A Christian Wedding In Isaan

Yesterday, Saturday, we went out to Tahsang Village to witness a very rare event here in Isaan - a Christian Wedding. One of Duang's 93 cousins was getting married in the small Christian church that is next to the Tahsang Village Elementary school. With 22 surviving Aunts and Uncles along with 93 cousins there always seems to be some family celebration to attend to. With Buddhist celebrations along with my brother-in-law music shows, our life is kept quite busy.

Duang's sister is a Christian and attends the church which is across the country road from her farm. Through Duang's sister we have met and got to know the minister and his family. Typically when I am about ready to return to the USA, the minister, his family, Duang's sister and her husband come over to our home for dinner. They apologize for coming over but I tell them that they are always welcome to dine with us especially since they bring the food. As part of their visit there is a prayer for my safe journey as well as return to Thailand.

We arrived at the church along with Duang's son, his fiance, and our grandson, Peelwat, after the ceremony had started. The ritual was conducted entirely in Thai so I am not familiar with what was actually said. The ceremony itself did not seem to be anything out of the ordinary from what I had experienced at Christian weddings back in America.

There was music, singing, candles, flowers (beautiful flowers) and sermons as part of the ritual. Flower petals had been strewn along the aisle leading up to the front of the church. Chairs on each side of the aisle had been decorated with ribbons, bows and decorations. After what appeared to be the proclamation that they were man and wife, different aspects of a Christian wedding in Isaan appeared. The Baii Sii ritual, the Animist ceremony so prevalent here in Isaan, was not performed but unique aspects of Lao Loum culture were respected.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T is pervasive in Lao Loum society. The respect that I observe and cherish now is not the respect driven by intimidation of the old Aretha Franklin song of the 1960's but a respect from acknowledgement of one's place as well as accomplishments in this life - more of a respect motivated from love.

The newlyweds faced the congregation, families, and guests and bowed as they each offered a wai.

The Bride and Groom, then left the raised area where the ceremony had been conducted and went to the large wood bench at each side of the church. The Groom's parents sat on one side of the church and the Bride's parents sat on a similar bench on the opposite side of the church. The Bride and Groom walked to each set of parents and knelt before them, offering them a wai (Thai gesture of respect). Private words were exchanged between the young couples and the parents. It appeared that the young people in addition to demonstrating their respect, they were requesting the elder's blessings. The parents offered them best wishes and good luck for their marriage. One of the fathers had a surprise. From a small plastic case that is well recognized here in Isaan, he pulled out a gold chain and placed it around the groom's neck.

The Bride and Groom then returned to the center of the church in front of the raised area. Together they held a silver colored pressed metal ceremonial bowl. It was a bowl identical to bowls that are used in Buddhist rituals. In Isaan, newly married couple do not receive gifts such as irons, waffle irons, crystal, silverware, china, bedding, furniture, crock pots, or fondue sets. Besides not having much practical use for such items and appliances, it is not the Lao Loum custom. Newlywed couples are given offerings of cash by wedding guests. For Saturday's wedding, the guests took turns singly or as couples to walk up to the Bride and Groom. It appeared that part of the ritual was for the other guests to witness your offering to the couple. After expression of joy and conveying best wishes to the newly married couple, the cash offering in the envelope that the invitation was kept was placed into the ceremonial bowl.

Once the guests had completed making their offerings, the Bride and Groom went off to the side of the church. They then made offerings to the Minister, their parents, and I suspect Aunts that had helped to prepare for the wedding. Parents and the Minister were given sleeping mats while selected Aunts were given a bath towel along with a Lao Loum pillow called a "mon". The "mon" is more than just a mere pillow for it is very often given as offerings to Monks in merit making rituals.

After distributing their offerings to selected people, the Bride and Groom exited the church to the guests waiting for them outside. It was time for the Bride to throw her bouquet. Just as weddings in America, the single women enthusiastically scrambled to catch the bouquet.

It was at this point that I had a surprise. Two of the guests came over to speak with me - two American men living here. One man was from South Boston not all that distant from where I was born and raised. The other man was from Oklahoma. We had a long conversation and it was a great way to end our Christian Isaan wedding experience. Duang joked me about having a tired mouth because I had talked so much.

Kwan's Bad Day

After viewing the loading of boats on the Mekong River on Tuesday, we headed for Tahsang Village. We took Highway 2 south back towards Udonthani, past Udonthani, and eventually to Kumphawapi. Driving along the roads in Isaan is always interesting with motorbikes often driving the wrong way on one way roads, less often a car or even a truck will be traveling the wrong way but they typically are in the breakdown lane so once you get over the initial shock there is not much danger. The maximum speed for cars on Highway 2 is 90 kmh (55 mph) but is 60 kmh for trucks (35 mph) I don't know what the maximum speed limit is for buses - not that it matters because they do not follow the maximum limit. The buses are terrors of the road. They speed down the road from 100 to 130 kmh (65 to 80 mph) except for for three occasions - when they are alongside the road broken down, when they have had an accident, or for many buses when they have pulled over to the edge of the road to either pick up or discharge passengers. We have seen several buses rolled over in the rice paddies that border much of the roads. The mix of cars, trucks, buses, motorbikes, bicycles, and somlaws all going their separate speeds makes driving a challenge. There is no minimum speed laws on Thai roads so there is a great variation of speeds for any given section of road.

