Very Large

On the main road of Nakohn Panom town that lied along Mekong river, from the rural in the north to another rural in the south, in the middle of it was a fresh market and 2 temples.  Houses were on both sides of the road so you could see Mekong River only from the space between houses or compound of houses.

If you walked from the market southward keep the river at your left hand side, for about 1 km. you will find a space that you could see the river and tiny building of the Lao border through plants and a big mango tree. 

My house would be on your right side. 

Underneath the mango tree you would see a hut with inclined fence full of purple Railway Creeper.  This hut was for the workers to rest or stay over night when the need to work overtime or did not want to go home.

At night sometime the workers joined together and drank,  They grilled pieces of cows or buffaloes skin over the fire and salted it to take with their rice whisky.  Sometime, I, as a little girl about 5-6 years old would run around them, looked at them with interest, and mouth watered.

Finally I would sit among them, looked at them until they had to give me a small piece of the grilled skin.  It was about the size of my finger but took me many hours to finish a piece.  You could not chew it at all.  You need to put it in the mouth, taste the salt and the nice smell until it soft enough for a bite, little by little..

My house was very large. When you looked from the road you will see 6 poles.  Between each pole of the house were 3 green wide foldable doors.  The other part were a wall and a large gate what big enough for big trucks to get in.
 
The truck came, back in, right to the godown at the back of the house.  In the middle of the area there was a large round cement space.  Every evening I played badminton with some workers there.  The space was so wide that I could not hit across the space.

About 10 years ago I brought my children to Nongkai, and drove further to Nakhon Pnom to visited my mother’s old friend and the house.  I was very surprised to see that my very large badminton field was only about 2 meters!!

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Perfectly Hidden

The main gate had a small door that was always open.  The first step you get in you would see a line of healthy pomegranate trees.  The fruits were large and beautifully red.  They belong to an old man who used to be the manager, then the onwer of the company sent my father to replace him, and he was always angry about it. 

I and other children like to play around the area.  One day we decided to steal the fruits.  We were sure not knowing what to do with the fruit of the job, and I, as the owner of the house, did not need to steal my own house’s fruits.  It was just the naughtiness of the childhood. 

While we were hanging on the trees picking the fruits, the old man rushed to chase us.  He had a long stick in his hand.  All the children flew out of the gate, but I had to flew in.  The uncle did not follow them.  He followed only me.  I was very frighten and ran to hide in my bedroom.  There was a curtain hanging at the door so I wrapped myself inside the curtain, felt very safe for I could see nothing but the pink base and white dots of the curtain.  The uncle got in the room.  I could hear him came direct to me and used the stick in his hand to hit me very softly.. but speaking very loud.  I was screaming inside the curtain and so much wondered why he could find me so easily.

I did not realize that the lower edge of curtain did not reach the floor, and how ‘attractive’ was the small body that wrapped in the cloth with 2 long jumping legs.

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I Forgive It, Please..

Right behind the gate, before the pomegranate trees, hung a long pole.  Some villagers sold my father a monkey and he let it there.  Our workers like to play with it, sometime let it stay on their head to search for lice.

Children also like to play with it, in the way it did not like.  They said that monkey hate shrimp paste and my brother wanted to prove it.  He put a small amount of the shrimp paste on its hand.  It was very unhappy and tried to scrub the shrimp paste off until the hand was bleeded.  He deserved a hard punishment from my father.

The monkey stayed with us for quite sometime.  One day, my brother told me to give it some food.  As I said, children always treated him not so good and it did not like children.  When I got closer to, it slapped my face.  Its nail scratched, left a line of blood on my face.

I don’t remember my action whether I cried or not but my brother was punished again for the trick he played on me.

The next day, after school, I went to see the monkey as usual but no monkey there.  I ran to ask my father, he said it ran away, but my brother said, the workers had killed the monkey and cooked it.

I was screaming and crying. I remember this very well. 

“don’t kill it, please, I forgive it.. please do not kill it.  It was my fault to get close to it.. please.. bring it back..”

My father told me that it did run away.. and must be happy with its freedom somewhere so I felt better.

I and my elder sister talked about this one day, not so long ago.  She confirmed that it was killed and they killed it in her bedroom which was near the kitchen.  It was a nightmare for her for many days.

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Aeung Mon Kai

The Pine Cone-Like Raceme Dendrobium
What a long name!  Its name in Northern Thai language was Aeung Mon Kai, means boiled egg orchid.  My father brought it home one day and put it under the magnolia coco tree.  I ducked under the tree to see the lovely flowers every day. 

Some time I found also the sweet Magnolia Coco bloomed, showed its sweetness for eyes and nose and heart...  The trees were at the end of the pomegranate line. 

There were roses, and old large Jasmine Sembec, and many other plants.

 I remember the roses because I once stood up with its thony branches on my head.  But the Jasmine “tree’ not just a plant, for it was old and big like a tree.  Its white  flowers bloomed nicely everyday, The flowers were large, aromatic and so many that we could pick them full big basin almost all year round

A few months after the orchid was with us, I went to see it less frequently because I was busy with other naughty business.  One afternoon I ducked into the tunnel of plants again.  My head bumped into the orchid pot and I fell on the ground.  A hundred of angry hornets flew out. 

I saw and heard them buzzed around me.. Either I was so dirty that I looked similar to the soil, or whatever, non of them found me.. I lied there, dare not move until everything was quiet.  Then I quietly tiptoed out of the place.

Lucky me, but not them, after I told my father I never seen the hornets there any more..

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Golden Silk and Tamarind Mountain

Actually, the house was ours.  The owner of the business sent my father there to take care of the business.  Apart from the salary, my father would get 25% of the profit.  My mother, as a fine dressmaker, was always busy but she find chances to do many other things in between.  Her job in the business was cooking 3 times a day for about 10 to 15 workers. 

Cooking was what she hated the most.. but she tried to find her way to enjoy it.. She tried to do some dessert which was fun to us, children.  My father said I was the most active in the cooking time.  Sometime it was difficult to separate between me and the pile of powder.

The business was a kind of trading.  People brought all kind of stuffs to sell to my father.  I had seen them carrying shot dead big tiger, black bare, alive pythons, skin of cows and buffalos, large rolls of black wire that I knew later that it was transmission lines, pure copper wire, part of the fallen airplane, beautiful brassware from Lao’s royal palace etc.

There were also small things like honey beehive, silk cocoon, dried chilies, and riped tamarind.

The silk cocoon was very light and beautiful.  They were beautiful creamy gold, not so yellow like it was in this picture.  I like very much to pick them to my hand one by one to look at them closely.  I did not know that it used to be the house of the silk worm and that people had to boil them before taking the silk tread to do the weaving and sold the rest to us..

The most funny time was the tamarind season.  Piles of brown and juicy ripe tamarind meat were higher than myself, spread their sweet smell everywhere.  At that time, even the drain water was sticky and brown.

They pore the tamarind to the floor, basket over basket.  When the pile was too high one worker would climb up on the top and the others threw the basket to him.

But the tamarind was not sweet like the smell.  It was VERY sour.  We use it to cook.  However, it was heaven for children.  We so much like to take some, put salt, sugar and chilies and ate them.  My part was to take the tamarind, put in the plate, took some salt, sugar and chilies and ran out to the river side.  We climbed up on a tree, mixed the tamarind, and that treetop was our sour heaven.

Now in lower north of Thailand they grew sweet tamarind.. The taste is nice but I could not take too much.  Tamarind is good for people who has constipation.

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