the roots, and bundled the sprouts into sheaves which she bound together using some rice sprouts as a string. A man and another woman were in the other field planting the sprouts in clusters of three throughout the field. A community water cooler and battery operated transistor radio were located on one of the nearby raised dikes bording the fields. Mahlam Lao and Mahlam Sing music blared out from the radio as the workers went about their stoop labor in the fields. The workers were dressed in mostly red clothing which made for some interesting photographs. After awhile the man put a brightly colored pakama on his head for protection from the sun.

We continued on to Tahsang Village only to realize that we had developed a flat tire. I spent the next 30 minutes changing the tire. I had help. Kwan, Duang's 18 month old cousin, came over to watch me. She didn't say anything but constantly remained about 3 feet from where ever I was working. I appreciated her morale support. It was refreshing every once in awhile to see that cute face and large dark eyes watching over me. Duang helped out by crawling under the truck to help connect the rod to lower the spare tire from underneath the pick up bed. We had apparently picked up a metal screw in the tire when we pulled off the road to photograph the field workers.


Just as I was finishing, one of Duang's older uncles came by on his three wheeled bicycle and wanted to know how I was doing. I told him that I was going to pay him 1,000 baht (equivalent to one week's wages for farm worker) to change the tire for me but I got tired of waiting for him to show up so I changed it myself. He got my joke and we had a good laugh as I tightened the last of the nuts on the wheel. I asked Duang's mother why she didn't help me and she pointed out that it was she that sent me the ice cold Pepsi from the market - another good laugh.

On the way home, we stopped and had the tire repaired and remounted - $3.00 USD!

It was another great day full of surprises.

Word arrived today that Duang's cousin who lives two hours northeast of here will be going out catfishing this weekend, dependent upon water levels. We went to his wedding last year and he had said that he would let us know when they would be going out fishing. Last year I put my foot through his fishing boat - more like a big very old bamboo raft with an "A" frame on the back for set and raising big nets. Hopefully some of the bamboo has been replaced.

If the fields are not too flooded and it doesn't rain, Duang's daughter and other relatives will be working in the rice fields too.

It is a busy time in Isaan - I'll need to be sure that all my batteries - camera as well as my internal ones are fully charged for the upcoming busy weekend.

22 November 2008 - Threshing Rice

Threshing Rice
Saturday 22 November 2008

After Friday night's excitement at the hospital, we got a late start to Tahsang Village on Saturday morning. Rather than me driving Duang out to the village, her son and his girlfriend decided to join us.

We made our customary stop in Kumphawapi to pick up some leaves and twigs (Lao food), and some prepared foods for lunch. Food for 8 to 10 people cost less than $10 USD.

As we approached Tahsang Village we passed one of Duang's cousin's farm. There was a huge pile on rice sheaves stacked on a blue plastic net. At least 8 cousins, uncles, aunts, and friends were busy feeding the sheaves into a truck mounted threshing machine. It was a great scene - brillant blue sky, golden stalks of rice, colorful clothes - with chaff flying everywhere.

Duang realized immediately that I wanted to photograph the ongoing work. She was hungry, and since I am not especially fond of Kao Lao (Lao Food) I was not keen on eating lunch with the gang. She said that after she got out to eat with her family in Tahsang, I could take the truck back to photograph the workers. It was such a lovely day that I decided to walk the short ways back to work site.

I returned to the sight alone and started taking the first of what ended being a total of 547 photographs for the day. Although it was not a hot day, by the end of our visit, both Duang and I were tired. When we are out in the field shooting, there is a great deal of physical activity - squatting, bending, stooping, and walking, as well as mental concentration. Duang at her insistence carries my camera backpack - about 20 pounds (10 KG). From our many shoots, she has developed a very good sense for what I want to do next. Between the two of us changing lenses or adding a flash is accomplished quickly and effortlessly.

Today some of her relatives were threshing the rice. Duang remembers in the past she and others would separate the rice kernels from the stalks by beating them on the ground. That portion of rice processing has gotten easier but not necessarily easy. After the rice stalks have been cut by hand using sickles, the cut stalks lay in the sun to dry for three days. After three days the stalks are gathered by hand and made into sheaves using some longer stalks to bind the bundles together. The sheaves are loaded by hand into the back of the tuk-tuk farm truck and driven to the point where the machine threshing will take place. At the appointed place, a large fine meshed blue net is staked to the ground. The tuk tuk truck loads of sheaves are unloaded by hand on to the net. A huge pile of sheaves is created with the net covered with rice kernels that have separated due to the transportation and handling of the sheaves to create the piles. The fine mesh of the net allows these kernels to be recovered and not wasted.