Another challenge for driving is the Thai use of traffic cones to mark road work or to indicate road hazards. Many sections of Hwy 2 from Udonthani to Kumphawapi is being repaired. Repairs consist of removing 4 meter (12 ft) by 12 meter (36 ft) sections of concrete roadway, excavating a meter meter deep hole which is eventually filled with concrete and steel reinforcement. To prevent vehicles from falling into the 3 foot deep large excavations, a traffic cone or barrier is placed at the edge of the hole - no warning as you drive along the road at 55 mph. You could very easily hit the cone as you drive into the excavation. The same is true for workers alongside the road. The cones or warning signs are placed about 10 meters (30 feet) ahead of the workers. We make it a point to minimize travel along unfamiliar roads after dark.

A pleasant aspect of road travel are the items, usually food, that you can buy at stands set alongside of the road. The new peanut crop has been harvested so there are many places where you can stop and purchase some freshly boiled peanuts. In about a month there should be a new crop of corn on the cob - freshly boiled. Various communities have their specialty and many people will set up tables and umbrellas along the road outside of their village where they sell their specialty. Given the area in which you are driving the items for sale can be honey, salt, rice, sausages, mushrooms, tropical fruit, coconuts, corn, bamboo stuffed with sticky rice and coconut milk.

For our trip back from Nong Khai the treat was fresh green coconut. The fresh green coconut is a double treat. The heavy husk is removed by the villagers leaving a fist sized (very large fist) nut which has had the top sliced off (think in terms of a jack-o-lantern pumpkin) The top has been placed back atop the nut and often the assembly is kept in a cooler with ice. When you buy the nut you are given a straw to drink the refreshing and nutritious coconut water. Once the water is consumed, you can use your fingernails to extract the very supple coconut flesh - equally refreshing and very tasty. This makes for a great treat on a hot and humid day. We had bought some on Monday and gave them to Duang's mother. On Tuesday we stopped at the same booth and bought more along with two special coconuts for $0.75 each. These special coconuts had coconut water, coconut flesh and pieces of coconut flavored gelatin - all of which had been kept on ice.

We arrived in Tahsang Village and immediately could tell that something was wrong. Many of the villagers were sitting on the raised platform across the street from Duang's mother's home. The villagers looked very worried as well as very concerned. We found out that Kwan, Duang's cousin's 2-1/2 year old daughter, had been run over by a motorbike. Kwan had just gotten her fingernails painted for the first time and had dashed across the village street to show her mother. Unfortunately a schoolgirl from three houses away was speeding down the street on her way to school. Kwan got run over by the motorbike and could not walk. She was taken to the local hospital in Kumphawapi on her grandfather's motorbike. Her grandmother and the mother of the schoolgirl went to the hospital on another motorbike.

Here in Isaan, the person who causes an injury is responsible for the medical costs of the injured. The schoolgirl's mother went to the hospital along with Kwan's family to fulfill her family's responsibilities to the victim.


Our grandson, Peelawat who usually plays with Kwan, was inside the market asleep. Here in Isaan village life for children involves playing in the street as much as playing on private property. Lao Loum people spend much of their time outside with indoor activities limited mostly to sleeping at night and eating of some meals. Raised covered platforms outside of Lao Loum homes is where adults and children spend much of their day - eating, napping, playing, and caring for children. If children are not playing on the raised platform they are playing in the street - riding bicycles, chasing each other or wandering around form one group of adults to another.




While we were visiting the village a young boy just learning to ride a bicycle came by. He was about 3 years old and was riding a small bicycle that had training wheels. He was being attended to by his grandmother. She had tied a piece of string to the bike that prevented her grandson from getting away from her on his bike. He had a small cap on and I could not help but be reminded of the Tour de France which is currently being held. However this guy looked like he could have been competing in the Tour de Tahsang. His bicycle was pink and appeared to be a girl's bike. However I have yet to see a local bicycle that is the traditional US "boy's" style bicycle.
Like the other villagers, we were concerned about Kwan. We stopped at the hospital on our way back to Udonthani. We quickly found Kwan and her entourage. Kwan was in good shape. She had a scratch on her knee which was swollen and was unable to stand. Kwan had seen a doctor and had her leg and arm xrayed. Her family was awaiting the doctor to interpret the xrays. I looked at the xrays and was pleased to see that Kwan did not have compound fractures. It appeared to me that she had a cracked bone in her leg up near her knee and a crack in her arm. After awhile actually a long while, a doctor was available and saw Kwan. After seeing the doctor Kwan was taken back to the emergency room where her leg was placed in a walking cast and her arm was placed in a soft cast. She was sent home with some Tylenol and Advil type medication. She is to return to the hospital on Monday. Rather than Kwan going back to tahsang on a motorbike, we took her and her grandmother back to the village in our truck. Kwan was tired and exhausted from her trying day.

