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Cant start building after July 9 ??


sirineou

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I  had  forgotten about  the   monkey  business  supposed  to be involved  in all things.

I  started with  preparation foundation work on a  new house  about  9 months  back. As yet  my wife  has  never  mentioned  anything  involving  superstitious  protocols. I  must ask  her. lol.

 

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Just go with the flow, get a hole dug and stick the rebar in, you've still got 7 days left. When in Rome... and all that....

 

Following 3 x 40km round trips to town to buy all the necessary charms etc our auspicious day arrived.

 

Stupidly I got all dressed up as I was collecting the Monk and thinking a non believing farang would be excluded from ceremonies. However, I was required to partake by jumping down into 3 b.....y deep holes on top of a load of rebar to stick 9 bits of special wood in each pit.

 

I ruined a good pair of my favourite scholl  shoes into the bargain - not well pleased as they'd been discontinued and I couldn't replace them. So be warned.

 

I think the Monk was secretly having a darned good laugh watching farang scramble in and out of these holes, sweating profusely and getting all mucked up in his finery......

 

We live and learn!

 

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1 minute ago, Tofer said:

Just go with the flow, get a hole dug and stick the rebar in, you've still got 7 days left. When in Rome... and all that....

 

Following 3 x 40km round trips to town to buy all the necessary charms etc our auspicious day arrived.

 

Stupidly I got all dressed up as I was collecting the Monk and thinking a non believing farang would be excluded from ceremonies. However, I was required to partake by jumping down into 3 b.....y deep holes on top of a load of rebar to stick 9 bits of special wood in each pit.

 

I ruined a good pair of my favourite scholl  shoes into the bargain - not well pleased as they'd been discontinued and I couldn't replace them. So be warned.

 

I think the Monk was secretly having a darned good laugh watching farang scramble in and out of these holes, sweating profusely and getting all mucked up in his finery......

 

We live and learn!

 

Not bad advise ,

unfortunately for me I am not in Thailand right now.

I was Planing to come to Thailand this Fall  and start after the rainy season, but conditions at work have changed , so I told the wife . "why don't we go now and get the ball rolling with building"  

"No can do" , she say, monks must bless the start or bad things will happen to you!

No way I can get there before the 9th and I certainly don't want bad things to happen to me.

 

 

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When our new house started in early 2016 my FIL did the honours with prayers - all over within 5 or 10 minutes. He was 'educated' by the monks over 65 years ago so he knows the drill & takes it quite seriously ...

 

During construction there were a couple of other prayer sessions, but never any monks.

 

We moved in in late March this year but no monks as yet. An auspicious financial moment hasn't yet quite arrived. Probably once we've turned the Temple Mount out front into the New Jerusalem (currently scheduled for any time in 2018) will be the moment to summon the monks and a few select (ie respectable) neighbours for a more solemn half hour.

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5 hours ago, Crossy said:

Wow – lucky you – I wish I had known about the Ghost Repellent before, because now I cannot afford $1500 for one, after I spent my tiny savings on offerings, and on gold, and to buy spirit houses. Well it wouldn't have been possible either, would it? You got the functional new 2016-model, which was not at all available when my house was finished in 2010...:ermm:

 

OP, I presume you better order one of these...

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Going to put a lot of money into something that can't belong to the OP, and thinking of going against the person that will own the place. Bad juju.

 

Did no one ever tell the OP not to argue with women, regardless of how ridiculous or illogical their view point. A mere male will never win.

 

Sooner they invent sex androids the better.

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3 hours ago, Tofer said:

Just go with the flow, get a hole dug and stick the rebar in, you've still got 7 days left. When in Rome... and all that....

 

Following 3 x 40km round trips to town to buy all the necessary charms etc our auspicious day arrived.

 

Stupidly I got all dressed up as I was collecting the Monk and thinking a non believing farang would be excluded from ceremonies. However, I was required to partake by jumping down into 3 b.....y deep holes on top of a load of rebar to stick 9 bits of special wood in each pit.

 

I ruined a good pair of my favourite scholl  shoes into the bargain - not well pleased as they'd been discontinued and I couldn't replace them. So be warned.

 

I think the Monk was secretly having a darned good laugh watching farang scramble in and out of these holes, sweating profusely and getting all mucked up in his finery......

 

We live and learn!

 

Why did YOU jump in the hole? YOU can't own the land, ergo you can't own the house ( even if you paid for it ), so it should be the owner, ie HER that is climbing in and out of holes in the ground.

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17 hours ago, wildewillie89 said:

I think it is more a 'what the family' believe type thing, than a geographic location thing. The 'good dates', are done with anything people do, build a house, get married, baby ceremony, open a business, whatever. Everything is just an excuse for a big party in Thai. Like anywhere in the world, you get your bigger cities in Thai that don't allow the people to do these types of things anymore (rightly or wrongly...mostly rightly from our point of view). 

