Ubon airport and excess luggage

Just a word of caution for travellers out of Ubon.

It would seem that the scales at the Thai airways check in counter may be a little off as an email I just received from my Mum in Australia would testify to.

She emailed me saying “Well my suitcase weighed 27.5kg at Ubon, 21.5kg at Bangkok and 19.5kg at Melbourne. So I guess if I was going around the world I wouldnt have any lugguage by the end of it!!”

Just a heads up warning if they ever try and hit you for excess baggage, it might be worth trying a different set of scales or even weighing it yourself before heading to the airport if you are worried that it might be overweight.

Dickie Knee or a mop?

Last month I decided that my daughter Marisah was a dead ringer for Dickie Knee. Read that blog here.

Now I am not to sure as perhaps a mop is much closer to the truth!

Yes, yet another Thai update!

The rumours are still flying thick and fast and as there are so many people interested in what Thai airways are up to I thought it best I present any new information that comes my way. I need to stress that this is not confirmed and is just a rumour at this stage.

My informant emailed me and said “Hi Andrew! Got news from my friend yesterday about Thai Airways.
He said, they decided not to cancel Thai Air in Ubon BUT they will reduce the flight to 1 flight, and Nok Air 2 flights.
Stupid thing is that all Thai Air staffs have to move to BKK anyway, so it doesn’t make sense to let Nok Air control that 1 flight of Thai Air. The whole systems messed up “

It is also been reported on a local Thai Forum called Guide Ubon.

Amusing Thai translation to English

What a busy week! After my Iast blog my parents, a family friend, the kids and I packed up and headed off to the village for 2 days arriving back with enough time to quickly drink a coffee at Peppers before going straight to the airport to drop our friend and my Dad off as they were heading home to Australia. My lovely Mum had offered to stay on for another week to help out (it was perfect timing!)

24 hours later Seerung and I were off to Bangkok for 36 hours for a business trip to sell some of our Agarwood to buyers there. Arriving back at 7am Seerung went straight to work and I went straight to bed!

My sister in law, her husband and one of their daughters arrived yesterday as the BIL is going to be working in the shop and SIL will be helping out both at the shop and at home (swapping with me.)

Mum flies out on Sunday which will be really sad. Yesterday Mum decided to pack up one of her bags early and obviously Ariya saw her doing that. Later that night when I put her to sleep she started to cry which is very unusual. I asked her what was wrong and she said that ‘Grandma is leaving’. I cheered her up by telling her that it isn’t for a few more days and Grandma went upstairs and gave her a cuddle as well. Sunday will be a sad day but at least she now has her cousin as a playmate which should side track her!

I haven’t forgotten the trip to Laos photos and now I have also received some great pics of the visit to the village via email from my Dad which will also be posted soon.

Now for the Amusing Thai to English translation. You see them everywhere travelling around this great country but for some reason this one amused me more then most.

Electricity in Thailand

Many a foreigner visiting Thailand’s shores have shaken their head looking at the Thai power supply which at best could be called Spaghetti!

Now I am no expert on power but it really does amaze me how anyone can actually have a half decent power service when you look at the state of the actual lines.

It them really amazes me when I discover that I have a much better and constant power supply here then I ever did back home in Australia or New Zealand! The house that I am currently in has lost the power once in the last 8 months and then only for about 30 minutes!

A few weeks ago it looked like a car had smashed into a power pole about 100m away from my house causing it to lean at a very impressive angle!

Within a few days the local power boys were in attendance and had it fixed up in no time!

Christmas Day in Ubon, January 12

As I blogged about previously we had decided to celebrate Christmas on January 12 as that was the day after my parents arrived.

The kids had been asking me for the last two weeks ‘when Christmas was coming’ because ‘it takes too long!’

After the Christmas tree at the shop had reached it’s used by date we asked its owner if we could borrow it for just a few weeks more to take home to set it up for the kids much anticipated day.

My folks and good family friend Des arrived on schedule on the train from Bangkok and we headed straight off to Peppers to see Seerung and sort the visitors out with a much needed caffeine fix!

The next day was Christmas (for the kids) and we had a great morning of catching up and exchanging gifts. The next few days were spent showing them around and just hanging out together. Of course we had a business to run as well which always meant a change of plans just about every day but over all a good time was had by all.