Kwan was welcomed back by the relieved villagers. Soon she was surrounded by relieved adults and her oblivious playmates including Peelawat. The trauma of the day was relieved somewhat by fresh watermelon which Kwan seemed to relish. It was a sobering experience to realize how close Kwan had come to being seriously injured.

There was also the realization that such an accident could very easily happen to any one of us at any given time.

The Dock On The River

On Monday while Duang was off in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR) taking care of my passport, I spent 6-1/2 hours along the waterfront of the Mekong River in Nong Khai, Thailand. It is hard to believe that it was 6-1/2 hours but time always seems to go by quickly along bodies of water. There appears to be something interesting happening around water.

In Nong Khai there is a large market along, or rather more accurately above the Mekong River. We are into the rainy season now so the Mekong River has greatly recovered from its historic lows of three months ago. Later this year there could be flooding. As I walked past the market, I came upon a place where steps led down to the river itself. I would estimate that the river was about 45 feet below the street level. There were three permanent flood stage markers close to the street level to monitor the water as it rises significantly in the flood season. It is quite impressive at times to see evidence of the variability of Nature in a single location.

After watching the people clean outside their hotels, stalls, or hotels, I wandered down to the dock on the river. Boats from Laos and Thailand crossed the swiftly flowing Mekong carrying passengers and cargo between the two countries. I spent several hours at the Thai Customs Station watching goods being offloaded by hand from somlaws (three wheeled motorcycles), pick up trucks, and lorries. Since it was Monday, there was a great deal of activity - especially exporting of bicycles to Laos. I must have witnessed the offloading of 500 bicycles each in its own individual cardboard box.

The offloading of the cargo in Thailand is performed by stevedores. I learned from them that they make around 200 baht a day ($6.00 USD) a day. The men dress just the same as the men working out in the fields. There are no hard hats, gloves, sturdy boots, or back braces. There is no personal safety equipment at all. Down at the wharf, some 45 feet lower than the street level, there are no life vests, life rings, or rescue equipment.

From what I could see across the river to Laos, about 1/2 mile away, the same was true - offloading by hand. From the sounds coming from Laos, it appeared that the stevedores over there were having a good time. It sounded more like a party than work. On the Thai side it was not all work. During lulls in the arrival of goods to be offloaded, the men played checkers. Their board was a thin square piece of sheet metal that once had blue squares spray painted as required to produced a grid of blue and bare metal squares. Their board had been heavily used for a long period of time reducing many of the blue squares to very faint smudges of color. The game pieces were a combination of beer, soft drink, and Kao Lao (whiskey) bottle caps. One player's pieces were smooth side down and the other player's pieces were rough side down, After watching a while, the men invited me to play. I had not played since a long night in a bar in Malaysia 10 years ago and then it was against my wife of that time. These guys appeared to be a much higher level of competition. I agreed and started to play. The first game was a tie. They changed my opponent and I won the next match. During the third match, we or rather my opponent started getting "comments from the peanut gallery" and advice from several kibitzers. Since I had made sure that we weren't playing for money (gambling is not legal here in Thailand ;-) ), I pretended to be upset and told the men in Thai that it was one man against one man and not 2 men, 3 men, or 4 men against one falang (foreigner). We all had a good laugh. As the match continued, my chastisement did not deter some of the guys, they were giving advise to my opponent - they were reminded of my words by their coworkers. Again we had a good laugh. I ended up losing this match but won my next three matches. It was all good natured fun and amusement. It was an easy way to burn up some time along the river and I enjoyed the time.

Unfortunately, I had not brought my camera with me on Monday. When I met Duang at the border, I told her of my adventure and we decided to return to Nong Khai the next day before going to visit family in Tahsang Village.

Tuesday we drove back to Nong Khai so that I could photograph the activity at the dock. Even better, Duang could translate for me to ensure that I understood what was going on especially the details that were not readily apparent. I want to be reasonably sure of what I write about. Sometimes I suspect that I might understand just enough to get confused. Having Duang to confirm and verify what I believe that I understand is very assuring. We arrived around 8:00 A.M. for the start of the work day on the river. Many of the workers from the day before were in place awaiting the arrival of the day's cargo. Some were finishing their breakfast on the steps of the Custom's House. Breakfast consisted of the Isaan main staple of "sticky rice" brought to the job site in a woven bamboo container called a "gong kao" - a sort of Lao Loum workman's lunch box. We have three in our kitchen. Balls of sticky rice are dipped into a sauce or into fish or sometimes vegetables by hand. Typically plain water is consumed with their meals.

