Morning Walks with Nong Ja, Isaan Thailand.

If you read this blog, I am sorry. Just joking as it is your own fault for punishing yourself. If you are a reader you know who this is, my niece Nong Ja.

We have been blessed to be part of raising her, we had her for nearly three months straight, in that time she maybe spent a week where she didn’t sleep at our place.

We love her to death, but now that Miss Noot and I are back to the reality of the real world, sadly we don’t have time to look after her. So from Sunday to Friday she now stays with Noot’s mum in the village just over 20klms away, and we miss her so much.

Every Friday we have and will continue to go out and pick her up for Friday and Saturday nights, returning her to the village Sunday afternoon.

Nong Ja and I have quite a routine now. Most mornings she awakes between 6-7am, after she wakes she will make silly noises and just talk gibberish to herself. If she sees you open your eyes, that is the end of it.

She will then turn her attention on you, poke your eyes, try to open them and just bug you. Then when she bores of this, she simply crawls out of bed and heads for the door, then I have to rise or all hell will break loose.

As soon as the door opens Nong Ja heads straight to the fish tanks, we feed the fish together, then we head in Cola the rabbit's room. We let him out, get fresh water and carrot for him. Then we will brush him. This is at times a little harrowing for him as Ja can be a little rough and ruthless with the brush.

I then turn on the TV and we watch a little of one of the local music channels. I might get another 20 or so minutes before Ja heads to the front doors and demands they be opened.




So this is when our day really starts, Ja is dressed for the cool morning weather and we head outside and are usually met by Lily, she is the neigbours puppy and is always up for some play time in the morning.

When Nong Ja tires of playing with Lily, we are off again for our morning walk down our small street. Some morning when we are up early, we happen upon the monks collecting alms, this is always funny for me as Ja stares at them and gives them a Thai greeting that is a classic, it is a mix between a ‘Wai’, a kiss, and a face slap.


We have made this trip so many times, but every time these drain covers or grates draw Ja’s attention. She goes up to ever single one and peers down into it, says something incomprehensible and charges off with a massive grin.



I have written about these chickens, their ramshackle coop has been pulled down a few times by authorities but the guy slowly builds it again. Every day he loads all the chickens and fighting cocks from his house carport into the coop, most roam free. I am so grateful I am not anywhere near. The guy is really nice and now brings out scraps so Ja can feed the chickens.

Looking back to our house, about 300 metres.

This is looking toward Big C a few hundred metres away.

This is where we usually stop and look at the cows and buffaloes. They weren’t there this morning.

The cows and buffaloes were still in there other paddock. The owner was late getting them out this morning.

Ja likes inspecting water metres, she hops on some like they are a bike.

We make it back to our gate, and Lily is waiting to play some more but our adventure isn’t near finished. We still have to trek across to the market another 400 metre or so walk.

I will blog about this tomorrow, if time permits.

Brunty