Happy New Year from Isaan Style Thailand.

To all the regular readers and also the people who have accidentally dropped by to Isaanstyle over the past year, I wish you all a safe New Year’s Eve and that 2011 is whatever you want it to be.

To all the people who have left comments, thank you and that is even for the people who disagree with me as my life would be boring without you.

I hope you have enjoyed my everyday life in a country where anything can happen.

So from myself, Brunty, and Noot, Benjawan and of course Nong Ja thanks.

Thai Sport Parade Isaan Thailand 2010

Well I am going way back to the 3rd of December when we had our sport day, students were dressed up for the parade along Ubon Ratchathani’s main road, walking about 2klms back to the school.

The team deemed with the best parade win a trophy for their trouble and every year the outfits are beautiful to bizarre. This year I didn’t see any really wrong (an outfit not suitable for a student) outfits for the parade, but back at the school for the cheer shows a few turned up as per usual.

Anyway, below are some more pictures of students before the parade started.

This is a year 10 student that I used to teach, she now studies in the regular programme.

The actual starting point for the parade changed 3 times, and no-one knew in this area that we were converging there. Students were scattered all over the place and the road cut to barely a lane, and trucks were trying to make their way down the street to depots.









It was good to see some older style outfits, these have become popular as there are some Thai soaps or dramas set in a period gone. Thais are addicted to their nightly soaps if you haven’t already seen this, you go to a food shop and the person ignores you as they are glued to the TV watching a drunk man fighting with a girl, or two girls fighting over a guy, rich people standing over the poor or treating their maids poorly, so I suppose you could say real life stuff.

These three girls are from my year 10 class.

And also is this girl, she is very cheeky and always smiling in class.

Another student dressed in garbage bags with an interesting pose.



It was good to see a happy smiling face, it is hard to get students to smile for the camera.


And with Isaan music playing they marched off to the school, I have many more pictures that need to be edited (actually it is around 1,000) from the past month that I have not had a chance to do (been too lazy).

With a few days holiday I hope to get most of them done and will post a few of them here over the coming weeks, well that is the plan anyway.

Brunty

Boxing Day in Isaan Thailand.

On Boxing Day we did what a lot of people do back home, relax and eat food. We ventured out to some water huts that sit on the Moon (Mun) River here in Ubon Ratchathani.

The river is full as we have had plenty of rain over the wet season, not so much of late but still the water is flowing fast.

We had picked up Noot’s mum, stepfather and half brother, this is Beer and he can be a real handful, full of energy and cheeky as hell.

This is Nong Ja and her uncle Beer together, these two together at times can really test you.


Noot’s younger sister Benjawan had come along, she can be as bad as a two year old at times. She really pushes Ja’s buttons and then I have to berate both of them.

We had ordered the food and was waiting and the girls thought it was a good chance for a quick nap.

Ja, Beer and Ja’s grand father look out over the river, they were trying to spot fish.

Here Ja and Noot are looking at some small fish hanging around as Ja was feeding them some chips.

And then the food started to arrive, first was the fried rice.

Then probably one of the most popular dishes at the river huts, dancing shrimp. Noot was giving the plate a little shake and Ja was telling us she was scared of them.

Thy are called dancing shrimp as they are still alive when they get to you and if you remove the lid they jump all over the place, some had escaped here and there and Ja was not impressed.

With the dancing shrimp safely locked away, Ja tucked into her fried rice. A few times she got up and made it well known that she wasn’t impressed when the lid as removed and some shrimps took off.

Then the roast chicken, more on how they cook this later.

Deep fried pork came next and was delicious.

The fish, we always order this dish when we dine here.

A spicy seafood salad, also very yummy and was not too spicy in fact.

You will have a few hawkers drop in on you offering different things and Beer wanted this Thai dessert. We were a little slow as he bit through the plastic wrap to get to it.


Another very popular dish, ants and their eggs. A delicacy here in Isaan and very popular and does taste good with sticky rice.

Lots of smoke in this open kitchen.

Inside this tin is a chicken cooking, it is placed on a large skewer or stake, then coconut husks are piled around the tin and lit. Water is tipped onto the tin during the cooking and in roughly 20 minutes you have a cooked chook.


The cook was kept busy; the roast chicken is probably the most ordered dish at the river.

Then it was time to go home, all with full bellies. All the food and the drinks cost a whopping 705 Thai Baht or about $23 Australian dollars.

We have been going to the same shop for years now, never had a bad meal at this shop. It is a little further out of town than other river huts but this is good as the others get filled with young rowdy kids but here is usually quite and families.

So that was our Boxing Day, much like back home with family or friends together for a BBQ or leftover food from Christmas Day.

Brunty

Merry Christmas in Isaan Thailand.

This morning, a bleary eyed little girl that had just hopped out of bed and walked into the lounge room, stumbled upon a bright pink bike.

There was a slight hesitation, before excitement and of course curiosity got the better of Nong Ja and she decided to take a closer look.

This is her first bike; she had a small trike before but never used it much. Noot was encouraging her to try and ride it.

Ja asked that the plastic protecting the seat and her Hello Kitty bell be taken off. She climbed on board and tried to ride her new bike without much success but was happy trying. She even pushed it around for a little while.

A few hours later and she is starting to turn the pedals over and move the bike by herself, I am sure it won’t be long before she is flying along and I am telling her to slowdown and be careful.

So a Merry Christmas to all from Isaan Style and hope you have a safe and happy day.

Brunty