Loy Krathong

Yesterday Joan and I were picked up by our new Thai Teacher. She drove us to her "School" a ground floor room, presumably under her house. The teachers were her husband, mother-in-law and another helper. We were the last of 15 or so to arrive and it was a special lesson about the history and culture of Loy Krathong; a Buddhist festival that happens at the full moon at this time of year.

After a talk about how Loy Krathong started (no one is very sure), and what it's all about (this varies too); we got to make a traditional Krathong, see opposite.
These krathongs are made of a slice of banana stem, decorated with folded banana leaves and flowers. They usually have incense sticks in and candles on. Some people put bits of their finger nails or hair clippings in; which represent casting off negative thoughts and attitudes.
The whole thing seems to be about thanking the river goddess for the year's harvest and appeasing her for polluting the river as they use it.

As the full moon rises the people in Chiang Mai go down to the river Ping and put these kranthongs into the river and, as you can imagine, that's only the beginning of the celebrations! Here they also celebrate Yi Peng at the same time. This involves sending off thousands of paper sky lanterns and fireworks. The sight is absolutely spectacular. A huge procession of musicians, singers and dancers; along with fire breathers and assorted others join in the fun.The whole City centre grinds to a halt and it can get a bit scary as the fireworks are monsters and many younger men are none too bothered about where they set them off!Below are some pictures of the evening's entertainment. Getting home was a challenge, we had to abandon the tuk-tuk and walk!

Thunder bolts and lightning, very very frighting!

An unusual few days here in Chiang Mai. There has been a Hot-Air Balloon festival at the Gymkhana Club (1/2 mile down the road). We awoke on Saturday to see half a dozen balloons flying over our site. It was strange to see the BT logo floating overhead so far from home!

We had an early start because we were having a Board Meeting with the Thai Trustees and the Staff from the Dolphin Bay Juniper Tree. Before that, though, we were meeting early out on the "New Land" to dedicate the site for 2 new houses that we are starting soon.

L/R: Muriel, John, Tim, Simon,Gill, Casper, Ajaan Kapaan (pastor)
Paul,Dr Kressenai, Melanie, Joan, Liz, Khun Pythun (Builder) Joan!

The Chairman of the Trustees is Dr Kresseni, a Surgeon and University Teacher who also chairs the Covenant Foundation. It is the foundation that enables us volunteers to work here in Thailand and they have many projects. One new project, of interest to us is a school, that will aim at providing academic rigour for students who haven't access to good schools.
The meeting went on all day, but there was lots to discuss considering the size of the two Juniper Tree operations now, and the number of staff involved.
The photos show a beautiful, sunny day however, this was to change very quickly! As the fireworks started at the balloon festival that evening, lightening soon upstaged the whole show. A tropical storm swept in and torrential rain, violent winds and thunder made the most amazing noise! 
In the morning one of the gardeners took me down the land to see a very sorry sight. The winds had brought down one of our beautiful rain trees. 

As you can see, the tree fell the right way! The only damage was a small concrete chess table. One thing about Thailand is that instead of paying someone to take the tree away; someone pays for the privilege!
Our little tree was nothing to the next tree related surprise.
Just down the road is a Monastery and next to it is their Holy Tree. The wind sent this monster crashing down onto their water tower, toilet and shower block. As if that wasn't enough, it also took out a string of six or seven electricity pylons and dozens of cables. This meant all the electricity in a mile or so radius went off. The roads around us were all blocked and of course with no electric pumps; we had no water from the taps.
We spend Sunday morning running around buying buckets for water, torches and a generator to power the water pumps. One of the stranger interludes in the generator saga was when we ran out of cash for the extra plugs and wires the lady who runs the best tool shop in Chiang Mai brought round one of her many young helper's to take me to the nearest ATM! This meant getting on the back of his 

motorbike, no helmet, just sandals on my feet and clinging on as we wriggled our way through the cars on the Super Highway and then a short-cut back to the shop, going down back alleys that make a Lancashire Ginnel look like an "A" road! The weight involved was probably like this Thai rider's payload!


We were just congratulating ourselves about getting every thing sorted out, when the Electricity Board stunned everyone by getting the power back on by the end of the afternoon.

The monk's expressive gesture says it all. Another thing is that no one is bothered about stepping around the cables, branches and rubble.
Pleased to say, by the following day things were right back to normal. Bright sunshine, no wind and the only noises being the many fireworks that are starting to go off in anticipation of the festival starting tomorrow. Perhaps we will have a quieter few days for the rest of the week?

Tim's new workshop & Management by Carrot Cake

3 Weeks in and we are starting to find our way around in every sense. Learning to speak enough Thai to get beyond a cheery greeting will be the most demanding thing to start with; when the same word can mean 5 different things, for example, "mai" can mean mile, wood, not, new or silk; all according to the tone of your voice!
The words for today are: sa-bai dee mai (how are you?)

