Village Blues – Missing You

Big cities normally mean big fun with the top night life, best hotels, restaurants and shopping centres all on your doorstep or at least just a short taxi ride away. The way I now view life is that these concrete jungles have there uses but for me a Thai village is the ultimate scene. I’m now an ex Pattaya wide boy harbouring a rural dream.

I’m sat at home in my all shiny, user friendly town here in the UK with my 7.2 megabyte of Internet speed, missing somewhere in this modern world that is unknown to most of it’s country’s citizens. Today I’ve got a large dose of the village blues and it doesn’t seem to want to go away.

You can forget the Internet because I’m sure there’s not a telephone landline in the whole village and a laptop is a dancer in a faraway land. The village has regular power cuts, no hot water, plenty of snakes and a drink of water is a true taste of rain. The villagers here live their life off the land and it’s 600 kilometres from the Pattaya sand. I am not missing the hissing  just the lie of the land.

A slow moving village where the main sport is watching the occasional pick up truck passing through, spitting up behind it a billowing plume of red dust as it heads towards the next village or the nearby town. A spectator sport played under a blazing hot sun.

Thailand’s troubled colours of red, yellow and blue and the colour of money are thought over, but touched by few. The colour of your shirt is the one that is clean and a win on the village lottery is everyone’s dream. A small Thai village that’s giving me the blues, I guess I’m just missing you.

I am of course also missing Wonderful Wi and this week she has taken a trip to Nong Khai leaving behind the latest addition to her animal family. Cola (pictured right) our puppy dog and Rabbit the rabbit (strange name) have been joined by another puppy named Gaan. He is a further addition to the weekly food bill but also a welcome source of hours of fun. They say two’s company and three’s a crowd but I’ve got a feeling the three of them are going to get along fine.

Last Monday Wilai along with a truck load of her family and friends formed a crowd of their own all squeezing into a pick up and travelling to Nong Khai as part of their Songkran celebrations. The highlight of their day was a visit to Pho Chai Temple and the chance to make merit in the Thai New Year ritual of cleansing the Buddha images by means of sprinkling scented water over them. Wilai and company returned home late afternoon after a thoroughly enjoyable religious, food and fun fest day.

While writing this post I received good news about my forthcoming trip to Thailand. A telephone call confirmed my travel arrangements had been booked on the dates I required. My flight leaves London on May 12th and I fly back on June 1st, allowing me at least 10 days or so at our village home. I can feel those village blues lifting already.