New Years Eve Festival, Isaan Thailand.

To my readers, or people who accidently stopped by. Happy New Year, as of a few minutes ago. Thanks for reading and commenting throughout the year. I hope you all have a successful 2009.

Here in sleepy Isaan, Ubon Ratchathani has its New Year Festival taking place. Each year at the same time over 10 days the main road is blocked off and everyone in Ubon heads to shop, play games and eat food.

I went with Noot and her friend Dum. Noot wanted to shop first.

These are men’s board shorts. They were a Billabong rip off, called Billboard. The quality was poor, but look at the price, only 79 Baht.

29 Baht belts, that is a bargain.

Shoes as far as you could see.

And there were denim shorts.

And more dress shorts, Noot bought two pairs.

Always very popular, guns. These are cheap and don’t last too long before breaking, thankfully.

These are really cool retro shirts. I used to send a lot of these back to Australia and make a nice little profit. Now it is too little profit to do.

This 20 Baht shop is busy. There are plenty of products but again the price says it all for the quality.

This is where a huge amount of money is spent. This is where you can win motorbikes, TV’s, fridges and so on. It is a lucky dip. On the last day two cars are picked out from a raffle. 20 Baht a ticket.

We bought 200 Baht worth of tickets. Each one is worth 10 Baht. When they are unrolled your prize is revealed. Here Noot is waiting to see what we had won. We won scourer pads, noodles and toothbrushes.

This is the main stage. Here entertainment is put on for the public. Ben, Noot’s younger sister was singing here but we missed her as we arrived too late. She sings again tomorrow night in the next stage of the competition.

This is looking at sideshow alley. There are the usual rides you see at any carnival. I steered well clear of it.

And what every girl wants, perfume. All the big names like Calvin Klein and Chanel. Only 100 baht. What a steal.

So that is just a small part of the festival taking place here in Ubon for the next week. Nearly all the pictures were taken without a flash as I didn’t want to scare too many people. Some also have some camera shake, hard to see in the smaller sizes. So I apologise in advance.

Brunty.

Singing, Isuzu pick ups and a frog. Isaan Thailand.

I ventured to Isuzu on Sunday. Isuzu often have promotion days, more than any other dealership here in Ubon. It is a very big dealership and the land would be worth a fortune.

Isuzu pick up trucks are popular but nothing like Toyota. I would think they are second in the market here in Isaan but I see probably 1 Isuzu truck to 8 or more Toyota trucks. This is the service department.

There was food on offer, of course. Thais love to eat so there was plenty of good Thai food to choose from.

You could sign up for a truck if you liked what you had seen on the display floor.

The reason I had ventured to Isuzu was this, Ben. Noot’s younger sister was singing a heap of songs to keep punters entertained.

Ben loves to sing and dance. How a girl can be so scared to go into a shop and ask for something but stand on a stage and just belt out songs to strangers is a little bewildering. Ben makes good money from this. She does this with a group from her old school. She got 300 Baht for singing half a dozen songs.

They are busy at Christmas, New Year. The school gets booked for a lot of shows. Private companies book them for parties throughout the year. Some times when the business men are a little tipsy Ben gets really good tips. Last year at a Bank party a very happy dancing man gave Ben 1,000 Baht.

When I got home I had a few chores to do. One was bringing in the washing. In the peg basket I found this guy.

I stuck him in a tree not too far away. He seemed pretty happy. Back home in Australia we get a lot of frogs. Green tree frogs are regular visitors in Cairns where I lived and you would often come across them, often by accident. They let out a really good croak when you scare them.

When Noot got home she was horrified I had shifted it. She said it was dangerous. She told me that if the frog urinates, yes, urinates in your eye you could go blind. Our neigbour also backed this up.

I showed a few teachers at school the picture and this was then rejected. If you look at the frog closely in the biggest picture size you can see yellow looking pimples on its jaws. Maybe there is a frog expert who could shed a little more light on this frog.

In the tree, it is full of tamarind. This fruit is very popular here in Thailand. Thais love it like this, green and bitter or when it has been fermented. I like it when it is ripe and sweet.

