10_impressions of the village

Steve and Jemjahn go to Thailand, 2003

10. Impressions of the Village

Surprisingly noisy

-- roosters crowing even before dawn

-- then the 2-stroke motorbikes

-- and the farm trucks (at right), with 11 hp, 2-cylinder diesel engines that sound like idling Harleys

-- and pickup trucks selling vegetables and household merchandise, their wares announced with loudspeakers

-- plus a radio, TV or stereo heard through neighbors’ open windows

-- and the drone of boys’ kites singing in the steady winds of the dry season

Not all that scenic

-- certainly not clean and scenic like German villages

-- lot of rusty corrugated tin, trash lying around, dirt streets

-- but monks from the local temple "begging" for their daily morning meal never fails to impress

-- and children max out on the cuteness scale

Rice the staff of life

-- fields surrounding the village as far as the eye can see

-- villagers walk or ride bicycles from their homes to their fields

-- farming probably main topic of conversation

No longer isolated

-- now a paved 2-lane road from the village to the nearby highway

Houses becoming modern

-- now more often concrete than wood

-- often elevated ... in the past for animals, now probably for parking

(but don't see how this house could survive a stiff wind)