On the Road Again, Thai Style
By Talen on Sep 18, 2009 in Nakhon Phanom, Thailand Pictures, rural thailand
Martyn over at Beyond the Mango Juice had a great post the other day, Off Road in Thailand, that really struck a note with me. Rural Thailand is really an amazing place if you’re in the right frame of mind and getting lost on the back roads of rural Thailand can be an almost zen like experience.
My last trip I helped out with the family rice fields and I learned a lot about what the rural Thai families do to sustain themselves. Most of the family fields are just behind their house but they own a few fields about 4 miles away so that meant taking to the open road on the trusty tractor. I had my camera with me so I decided to take some ” on the road” pictures as we finished hauling our last few loads of manure.
I never really thought about posting these pictures until Martyn’s post reminded me just how much I missed being in Nakhon Phanom and how beautiful the back roads can be. So, Martyn these photo’s are dedicated to you. I call this gallery ” Rural Thailand as viewed from a tractor by a falang”
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Talen thanks for the mention and from a top site like yours that’s a good plug for me. I’m glad I was able to inspire you to write this post otherwise the wonderful photos would have gathered dust. So many of the photos remind me of Wilai’s village and luckily sometime next week I’ll be there and you’ve inspired me over the last few months to click click click when I’m in Thailand to gather pictures for future stories such as some of the great ones you put together. Thanks and I love the photos and soon I’ll be able to reach out and touch them.
Martyn´s last blog ..Off Road In Thailand
I wish I was heading back to Thailand next week like you are…take a ton of pictures!
Luckily these are not so distant memories as I sit here at an internet cafe in Vientiane, Loas biding my time waiting for the taxi back to Nong Khai and then the short bus ride back to our farm in Phak Khat and the piece and quiet rural Thailand offers
Talen good to see some rural pics. They look quite different to here in Southern Central Thailand.
Not many rice paddies here, lots of coconut groves though and fields where they seem to mostly grow sweet potato.
Mike´s last blog ..Thai Military Coup-A Happy Anniversary?
Mike, definitely no coconut groves that I’ve seen up in these parts..everyone has a few trees though. This is rice growing country and every available square inch of land is growing rice. Every now and then you see a small field of corn but the corn is a real sickly looking variety…very small.
I love those little Diesel tractors they use everywhere – one head light and tiller steering.
The best things are the trucks they sell with no engine – they use the same tractor as the engine and haul goods to market.
Chuck,
I haven’t seen the trucks they sell with no engines yet…I’ll have to keep my eyes open for them. I’ve seen plenty of the tractors though. There is a small hardware store in Nachon Phanom that has about 15 new ones chained up outside and ready to go.
I don’t know if the trucks are country wide – I have only noticed them near my wifes home town in Nakhon Sawan.
Just imagine a full size stake bed truck being powered by one of these tractors.
They transverse mount the tractors in the front of the truck chassis – kind of an interesting adaptation.
I guess the trucks are called “E-Taen” or something like that.
I found a link to a picture of a smaller version of the trucks I have seen.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Isan_Rot-E-Taen.JPG
That is so cool. I think I have seen one of those trucks before but from behind…I would have definitely taken a pic if I saw it from the front.
I haven’t seen anything like it in Nakhon Phanom …I’ll have to keep my eyes peeled because I’d love to catch a ride or drive one of these things.
Next time I go to my wifes home town I will send you a few pictures of the larger version of these trucks.