Farmers Breakfast. In western counntries this means bread, egg, bacon, cheese. None of this has a tradition in Thailand – especially not in the Isaan countryside. Over there you will find Chicken-Stew instead. I calle it Chicken-Stew because there are all parts of the chicken in it. Even the feet and the intestines. And of course you will find Som Tam – Papaya Salad. Hot like hell but always tasty. In ddition everything that is green an grows on the side of the road.



To get into the mood: The Iron Buffalo. A multi-purpose machine which can be used as tractor, car, power generator und much more. The possibilities are almost unlimited.



Never to be missing. Chillies as much as possible. Isaan has the hottest Papaya salad of all Thailand.



Typically Isaan: Kaao Niao – Sticky Rice. In Thailand`s Northeast people eat with their fingers. The stiky rice helps doing so. You take a big lump of sticky rice in your left hand. With your right hand you will break smaller pieces from it away which you put in your mouth together with the actual dish. The rice is also used as some kind of spoon. Eating with your fingers isn`t as easy as you might think. During my first trials I always looked like a 3 year old after eating spaghetti.



Now it gets a little bit fishy. Thai cuisine tastes great but once in a while smells pretty bad. Fish sauce (left) is for some Europeans already unbearable but “Pla Ra”-Sauce is just cruel. It`s kinda sauce mde from rotten fish – the spice of Isaan . Even some Thais from Bangkok get cramps in their stomachs after eating it. I don`t have a problem with it though I would not drink from that bottle.



Like always the most beautiful at the end: Lao Kaao – Rice Liquor. Brute stuff if you drink it pure. Even the rice farmers of Isaan have to drink a big gulp of water afterwards. At Mor Lam-Festivals this spirit works grea with me. At least people say so, because I could never remember.

Tags: thailand thai udon thani kumpapwapi country tradition Koonsay esarn e-sarn issan, isaan

I guess this ist he most ignoratnt headline that I have published for a long time, but this is really what happened and this is also what this post is all about.
During my last trip to Issan, the northeast region of Thailand, one of the most important buddhist ceremonies of the whole year took place in baan Konsaay, the village where I stayed.
For that ceremony all family altars in all houses in the village and the houses too had been connected with each other with a white cotton thread, like it is used in all buddhist ceremonies. The thread then led bundled to the statue of a high rank abbot in the lately constructed extension of the temple.
In the whole temple area grass mats had been spreaded und above the area a huge network of cotton threads had been created, from which thousand of single threads were hanging down.. Of course that net was also connected to the village houses the family altars and the statue in the temple.
Then, in the evening my metamorphosis as a part-time nun took place. More details about that can be found in my earlier post My Day as a Buddhist Part-time Nun.
When we arrived at the temple –now as nuns- we took those white cotton threads that were hanging down and spun them around our heads. So did all the hundreds of other women from the village. A couple of hundreds in total. From that moment on we were all spiritually connected to each other, the family altars, the houses of the village and the statue in the temple. This was certainly the most mystic occurance that I have ever expernienced.
After that we lighted candles in front of us and of course also the obligatory incense sticks. At that time it had been 9 p.m. The ceremony did not end before half past one in the morning after singing more than a thousand timest he same buddhist prayer.
In retrospective a very touching experience, although a was scared all the time that being wired up like that, somebody might be able to reda my thoughts or that I just would fuse.

Check out the video:



For some reason the video is a little grainy again so I added the best pictures again.











Tags: mystik thailand thai issan isaan esarn e-sarn pics bilder u-kaew udon thani konsaay travel buddhismus

Once again some nice motion pictures from Baan Konssay, U-Kaew district, Udon-Thani province

Check it out:



Tags: thailand thai issan isaan esarn e-sarn pics bilder u-kaew udon thani konnsaay travel