Soon after 8:00 A.M. the cargo started to arrive. Somlaws, three wheeled motorcycles, arrived stuffed with all kinds of cargo destined for Lao People's Democratic Republic. Over the two days of observing work at the wharf, I saw just about everything - well I didn't see a kitchen sink but I did see two pick up truck canopies being exported to the LPDR. Over the two days I saw LG 29 inch televisions, small refrigerators, stuffed toys, hoses, plastic baskets, baby formula, motorcycle tires, truck tires, snack food, Coca Cola, Fanta Orange soft drink, Thailand's version of Red Bull, welding machines, bicycles, candy, motorcycle parts, car parts, washing machines, feminine hygiene products, plant seeds, and canned goods off loaded by hand from pick up trucks, somlaws and 10 wheel trucks. Trucks larger than 10 wheelers are too large to access the Customs House using the narrow city streets. I found it very ironic that some goods were originally manufactured in China were being exported from Thailand into a Communist state that actually shares a border with The People's Republic of China. I suspect that a contributing factor to this situation is the distribution networks available in all three countries. Here in Thailand there are not big distributors or wholesalers of goods. In general, goods are available to you, the consumer, through a series of small distributors and wholesalers with each adding a mark up. My Mother-in-law has a small market in Tahsang Village. One of her biggest selling items is Kao Lao (whiskey). She purchases about one case a week from small ethnic Chinese markets in Kumphawapi or Udonthani. I looked into the possibility of dealing with me for a greater volume perhaps 10 case purchase to get a volume discount. There was no volume discount. I looked into dealing with a larger distributor for either a volume discount or lower unit price and found that the alternative was not available. It is the system of distribution that makes Japanese cameras more expensive in Japan than in the United States. I suspect that a similar situation exists in Laos. It is most likely easier to import Chinese goods through Thailand than to deal with China directly for the small Lao businessman.

As soon as a vehicle pulls up to the curb to be off loaded, the stevedores quickly line up and off load the cargo. The cargo is staged on the sidewalk and entry way to the Customs House. The stevedores are heavily laden with the various pieces of cargo. I saw one man carrying 5 cases of powdered baby formula. Typically one case is placed on edge upon the stevedore's shoulder with 2 more cases added flatly upon this on edge case and the stevedore's head. When a stevedore gets tired and work slows down he can go across the street and lay down on a saht placed upon the sidewalk under the shade of a large tree. Some stevedores choose to play a game or two of checkers. The workers are paid by the "Boss" (Lead Stevedore"). The Boss collects 50 baht to offload a somlaw of cargo and 50 to 100 baht to offload a pick up. The big money is earned for loading the boat. The Boss is paid 10,000 baht for a full boat of cargo. He then divides the money up amongst his crew. Each member of the crew then pays him a fee for allowing them to work. If you is satisfied with their "contribution" he invites them to work the next day. If he is not satisfied, they can not work the next day. Typically the average stevedore will take home 200 baht for the day.

An agent for the exporter verifies the weigh bills and marks up the packages with a blue magic marker - a series of Thai symbols and numbers. Once in a while a Customs Agent will walk out and look over the goods. Once all the goods in a shipment are off loaded, consolidated, verified, the stevedores haul the cargo through the doors into the Customs House, through the building, and place it on a concrete pad high above the Mekong River (about 45 feet).

A crew of stevedores on the vessel moored to the wharf awaits the cargo. A stevedore up on the Custom House concrete pad slides the cargo down a long wood chute down to the vessel. Larger cargo items and hopefully delicate items are hand carried down concrete steps and place aboard the boat. A stevedore on board the floating wharf deftly uses his foot, soccer style, to direct and stop the sliding cargo arriving fro high above. To maintain his balance and perhaps to avoid an accident he uses a rope tied off to a railing to steady himself. I am reasonably certain this is a matter of personal choice rather than compliance with any regulation.

There are two wood slides down to the wharf but on Tuesday one of the slides was being reconstructed. Three men were busy replacing some of the boards on the chute.


After watching the two truck canopies being loaded on to the boat, we left to continue our trip to Tahsang Village.

We Did It - We Beat the Fee!

I started a new blog the other day but I had to stop. Duang was telling me about ghost monkeys returning to Tahsang Village and how, according to her daughter, I needed to wear my Buddhist amulets when I next visit the village. Apparently from what I gathered, the monkey ghosts are kind of like vampires but are afraid of Buddha but not of Christians. This has the makings, I believe, of a very good story but pulling it all together is complicated and too much is getting lost in the translation. I have sought the assistance of our good friend Prawnee in Bangkok to help me understand the story so I am optimistic about sorting it all out - eventually.

In the meantime, we managed to use up today, Monday 12 July, quite easily. Once again it was time to deal with the American Embassy. Late last week I found out that fees for certain transactions were increasing effective 13 July (Tuesday). For me the most significant impact was a new fee for adding blank pages to a US Passport.

Three years ago, I remind you it was post 9-11, adding blank pages to my passport was no big deal. Periodically the US Embassy in Bangkok conducts "Outreach" to Americans living in Thailand. They travel to some of the larger cities in the country to perform "American Citizen Services" for Americans in the area. This gives the local Americans an opportunity to avoid a long trip to Bangkok as well as most likely an overnight stay in Bangkok. Three years ago the Embassy had an outreach at a hotel in the city where I was living. I needed additional pages in my passport so I went to the hotel, filled out a form, waited for my name to be called, sat down submitted my form, and watched a US representative place a pre-printed and pre-adhesive package of 24 pages into my passport. I believe the entire process required 15 minutes total. There was no charge for the SERVICE.

