Return to Esan My Second Home 2014

Return to Esan or Issan more known as Northeast Thailand, my location is in Nakhon Phanom Province and is still years behind most of Thailand. It's economy and way of life is still at the poorest end of Thailand's people. My home looked like it had aged 5 years, yet it only been 16 months since leaving. The black mildew was randomly located all around the white walls of the house the walls around the around the house. When in fact was repainted just 4 years ago in 2010. The weather here is harsh on any structure, the hot Sun year long or the severe Monsoon season of wind and rain. Our plan was to paint the inside of our home this trip. Being built in 2003 we felt it would be time to do it. Covering the many of the thin crack lines on the walls and Gecko lizard messy markings. Thai paint back then was not best, nor did my builder choose the highest quality of paint. Throughout our whole village all the dwellings were no better and vegetation was way out of control. Heck, you cut it down one day and in a week it looks just like it did before. Everything growing so fast. The rice fields are doing the same. Some have been replanted 2 or 3 times because of the heavy flooding. I have been told this is one of the worst rainy seasons in the past 50 years.

The newest and biggest things I have seen are the three major food shopping centers. Nakhon Phanom city perimeter now has a BIG C Super Center, a large MAKROL, and newly expanded TESCO-LOTUS Center. All three appear to be thriving offering the people so much better quality and variety of goods from clothes, meats, seafoods, foods, and more. These stores not only help the people, they help the government and it's economy, since they collect VAT (sales taxes) at all registers. These Centers also bring franchise restaurants like MK, KFC, The Pizza Company, Dairy Queen, and even a Big Screen Cinema showing the newest releases. Hey, did I mentioned it is air conditioned. Today we visited the local economy outdoor Market in the center of town. The market place has been given a new roofing and building structure, boy what an improvement. Business there seem just as strong and flourishing. Home grown and home made items continued to be brought to market for sell from the outlying villages and farms. The downside, prices are UP! Every where and everything, transportation costs is their biggest reason when you ask WHY? Let me wrap this up, need to get some photos and video taken, so I can dress up my writings. It's my time!