Banteay Srei

Devata

There are many special places in this world, some are much more well known than others.

Angkor Wat is a very well known wonder that is known as well as popular throughout the world.  Angkor Wat is much more than the just the temple whose name now is identified with the entire region. Besides the temple of Angkor Wat, the Siem Reap region also has the archaeological sites and ruins of the walled city of Angkor Thom with its temples of Bayon, Baupuon, Preah Palilay, Preah Pithu Group, Tep Prahnam, and unique features such as the Terrace of the Leper King, Terrace of the Elephants, Khleangs & Prasat Suor Prat. Nearby there are the temples of Ta Prohm, Baksei Chamkrong, Phnom Bakheng, Prasat Kravan, Banteay Kdei, Ta Keo, Ta Nei, Chau Say Tevoda, Thommanon, Preah Khan, Preah Neak Pean, Ta Som, Pre Rup, and Banteay Samre to name some but not all.  In my opinion, a minimum of three days is necessary to tour the sights with five days recommended to also visit the outlying sites.  In is easy to be overcome with "ruins overload".  Just as with the Grand Canyon National Park or other wonders of this world, several visits are needed to fully appreciate and to better start to understand the wonders before you.

My wife and I returned for a third visit last December.  The site is not as crowded as Angkor Wat and the surrounding area is not as "crazy" as the "Angkor" complex.  We have noticed changes from our first visit 10 years ago and even from our last visit 2 years ago.

Access is more restricted now with areas roped and barricaded off to tourists. The reception area is now more developed with a large paved parking lot for the ubiquitous tour buses, a commercial area, restaurants and covered as well as paved walkways to the vicinity of the site.  On our last trip the walkways of the reception area were the sight of a large photography exhibit of photos from the Huangshan Region of China. Some of the photos were incredibly beautiful.  There is some kind of sponsorship or association between Banteay Srei and the Huangshan Region. Banteay Srei as well as the other sights n the region are changing - evolving quickly  to the pressures of tie and the assistance of other nations to become the multicultural globalization vision of a proper and fitting heritage sight.

However the temple is still well worth a visit.  The sandstone carvings are magnificent and in general, well preserved.  Take advantage of the opportunities on your drive along Highway 67 to stop and experience some the sights, tastes, sounds and smells of contemporary Cambodia away from the madness of Siem Reap city.

Banteay Srei is a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva constructed in 967 CE.  Banteay Srei, "Citadel of the Women" is constructed out of pink colored sandstone and has some of the finest carvings in the world.

Many of the carvings are from the Hindu epic "Ramayana"

"Ravana ShakingMount Kailasa" - East Pediment of the South Library

"Narasimba Clawing Hiranyakasipu" - North "long gallery"

"Fire In the Khandava Forest" - East pediment of North Library

"Krishna Killing Kamsa" - West pediment of North Library

The opportunity to experience the beauty and exquisite details of the carvings at Banteay Srei along with the experience of viewing some of the Cambodian countryside is well with the 45 minute drive out to the site from Angkor Wat.

Highway 6 Revisited

Monk Walking Along Highway 6 In the Morning

Fifty years ago, I graduated from high school back in Groton, Connecticut.  My last year of high school I spent much of my time sick.  Back in the Fall of 1966 and the Winter of 1967, I was sick with a diagnosed combination of Whooping Cough and severe Bronchitis. From Thanksgiving until Valentine's Day, my physical activity was limited to going to school only.

I spent much of my free time at home listening to Bob Dylan albums on the family stereo in the living room.  Bob Dylan had recently undergone a transformation from folk singer to rock star and I was entering into my transformation period ... a period that all teenagers experience.  As great as my transformation ended up becoming, it did not compare to the world shattering Bob Dylan transformation.

In his sixth studio album, "Highway 61 Revisited" released on 30 August 1965, Bob Dylan's music had become electrified and electrifying.  His lyrics, always strong and poignant, were now showcased by, as well as competed with, rock beats and more complicated rhythms. My favorite song of the album, although not the title song of the album, was "Like A Rolling Stone".  The title song of the album, "Highway 61 Revisited", made an impression on me back then.  Today the lyrics seem non-nonsensical and Bob Dylan's intentions as well as motivations for writing them is suspect to me.  However the title does form a nice foil and segue to this blog entry "Highway 6 Revisited"

In December we returned to Cambodia, Siem Reap specifically, for the third time in nine years.  Why a third time?  I was once asked why I had returned to Machu Pichuu for a second time.  Being polite, I did not reply that I had because I could. I gave the honest answer that I had returned because I had a new camera.  I had purchased A Nikon D2H digital camera and there were some photos that I had not taken on the previous trip that I want to take.