That was three years ago, recently the "Outreach" program can no longer add pages to US Passports. However US Embassy representatives will accept US Passports for return to Bangkok for processing. Once the passports are delivered to the Embassy the augmented passports will be available for pick up at the American Citizen's Services Office in Bangkok the next business day. The US citizen can pick up the passport personally or have someone else pick it up with a letter of authorization from the citizen to the Embassy. Supposedly this is due to increased security measures. This sort of reminds me of small children's behavior as well as unfortunately too many adults who believe that all bad behaviors are forgiven and consequences of bad behavior are to be avoided simply by parroting the phrase "I'm sorry". In this case and many other issues in the USA in the past 10 years all abuses of power and infringements of personal liberty are justified and made acceptable by referring to them as "Increased Security Measures". However up until tomorrow this reduced level of SERVICE has no charge.

As of tomorrow, additional pages will incur a fee of $82 USD. The following is a copy of an official US Consular website:

Q: Why is the Government charging me such a high fee to add
passport pages, something previously provided for free?

A: The cost of service study found that adding visa pages to
an existing passport book requires nearly the same resources
as producing a new passport book. The study found that the
cost of producing the pages, placing them in the book in a
secure manner by trained personnel, and completing the
required security checks costs the U.S. Government $82.48.
The Department will charge $82 for this service. Please note
that frequent travelers can request a 52-page passport book at
no additional cost when they renew, potentially saving them
from the additional cost of visa pages.

I and many other US expats have a great deal of difficulty accepting this official statement as truthful. First of all, recent US Passports are able to be read by machines. The passport has an embedded chip which contains the vital information. I am certain that verifying the validity of a passport takes no more than 30 seconds. Secondly the additional pages are prepackaged prepared packets ready for insertion. Thirdly there is not a great deal of training required to scan a passport on a machine and once given the "OK" to place a pre-glued 24 page packet into the passport. Thank God or Buddha that Obama did not use the same group that determined that the cost of adding pages to a passport is $82.48 to also determine the cost of implementing his Healthcare legislation or even he would not have been able to get it passed by any means. Comparing this determined cost of "$82.48" for adding pages to an existing passport as opposed to the determined cost of $103.49 for a first time passport application requires the suspension of reality to believe.

After doing some research a la Internet, I determined that the US Consular Services in Vientiane would be able to add pages to a passport and do it in about 30 minutes. I have to pay $35 to obtain a Visa on arrival for the Lao People's Democratic Republic however Duang can enter for no fee. I asked her last night if she would be willing to go to Lao today and handle the task of getting new pages for me. She agreed and I reconfirmed twice that she was willing to do it. I downloaded the required form, filled it out, and signed it. I wrote a letter identifying Duang and authorizing Duang to submit as well as to return my passport to me.

Last night I knew that she had a restless sleep and that she had gotten out of bed three times. Only after returning home this afternoon did she admit to being worried about going to Laos alone to deal with the American Embassy.

We got up at 5:30 A.M. this morning and left for Laos at 6:15 A.M. I drove up to the border, and filled out the paperwork for Duang to leave Thailand as well as to enter Laos. The documentation for both countries must be filled out in ENGLISH. Duang speaks Thai, English, and Lao but she can only read as well as write in Thai. At the border we were approached by a man, basically a tout. He offered to help her to cross the border, take her to the US Embassy, and return her to the Thai border for a fixed price. The price was what I know to be the typical charge to take a taxi one way from the Thai border to Vientiane. Most guide books caution tourists about using touts. Duang and I typically trust our instincts and on a case by case basis use touts. Our experience has been that approximately 95% of the touts are just regular people trying to make a living and are a great deal of help. This man was no different. He got Duang to the US Consular Office for the 8:00 A.M. opening for business. He even went inside the office with Duang to reassure her. Duang was one of the first people to enter and everything went fine until the officials discovered that the computer was "down". She called me on the man's phone (her Thai phone would not allow her to call from Laos to Thailand and my phone could not call her in Laos) to inform me that she had to return to the Consular office at 1:00 P.M. to get the passport. She was very fortunate the people who arrived later were instructed to return tomorrow to pick up their passports. The man stayed with her the entire time and returned her to the border at 1:45 P.M. - for the agreed upon price. I told Duang to buy the man lunch and to give him a tip for his help as well as kindness.

While Duang was off in Laos I stayed in Nong Khai. I wandered around the Mekong River and ended up spending a great deal of time watching goods being exported from Thailand to Lao by river boats. We will return tomorrow to take photographs and for Duang to translate for me.

We entered our home at 3:00 P.M. Duang was hot and exhausted from her full day. I was happy that we had avoided the $82 fee - $82 that will pay for one day for our hotel and food during our upcoming next trip here in Thailand.

Rice Planting Continues

Yesterday was a very sunny, hot (35C, 95F), and humid day. No matter the conditions, the month long rice planting, or more appropriately "rice transplanting" season continued.

Duang had gone out to the village the previous day while I remained at home refinishing rattan outdoor furniture and she had witnessed a great deal of activities out in the fields along the country roads out to Tahsang Village. I decided that we would go back out to Tahsang Village to visit family and for me to photograph the field activities.

