We Were Up Early,

for a 06.00 start to our journey to Kai's village,

it is about another two hours past Korat, sadly 1 year ago Kai's father passed away, so we are going to make the 360 day ceremony, all of the people in her village and some of the neighbouring ones have been invited to the ceremony,

we stopped about half way at a cafe/restaurant in the mountains just before Korat,

 the restaurant's shrine in the car park,

 good job we booked a table!

 at the rear they had a water feature,

 with some orchids growing there,

 these were quite unusual,

 in that these are one of the few orchids,

 that have a nice smelling scent,

 we settled for some Thai food,

 chicken fried rice for Diana and myself,

 Diana with her Billingham bag,

when ever I go up country it it always amazes me to see so many different loads on the back of a pick up truck,

 and I often have to ask, when is a pick up over loaded?

 or truck for that matter,

 when we arrived at Kai's village food preparation was already under way,

 we went for a walk around the village after saying hello to everyone, I was intrigued by this bug farm,

the little critters are grown on egg containers, given food and water they grow quickly,

 I have heard prices of 80 to 300 baht a kilo being paid for them,

 these I think are crickets,

 carefully replace the net, we do not want any getting away,

 food preparation continues,

 the shrine in memory of Kai's father will be the focus of prayers,

we continued our walk around the village, Diana just loved to find fruit on the trees,

 we found pig number one being cooked,

 Diana said the pig was smiling,

 a band of helpers all locals in the village keeping an eye on things,

in many gardens there are shrines for the land spirits to take up residence in,

 a typical village scene,

 the hut is a rice store with chickens being kept underneath,

 as we pass a tamarind tree,

 two of the locals shell the fruit,

 a typical village house,

 with a chicken and chicks kept the traditional way,

 another village home,

 this one with a coral to keep the cows safe at night,

 we made our way past another tamarind tree,

 the fruit/seeds in their pods waiting to be picked,

 the owner of the house the tree was in invited us to look around her home,

 then very kindly gave Diana some tamarinds to take home with her,

 some papaya growing by the roadside,

 they looked delicious,

 another rice store,

 we disturbed a cat having a catnap,

 we made our way towards the local temple,

 some of the monks robes drying in the breeze,

the water level was low, stepping stones are made of concrete for when the water level rises during the rainy season,

  there is another pool which is is beside the temple,

 by the other side of the temple there is another building,

 that houses some statues of Buddha,

 and lists donations made by people to pay for them,

 I am guessing they will be housed in the temple at some stage,

Kai is at the remembrance stone in the temple wall that is dedicated to her father,

 the temple itself,

 viewed through one of the entrance archways,

 Diana keeping out of the sun,

 as with most temples everything is immaculate,

 the stairways with ornamental dragons,

 looking very fierce,

 the front of the building,

 a detail from it,

 the single front double door,

 a scene from one of the panels,

 everything looks so fresh, but the temple is not a new structure,

 the roof supports are so detailed,

 on our way back to the village I spotted this,

 a small black and yellow snake,

the black shape is a piece of ash, I did not know if it was poisonous, we showed the picture to some of the locals, opinion was divided, but we left it alone in any event, just in case,

 when we returned the sound system had arrived,

 the stack system was huge,

 to give you an idea of the size of it Steve stood in front of the stack,

well we needed a drink after the walk!