The same was true for our second trip to Angkor Wat  in November 2014 - we could and I had another new camera - a Nikon D700.  However I also wanted to experience and document life on Tonle Sap that we had only gotten a small introduction to back in August 2007.

Our trip in 2014 was great and we wanted to return the following year only later in the year to better experience the fish harvest on Tonle Sap.  However in 2015, a drought had severely impacted the flood levels of the great lake.

Last November, I contacted some people in Siem Reap and was informed that the water levels had returned to their height back in 2014.  I then determined when the full moons would e in December and in January 2017 since I wanted some photos of Tonle Sap as well as Angkor Wat with a rising Full Moon.  I ended up choosing December for our trip.

One of my objectives, in addition to Full Moon photographs, was to take photographs of the vendors that prepare and sell food along  National Highway 6.  I had wanted to take photographs of them during the last visit to Cambodia but one thing always seemed to lead to another with the end result is that I never took those photographs.  It takes discipline and resolve to take the necessary time to stop and take those photographs as the opportunity presents itself rather than believing or convincing yourself that a better opportunity or even more opportunities lay ahead.  The promise of the future is often broken or does not exist.

National Highway 6 is one of the main roads in Cambodia.  Used in conjunction with National Highway 5, it will either take you to the border with Thailand or to the capital city of Phnom Penh.  On our trips to Angkor Wat, Highway 6 was on our route to Koh Ker, Tonle Sap, and the market town of Damdek so we have become quite familiar with it.

About one-half the way from the city of Siem Reap and Tonle Sap there is a section of the road in Sot Nikum district of Siem Reap Province where many local people have set up stands where they prepare and sell a local specialty food - "sticky rice cooked in coconut milk with black beans inside bamboo over a wood fire".  Of course there is a much more simple name in Cambodia but I don't know it.  Actually we have the same tasty treat here in Isaan that is called "ban khao lam".

As you drive down Highway 2 here in Udon Thani Province towards the intersection that leads you to Kumphawapi, both sides of the highway are lined with little stands where "ban khao lam" is sold - some where it is actually cooked, too.  It is common here in Isaan to discover sections of highways where the local specialty products, such as salt, produce, sausages, carved walking canes, or ban khao lam are sold by the local people.

The specialty food, "sticky rice cooked in coconut milk with black beans inside bamboo over a wood fire", is also available in Malaysia - good food especially sweet treats knows no borders.

We set off on a rainy morning to visit Tonle Sap.  We left Siem Reap around 7:00 AM and we were quickly surrounded in the morning traffic of students on motorbikes and bicycles, as well as workers being transported on all manner of mechanisms on their daily commute to fields, factories, and work places.

Fortunately the rain was only very light showers so it did not impact our journey.

Breakfast is being cooked for a villager

We stopped at on of the first concentrations of vendors that we encountered southeast of Siem Reap.  Fresh batches of the specialty food were being cooked on primitive grills made from bricks placed on crude tables.

A roadside vendor preparing food

The rice-coconut milk-black bean mixture is packed into bamboo tubes.  The ends of the tube are plugged tightly with rice straw.  To create a more consumer friendly and efficient cooking container, the vendors whittle down the bamboo tubes to create a thin skinned container that can easily be peeled apart by the consumer to access the cooked delicious rice mixture inside.

The bamboo tubes are cooked in a horizontal position over wood coals supplemented with bamboo scraps.  At the other end of the grill, finished tubes are placed in two slanted vertical rows, tepee style, over the coals awaiting to be purchased by people.

