Life in Phana

Thai Festivals in England

Since I was last here in England, a new oriental food store has opened in Exeter. It is run by a friendly and delightful Malaysian-Chinese woman. Exeter University (like every other UK university, I guess) has a high number of Chinese students and they seem to provide most of her customers. But Thais and English people also patronise the shop, and Thai foodstuff is well represented on the shelves and in the refrigerators. Some of the part-time shop assistants are Thai, too.

One of the things I picked up last time I was in there was a free newspaper called Amthaipaper which claims to be the first Thai newspaper in the UK. It comes out monthly and July's issue was the 31st. so it has been around for quite a time without me coming across it. A full-page ad for Chang beer included this:

The distinguished tasting panel of "The Beverage Tasting Institute" described Chang as ...

"Bright golden colour. Honeyed raisin toast aromas with a hint of lychee follow through on a crisp, smooth entry to a dryish medium body with a hint of apple, nut, and a solid roasted grain character. Finishes with a crisp, balanced earthy hop and pizza dough fade. A very nice food beer."

Nice to see that pretentiousness is alive and well. Even nicer to know that if you are accused of drinking too much Chang Beer you can point out that it is mostly a food, with lots of good stuff like honey, fruit, nuts and just a bit of carbohydrate in the pizza dough.

Possibly more useful are two ads that claim to save you money. Flightzone.UKclaims to have the "CHEAPEST AIRFARES GUARANTEED", quoting a special offer of Bangkok for £335.

Calls to Thailand can be made for 1p per minute after you buy £5 credit from auracall. Other countries costing 1p a minute include China, Singapore, USA and Canada.  

A Thai Summer Fair in Bournemouth was advertised but it took place on 1st August so I missed that but Amthai itself is running a 'THAI FAMILY FUN DAY' at Wimbledon Park (near the Thai Temple) on Sunday 29th August from 11 am to 7pm. Amongst the attractions are

• Thai Blue Music (sic)
• Thai Massage
• Thai Boxing
• Thai Cultural Performances
• Thai Products
• And of course ... Thai Food

Oh, and one more thing. There is "Free Tasting" of Chang Beer and Mekhong, too.

See you there?

A spooky story about Thai people abroad

Westerners in Thailand seem to be divided into three kinds when it comes to social interaction with other westerners who are strangers to them. And these differences are most commonly exhibited in Tesco Lotus and Big C stores up-country. There are some who will go out of their way to make contact, by eye, a smile, or a greeting. There is another group (larger?) that will avoid any contact at all costs. A third group doesn't quite know what to do but usually adopts the avoiding practice while feeling a little guilty about doing so. A blog I read recently deals with this whole matter in an interesting and amusing way and you can read it HERE .

This never seems to be a problem for Thais living abroad, at least not when there are very few other Thais in the area. They always seem to seek out others and are completely un-selfconscious about doing so. And they don't get snubbed, except when the 'Thai' turns out to be a Filipino/Filipina.

Here are two people Pensri and I have got to know here in England. Perhaps you can distinguish certain facial characteristics which might suggest why we get on so well together.

Yes, that's right. They are from Isan. (And they only dress like this at Christmas.)

But that is only part of the story. How we came to meet is an example of the kind of spooky occurrence (coincidence seems much too light-weight a word for it) that Thais are prone to.

Pensri woke up one morning and told me that she had been dreaming about her parents' house in Phana.  Nothing unusual in that, almost all her frequent dreams in England are located in Phana and involve her parents.  This dream was about the steep stairs which had been re-located when the house had been extended some forty or more years ago. She went on to say that she had probably dreamed about this because the man who had put in the stairs was the father of Khun Ta Kongrit and she had been thinking about this man a lot in the days before the dream. Why have you been thinking about Khun Ta Kongrit,  I asked. He taught me to write Thai when I was a student at Matayom Phana School, she said. He used to say I was the best writer he had taught. At the time, Pensri was writing a history of Phana, so I could see why she should be thinking along these lines.

Probably because we were thinking about Phana and talking about it, we decided to go to a small town about 20 miles away to have lunch at a Thai restaurant which we had seen but never been to. The owner greeted us and was delighted to hear Pensri say she came from Amnat Charoen Province because his wife did, too. In fact she came from Amphur Muang Amnat Charoen. I'm from Phana, said Pensri. That's amazing, he said, because my wife's brother is married to a woman from Phana and she is our head chef here. Naturally, she was brought out to meet us. And that is how we have become friends.

She is the youngest daughter of Khun Ta Kongrit!

The restaurant is at Pershore, and is called Thai Legend. It is one of the best (most authentic) Thai restaurants I have come across in England, and the head chef is great.

E-BOOKS in THAILAND

Buddhism in Thailand: a guide for expats and visitors is available from  e-books in Thailand. CLICK ON THE IMAGE to enlarge it. This is a book which describes the practice of day-to-day Buddhism as you will find it in Thailand.

You can view details of Buddhism in Thailand HERE and you will find a FREE download of the first chapter.

 

 

Thai people abroad (1)

Many Thais go abroad, to work, to study, and increasingly as tourists. I have known people going abroad for each of these reasons, and what they all seem to have in common is an urge to see, and preferably to touch, snow. I suppose that as the world becomes increasingly the same in many (superficial, perhaps) respects, snow is the one thing that is most clearly NOT Thai.

My family, all of them more or less Thai except for me and our son-in-law, are no exceptions to this. This year we all spent a few weeks in Spain and France, and shared a week in the Pyrenees mountains. So we all saw snow, albeit only in patches and high up on the peaks. But one day they drove up to a lake, itself pretty high at about 3,000 metres, and then walked and climbed higher to a patch or block of snow that was still clinging to the rocks some distance below the mountain-top. Pensri and I pleaded old age and didn't accompany them on this particular outing, but here are some pictures of more or less Thai people enjoying themselves on and under SNOW!

Here is our son, Dominic, making hard work of it ...

... while his wife, Jay, looks the part of a real mountaineer:

For Darunee and two of her girls it looks just like a leisurely stroll ...

...and here comes Esme, showing her mother and younger sisters the way ...

 

... followed by Ben, with the lake way down below in the background:

 

Esme and Anna get to grips with the snow:

and so do Kim and Ben:

He's behind you!

 

So for these Thai-ish people that's one ambition achieved.