Where just a month ago the landscape was dotted with rectangular patches of dried weeds and rice stubble, the scenery around Isaan is being transformed into patches of neat and orderly paddies of 12 to 18 inch long rice seedlings set out in a grid. The land is now magically green once again thanks to the frequent rains.

Rice cultivation here in Isaan is all about the water - the availability of water. Rice cultivation here is wet farming technique. The rice grows in flooded paddies. The water that is used to grow the rice comes from frequent local thunderstorms, local impounded water, and to a much lesser extent local streams. The key is the rain from local thunderstorms with the emphasis on L-O-C-A-L.

The local fields around Tahsang Village were either filled with thick carpets of rice sprouts, filled with transplanted rice seedlings in organized grids or were in the process of being transformed from flat flooded mud bogs into the neat grids of transplanted seedlings.

Further down the road from Tahsang Village, the fields around Nong Daeng Village, no more than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) distant were a stark contrast. Those fields showed a distinct lack of rain and closely resembled the Tahsang fields of last month. In Pattaya, I had witnessed rain falling heavily on one side of the road and completely dry on the other side of the road - 7 meters (21 feet) away. In a metropolitan tourist center such as Pattaya, this micro climate condition is interesting. But in rural and agrarian Isaan, such differences in micro climates is a serious concern and can adversely impact the local inhabitants.

One might expect that one day of rice planting is just like any other day of planting with each season being just like all the previous seasons. I resist that temptation to generalize and bring my camera gear along anticipating the unexpected. I am often rewarded with surprising opportunities to document as well as to share unique events and aspects of Isaan life. Just as the old adage states 'If you go looking for trouble you will find it", my philosophy is "If you are prepared and go looking for something interesting, you will find it."



When we arrived at the first planting site, the farmers had just started a break. They had retreated from the open exposed paddies to the relative shade of a single short tree amongst the paddies. The tree provided about 10 feet by 10 feet of shade where the workers could get a drink of water, smoke a cigarette, remove their head coverings, get their bare feet out of the mud, and most importantly socialize. True to form here in Isaan, people were engaged in loud and animated conversation which Duang all too willingly joined. After about 5 minutes a couple of women became very excited (more so than typical conversation) and started pointing out to one of the flooded paddies. In a flash, two other women rushed across the paddy to where a fish net had been placed. They took the net and walked towards a specific area as loudly directed by others from the shaded area. The carefully stalked their prey and deftly threw the net over it. They triumphantly removed a medium sized mud covered fish to the cheers of their colleagues and placed it into a large plastic bucket along with some muddy water from the paddy. They returned to the shade and continued with their break. I noticed that several people were always keeping an eye on the flooded prepared paddies. A couple minutes later, a shout went out to one of the men still out in the paddy. He grabbed the fish net and in a short time another mud covered fish was added to the plastic bucket. I did not go out to further inspect the catch - I don't relish trudging out in the flooded paddy carrying expensive camera gear and I try to minimize walking along the weed covered muddy slippery dikes bordering the paddies. There are two types of fish that the local farmers are able to harvest from the flooded paddies. The first type of fish hibernates in the ground as the paddies dry up at the end of the rainy season in October. The second type of fish actually migrates over the land from one body of water to the another body of water. The Thai Walking Catfish (Pla Duk Dam) uses its fins to travel over land. The species has invaded parts of the USA due to irresponsible importing and subsequent accidental as well as intentional releases into the environment.

With some one's dinner safely secured in the bucket, the farmers returned to their primary task at hand - transplanting the rice seedlings. The farmers were covered from head to ankle for protection from the strong sun. I was wearing light cotton slacks, a polyester tee shirt, and running shoes. I lasted only 35 minutes in the heat before I was forced to stop photographing. The farmers would work on for an additional 6 hours - six more hours bent over shoving seedlings into the mud, body wet from stagnant water and perspiration wearing regular clothing, tee shirts wrapped around their face with large hats hiding their face, six more hours of doing what is necessary to survive.





We drove to Tahsang Village where I quickly sucked down two cans of Pepsi. Duang asked me if I wanted "Kaoput". "Kaoput" is corn on the cob and readily available much of the year in Isaan. It is boiled typically over either a wood or charcoal fire. The boiled corn is eaten "au natural" without salt or butter or even sugar and shredded coconut as I had experienced in Pattaya. I was very hot and definitely not in the mood to eat corn on the cob. I said "No" but Duang started to convince me that it would be good for me, and that it would cool me off. I noticed that she was at the ice cream freezer in her mother's market and had an ice cream ("i sah kheem") scoop in her hand. I was about to be introduced to another unique Thai experience - Corn Ice Cream. Duang gave me a cone of yellow corn flavored ice cream which had kernels of corn dispersed in it. Many desserts in Thailand are corn based concoctions. Somehow the possibility of corn flavored ice cream had eluded me up to this time. I had always had "mango" ice cream at the market and never realized that there was also a "corn" option. The ice cream was refreshing and the coolness was very welcomed. Although I would not go out of my way to find corn ice cream again, I would eat it again especially if no other flavor other than Durian was available.

