Our village

[Khun Don]

B100 for a rat? Could be wrong, but I thought I saw them cooked (BBQ)in the northern markets for around B35-B40.
(Maybe we should explain here to those rather shocked at rats being on the menu, there are essentially two distinct sorts of rat-the black and often urban/ship dwelling rat that eats anything and carried the Black Death via it's fleas, and the brown country rat that feeds mainly on grain)

[Betti]

someone could send a mouse hunter to my school to catch the little beasts living behind the shelves, we cannot catch them.

[David_Loves_Ubonwan]

A final few, the first three were taken at a party for New Year 2006 again at my sister-in-laws home in southern Buri Ram. The party was actually on January 2nd as Ubonwan, Jakarpong, and I had not been able to get a train until the night of January 1st.

newyear1.jpg

newyear2.jpg

newyear3.jpg

The second photo is of Ubonwan and the third is my sister-in-laws neighbour.

And finally a very poor quality picture that is the closest we have of a wedding photo. My camera broke on this trip and I have very few pictures. Were it not for the significance of this one I probably would have deleted it, my white shirt doesn't show up at all???

family.jpg

It was taken in the lane outside my parents-in-law home in our village, each day on that trip I would go and sit in the shade outside the neighbours house as there seemed to be no shade at ours (we had building work as two of my brothers-in-law were building a new hong naam for us.) Around about 6pm each evening Ubonwan and I would go and sit on this big log in the lane and chat to each other any anyone going by - it was a busy time of day with many people passing by taking their buffalo's home for the night.

Unfortunately the lane has since been improved from a dirt track and at that time the log was removed.

David

[David_Loves_Ubonwan]

Originally Posted by Khun Don

B100 for a rat? Could be wrong, but I thought I saw them cooked (BBQ)in the northern markets for around B35-B40.
(Maybe we should explain here to those rather shocked at rats being on the menu, there are essentially two distinct sorts of rat-the black and often urban/ship dwelling rat that eats anything and carried the Black Death via it's fleas, and the brown country rat that feeds mainly on grain)

It does seem expensive but I seem to recall that for the week we stayed there my sister-in-laws son and other young men from the village would go hunting for them at night (with an 'elastic band' powered gun that fired pointed sticks, and a powerfull lantern) and we would give them 100 Baht for what they caught which may have been 1 rat or more.

The edible rat is a Lesser Bandicoot Rat (Bandicota bengalensis) though it is not related to real bandicoots which are marsupials. It is also known as a pig rat owing to the squealing it does if cornered.

David

[Surawut]

This is a good photo(Thank you to import food) of the little critters ready to eat.

http://importfood.com/media/highwayvendor_2l.jpg

The roadside vendors will usually try to sell them by weight and to me they always seem to be far too expensive for what they are!! 3 hundred baht a kilo is often asked!

The quiet peaceful nights in the rice fields behind our house in Buriram are often interrupted by the village men out "ratting" with their lights strapped to their foreheads. Some of them use home made "rifles" loaded with what I think is a type of gunpowder �Թ�׹ (din peun). Others set traps to catch the rats alive. These I'm told are not common but seem to be very successful. One of our neighbours has a barrel behind his house and it often has 30 or 40 fat, sleek rats in it, he cooks them and sells them at our local market.

[David_Loves_Ubonwan]

Originally Posted by Surawut

This is a good photo(Thank you to import food) of the little critters ready to eat.

Thanks for that, I'm always asked how they look on the plate and didn't have any photos of that.

David

[Norb]

Some signs of spirit life in the village:

1. This figure is supposed to keep the bad spirits of the Year of the Snake (2001) away. The sign said something like "no snake people live here".
2. This is called a Rice Baby supposed to protect the rice fields from bad spirits.
3. The most common signs, of course, are the spirit houses found practically everywhere, one for the house and one for the ancestor's spirits. Offerings are usually placed there every day.

[Norb]

more village activities

1. Monk catching fish.
2. Outdoor bath.
3. Small child wrapping sweets for sale.
4. One of several family members enclosing the lower level of our host's house. This gave her a great indoors kitchenn for preparing dishes for sale.

[Susana]

Originally Posted by David_Loves_Ubonwan

I've been there, one of my sisters-in-law lives there. (It's more of a town than a village, it has a street with shops, internet cafe, restaurants, transport office etc.)

David

This gives me the opportunity to pose this question: How does one differentiate between a village and a town?

Does a village become a town when there is commercial enterprise? Or, is it simply based on population?

I'm enjoying these photos immensely, by the way. I have not often been outside Bangkok, so they're a real treat for me.