Current Houses 19 & 20

Presently we are anticipating a meeting of the Thai Board Members here at the weekend. We will also meet our counterparts from the "Juniper Tree" at Dolphin Bay. As we are planning to build 2 new houses here during the cool season there will be a lot to discuss including how to raise the outstanding money to pay for the second one by the time they are finished! (Not our problem, the Trustees will do this) The new houses will be smaller versions of the 2 newest houses we have.
As one of the new ones is intended for us we have a vested interest in the success of this project! The Thai Lady who runs the building company that are doing the job is very dynamic and seems to be very well connected with the Authorities so we hope that by April, the whole project will be completed.

Note the Hi Tec kit!

Simon is keen that I get my notice board finished before Saturday; a feat that wasn't looking likely given that working the tough teak-like wood is like carving a turkey with a penknife! I have set up a temporary workshop on the verandah outside our house and now that I've put a fan through the window I can work for most of the day.
Khamsi, the handyman, seems to have a sixth sense about what tools and equipment I'm going to need and provides it from some mysterious store.
The grounds staff are sinking two wooden posts into the concrete path outside the office and the notice board will go there shortly. I'm glad they are breaking up the concrete, it looks very deep and tough!
Last night, when the kitchen was empty, Joan did a late raid to bake the first Thai-Carrot Cake of perhaps many. Helped by a lovely family from South Carolina, it became quite a social event. It was left in the fridge for the local staff to share today, on our day off. We're  sure they didn't mind Joan using the kitchen, but she tried very had to leave it as found, with even the small tribe of Geckos that provided a screeching sound track to enterprise, left undisturbed!

Here's Joan "working" with her i-pad; a leaving gift from the friends at Nelson and Colne College. This desk is in the corner of our little house and looks out over the gardens and pool.

Paul and Rachel

Just behind Joan is another vital part of our life saving kit- a printer to allow daily access to the Guardian Crosswords!

Over the last week we have got to know a couple from Simon and Melanie's home Church, who came out to see how they are doing. Paul and Rachel turned out to be great fun and a real encouragement to all of us. Here is a picture of them at Simon and Melanie's house one evening. Paul works in the radio industry and Rachel is a practice nurse and teenage sexual health advisor. Below is a small selection of wildlife pictures taken by a guest who made it his mission to find as many types of snakes, amphibians  insects etc. He told me his Dad was a zoo keeper! As he and his wife live and work in a very deprived area of India, I suppose living close to wildlife is more mundane!

Back in Thailand!

Finally, flew out of London on 31st October (No comments about broomsticks please!)

We had good flights in and out of Paris and Bangkok and the only slight hitch was a delay of 30 mins leaving Paris meant a mad run across Bangkok airport to get our connecting flight. Air France came to the rescue, however by sending a graduate trainee to meet us off the plane and to run ahead of us, clearing the way and chivvying the immigration officials to ensure we made it in time; I don't think she thought her training would include a sub 4 minute mile every time a plane is delayed!

We are now comfortably installed in baan sip bpairt (house no.18).

From day one we have been thrown into the melee, as Elliot, Simon and Melanie's son, needed to go into hospital for a few days; Melanie staying with him. This left the poor residents of the "Juniper Tree" at the mercy of 2 jet lagged and inexperienced managers, thank goodness we had Lilly with us! Lilly is the King Pin in the office here, as she speaks excellent English and Thai.

I am pleased to say that Elliot came home on Saturday and is making a good recovery. He is back at school this week but needs to return to hospital each day, after school, to have further indignities perpetrated on his leg!

We are gradually getting used to things now (Wednesday 7th) and finding our feet with most of the office routine. We have already got to know some really interesting people and hear lots of news about amazing things happening around the world. We have people coming from Siberia, China, Cambodia, Singapore, Bangkok, Canada, Bangladesh, India......the UK and, of course the USA. It is the people from the States who are avidly wanting news of the election results today.

Other less welcome visitors to the site have included a green tree snake, a tokay gecko trapped in a wardrobe and various spiders and insects. This grasshopper is, according to Joan called Cyril!

Tomorrow we get our day off and we will probably go and investigate the shops. If we keep eating the three full meals a day here we will end up the size of the elephants that Thailand is so famous for.

On the 5th Nov. Simon had bought some fireworks and paper hot-air balloons which we let off as soon as it went dark. The Thai fireworks seem much more explosive than ours! As it was a very still evening, the air-balloons seemed to go on rising straight up for ages, they had fireworks tied onto them which made a fantastic display too.

Along with the basic admin jobs I have also been installing various multi-national electrical sockets into the rooms, to avoid using so many adaptors and so reduce the fire risk. I am planning to install electrical earthing to many of the existing rooms as, at present, only the showers are earthed.
Time is running away so I need to get back to work, more to follow! Tim & Joan x