We left Tahsang in the late afternoon. We drove the back roads rather than taking the main highway. The main highway has a great deal of on going construction as well as a great deal of heavy truck traffic. The back road took us by many more fields being worked as well as better glimpses into Isaan rural living. Our route selection gave us another opportunity to witness rice planting but under somewhat cooler conditions.

The Circle Remains Unbroken - Rice Planting Time

Here in Isaan, we do not have Daylight Savings Time. We are not bothered or burdened with having to adjust our clocks and electronic devices twice a year. Because of Thailand's proximity to the equator, there is no much difference in the amount of daylight over the course of a year. I haven't researched it but it appears to me that on June 21, our longest day, the sun sets around 18:30 (6:30 P.M.) and on 21 December, our shortest day, the sun sets at 17:30 (5:30 P.M.).

Here in Isaan, we have just two seasons - "Hot and Dry" and "Hot and Wet".

Here in Isaan the passage of time, besides being marked by personal milestones such as birth ordination, marriage, and death along with religious celebrations, is marked by the rhythm of the land. There is the time for planting rice, harvesting rice, planting sugar cane, harvesting sugar cane, planting cassava, harvesting cassava, as well as planting peanuts, harvesting peanuts, planting corn and harvesting corn. Working and caring for the land is a year long task that like a wheel carries the people through their life.

Today on our trip out to Tahsang Village to visit family, evidence that the wheel of life and the circle that it tracks was very evident. For the third time since I moved to Isaan, the fields were alive with the sights and sounds of rice being planted. We are two months into our "Hot and Wet" season, and the fields that were parched all that long ago are now flooded. The same fields that were dull brown are now verdant rectangles creating a motley mosaic across Isaan.

Last month some of the rice paddies had been sowed with some of the rice obtained in previous harvests. The rice sprouted to create thick brilliant carpets dotting the landscape. Now it was time for the next stage of rice cultivation. The thick carpet of bright green "grass" is harvested, more accurately - pulled up by roots, placed into sheaves, the tops trimmed, and the seedlings are then transplanted in groups of three or four plants into prepared paddies.

The roots of the seedlings are key to the success of the transplant so care is taken to remove any excess mud from them. The sheaves are then placed back into the water so as to maintain their viability. The seedlings are transplanted within 24 hours so as to prevent them from drying out.

The actual process of planting rice at this time of year is actually a series of ongoing parallel tasks - all in close proximity to each other. The seedlings are pulled from the muddy paddy and gathered into a bunch. The bunch of seedlings or sprouts are slapped against the harvester's bare foot to remove excess mud. The bunch of seedlings is then tapped against the bottom of an overturned plastic tub to square off the roots. Once the bottom of the bunch is squared off the bunch is converted into a sheaf by binding the sprouts together using a couple of the plants as a string. After the pointed tops of the seedlings are cut off with a heavy machete type knife, the sheaves are stored roots down in the flooded paddy. One of the farmers periodically gathers the sheaves, and carries them, often using a long bamboo rod across his shoulder., to a near by paddy that has been prepared for transplantation of the seedlings.

The sheaves are then distributed throughout the flooded paddy roots down awaiting planting into the soupy mud of the paddy. Several workers, male and female, grab the sheaves and break them apart. The worker then selects the seedlings, three or four at a time, bends over and thrusts the seedling's roots into the viscous mud of the paddy. The farmers work in sort of rhythm under the overcast and heavy Isaan sky to place the rice plants in a grid across the paddy. Their efforts are only interrupted at times by their amusement towards a falang (foreigner) spending so much time photographing them.

The workers are a combination of the land owner's or lessee's family and day labor. The hired help make about $3 to $4.50 a day for an 8 hour day. Part of their compensation includes being fed by the land owner or lessee. Payment is made on a strictly cash basis. There is no immigration status checking required. There is no employer portion of Social Security - Old Age Taxes to be paid. There is no employee portion of Social Security - Old Age Taxes to be withheld by the employer. There is no employer portion of Social Security - Medicare Taxes to be paid. There is no employee portion of Social security - Medicare Taxes to be withheld. There are no Federal Income taxes to be withheld. There are no State or Local Income taxes to be withheld. There are no Unions. There are no written contracts. There is only the trust and bond of the employer's and employee's words. It is the free market distilled to its basic components - demand and supply.


In a paddy next to the paddy where the seedlings are being transplanted, a farmer uses a machine to prepare a flooded paddy. The mechanical buffalo ploughs the soil and smooths the ground to create the viscous mud required for transplanting the rice seedlings. In a third paddy a portable pump is set up to be driven by the power drive off of the mechanical buffalo to transfer water in order to flood the paddy.

After photographing two different groups of farmers planting rice, I returned to Tahsang Village to visit our grandson, Peelawat, and to have my lunch.

A Gathering of the Clans - Isaan Style

Today was another busy day here in Isaan. I spent the day making backup DVDs for many of my recent photographs - original files as well as edited files. All in all I made 9 DVDs of data files of course that does not include the 4 DVD disks that were found to be defective after I had spent 30 minutes each burning the files to each one of them. I had plenty of time for this task because I was alone for the day.

