Another day and more shit to shovel! I took a rest day yesterday and walked around town taking pictures. Nakom Phanome really is a beautiful city and they take great pride in their walkways on the Mekong. That post is for another day as well as the alien bug encounter we had the last few days.. Today we had to haul shit to the family’s other fields about 3 miles away which entailed putting road tires on the tractor. Once we finished up for the day the brothers wanted to take me net fishing , which was great because I was all about doing some swimming.

The water was cool and just what I needed after a long day in the fields. As for the fishing, well, we didn’t catch anything and after trying three different bodies of water we settled into the largest of the man made ponds and started searching for fresh water mussels. After an hour and with the sun finally gone from the sky we counted 3 dozen mussels as our take and we headed back to the family home for a well deserved meal…which included the mussels.

I was amazed that after dinner Uncle, who is an auxillary policeman, got dressed and headed out for a night of work after working the fields for 10 hours.

I think I’m going to need a vacation from this vacation soon…

The internet here is excruciatingly slow today so not many pictures but hopefully it will be better tomorrow because I really want to post a lot of pictures of the walkways on the Mekong.

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Ok, that might have been a bit over the top or melodramatic but considering I shoveled shit on the family farm in Nakom Phanome yesterday in some serious heat I think it’s a fitting name for the rice fields here.

Two weeks ago Mama’s sister asked Pookie if falang could help out getting the rice fields ready as Uncle was a little short handed…and of course she said I could. I didn’t mind, so I was up at 6am and headed to the family farm 10 minutes outside of town.

Now shoveling shit is a bit of a misnomer because there were no shovels involved just hoes and baskets and a lot of back.  We basically moved the shit from the stable to the rice fields depositing a couple of piles in each section. Thai’s will wear long sleeved shirts while working and they offered the same to me but it just doesn’t work for the falang…but a good straw hat and constantly pouring water over my head kept me cool and also made everyone laugh.

We worked for 4 hours and then took a break for eating, showering and sleeping as it was very hot.  During this time the family hang out under the house because it’s much cooler there. While the men did the work the ladies wove baskets and chatted all day. A few hours later we went back and finished up with the last few loads of buffalo shit and called it a day. We aren’t finished but we made a good dent in it.

It’s funny, here I am helping the family out but a couple of the female family members kept saying ” falang pee baa” which I know to mean ” falang crazy”. When I asked Pookie why the family kept calling me crazy here is the answer I got…” Falang shovel shit…falang pee baaa because why falang shovel shit?” The gist of it all is falangs have money so don’t need to shovel shit and any falang that has money and still shovels shit is crazy. I’m beginning to believe they are right.

The fields didn’t kill me today but I’m told they will have another shot at me tomorrow…Falang pee baa!

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A lot of people email me and ask about what sort of jobs are on offer to foreigners in Phuket. My answer is always rather bleak – there isn’t a whole lot of work down here. If you’re a language teacher, or at least if you want to work as one, there are plenty of opportunities to work in local schools, but I’m unsure exactly how rewarding such a route is after seeing the state of some of Phuket’s language teachers.

Phuket attracts a bunch of budding photographers, who usually come to the island with more talent than they find the local media scene can cope with. There are some really good photographers in Phuket, but finding well-paid work is a challenge. If you want to be paid to take photographs in Phuket, you need to network, network and network and then the jobs will come up.

For writers, the island is a lot more forgiving. There are countless publications in Phuket and the Andaman region that will pay decent money for travel articles. It’s just a case of finding them. A number of Bangkok publications will also pay you to write about bits and pieces in Phuket. Again, networking will open up new possibilities.

Another popular line of business is property, but if you’re thinking of going down this route, you will need to be well connected and have a solid game plan. The property market in Phuket is utterly over saturated.

If you want to work in Phuket, you need to meet people and understand the way the island works. It can be a little cliquey at times, but if you can get your foot in, the rest will follow.

This post was written by Matt from Phuket Vogue and Thailand’s Lost Boy.

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