Prasat Muang Tam

Another Khmer Temple from the C11th. It is close to Phanom Rung which I showed earlier in my blog. This temple has less tourists, is beautiful, quiet and is very photogenic. Well worth a visit. I will let the photos speak for themselves.

Rice Field Terrapin

On the same day as I found another cobra in the garden, I found a Terrapin outside the back door. Thats obviously lucky, so we put talc on it to see if it had a number hidden on its shell (there was maybe a 9) and then released it into the village pond.

Lottie

Charlotte is doing very well, eating well, sleeping well and nearly always smiling. Here are some pics ...

Independence Day - 4th July

An American friend, Ron, who lives some of the time in the next village to me, had a party for American Independence Day. Fireworks and beer. It was a good night, i was the only one to go home before 12 as I was getting over flu and a bad back.

Phanom Rung

Phanom Rung was built in the C12th AD, by the Khmer Empire. It is in Buriram Province, 60ish miles south of my house. It was on a trail from Angkor Wat in Cambodia, to Phanom Rung and on the Primai in Khorat province. It was built on the rim of an extinct volcano (this whole area is volcanic, the rice fields are littered with boulders shot out of volcanoes). It was built as a religious temple, Hindu/Buddhist, a pathway leads to a Naga Bridge, the 5 headed Naga (snake) is said to have shielded the Buddha, and I believe also brings rain. 52 steps lead up to the main temple building, a pool at either side of the entrance. The building has been restored, rebuilt, one can easily see the stones that were original, the new stones are from a similar rock. It has been restored well. It lets one realise the splendour of the building as it would have been a century ago. A few of the beautiful reliefs above the doors are missing but most are there. As is a lot of the carved rock especially at the front of the building. Temples, smaller buildings and corridors, it is well worth the money 10bht (15p) for a Thai and 40bht (60p) for non-Thai, this is my gripe, farangs as we are called have to pay 4 times the price that Thais pay, usual for all state parks etc. Imagine charging Thai's 4 times the Brit price to go to Alton Towers.

Diving

Terry and I went diving, the sea on the journey over to the island was a bit choppy, i was close to being sick but lucky was not. The diving was great, a bit murky. We saw many sea urchins, fish, coral, sea slugs and the best a large conch shell which was occupied and moving across the sand. Unfortunately I did not have an underwater camera.

Snakes

Yikes!!!!! Snakes in the garden is not a good thing. A few days ago I had a 4ft Comman Rat Snake on the satellite dish, literally 10ft away from where I am typing. Then tonight Paa's dad killed a cobra next to the porch only 2 and a half (maybe 3) foot long, but it reared up at him, as he beat it to death.

Lottie again

Wall

My wall, devised by me, but I did very little except oversee the job. I am very pleased with the results. It also makes the garden look a lot bigger.

Spirit House

Almost every house in Thailand has a "spirit house", I dont know the officail name. I forgot to put a picture on of ours when it was installed a few months ago.

Gates

I made these gates ages ago to be honest, it was created out of the wood that was used for concreting the walls, it was planed down and varished and looks great, however not one piece of wood was actually what you would call straight. Tariq and I then put pulleys and weights on to make them close automatically when you release them.

Drrot

Along the road came some people playing instuments and dancing. I was told that this is called "drrott", similar to British carol singing, they are collecting donations for the local temple (Wat). They got a little something off me.

Charlotte

Elephants

Yesterday morning, two elephants came past the house, I took some pictures just because you have to if elephants come past the house.

Spuds

I grew some potatoes, just to see if it could be done. They were planted slightly late, but I was very happy with the results. Next year I will plant earlier.

Penang, Malaysia

As my one year visa had almost expired I had to leave the country, I ended up going to Malaysia rather than going back to England. Malaysia appeared to be clean (free of litter) and planned (no eyesore electric cables), as opposed to a lot of Thailand, I dont mean that to sound nasty to Thailand, but litter isnt seen as a problem by most Thai people. Throwing a bottle away in Thailand is not a problem as within the hour someone will pick it up, and get a small amount of money for recycling it.

Georgetown, Penang was more expensive than Thailand (especially my village), but it was very pleasant. The people seemed extremely friendly. The food good. The hotel was good.

My trip was short, 30hrs, but I went sightseeing on the first afternoon. The tall tower, the fort, buddhist temples (though the country is mostly muslim I believe) etc.

What made the trip very enjoyable was the company, I met Chris (German) and Pierre (French), we spent our time sightseeing, playing pool, eating and drinking.

Charlotte Pictures