My wife, Duang, and my stepson had gone off to what I will refer to as a "gathering of the clans" Pugh and Puii, his girl friend have been going out with each other for the past 18 months. Now that she has graduated from university and he has a job, they have decided to get married. This was not a spur of the moment decision on their part and we have been expecting it for some time now.

However getting married here in Isaan is no simple matter. Although my stepson is 29 years old and Puii is 21 years old, getting married is not the simple matter of them coming to agreement amongst the two of them. As with everything else here in Isaan, the Lao Loum culture requires family involvement in such great matters and decisions.

A very big part of getting married is the negotiation and settling upon the "Sin Sod" and "Tong Mun". I had written about these in a previous blog regarding the marriage of one of Duang's female relatives ( http://hale-worldphotography.blogspot.com/2010/04/tahsang-village-wedding.html )

Puii's mother had some preliminary talk regarding a possible marriage. Duang was saying that Puii's mother, at that time, was talking about a Sin Sod of 800,000 baht ($24,242) and a Tong Mun of 5 baht of gold ($2,900). This is extraordinary, if not unrealistic, for a young man who makes 6,000 baht ($182) a month as a mechanic at a local Mitsubishi dealership.

It was agreed that today, Sunday 27 June, would be the day that the actual amount of the Sin Sod and Tong Mun would be negotiated. I had originally indicated that I thought that it would be best if I did not attend the negotiation. It is always best for a falang (foreigner) to not be involved in any dealings related to money here in Isaan. Foreigners are viewed as being "rich" and able to afford to pay more than Thai people. With a Thai man making $182 a month working 6 days a week at a car dealership and farm labor making almost $5 a day, I am not going to rage against that commonly held perception. However I had told Duang that I did not and will not pay for my sons to get married so I would not be "paying" for my stepson to get married. Despite my reservations, she said that she wanted me to go with her as well as the rest of the "family" to negotiate.

Three days ago, Puii called and said that she thought that it would be better if I did not go. She felt that my presence would complicate the negotiations. It was not a problem for me and Duang did not really need me for morale support. Twenty-one family members were going with her to Puii's home.

Yesterday Duang reviewed with me her position on the upcoming negotiations. She identified her bottom line numbers and said that if Puii's mother wanted more than that, she was going to tell her son to go home. It would then be up to her son and Puii to decide to continue their relationship together outside of the best wishes as well as spiritual support of the families. I asked her if her son would actually leave and return home if she told him to. She said that he would. Somehow I can not imagine an American 29 year old son doing the same. As a negotiation point I suggested that Duang tell Puii's mother that we were going to do this wedding "American" style - where the man pays nothing and the women pays for everything. I also pointed out that if negotiations got stuck, Duang could tell Puii's mother that if she thought that she could find a man with a job, who treated Puii as well, loved Puii as much, and who Puii loved as much and could pay more money, she needed to start looking along the roads now for him. Duang and I had a good laugh but maybe there are other reasons that it is best that I did not go to the negotiations.

Duang and her son left this morning at 8:00 A.M. to go to Tahsang Village to pick up some of the clan going to the negotiations. Two pick up trucks left Tahsang at 9:00 A.M., the most advantageous as well as strategic time according to one of the old aunts who knows about numbers with the 22 family members ranging from Duang's mother to Peelawat (16 months old) and Kwan - 2.5 years old. Duang stopped at the market in Kumphawapi in order to provide the food for the negotiations. Puii's mother was supplying the beer, whiskey, and soft drinks. Based upon my experience here in Isaan, I would say that Duang won that round.

Duang and her clan arrived to find Puii's clan represented by her grandfather and 17 other family members including 4 babies. Puii's family asked where I was and Duang told them that I had stayed at home. She told them that if a falang had gone then the price would increase too much. She added that if there was a wedding I would be at the wedding and they could meet me then. They all had a good laugh - whether it was a jovial laugh or self-conscious laugh I don't know.

After an hour of socializing, the negotiations commenced. Puii's grandfather spoke for the family and wanted a Sin Sod of 550,000 baht and a Tong Mun of 5 baht of gold. Duang countered with an offer of 209,999 baht Sin Sod and 2 baht Tong Mun. The grandfather discussed this counter offer with Puii's mother and Puii. He then asked if she loved Pugh and if Pugh loved her. With two affirmations, the grandfather agreed. Everyone clapped and were happy with the conclusion. After the 30 minutes of negotiations, a down payment of 40,999 baht was presented to Puii's mother with a promise to pay the remainder next year around March. Puii's mother gave a gift of a "gong kao" - a woven bamboo basket for storing cooked sticky rice to each adult member of Duang's clan further binding the families.

With the tension of the negotiations and resolution of everyone' s angst, the food and drink was brought out so that everyone could enjoy themselves. Duang told the people about how in America men do not pay to get married but that women paid to get married. Two old Lao Loum men said that they were going to go to America and get some money for marrying American women. Everyone had a good laugh at their joke.

Duang returned home at 4:00 P.M. tired but satisfied with her efforts for the day.

The clans had gathered and financial considerations had been addressed. There will be a wedding in the new year - another occasion to celebrate here in Isaan.