A tuk-tuk farm truck with a mechanical thresher mounted on the back bed drives up onto one side of the blue net. The truck is situated between the stack of sheaves and the location where the pile of straw will be created. Today the pile of straw was created right next to the roofed crib where the straw is stored for feeding the cattle. Little effort will be required to relocate the new straw to under the protection of the roofed crib.

The threshing machine is powered by a separate small diesel engine. An operator sits on an elevated seat that cantilevers off of the side of the machine. Off to the operator's right side is a shelf that feeds the sheaves into the threshing drum. Most of the workers occupy themselves with feeding the belching thresher. They gather the sheaves and throw them up to another worker who is standing on a pile of sheaves to better access the feeding of the threshing machine. The sheaves go into one end of the drum. Straw is shot high into the air out of a duct at the far end of the machine. A screw feeder ejects the rice kernels out of a nozzle at the end of the drum below the shelf where the sheaves were fed into the machine.

Young boys were busy filling sacks with the rice that was ejected by the machine. The sacks held about 65 pounds (30 KG) of rice. Older and stronger men would carry the filled sacks to a storage area where another worker would close and tie the sacks. The machine owner's son kept busy by periodically filling the engine's small fuel tank with fuel from a plastic 2 liter jug - sort of like the large plastic bottles of orange juice from Costco or some other warehouse outlet in America.

When in operation the process was quite the sight to see and hear. There was no muffler on the thresher. The air was punctuated with the ebb and flow of the engine reacting to the loads of straw. The straw was shot high into the air, arcing, and fell into an ever growing pile except for the straw that was picked up in mid-air and blown around. From underneath the shade a tree at the edge of the work sight, two young toddlers filled the air with the sounds of their playing. Their grandmother watched over them and guarded the ice water and soft drinks for the workers. From the rice paddy located about 10 feet lower than the threshing sight, cowbells jingled as four head of cattle intently grazed on the straw remaining from a previously harvested rice paddy.

Past the grazing cattle, Duang's sister and four other people were harvesting rice. To their left another group of 5 people were harvesting rice from adjacent paddy. This scene was repeated all over the countryside - threshing and harvesting the current rice crop all around Isaan.
Duang and I walked down the hillside from the threshing area to visit and photograph her sister and brother-in-law harvesting their rice. The walk was rather difficult and presented challenges as well as risks. The rice paddies are bounded by narrow raised clay dikes. The dikes are used to impound water on the planted rice. In addition the dikes are used to control the water level in and amongst the paddies. The levels are controlled by cutting slots into the dikes.

Now that the fields have been growing since July, the dikes are overgrown with vegetation. The control slots as well as other types of ankle twisting hazards are hidden beneath a heavy mat of grasses and shrubs. Travelling across the rice paddies presents even more tripping hazards beneath the matted flat stalks. All this required a focus and careful selection of where to place your feet to avoid twisting an ankle or falling down. This was tiring.

We visited both groups of harvesters and returned back to the threshing sight - just as operations were wrapping up.

After all the sheaves had been threshed, the owner of the machine collected his payment. In this case it was four sacks of rice. The discharge duct was dismantled and the unit drove off to the next place where their services were needed.

The remaining filled sacks of rice were again loaded by hand on to the tuk-tuk farm truck. Once the truck was filled, several workers climbed up and sat on top of the stacked bags. With two people in front and 3 to 6 atop the load, the tuk-tuk farm trucks set out putt putting down the country road towards home. Upon arriving at home, the rice sacks were offloaded by hand into the rice barn. Rice barns are small heavy constructed elevated wood structures set atop concrete piles. The rice barns are about 10 foot by 10 foot by 8 foot. They are about 6 to 8 feet off of the ground with corrugated metal roof. The rice is stored in the barn for seven months prior to milling where the husk is removed from the kernel to create the rice that we are familiar in purchasing at the supermarket.

Duang surprised me by driving the truck from Tahsang Village to the work sight. She has been learning to drive and the farm roads are lightly travelled so there was minimum risk - to her as well as others.

With Saturday's photos, I now have the cycle of rice cultivation completed from planting to storage in the rice barn. A portion of the life cycle and rhythm of Isaan life in photographs. I am pleased but then again I am usually pleased.

