Neat Photo Story

Boxer has put together a great photo story on moving the house.

www.boxertravels.net/house/index.htm (http://www.boxertravels.net/house/index.htm)

Brings back nice memories of past visits to Issan.

wonderful! happy memories here too!

Thank God I've never visited or lived there.

Thank God I've never visited or lived there.

Yes god is good, protecting them from the likes of you.

Thank God I've never visited or lived there.

Those few words say so much about you. :8(

G.

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

did Boxer do all the web work ?..it's very well done..great layout etc. Great story. :salute:

did Boxer do all the web work ?..it's very well done..great layout etc. Great story. :salute:

Couldn't agree with you more Lunchtime O'Booze. Thanks Boxer. :cheers:


G.

[Boxer]

Thank you guys you make me blush! All my own work indeed yes and more to come.

[Aunty]

Yeah, cool pics. Looks like a very productive time for the family and a nice new house. I'm sure they'll be very happy with that!

But what I can't figure out from the photos', it looks like the whole house was rebuilt after it was moved. So why move it? Why not just build a new one on the new site and demolish the old one? It would save 7000 Baht! Or am I missing something?

Boxer's story is compelling viewing and full credit for doing something really useful and practical for a Thai family to continue to enjoy their traditional way of life. Most of us have had trouble with water pumps.

However, it does illustrate how what started out as a 7,000 baht project finished up costing 300,000 baht! Thailand's hidden but real costs are rarely calculated into budgets. I hope his share of the buffalo herd have been well insured!

I remember years ago a real Pattaya character "Murphy" - an American living with his Thai boyfriend in Chicago - telling the story of the joint venture he had undertaken with another young Thai partner in a chicken farm. Everything went well at first until he had a letter telling him that the poultry farm have been visited by fowl pest and that half the chickens had died - his half!

I lost count of how many times various boyfriends lost their parents or grandparents, sent their brothers into the monk-hood that necessitated expensive "send off" parties, the desperate need for a motorbike up-country, or the dreaded red/black ball ballot for the services that could be manouevered by paying on the side anything from 10,000 baht upwards.

Its all part of Thailand's rich tapestry and given the low annual incomes enjoyed by Thai country folk understandable how westerners are roped in to help with the finances.

I hope that now Boxer's house has been completed that he will not himself be moving up country. Ex-pats and tourists alike would suffer a great loss if he was unable to continue to contribute such wonderful sidelights on his experiences in the Kingdom and provide all of us with his fascinating contributions to his own, and this Board/Forum.

Keep up the good work Brian: we all appreciate your wit, hard work and enthusiasm even though we may be thousands of miles away.

[Boxer]

Thanks again guys. To Aunty yes i went into it with eyes wide open and knew the total cost was going to be well over 7000 but still cheaper then i thought. I had visited and stayed at the house for 2 years before i did anything and my boyfriened, now of 4 years, was well worth it and continues to be. We hope for a visa to Uk this year so fingers crossed.
To demolish and rebuild from scratch would have been trebled the cost of rebuilding and we would have lost the style of the old house that grandad built early 1900's. The timber uprights which came out of the ground as if put in yesterday, you could not buy today at any cost. Just two downsides, the increased size of the metal roof is very noisy in the wet season and we did not pay enough attention to drainage of roof water. Not my fault as Momma ordered and had loads of earth put in the wrong place....TIT

[Aunty]

Cheers, spouting?

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

an Australian country town in a farmhouse with a tin roof-"Just two downsides, the increased size of the metal roof is very noisy in the wet season ".

I loved the sound of the rain on the roof when there was a downpour..I found it very relaxing.

[bing]

Enjoyed the Picutes too,, kudos for story...

Thank God I've never visited or lived there.

Those few words say so much about you. :8(

G.

absolutely, I am a high-so. :bounce:

[Wazza]

[

I remember years ago a real Pattaya character "Murphy" - an American living with his Thai boyfriend in Chicago - telling the story of the joint venture he had undertaken with another young Thai partner in a chicken farm. Everything went well at first until he had a letter telling him that the poultry farm have been visited by fowl pest and that half the chickens had died - his half!

Just a short diversion off thread, but it is the norm here. The above quote by geneman brought a wry smile to me and a flood of memories about my old friend Murphy I can picture him now telling this story so here is one about him. In the distant past I had a bar and guesthouse in Pattaya and dear Murphy noticed that I would be quite often bailed up by a few customers listening to the usual tales of woe of the buffalo die, boy goes ilk this was usually about 11pm - midnight. I returned to the bar one night to find Murphy seating me at a corner table with a large Lolly Jar full of peppermints but crudely labeled Valium wreathed in a string of razorblades (this is pre Crazy Pub).
On sitting down he unfurls a banner which said UNHAPPY HOUR we will listen to your troubles but drinks are double the price. Suffice to say there were no takers.
Murphy also was one of those rare farang that was kept by a thai