Many of the vendors along Highway 6 utilize a marketing technique that I had previously seen in Vietnam on the way back to Halong City from Hanoi.  In Vietnam, the vendors were selling either fruit or coconuts along side of the road.  These were small family run stands.  To encourage people to stop and buy their products, the family had their young daughters run the stand.  The young women were beautiful and were fully made-up to further enhance and emphasize their natural beauty. Unfortunately in Vietnam, I was only a passenger in the van speeding along the highway.  However in Cambodia, it was only my wife with our hired drier and guide.  We stopped where ever I wanted and for as long as I wanted.  It is a very effective marketing technique and I suspect that it was one of the first techniques.

We had revisited National Highway 6 and it had satiated our appetite literally and figuratively.  We had been fortunate to be able to return and experience what we had only glimpsed on previous visits.  Our trip was great with many places revisited and more stories as well as photographs to share.

I have yet another new camera but although we intend to return to Cambodia once again this year, we will first be going to Bhutan ... off to Bhutan for the first time with a new camera to experience another corner of Allen's World.

Hopefully I will apply lessons that I have learned elsewhere to stop and take those photographs the first time.  I must remember to take advantage of the opportunities as they present themselves rather than expecting it to be better a little further up ahead. 

So it is in life - we need to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves rather than expecting or waiting for things to be better later, for often later never comes.  Unlike Highway 61 or National Highway 6, we are unable to revisit life.

New Gallery is available - "Thailand Tobacco"

A new gallery of 17 photographs, "Thailand Tobacco" is now available for viewing on my photography website.

Most of these photographs were taken around 2:00 AM along the bank of the Mekong River separating Thailand from Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR).

http://www.hale-worldphotography.com/Thailand-Tobacco

Korb Siarn Khru Ritual Gallery Is Available

Khone Mask

A new gallery has been added to my photography website:

http://www.hale-worldphotography.com/Korb-Siarn-Khru-Ritual

The gallery contains 26 black & white photographs of a special occult ritual conducted in some parts of Thailand associated with Thai Saiyasart.

An earlier entry of my blog provides some insight into this unique ritual and practise.

https://hale-worldphotography.blogspot.com/2016/05/korb-siarn-khru-2016.html

It is a glimpse into a world not viewed by most tourists to the "Land of Smiles"

Thanksgiving 2016 (2559 BE)

Today was Thursday November 24th here in Thailand; a day like every other day here.

Thailand does not celebrate or recognize Thanksgiving.

However, people do not need any government sanctioning of any specific day to reflect upon, give thanks, and to rejoice for all that is good in their life.

Yes, today was a day like any other day for me here in Isaan.  Every day I contemplate, appreciate, and take comfort for all that is good in my life.

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays.

Thanksgiving is a time for families to gather together to feast and celebrate the blessings of the past year.

Some years are not as bountiful as others.

Some years are more challenging than others

Some years are not as happy as others.

However Thanksgiving Day is a day to be thankful for what we have and not to focus on what we wish that we had, or to focus on what we do not have. If for no other reason, being alive is reason enough to give thanks on Thanksgiving. With life there is hope; hope for a better tomorrow or some other day after.

This Thanksgiving I am once again thankful for the things and experiences that I have or have had. As much as I am thankful for my current situation, I am also thankful for the many blessings that I have had and some that I no longer can enjoy.  If it were not for the trials, tribulations, and challenges that we have endured, I believe that we would not be who we are today.

As much as what we have today brings us joy and contentment, it was yesterday and our past that have brought us to today. It is our past that has prepared us for today and for all the days to come.

Today, as well as for all other days, I am thankful for the love, experiences, and guidance that I have received from family and friends. They affected my life in ways that are impossible to quantify or for me to fully express in words. Shared experiences with them taught me and assisted me in developing my personal values. The memories of shared holidays, vacations, celebrations, and ordinary days with them remain both a comfort as well as inspiration. The gifts of family, companionship and friendship are reason enough to give thanks today as well as every day.

There is abundant reason to be thankful for having been raised in a country and during a time where excellent quality free public education was available to everyone. Even today in many parts of the world, children do not have access to a free quality education.

I am thankful for having been raised in a country where I was free to fail and much more importantly free to succeed to the extent that I, myself, determined. My position and goals in life were not restricted by anyone or any institution. My parent's education, occupation, economic, or social status did not limit my prospects. Today, this is not true for many people even in some Western countries.

Another reason to be thankful is for our families and friends that are part of our daily life. 

