Life In Issan - A Sleepy Fuzzy Tale

[akirasan]

Don't know how this thread will go. Living in Issan certainly has it moments and I guess I just want somewhere to document the weird stuff that happens when you live here. 

For example in the last 4 weeks:

One of my wifes students cut off her toe at school,
A local got on the chang and burned his house down because he was upset about his wife leaving him,
And just now I had to climb up onto the roof of the local school because the worst smelling dog in the world was stuck up there.

Please add your own examples - yes I am bored.

Edited October 1, 2018 by akirasan

[DJ54]

Funny .... yes there’s plenty of stories up here in the NE. We did have a traffic jam today see pic. 

 

Our house use is white with beige trim and section below porch a 

dark tan. Headed to the small town and wife papa was painting the section below the porch (house is a year old) dark battleship gray. 

 

Didnt blow up never did any good before. Came home asked how much we paying Papa to change the house color? He does things around  the house for money. She said Papa says it won’t look dirty... it didn’t look dirty before. 

 

Next morning woke up early @ 5am to get some water. He’d painted the same color as a baseboard on light yellow wall. I couldn’t talk or look at him or I’d loose it. 

 

Living NG in the village is great....

 

 

 

[BigT73]

Ok so going back a few years ago, I went with my misses to the yearly customery visit to the country visiting MIL out buriram way.  I dont mind it to be honest as its a good break from the fast pace of pattaya life, nothing like the  early morning walks around the farm to feel centered again.

So during this visit it had some massive storms lightning flooding, Im not gonna lie this was the most excitement I had there for a whilst and it was 10pm at night.  There were a couple of roofs blown off water trying to creep into the house and a tree fallen over out the front.  Tree was approx 3mtrs high with the big white flowers.

After an hour the downpour stopped including the wind and the crazy lightning, we opened the front door to see how the house had faired including neighbours, now MILS house is situated in the middle of the village and I noticed locals congregating around the front of the house.  I was excited and went inside to put my boots on,  I enjoyed the feeling of the village uniting and having a working bee to get the people shored up incase it hit again, having building experince I was ready to climb roofs and help batton the hatches.  It felt good like I was back home when disasters struck I was telling my misses to get the coffee on for everyone.

So I got my boots on rushed outside not to miss anything and ask my misses to translate.  I started to notice the locals bending over and looking at the ground I thought this was strange maybe it was some buddha custom.  Then I noticed them picking up flowers I asked my misses whats going on?  she said the tree that fell down out the front was a money tree and if you found a flower with 5 leaves you will be rich.  Im like what about the missing roofs and flooding, she goes not their problem its owners... Welcome to Thailand! next day I cut the concrete driveway with a new hole and replanted the tree. 

 

 

 

[topt]

14 hours ago, akirasan said:

Living in Issan

Can I ask then why your legend has location as Bangkok?

[Naamblar2014]

Not in isaan but worthy of a Darwin nomination.
I used to watch the workers mixing up cement in one of those buckets that they use and thought there must be an easier way.
So I bought one of those cement mixers that looks like a big washing machine.  About 17,000 baht.  Anyway 'luung' (uncle) loaded the thing to the top with sand and cement and pressed the on switch. Well obviously over loaded it didn't budge.  A few moments later you could smell smoke,  but he kept pressing the go button.  So end result,  motor partially burnt out on its first use and luung back to mixing cement by hand.

[akirasan]

32 minutes ago, topt said:

Can I ask then why your legend has location as Bangkok?

I lived In Bangkok in 2009 when I first signed up on Thaivisa and haven't been bothered to change it. 

[Just1Voice]

I live in Chiang Mai.  I've got plenty of my own stories. lol

 

[mettech]

I lived in Issan near Buriram and loved it small village and nice people.

[4MyEgo]

Living in the village past 3 years is great, with the exception of everyone creating smoke of some kind during the day, i.e. from firing up their charcoals to cook, (ok everyone has to eat) and I appreciate gas bottles are expensive for some of the poorer people (so I bite my tongue and accept the fact), but the burning of either rubbish or stuff on their land including rubber pee's me off badly.

 

Fortunately the mayor listened to our and other neighbours complaints about his cousin making charcoal across the road at the foot of the river which was literally choking us all, toxic stuff to say the least and told him to move, ah what I would do for fresh air at times, fortunately have managed to time the neighbours down to a tee and run around closing up doors and windows to combat any smoke entering the house, unless the old girl next to us decides she is going to burn a pile of crap including rubber without any warning and takes us by surprise.

 

To think the burning season is only around the corner, God help us.....

[4MyEgo]

20 hours ago, Just1Voice said:

I live in Chiang Mai.  I've got plenty of my own stories. lol

 

 

Wouldn't have anything to do with smoke ?

[Stevemercer]

I love it when people bring their own food to the local restaurants and get the staff to plate it and serve back to them.

 

I like how the food vending vans park outside the restaurants and people come out and buy 'take away' food and bring it back into the restaurant to eat.

 

I like being able to get a feed by walking out among the trees just outside the house, or throwing a fishing line into the dam. It's not so funny when a lizard (or worse) has crawled into your clothes and you don't notice until too late. 

[rickudon]

Ah,  isaan life! There is a sense of community, when our house was struck by lightning, neighbours were already putting the fire out by the time i got outside. Mind you, these were the same neighbours who would steal our mangoes when they fell off the tree, you had to be quick when you heard the thud, or it would be gone!

 

Also remember the night we found some one hunting tokays in our garden. Things have changed a lot the last 8 years, no longer do we see families huddled around a smoky wood fire outdoors on a winters morning by the roadside (using wood 'borrowed' from our garden), they have either moved out or have warmer clothes now. Also the winter mornings are rarely as cold.

[JLCrab]

OK I had one of those temporary mini black ant infestations when they got into everything. I had just opened a bag of granola and put it in what I thought was an ant-proof container but no.

 

It was outside the door when the TGF came over and saw it. (Thai conversation loosely translated) She asked could she have it. I said said it's filled with ants.

 

She just stared at me and said: I'M THAI!
 

[neeray]

On ‎10‎/‎3‎/‎2018 at 6:49 AM, Stevemercer said:

I love it when people bring their own food to the local restaurants and get the staff to plate it and serve back to them.

 

I like how the food vending vans park outside the restaurants and people come out and buy 'take away' food and bring it back into the restaurant to eat.

 

I like being able to get a feed by walking out among the trees just outside the house, or throwing a fishing line into the dam. It's not so funny when a lizard (or worse) has crawled into your clothes and you don't notice until too late. 

 

Your examples in paragraphs one and two are priceless. People who would do this are as clueless as clueless gets. But please note: such ridiculous behaviour is certainly not exclusive to Thailand.