Monday, May 13, 2013
Ban Rong Phuket.
Ban Rong is on the east coast of Phuket....the unfashionable side; not the tourist side.
It is a fishing village on a river estuary. There is a jetty for boats to take locals back and forth to various islands......and a few visitors.
We have been to one of the islands during a previous Thailand trip.
It is a Moslem community.
Ban Rong boasts a floating restaurant with good food. Naturally no alcohol is served.......but who cares when pineapple shake is on the menu!
I love this.....it depicts all that is good and basic about Thailand.
It feels a million miles from the gloss and greed of a shopping mall. But probably the fisher folk have been mall shopping and are gradually being sucked into the consumerism that has developed in Thailand.
And why not?
We all aspire to a decent standard of living, with relative comfort and modern conveniences to make life feel easier than the times which our ancestors knew.
But the locally caught fish are prepared in the traditional way, by the side of the long tail boat.
This young man had an assistant - a boy aged about 8, wielding a chopping knife with admirable dexterity.
It was good to wander about on the floating boards and see the local life - including the preparation of our food.
My daughter in law relaxed, as we explored.
He's got his hat back!
It suits everybody - one we found at a car boot sale back home.
Across the river, we watch a man checking his lines.
Does he look a bit grumpy?
Maybe - could be because we are throwing bits into the water and watching the fish gather and take the food.
Pineapple shake - thick with crushed fruit and ice.
After our food we we went for a stroll along the newly created walkway over the mangrove waters.
I assume that it will become a longer walkway, with a bridge over the river.
My grand daughter knows that an unusual view is more interesting sometimes.
She borrowed my second camera.
The hat has been passed on yet again!
I have lots more pictures, of course.
All I have done here is depict some flavour of Ban Rong and combined it with happy family snapshots.
It is not the holiday album that many crave......they are turning red on the west coast beaches!
But really, if you have travelled several thousand miles, as we did.......then do try to find the heart and soul of Phuket.
It is a fishing village on a river estuary. There is a jetty for boats to take locals back and forth to various islands......and a few visitors.
We have been to one of the islands during a previous Thailand trip.
It is a Moslem community.
Ban Rong boasts a floating restaurant with good food. Naturally no alcohol is served.......but who cares when pineapple shake is on the menu!
It feels a million miles from the gloss and greed of a shopping mall. But probably the fisher folk have been mall shopping and are gradually being sucked into the consumerism that has developed in Thailand.
And why not?
We all aspire to a decent standard of living, with relative comfort and modern conveniences to make life feel easier than the times which our ancestors knew.
This young man had an assistant - a boy aged about 8, wielding a chopping knife with admirable dexterity.
It suits everybody - one we found at a car boot sale back home.
Across the river, we watch a man checking his lines.
Does he look a bit grumpy?
Maybe - could be because we are throwing bits into the water and watching the fish gather and take the food.
Pineapple shake - thick with crushed fruit and ice.
After our food we we went for a stroll along the newly created walkway over the mangrove waters.
I assume that it will become a longer walkway, with a bridge over the river.
My grand daughter knows that an unusual view is more interesting sometimes.
She borrowed my second camera.
The hat has been passed on yet again!
I have lots more pictures, of course.
All I have done here is depict some flavour of Ban Rong and combined it with happy family snapshots.
It is not the holiday album that many crave......they are turning red on the west coast beaches!
But really, if you have travelled several thousand miles, as we did.......then do try to find the heart and soul of Phuket.