More and better possessions will not necessarily make anyone happy, more happy or even provide contentment.

Happiness and contentment are a state of mind.

It is the longing and preoccupation with what they do not have that prevents so many people from being happy.

My wish for everyone this Thanksgiving is that you can realize, and appreciate the happiness a well as contentment that the opportunity of life provides.

A Wedding Pig

WARNING:  The following narrative and photographs contain elements that some people may find disturbing

Living in Northeast Thailand, I am often witness to many unique cultural events, celebrations, and activities that are far different than my experiences of growing up and being educated back in New England.  I always strive to share these different the unique culture here in Isaan accurately and hopefully non-judgmentally.

Earlier this month, my wife and I drove out to Ban Thasang, her home village, for the preparations for her nephew's wedding the following day. The preparations involed family and friends gathering at Duang's sister's farm to eat and drink after making contributions to help pay for the wedding. Nephew's wedding?  Pay for the wedding?  As Duang so often says and I am so fond of quoting ... "Thailand not same as Amireeka"

In Northeast Thailand, a region called "Isaan", there is a custom and accepted practice of "Sin Sod". Sin Sod is essentially a dowry provided by the Groom and/or his family to the Bride's family. The payment is a complex and multifaceted act by the Groom.

First of all it demonstrates his ability to support his wife to be - sort of ironic in that many Grooms have to borrow in order to accumulate the required funds for the Sin Sod.

Secondly, payment of the Sin Sod is a display of commitment and respect of the Groom for the Bride as well as for her family.

Lastly, the Sin Sod is a form of financial support for the Bride's family. A large Sin Sod is also a sign of prestige for the parties involved - sort of bragging rights for both families. In Thailand as well as other Asian cultures, "face" is very important. A large Sin Sod buys a great deal of "face"

When a man and woman decide to get married, the man will have a close relative or trusted friend approach the woman's parents to determine the amount of the "Sin Sod" as well as the "Tong Mun" to be paid in order to have the marriage take place.

Tong Mun" is "gold engagement". In Thailand, "baht" besides being the name of the national currency, is also a measure for buying and selling gold. A "baht" of gold here is 15.244 grams in weight. Since gold in Thailand is 96.5% pure, approximately 23.2 Karat, a baht contains 15.16 grams of pure gold (0.528 ounces).

The "Tong Mun" is given directly to the Bride and remains her personal property. Here in Isaan there is a thriving business in selling as well as buying gold. Many women will sell their gold back for a short period of time to bridge over difficult financial times. The gold shops act as pawn shops to help people out financially - of course for a fee - 1%.  Gold shops are located in the malls, in the western style grocery "superstores", and as small shops in the towns.

Kumphawapi is a small town with approximately 26,000 people with at least 5 gold shops that I am aware of. Gold is mainly sold in the form of rings, necklaces, and bracelets. Necklaces run basically in whole numbers of bahts - 1, 2, 3, baht necklaces. The buyer pays for the gold content with a small premium for craftsmanship related to the ornate work of the piece.

The Tong Mun provides security to the woman. Security, for the Bride and her family, is a very important aspect of Lao Loum marriages.

The size of the dowry (sin sod) as well as the "Tong Mun" is negotiated prior to the wedding and is dependent upon  many factors including the age of the bride, her education, any previous marriage(s), if she has any children and also the social status of the groom - if he or his family can afford more he is expected to pay more.

A young ethnic Lao man marrying a young ethnic Lao woman will typically have a sin sod of 150,000 baht ($5,000 USD) and a Tong Mun of 5 baht ( roughly $3,125 USD).  This is a significant financial commitment for the groom in a land where farm labor makes roughly $10 a day and a mechanic at an auto dealership makes $670 USD a month.

The start of the day at Duang's sister's farm was straight forward.  I sat at a table under a rented canopy.  I was immediately offered food and drink.  Shortly, Duang's son and his family arrived.  Our two year old grandson, Pope, immediately saw me and ran to join me at the table.

We spent our time "talking" about cement trucks, cranes, and backhoes - his favorite subjects and toys.  Pope also entertained himself and me by picking up thin clods of dried compacted dirt.  He reveled in breaking them apart in his hands or pounding them into pieces against the plastic chairs.  When he was not able to break them apart, he handed them to me to finish the job.

