With Peter and his 'family'

Choosing prawns

We left Phimai late afternoon, and Peter drove us to his house, stopping for supplies at Tesco Lotus. Fresh squid and prawns, Leo beers, and a bottle of Gilbey's gin to keep me going.



Peter's house is on farmland at Ban Kut Sa Kaeo, in Thepharak province, about 100 kilometres from Khorat. They used to farm cassava, rice and sugar beet, but, as with farming elsewhere there is no money to be made, so now they just grow enough rice for themselves, plus plants such as chillies and basil.



Peter's 'lady friend' (his words), Dao, has a lovely singing voice and.she often breaks into snippets of Thai song. She has three grownup daughters, Fon, Fai and Feea (phonetic spelling — rain, lightning, thunder). Fon has a little restaurant in the grounds of the

Feea, Peter, Dao, Fear

local hospital and has a young son, Fear. Feea, the middle daughter, was eight and a half months pregnant when we were there. She and her partner, are due to move to inlaws fairly soon, along with Malee the dog, who has recently had eleven pups (nine survived). I think Peter is looking forward to the peace — although as long as he can sit in his rocking chair looking at his "pond" he says he is happy! There are other dogs too, Wontan (beautiful eyes), Ice, and An, but I would have loved to smuggle any one of Malee's pups home!

Fon

Feea prepared bowls of fruit for breakfast, pineapple, mango, banana — all sweeter and juicier than anything we get in England.

We had a lazy morning, then lunch at Fon's restaurant, rice with Thai sausage (similar to Continental cured meat). At Peter's house, Feea cooked most of the meals we had, and offered to show us how to cook Tom Ka Goong (coconut soup with prawns), and Kai Sai (stuffed omelette).
How to cook Tom Ka Goong

How to cook Thai stuffed omelette Kai Yat Sai

On Saturday, we spent an enjoyable day at Si Thep Historical Park in Phetchabun Province. Archaeological excavations in 1988 uncovered an elephant and five human skeletons. A complete female skeleton was wearing a carnelian necklace and a bronze bangle, and her left hand holds

Dao and ancient prayer wheel

an iron tool. Both she and the elephant face north. The style of some monuments at Si Thep suggest it was influenced by Dvaravati Buddhism. Some monuments date back to 11th – 12th CE (Angkor Wat period). We were driven around the massive site in a buggy with rows of seats, a relief in the heat. Dao and Peter introduced us to refreshing Thai drinks from a stall in the grounds, a concoction of healthy and not-so-healthy-looking ingredients with lots of ice!

Afterwards we stopped at a roadside restaurant which was run by relatives of Dao, and Dao immediately got stuck in to helping prepare our lunch, pork and noodles. A neighbouring stall  brought us fresh lime juice, again served with quantities of ice. I watched a relative making decorations from pandan leaves, which were going to be offerings for Buddha. Peter told us that Dao sometimes leads ceremonies, a bit like our 'lay preachers'. I was presented with a lovely decoration to take 'home' and some fresh leaves for us to soak in boiling water, to make a health-giving drink (pandan has anti-bacterial properties).

A party was advertised in the evening, in Ban Kut Sa Kaeo village, and Peter drove us in to investigate. It wasn't the local 'music and dancing' that Peter had hoped for, but a fairground with stalls and ear-splitting drum and bass music. Peter had planned to give Fear some money to enjoy himself, but we couldn't find him in the crowds. Needless to say, we didn't stay long!