After about five days my brother Paul arrived and so Dad, Des, Paul and I set sail for our business trip to Laos. This travel report will be coming soon.

Since

Christmas… finally!

A few weeks back I blogged about postponing Christmas due to various reasons. I am so glad that I did as on Christmas morning we ended up having a meeting with our lawyers going over a business problem that we had at the time. Thankfully the day improved as we had shut the kitchen for a few days and so managed to sneak away from work to attend a party that we had been invited to. It was a really good afternoon and the day started to at least feel a little bit like Christmas.

We arrived home in the late afternoon and went through the motions of getting the kids fed and ready for bed. I remember sitting outside feeling a little sorry for myself because even though I had tried to convince myself that our Christmas wasn’t until January 12, I still missed that Christmas spirit on the actual day of Christ’s Birth, December 25.

That all changed though around about 9pm after the kids were in bed. Suddenly I heard Christmas carols and quickly discovered that they were not coming from the TV. I went outside and found a mini choir singing Christmas Carols in both Thai and English next door! I raced upstairs and woke the kids up and took them back down stairs to listen. As they finished singing for the neighbours they noticed us and asked if they could sing in out front yard. Of course we said yes!

So in they came and belted out four fantastic songs. I had tears in my eyes listening to the music that I was used to back home, the real reason for the season.

They were from a church who had a tradition of every Christmas night going around to all their members and singing a few tunes. Boy was I grateful!

Ubon with a splash of colour

Outside Peppers and all the way along Uppalisan Road from the airforce base to the entrance to the passenger terminal used to be a big ugly grey wall. Thankfully it was partially obscured by some half decent trees. Then one day the council came around and pulled them all out. I was really disappointed as it gave the place a splash of much needed green.

It stayed like this for a few months until I was blinded upon my return from our short New Year holiday as the complete wall was painted a brilliant white. It was blinding but at least we saved on our power bill as we hardly need any lights on in the shop!

Almost immediately we noticed starting from the terminal entrance end people starting to paint murals on the walls. They are slowly working their way up our end and I must say that I am impressed by some of the works. A lot of school kids but also adults seem to be painting as well. It has a theme which seems to be about the King of Thailand and the projects he has done to help his people.

Here is a photo of just one mural and when I get time I will take some more of some completed works of art.

It is great to see this happening in Ubon as it really has lifted the mood of this road which I would estimate to carry the second most amount of traffic in any given day within the city. Lets hope they do some similar projects elsewhere also.

Trip to Laos part three

The road from Pakse to Savanakhet was uneventful apart from a truck roll over and a section of irrigated rice fields which broke up the rather brown barren landscape with some patches of brilliant green.

We got into Savanakhet around 1pm so stopped for lunch. Previously I had entered the location from google earth into my GPS of a highly recommended French Restaurant. Unfortunately the location directed us to the middle of the Mekong River! (Well I did stop on the bank.) Actually this happened on a couple of occasions on this trip and someone told me that if you take locations from Google Earth and transfer then to your GPS they are usually a few hundred metres out. Why is this?

Anyway we ended up at another mediocre place for food before pushing on as we had made a booking back over the river in Thailand at a place called Mukdahan. It was a place I had read about online and spoken with the owner on the phone, a bit of a bed and breakfast that we were looking forward to.

Everything went smooth at the border crossing until the final check point when we were sent back due to some irregularity. It turns out that we had forgotten to check the girls into Laos. What an embarrassing stuff up! As my girls have Thai and Australian Passports we obviously only brought their Thai ones as it is so much easier and cheaper for a Thai to enter Laos then a Westerner. So easy that we simply forgot to check in! While I was organising my visa the girls waited in no mans land having a coffee and then we then simply drove off.
The Laos immigration people gave us a hard time demanding a $200 US dollar fine needed to be paid. Seerung talked them down to 500 baht ($15) thank goodness.

So finally we were back in Thailand and easily found Dons place. We unloaded and had a look around. It was exactly what we had pictured, a room for us and a room for the kids. The rooms opened out onto the pool deck and had great views of the might Mekong River. The place got even better though when we started ordering food! It really was top quality stuff. Imported western food goods and the best quality local produce for the Thai food meant that for the three days that we were there we didn’t eat anywhere else!! We did pop into town twice but always ended up back at the house for meals.