As we were playing a small group of men, one of them carrying a hatchet, walked by with a small narrow cage made out of 1-1/2 inch tubing.

A short time later a heard screaming or more correctly - squealing coming from the nearby shore.  I knew what was going on.  I told Pope to stay, grabbed my camera gear and headed down to where the men were located - the men and a pig restrained inside of the killing cage.

Sticking the pig!

The pig was dying when I arrived. After about one or two minutes after I arrived, one of the men stuck a long knife two more times deeply into an existing wound to ensure that the pig had died

Washing off the pig

The pig was carried by four men, each grabbing on and holding a limb, to a spot under neath the shade and close to a wood fire heating a large pot of boiling water.  I walked over to where the pig was laying on its side upon a rough heavy table fashioned from recycled timber as is the custom here.

Shaving the pig

Pans of scalding hot water were poured over the carcass to facilitate the removal of hair.  After the scalding water was poured over a section, the men, often engulfed in the smoke from the nearby fire, used knives to scrape the hair and epidermis off of the carcass.  The combination of hair and skin easily came off the carcass.  Once the entire pig had been scraped and cleaned, it was washed completely and carefully.

The pig gets a complete and close shave

After the pig had been completely shaved and washed clean, four men rolled the pig on its back and each holding a leg, spread the legs away from the carcass. Two other men commenced making a long longitudinal cut along the center-line of the body. As the cut went through the abdominal wall, internal organs such as intestines and stomach came cascading out of the body cavity.

The air around the butchering table was filled with the acrid smoke of the wood fire along with the stench of pig feces - of which a little bit goes a long, very long ways.  The ground around the table was also challenging - dotted with patches of mud, pig feces, and small puddles of blood.  I definitely had to be careful where I stepped and even more so - where I knelt to get the perspectives that I wanted of the butchering process.

The men worked quickly, efficiently and relatively quietly.  It was obvious to me that this was not their first pig butchering.  I don't believe that it was the first pig butchering for Duang's young second cousins even at their tender ages of 6 and 7.  They watched and wandered around the area with about as much emotional attachment as watching people building a house. Children are exposed to death at an early age and accept it as a part of life.

The butchering of the pig did not proceed as I once had expected it to.  When I first came to Isaan, I thought that the carcass would be rigged from an overhanging tree limb, hoisted head down, and the first cut would carefully made from the anus to the chest to allow the abdominal bag, containing the internal organs, to spill out and be removed.  Thailand not like America - once again.

 

Awful offal? Not to the Lao Loum!

Here in Isaan the pig was placed on its legs in a prone position.  After the body cavity had all the organs removed, the carcass was rolled over to expose the back.  A strip of hide and underlying fat were cut from each side of the spine exposing the loins.  The loins were removed and taken toand placed in a large plastic tub along with all the other parts to be further processed up in the farmhouse kitchen.

 

 

   

Work continued step by step to remove the outer cuts of meat from the pig. The intestines were processed a short distance away where two men were occupied cleaning them out for either cooking "as is" or for use as sausage casings.  Very little. if any at all, of the pig was wasted.  I am often impressed at the ability of the local peoples to make do with their limited resources, be it weaving their own fishing nets, fish traps, cultivating rice, weaving their cloth, and so many other activities that demonstrate their independence as well as self reliance.  Raising pigs for sale and consumption is another one of those activities.

Like so many of other people from my old world, I was not knowledgeable, experienced or even cognizant of the activities that created so much of what I took for granted in my life.  Here in Isaan, in Allen's World, so much more is up close and personal sights, sounds, and especially smells.

It is here in Isaan, that I saw the answer to the question of "Where do pork chops come from?"

A plastic tub of pork

As two young men pulled the two wheel cart upon which a large plastic tub of  pig parts up the gentle slope to the farmhouse, I gathered up my camera along with my lighting gear to return to my old seat with Grandson Pope.  Upon my arrival, Pope greeted me and in our way of communicating letting me know that he wanted to see my photos.  I knew which photographs I did not want him to see.  When I showed him the photograph above with all the pig parts in the plastic tub, he looked at me and said "Moo? Moo?"  No; he wasn't referring to a cow but he was actually asking me in Lao -"Pig? Pig?"