The family will go to the local 'brahmin', i think is the guys title from memory. He is basically a fortune teller, but obviously Buddhist. He will tell you a 'good' date and come bless the house at the ceremony where everyone lifts the first pole in. He will come again when the house is completed (on another 'good' date), and do all sorts of weird shit like pretend to fall asleep in the bedroom. The village people will have a good laugh as your <deleted>/get out of the house face (you can tell even they think it is ridiculous). Then the 9 monks will come and eat all your food...i mean bless your house. 

 

Easier just to let it slide for the older generation (the grandpa/grandma age group in the village really get off to it), my Mrs has no idea about the process and finds it silly. But seems your Mrs (maybe being pushed by the parents, or a strict Buddhist), will be hard to budge.

Seeing as you're on a tighter schedule common sense should prevail (famous last words for some families though). 

I have already told the family the next child we have will not be having the baby ceremony (as I thought the first one was not only ridiculous, but not safe having so many people touch a baby/put money on it, at such a young age). Just have to try and use reasoning as best you can (and get the Mrs to stand up as usually she does not believe it, but she is being pushed by older members of the family). 

Off topic but you brought it up. Exposing babies to all sorts of germs is a very good thing as modern practices in the west of keeping everything "clean" is making children allergic and prone to disease as never get immunity to much.

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6 hours ago, Laza 45 said:

...you come here into a totally different culture with totally different beliefs and you are amazed that their world doesn't conform to your world view and call them superstitious and backward..  they have lived here successful for a very long time under very difficult circumstances.. they have worked a few things out during that time.. it may seem backward to you but it works for them... chill out.. jai yen yen.. relax and maybe learn a bit.. 

 

Really? If their practices involved voodoo and killing chickens etc ( or some really bad stuff ) would you still think it was OK?

Or ancestors burnt women for being witches, but that was superstitious and backward. Good that we don't do that anymore.

 

I avoided any such BS by not building anything, and never would for all the obvious reasons.

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Obviously, it's all superstitious nonsense, but you ignore at your own peril.  From now until the day you die, when anything bad happens such as a sick buffalo, it will all be because "Farang husband ignored big buddha day!"  Your fault!

When my wife was pregnant, we wanted to install air con in the house, but MIL/FIL said "No, if you drill a hole in the wall while wife is pregnant, the baby will be deformed."  Not wanting to take the blame for a lifetime of bad luck, we installed the AC but didn't tell anyone till after the baby was born.

 

My wife has plenty common sense.  

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On 7/2/2017 at 6:52 AM, Crossy said:

 

That's pretty much what we did, although we started before the appointed date. One pile hole was left without back-fill until the monks had done their stuff.

 

On 7/1/2017 at 9:51 PM, berybert said:

Dig a couple of holes before 9th of July and the problem is solved.

Maybe its true, Farang think to much.

That's what we did also. 1 footing pad with the rebar sticking up for colunm. Hung some items on the rebar & local customs were satisfied. Don't think the gods were though cause damn near the whole project's been a PITA.

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6 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Off topic but you brought it up. Exposing babies to all sorts of germs is a very good thing as modern practices in the west of keeping everything "clean" is making children allergic and prone to disease as never get immunity to much.

I completely agree with that, my baby is constantly around my dog, crawling around the floor etc etc. However, there is an age where that is a good idea. In the first few weeks of life, letting a baby be around 60 people who I am certain have not been vaccinated for your whooping coughs etc, is not a good idea. 

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Hmmm...Yes... tell them you have western superstitions also.

If they do not start on the day that you want them to start and finish by the agreed date then you have to abide by the old superstitious values set forth by : The Ghosts and Demons of "Delayed Payment"......  that spirit your money away before you have a chance to pay the workers.  

Cheers

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Just north of kk we started in the 12th july no problem classed by village elder as a lucky day. No monks to bless the ground or starting ceremony just two village religious elders. Only time we had monks in was when completed to dive demonds out!.

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16 hours ago, sirineou said:

Not bad advise ,

unfortunately for me I am not in Thailand right now.

I was Planing to come to Thailand this Fall  and start after the rainy season, but conditions at work have changed , so I told the wife . "why don't we go now and get the ball rolling with building"  

"No can do" , she say, monks must bless the start or bad things will happen to you!

No way I can get there before the 9th and I certainly don't want bad things to happen to me.

 

 

You be there for the house building or it wont be the house you expect.

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22 hours ago, Laza 45 said:

...you come here into a totally different culture with totally different beliefs and you are amazed that their world doesn't conform to your world view and call them superstitious and backward..  they have lived here successful for a very long time under very difficult circumstances.. they have worked a few things out during that time.. it may seem backward to you but it works for them... chill out.. jai yen yen.. relax and maybe learn a bit.. 

