Daily Report: Rainy Day In Petchabun #1

The Kosit Hill Hotel in Petchabun has
gorgeous decor, beautiful gardens, a
lovely swimming pool, and is a steal at
800 baht per night (1,300 for a suite).Pui and I caought the 10:00 p.m. bus from Pattaya to Petchabun, and after about an hour or so of finding a comfortable position, I drifted off to sleep, and then woke up in the central Thai province of Petchabun at 4:30 a.m. (It's the only reasonable way to get there, really.)

We caught a samlor motorcycle to the Kosit Hill Hotel, Petchabun's best place to stay... with really nice rooms at 800 baht ($25) per night. We immediately went back to sleep after a shower.

We woke up again at 9:00 and went down to the restaurant and had breakfast. (No matter how good the hotel, you can never expect Thai people to cook a standard European breakfast with any success.)

Although Pui has a motorcycle in Petchabun that her family uses (and I usually drive when we come visiting), this time I decided to try to find a motorcycle to rent. However, there were no places in Petchabun to rent a motorcycle... according to the hotel receptionist. However, the bell boy, showing the Thai hospitality which is no longer typically found amongst Bangkok and Pattaya Thai people, offered up his own motorcycle (a fairly new Honda Wave) for us to drive around for the next 2 days.


Local ladies in a river
trolling for small fish
and freshwater shrimps.Pot and Pui's father, Pian, met us at the hotel, and from there we drove the 15 miles out into the countryside to Pui's house. It's such a pretty drive through the countryside to get there... I never tire of the journey — as long as it is in the daytime. There are fields, shops, houses, temples, rivers, lakes, and people everywhere. Everyplace you look, you see something that is uniquely — in some way or another — Thai.

(Below is the road into Pui's village, which lies at the foot of those mountains.)
The dirt driveway back through the
trees to Pui's family's house.Shortly after we got to Pui's house, it started raining. It had been raining almost nonstop for the better part of a week throughout Thailand, and although everything was now nice and green and lush, I had really had enough of it. What made it even more problematic is that Pui's family's house runs on solar power, and with no sun for the better part of 2 weeks... that meant no electricity... and that meant no fan blowing a breeze on me. You haven't experienced hot until you've felt 101º in the pouring rain.


Pui's mother, Oom, and her
stick for getting edible stuff
out of trees.So I grabbed Pot and an umbrella, and we took a walk together.

First, we went out to the field and I saw all of the cows I have bought. There are now 8 of them. I've named the youngest one Vinnie. After that, it was a walk through the village. I bought some candy for Pot, and we spent some time looking at an 8-inch long millipede that was as thick as a cigar wandering across the road in front of the local police outpost, trying to escape the water. We stopped and looked at the local water tower, filled to overflowing with rainwater fed by pipes coming down off of the nearby mountains.


The kitchen part of the house,
plus one bedroom, plus a porch
for sitting and dining. Large
bamboo cluster nearby.From there, it was off to visit the local expatriate, Joe from England. I had a chat with him about the goings on. Apparently 4 old people in 1 week have died, and as is the custom, there are 4 houses in town playing loud Thai music all day long. The local monks are going around and putting up a cordon of blessed string around everyone's houses in order to ensure better karma for the village.

Oh... Joe has been spending his spare time building a tea sala (gazebo) behind his house, along with a little driving range to practice his golf.

After that, it was back to the house.

Chickens pecking around
the kitchen.
At about sunset, Pui and Pot and I rode back in to Petchabun to the hotel, and went swimming. I played with Pot while Pui chatted with the bartendress at the poolside bar. Over on the other side of the pool, the local swimming instructor was teaching a chubby Chinese-Thai family how to swim.

After the pool, we then had dinner in the restaurant (which was, thankfully, much better than their breakfast). I had a shrimp salad, French onion soup, and a stuffed cod that was all perfectly acceptable, if hardly gourmet. They had a live band (although not particularly "lively") to listen to as well. After that, it was up to bed.
Pui's grandmother sitting on her front porch, with her spitoon for betel nut juice and water thermos close by.