Even at two years old, Pope, had a pretty good idea where the pork in his meals comes from.  I suspect he is also well on his way to understanding anatomy.

Fishing the big muddy - Ditch

Trench cut into Nong Hon Kumphawapi

In this region of Thailand there are several stories about two mythological characters: Nang Ai and Pha Daeng.  The plots vary but they all agree in that Nang Ai was a very beautiful woman and Pha Daeng was a handsome stranger from far away, the ruler of a land called Phaphong.

In one story of Nang Ai and Pha Daeng, Nang Ai's beauty and fame catches the attention of Phangki, son of the Naga King, Phaya Nak.  Phangki shape shifts himself into a very handsome man to court Nang Ai.  Phangki is not successful in his efforts to win over Nang Ai from Pha Daeng.  Frustrated he once again shape shifts but this time into a white squirrel to better track and keep an eye on Nang Ai with the intent of finding an opportunity to kidnap her.

When Nang Ai and Pha Daeng see the white squirrel, they order a royal hunter to trap it.  The squirrel, son of the King of the Nagas, ends up dying.  The meat is fed to the people of the town.  It miraculously keeps increasing until 8,000 cartloads of meat is fed to the people of the city and surrounding villages.  (Hmmm - reminds me of another story that I know but it is with fish instead of squirrel meat.).  Phaya Nak, King of the Nagas, vows to kill everyone who has eaten his son's flesh.

After eating, a very large thunderstorm suddenly hit the city.  Since that did not typically happen, Pha Daeng tried to escape quickly with Nang Ai on his horse, Bak Sam, from the rising flood.  All of Isaan is turned into a swamp. The escape was not successful.  Nang Ai is swept off the horse by the tail of a naga.  The spirit of the white squirrel had become King of the Nagas and had taken Nang Ai into his underwater kingdom.

Pha Daeng is devastated by the loss of his true love, Nang Ai, and soon dies.  His spirit recruits and organizes an army of spirits from the air to wage a long war against the Naga  Kingdom.  The war eventually ends in a stalemate, both sides too tired to continue.

It is said that the Nong Hon Kumphawapi Lake is a remnant from the flood and the trench that can be seen today in Tambon Pho Chai was created by Bak Sam's erection as he ran to escape the flood.

Ban Thasang (Thasang Village) is located on the edge of the floodplain of the Lam Pao River that crosses Nong Hon Kumphawapi (Kumphawapi Swamp) flows into Nong Hon Kumphawapi Lake.

Duang's sister's farm is bordered by a trench cut into Nong Hon Kumphawapi, however this trench was not gouged out of the floodplain by Bak Sam's erect penis.  The wide trench is actually man-made, ecavated a few years ago my backhoes and excavators.  The trench was made to store water later into the dry season and to concentrate fish for fishing at the end of the monsoon season.

Isaan Fisherman

Last Sunday, just after I stopped photographing the village furniture maker, a pickup truck carrying 6 men crossed my sister-in-law's property and parked alongside the trench bordering the farm. I followed their truck along the top of the dike along the trench to where they parked.

The men got out, undressed, and put on their fishing clothes - old clothing that could be immersed in muddy water for hours.  Once dressed for fishing, the men gathered up their fishing gear; a roll of netting about one meter tall and roughly 10 meters long, fine mesh throwing fish nets weighed along their perimeters, floating creels - hand woven reed or bamboo baskets with recycled soda bottles or scraps of Styrofoam attached to their sides to enable them to float, and a plastic wash tub.

Fish net hoists and platforms along the trench

The men did not speak English but understood that I was going to take photographs of them - much to their amusement.  I followed along, behind them along the top of the earthen berm past several bamboo fishing net hoists and platforms built along the berm. In several locations, weirs constructed of nylon netting and sticks driven by hand into the muddy bottom reached from the shoreline into the receding waters of the ditch.

We walked along the main trench until we came to first branch trench and walked a very short distance along it. At the "proper location", the men walked down the berm and entered the shallow opaque still muddy water of the trench.  The proper location had easy access to the water but more importantly it was near an existing fishing net installed across the ditch marking the end of someone else's fishing zone.