27 July 2008 - Rice Planting continued

27 July 2008 Sunday - Rice continued

Saturday's journey to Nongwha was so interesting and stimulating that we decided to return on Sunday to witness the next step in cultivating rice.
Sunday's activities were to take the sheaves of rice seedlings and transplant them in groups of 3 or 4 into holes made with the worker's hand into the freshly prepared flooded ground.

Today I took up Duang on her offer to photograph her working in the rice paddy. Earlier in her life she had worked in the rice paddies for 70 baht ($2 USD) A DAY. She did quite well perhaps attributable to her short wide feet that I often tease her about! She replied back that with my narrow feet, I wouldn't be able to move through the mud! That is as good an excuse for me to avoid embarrassing myself attempting to do that back breaking labor! Just walking around, stooping, and squatting to take different photographs drenched me in perspiration.

The workers that I have photographed the past two days are subsistance farmers. The rice that they are cultivating is for their personal use.

After 1-1/2 hours of shooting photos in the hot and humid Thai air, we walked back to Duang's house in the village. I had shot 275 pictures the previous day and followed up on Sunday with 383 photos. Once the shots have been shot, they are downloaded to my computer to be edited, organized and cataloged. The entire process keeps me very busy.

Walking along the road to Duang's took awhile. People, most of them her relatives, had to ask us what we were doing and express their pleasantries with us. There are not many secrets in the villages of Isaan.

Once we got to the village, we had lunch at her cousin's outdoor restaurant (a thatched roofed open-sided structure with three table and benches). Food is cooked over an open charcoal fire. Two bowls of kweteeow (noodle soup with pork, vegetables) and two slurpies - $2.00 USD TOTAL - no tax or tip required.

A strong thunderstorm dumped a great deal of rain over the area - good for the rice and only an inconvenience for people.

26 July 2008 - Rice Planting

26 July 2008 Saturday - Rice

It was another hot and humid day today in Isaan. We were off fairly early this morning to Duang's home village of Nongwha by way of public transportation - somlaw and songthaew.

The government today removed some of the tax on gas and diesel to help the people out. Amazingly all gas stations have reduced their prices by 4 Baht per liter.
After arrival in Nongawha and doing the family respects thing, we got the use of Duang's son's pickup truck for the day. I drove over to the rice paddies where her cousins were working. "Cousins" - it seems that in the area just about everyone is a cousin, aunt or uncle. Even on the songthaew out to the village from Kumphawapi, Duang was engaged in a animated conversation with an elderly woman who was carrying her grandchild. I facetiously asked if the elderly woman was a relative. Sure enough the "old momma" was a relative!

Duang's relatives were working some of their land. Rice cultivation is very labor intensive. Almost all the work in this region is still done manually. Water buffalo or small walk behind tractors are used to initially plow the ground but the remainder of the work is by hand.

Rice paddies here are flat diked areas of land about 100 feet by 100 feet. The plots are surrounded by eighteen to twenty four inch high earthen berms. The soil is a very heavy clay so the impounded areas collect and retain rain water. Since it is now the monsoon season, there is rain at some period of the day, usually late afternoon, everyday.

Rice seed is first sown in a small prepared flooded area by a hand broadcast method. The rice grows within the flooded paddy in a thick green carpet much like grass - which it is. When the young rice is about 18 inches to 24 inches high, it is harvested for transplanting. Yesterday and I imagine tomorrow as well as the day after; Duang's relatives were harvesting the young plants for transplanting them to other paddies.

Under the hot glaring sun, the farmers wade into the flooded nursery paddy and pull up the young rice plants by hand in oppressive humidity. The plants are pulled out of the mud with one hand and carried in the other hand. When a sufficient amount of plants have been gathered, the accumulated bunch of water and mud dripping stalks are dipped in the water and rapped against the farmer's upraised foot to remove excess mud from the roots. The bundle is then laid flat on the ground for the next step. The workers pulling up the stalks develop a rhythm to their activity and it becomes choreography of economic body motions.

While some of the farmers are extracting plants from the ground, others are collecting the flat bunches from the ground. The bunches are then individually tamped against the bottom of an overturned plastic tub to further remove excess mud and to square off the bottom of the bunch. The bunch is then tied into a sheaf and placed vertically in a cleared portion of the nursery pad awaiting transplanting into a newly prepared paddy.

In an adjacent paddy, a man uses a self propelled mechanical buffalo to plow a paddy. The mechanical buffalo is a diesel powered two wheeled tractor about 20 HP. The wheels are about three foot diameter metal paddlewheels that are able to traverse the muddy paddy.

In a previously plowed area, another man is using a hoe to further process the soil for planting.

To be continued ...