 

no no, all "beliefs" are  crazy and would think Thailands  geographic  situation makes it a doddle to live there, vegetables/fruit grow like crazy, food  in abundance, not  like Northern climes where one has to "prepare" and "plan" for winter, storing food and such like.

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8 hours ago, jeab1980 said:

Just north of kk we started in the 12th july no problem classed by village elder as a lucky day. No monks to bless the ground or starting ceremony just two village religious elders. Only time we had monks in was when completed to dive demonds out!.

Did you wear the mask and snorkel?

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16 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Off topic but you brought it up. Exposing babies to all sorts of germs is a very good thing as modern practices in the west of keeping everything "clean" is making children allergic and prone to disease as never get immunity to much.

Thats right, as a  kid I was exposed to smallpox, ebola, and the black death.............never did me any harm:tongue:

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27 minutes ago, kannot said:

no no, all "beliefs" are  crazy and would think Thailands  geographic  situation makes it a doddle to live there, vegetables/fruit grow like crazy, food  in abundance, not  like Northern climes where one has to "prepare" and "plan" for winter, storing food and such like.

...interesting thought.. I just read an article on the Communist insurgency in Isaan in the 70's and early 80's.. the popular belief of the locals at the time was that their poverty was a result of neglect by the central government..  not so says an American professor and expert on the region.. their problems were caused by a vicious cycle of drought and flood.. and very poor soils.. It is interesting to see their traditional diet through this insight.. they eat an awful lot of things that westerners would consider unpalatable.. and even today I see people collecting this traditional food..  tree leaves that are 'vegetables'.. snails, small fish.. ant and wasp larvae ..snakes and rats as well..plus many 'fruits' that westerners would consider far too tart to eat..  there were certainly times of abundance but life wasn't easy... Not so now but it isn't all that far in the past that people here had to contend with tigers, elephants & rhinos.. huge snakes and tropical diseases like malaria, yellow fever, dengue and elephantiasis.. They didn't have to contend with the cold as in norther climes.. but life certainly wasn't easy..

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17 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Why did YOU jump in the hole? YOU can't own the land, ergo you can't own the house ( even if you paid for it ), so it should be the owner, ie HER that is climbing in and out of holes in the ground.

I don't think it's related to ownership so much as residency. She was in there with me though, she's not shy about getting stuck in.

 

I even carried his blessed cotton roll around while he linked all 3 posts together with it and his holy water. I understand it's just as much a blessing of us as residents as it is the building, particularly as we were required to squat and wi whilst he showered us with holy water.

 

Actually, unless the law has changed, I was under the impression that farang could own any appendage on the land which, as you quite rightly point out, cannot be owned. Purely a point of interest if anyone has up to date info.

 

However it makes no odds to me as it's our money, not mine, earned by both of us together since we got married from our earlier business in Thailand and our property portfolio in UK. Wills and usufructs will take care of us both in the event of divorce, and to some degree in case of death.

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12 hours ago, r136dg said:

 

That's what we did also. 1 footing pad with the rebar sticking up for colunm. Hung some items on the rebar & local customs were satisfied. Don't think the gods were though cause damn near the whole project's been a PITA.

Here here to that.... To be fair most building projects are a PITA, stressful and require far too many decisions to be made for my liking. Thailand is no different to anywhere else except a bit less sophisticated. 

 

I should have known better as I made a career out of construction, and know first hand it's never plain sailing.

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22 hours ago, sirineou said:

Not bad advise ,

unfortunately for me I am not in Thailand right now.

I was Planing to come to Thailand this Fall  and start after the rainy season, but conditions at work have changed , so I told the wife . "why don't we go now and get the ball rolling with building"  

"No can do" , she say, monks must bless the start or bad things will happen to you!

No way I can get there before the 9th and I certainly don't want bad things to happen to me.

 

 

If there's no rush - don't rush! Use the interim period to think carefully about what you really want.

 

You don't say if you already own the land and if you have the building permit in place. I presume you do if you were thinking of starting imminently. If not, have you considered buying a ready built house, a lot less hassle and you can see what you're getting. Also a lot of heavily discounted property for sale around the country.

 

As noted in other posts, a lot of hassle and you need to be on site daily if you're going to build your own. You need a lot of patience and a leathery tongue that doesn't suffer the teeth marks from frequent biting.....

 

I asked another foreigner in HomeMart - are you having fun?, he let rip a tirade of frustrated rantings. At least we had a good laugh about it to lighten the mood.

 

Think hard and long!

 

 

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9 hours ago, louse1953 said:

If you listen to superstitious people about your house building you will never finish.

If you listen to women in general about anything you will never finish :partytime2:

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