The fisherman worked together to place their unrolled fish net across the ditch.  When they needed longer or more sticks to fasten their net, they climbed the far side bank of the ditch and cut brush to meet their needs.

With a section of the ditch cordoned off between the existing net and their newly placed net, the men proceed to fish the area with five men throwing their hand nets at one end of the containment area working their way down to the other en where one man threw his hand net.  Their technique was to cover the ditch in a systematic process driving any escaping fish down towards the man at the other end in an ever decreasing area for the fish.

Casting net upon the waters

Prior to starting their fishing operations, the men offered me to join them.  I told them that I was afraid and pantomimed the motion of an inchworm (leech) crawling on me and attaching itself to my leg.  The men understood and as they were laughing, one of the men told me that leeches were "ping".  I then told the men that I was afraid that ping would eat me. They all had a hardy laugh and one of them told me not to be afraid that there were no leeches.  Yeah right ... and "the check is in the mail" and we have all heard that similar saying "I won't ___ in your mouth "  I asked the man "Really, no leeches?"  We all enjoyed another hardy laugh ... together as they all went into the water as I remained on the berm - high and dry.

The men threw their hand nets so as to cover the water from shore to shore in an overlapping pattern created by several throws.  There was no bait or any inducements to attract the fish.  It was all based upon luck and trying to ensure that any fish had no where to swim off to.  The net was thrown and allowed to sink to the bottom - about one meter below the surface.  Once the net had settled to the bottom, the fisherman retrieved it by pulling on a small diameter rope attached to it. 

When the net was retrieved, he inspected it to see what if anything he had caught.  These were not sports-fisherman.  They were not going after game fish or any record catches.  They were fishing for food for themselves and their families that evening.

In over 7 years here, the largest fish that I have seen caught either with these hand nets or the large rectangular nets suspended from bamboo hoists, was no more than 1/2 pound (225 grams).  The overwhelming majority of the fish caught would not even have been used for bait fishing back in the USA.  The fish are small, often tiny, minnows.  However, they are protein and no doubt a welcomed flavor to compliment a meal of rice.  The fish are also free.

When a fish was captured the fisherman would remove it from the net and place it in the creel floating next to him in order to keep it alive and fresh.  More often then not, there were no fish. More frequently than not, the net would dredge up snails, sometimes two or even three.  When that occured the fisherman would gather them up and place them in the plastic tub placed on the shore at water's edge.  The snails are about the size of a small tangerine and are a stable in the Isaan diet.  However they are also dangerous.

Liver cancer is the No. 7 cause of death in Thailand.  There are 23,000 new cases of liver cancer a year in Thailand. Udon Thani is the the epicenter of liver cancer in Thailand.

Liver cancer in this area is due to a parasitic infection, Opisthorchiasis - liver flukes.  Due to cultural dietary practice and preference people are part of the liver fluke's life cycle.  Here people are accustomed to and like to eat two dishes that involve raw fish - "koi pla" - finely chopped raw fish mixed with chilies, herbs, lime juice and live red ants: "pla ra" - the ubiquitous Lao condiment - fermented (six months or longer) raw fish sauce - Lao people's answer to our ketchup.

People can become infected with liver flukes by consuming the larvae attached to raw fish flesh.  Inside of the human liver the larvae mature, become flukes, and reproduce creating eggs.  People pass the eggs into the waterways through rural sanitation practices.  Back into the waterways, the eggs are eaten by the snails which are then eaten by fish where the larvae develop and the cycle begins once again.  Tradition has been to use  raw fish for koi pla and to use raw fish to make the fish sauce.  Cooking and pasteurizing destroys the larvae and prevents the development of cancer over the years of consuming koi pla and pla ra.  There are education programs in schools and hospitals to educate people to not eat raw fish but as they say ... old habits are hard to break.  Duang's father and her ex-husband both died of liver cancer - no doubt as a result of their eating raw fish.

After observing and photographing the fishermen for about an hour, I thanked the men and said goodbye to return to our home 65 Km to the north.  To be honest, I looked but did not see any leeches on them but I did not do a full body scan or close up inspection.  I still believe that there are leeches in those murky still waters. I will still not enter any water that looks like this. But I will gladly return to take more photos of others in those waters.