Basically we just played with the kids, swam, read, ate and drank. It was just what we needed. After three days we paid up our quite modest bill and made the 2 1/2 hour trip home to Ubon. We were relaxed and ready to face a new year with the business this time as 100% owners.

If anyone is interested in getting hold of Don then you can call him on 042632577 or email donhunter@windowslive.com

Here is the outside of his house.

The pool with the Mekong in the background on a misty morning.

Peeking over the fence and this is what you see.

Checking out the pool.

Breakfast.

The best Lamb Chops I have had for years!

Steak was going to be on the menu that night but Ariya wouldn’t catch it for us!

Trip to Laos part two, Pakse and the Bolaven Plateau

Well I am back from another Laos trip getting in late yesterday afternoon. Before I start blogging about that and uploading some fantastic photos that my Dad took I need to finish my previous Laos trip report from a few weeks ago. I don’t know how long this will take as between work, having my parents here, visiting the village for two days followed by a two day business trip to Bangkok all in the next 9 days I am not quite sure how much time I will have.

We left after breakfast for the three hour drive to Pakse in Laos. This was he first time we had taken our car out of the country but apart from a few small hiccups it really didn’t take all that long.

Seerung getting charged double for the compulsory car insurance really made my day. When I asked her how much it cost she happily told me 400 baht and I said that it should have been only 200. She showed me this receipt for 50,000 kip and so I asked how much to you think 50,000 kip is? 400 baht was her reply – the look on her face when I told her that 50,000 kip is actually 200 baht was priceless! She was furious and wanted me to drive back and have a go at them! Seerung had never been to Laos before (amazing given that her home village is less then 20 km from the border) and most Thais look down on the lowly Lao so for her to be ripped off minutes after arriving gave me the great opportunity to say ‘welcome to my world in Thailand’. I should clarify that this only is evident occasionally in Bangkok and never here in Ubon Ratchatani.

We arrived around 2pm into Pakse and checked in to the Pakse hotel. I do not recommend this place. Their advertising was a little mis leading and they had some seriously safety flaws which when you have small kids is a real worry. The rooftop restaurant is worth checking out though.

We went out in search of food and tried a place on the opposite corner. The food was terrible and when Seerung took Marisah to the toilet she came back out almost dry reaching so we quickly paid our bill and went back to the hotel to use the toilet!

We then took the car to try and find Delta Coffee but they were closing early that day due to the staff all being tired. Back to the hotel and a walk through the market then off to the Mekong river for fried fish then back to the hotel room for an early night.

After the average buffet breakfast in the morning we thought we would try Delta Coffee again for a caffeine fix before heading up to the Bolaven Plateau. Thwarted again as they weren’t open even though it was an hour after they time the told us yesterday they would be, the staff must have really been tired!

We were heading up to the Bolaven Plateau to have a look at the plantation that our shop here in Ubon, Peppers, buy our coffee from. We were given directions but were not told how bad the road was. The road to Paksong was fine but from there to the plantation it was just terrible. I think I got in to 2nd gear once and that was only for a few seconds. We we thought we had arrived at the farm and turned into the driveway we asked someone how much further. He told us another 10 kms! We turned around and headed back which was a shame as I found out later that it was only 2kms and the road was quite good.

Here is a well looked after plantation along the way.

The school are so much poorer looking then those of their neighbours in Thailand.

Back to Paksong where we saw a English sign saying coffee so thought we should drop in. It was run by an eccentric but likeable fella from Holland who went by the name of ‘Coffee’ and runs tours of coffee plantations for visitors. This is his website.

Notice the beautiful rich soil that is prevalent around the plateau that his wife is levelling out in the front yard? Well I commented on how rich it was and asked him what he planned to grow. “Concrete” he replied!

Next door a local lady was de-husking rice.

While a few kilometres down the road coffee beans were drying.

We went back to Pakse and I took the kids to sleep at the hotel while Seerung went off for a massage. That evening we all went to the roof top for a drink and to watch the beautiful sun set.

Here is Ariya and Marisah enjoying the fresh air.

The next morning after breakfast we headed north for Savanakhet then over the river back to Thailand and a town called Mukdahan. This will be part three of the report coming soon.

To finish, here are a few more pics from around the small, quiet but apparently thriving town of Pakse and then best (and perhaps only) good thing the French left behind – yummy fresh bread!