I just hope that I can keep some of the tamarind long enough to ripen. I know the ones right up the top of the tree will be fine as the girls won’t climb that high. There are too many green ants to bite them. I am getting a little old to be climbing trees but I will sacrifice my safety in a few weeks when the fruit has ripened.

Watching me closely is Mew, the lane dog that is really our dog. She is looked after by us and neighbours. She is a lovely old girl and very protective of her turf.

Brunty

Christmas Day in Isaan Thailand

On Christmas Day we were invited to two parties. The first party was at a teacher’s house out in the countryside. It was really nice to get out of the city and to their property. Now, stupidly I left my camera on the couch at home. I don’t have any pictures from the day at the countryside.

I returned to the city mid afternoon, we were going to our Aussie mate’s place for a 5pm Christmas dinner. The table was set and they were just waiting for us to turn up.

This chef looked a little unhappy.

And another chef was out in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on the dinner.

This is now happy chef, she found some lollipops.

We even had Yorkshire Puddings.

Out in the kitchen it was bedlam, there were too many chefs. I kept well out of the way.

The roast pork was ready to be sliced.

The roast vegetables were looking good.

Finally everybody sat down to eat.

What happened next was freaky. Santa dropped in to wish us a Merry Christmas.

We quickly got Santa a seat and a cold drink as he had been very busy.

Santa had stopped by for a very special and good little girl, Chelsea. Here Chelsea, her dad and Santa pose for a picture together. Only really lucky boys and girls have Santa stop to say hello and give them a present.

The girls just had to have a picture with Santa as well.

We then had secret Santa. We had a lucky dip for presents. Here is Ben and here present.

This was so funny because, Noot picked the present her friend had bought. It had been predicted beforehand.

And to top the night off, we had homemade cake with homemade custard.

It was a long day, but heaps of fun. Thanks to both parties for inviting us to your get together. I am looking forward to next year now. Maybe it will be our turn to host a party next year. I might have to start planning now.

Brunty

Road trip for a visa, Isaan Thailand.

I had to renew my visa, so this meant a trip to Phibun. Phibun is about 50 kilometres away from Ubon. I went in the school van with a driver, so this meant I could take pictures and relax.

I enjoy taking pictures from a car, especially with an SLR. Not having the slow delay from when you push the shutter till the picture is actually taken. I used to get so frustrated with my small point and shoot camera. You see something and push the button but miss the shot.

On most Thai roads you come across roadside stalls. On the way to Phibun there are many of these little huts that sell fruit and sweet desecrated coconut.

They are about every hundred metres or less in one area. How they make money I am not sure. Maybe they make just enough to get by but I couldn’t see them making enough to put some away in the bank.

There is a lot of construction going on all over Ubon area. There is plenty of land and building has again become cheaper since the price of oil dropped. Here another 2 storey house is under construction.

This is the Office of Agriculture. If you look at most government building they will have huge signs and usually monuments that garnish the lawns or entrances to their buildings.

There was a road gang repairing the road as we came into the Phibun area. The road to Phibun is two lanes or dual carriageway. The road itself is mostly terrible. You cannot really drive in the left lane as it is like a rollercoaster ride. It is so uneven and many potholes.

Another thing you see is girls sitting sidesaddle on motorbikes. This isn’t comfortable and doesn’t feel safe if you do it.

Phibun is known for this. In the stainless steel steamers is what is known as salipow.

Salipow from Phibun is meant to be the best around. I have tried salipow from a few different places and to me I couldn’t tell the difference.

When you get nearer to the border towns you don’t find Tuk Tuks. Here you catch Sky Laps.

And many people travel like this, in back of truck or even on top. Safety isn’t a huge issue here in Thailand.

On the way back to Ubon the driver said “Fai mai” which means “fire”. Sure enough as we whizzed past there was a fire. A small thatched hut in front of a house was well ablaze.

I don’t think saving the hut was going to happen and they should have been throwing water onto the house. I asked the driver if we should stop but it was met with a “never mind”.

And we passed this small oasis on the way back into Ubon.

In Australia we have The Big Pineapple, Banana, Prawn and so forth. Thailand has The Big Catfish.

So that was my trip to renew my visa.

Brunty