The Bear and the Bees – Page 9 – The Bear and the Bees

Goodbye winter?

It’s supposed to be spring here in the southern states of Australia but despite that, we have just had very strong winds (over 120kmh) blow through and its not over yet. It’s 10 degrees (Centigrade) today and it will be 4 degrees overnight. There are trees down all over the place and power is a luxury again. Unfortunately, an elderly man was playing golf at the course in the village over the weekend and was hit by a falling branch, but luckily not seriously hurt. Thankfully, despite the rain, there is no flooding close by, although all of the dams (man made lakes) on the farms are full and the water in the nearby creek is rushing through the bush.

The best thing about this kind of weather is the justification for lighting the fire and we are really lucky to have a great fireplace in our 174 year old house. Mind you, even in the summer we have cranked up the air-conditioning and lit the fire just to sit around it with a nice glass of red wine.

fireplace

The dogs love lying in front of the fire as well and we sometimes have to step around them in order to get to the sofa! That’s ‘Stampy’ – a cyclone on four legs and she just loves the fire. She is a cross between a fox terrier, a Chihuahua and something really really naughty. Just in case you were wondering about the Reindeer in the right hand side of the picture; we usually have Christmas in July – which for us is the depths of winter.

stampy-fire-2 The picture below was taken by our eldest daughter and shows the Christmas table decorations.

christmas-3

We lived in the tropics for twenty years and loved being warm, but eventually, we missed the seasons. Foolishly, we decided to move back to somewhere more temperate and for some strange reason, we pitched up in a place with all four seasons, in a day sometimes…. That means that we will have the fire blazing and the electric blanket will be ‘on’ tonight. There’s also a pretty good chance that a nice local Shiraz will be opened!

Thailand – a house by the river

This week, as one is wont to do, I found myself in Thailand. It’s certainly not the first time I have been there, but it’s unusual that I have five minutes to spare, let alone take a few hours for myself. On this trip, my meetings had been postponed, so I got in touch with an old friend, who I haven’t seen for ten years (at least) and I had the best day. We met up early one morning after he’d dropped his daughter at the International school in Bangkok and I was already wringing wet, after having walked from the BTS station. It wasn’t raining of course, just over 30 degrees with what felt like 1000% humidity.

Bill hadn’t changed and only his hairline had updated itself. He was just as annoyingly tall (6′ 4′) and still had the old twinkle in his eye that I remembered when we worked together in Indonesia during the last days of the Suharto regime. He was driving a “very Bill like” truck; a high rise (for a shortarse like me) twin cab ute complete with a snorkel, large knobbly tyres and bull bar that scared the Thai drivers into letting him edge out in the morning rush hour traffic. He’d invited me to travel up to Kanchanaburi (of the ‘Bridge over the river Kwai’ fame) and see his weekender that was in the final stages of construction. Bill needed to inspect the curtains before paying the guy who had made them and check on the workmen who were installing the kitchen and I was delighted to be invited to tag along.

I had never seen the ‘Bridge’ and so we took a small detour and headed into the backpacker haven of Kanchanaburi town. The original bridge was destroyed in the war and its ruins are still visible upstream but the current rail bridge serves as the focal point to all the war veterans and tourists who come to see where Alec Guinness and his men toiled and died under the harsh rule of the Japanese Army.

The bridge is actually quite small and it is packed with tourists literally treading the boards. The precinct is surrounded by the ubiquitous ‘t’ shirt stalls and uniformed soldiers, (who might not be real soldiers) posing for pictures with the tourists.

One minute and one photograph later, Bill looked at me said “done?” and in answer we both turned and walked away thinking of the brave men who suffered there and on the nearby Hellfire pass.

Bill’s place was around 30 minutes upstream and on the banks of the river Kwai. He’d found an ideal block of land and had leased it on a 30 year renewable basis from the farmer who lived at the top of the block.After months and months of looking at demountable homes, log cabins and eco houses, he’d settled on a pavilion style house made from six and a half shipping containers. Neither his architect nor his builder had experience of building residences from containers, although he had built several resorts and in theory, they felt that it would work…..

From the inside – the flat pack kitchen is being fitted. You can see the second bedroom pavilion in the background. There will be a pool between the buildings eventually.

inside

The garden, with its newly laid grass, is fully irrigated (from the river) and has several mature mango and jackfruit trees. As usual with Bill, he’d thoughtfully stocked up the fridge with cold beer and we pulled up some chairs and enjoyed the view of the river, which is about 30 metres from the deck.

He’s planning on a floating jetty with some sun loungers and a mooring for his boat, which will set him up very nicely. It’s a fantastic spot in a lovely area of Thailand and the whole ambiance is very, very relaxing. All I need now is a family invitation and the time to go!

Mongolia – big sky and wide open spaces…

This is the Gobi desert, its not all sand and as you can see, it’s even relatively green in parts. The important thing to note is that if you are in the Gobi, you’re a long, long way from anywhere. There is nothing in the way of your sight from horizon to horizon. Except perhaps for herds of camels, horses, flocks of sheep and tribes of goats.

You’d think that they were wild, but if you look carefully, some of them have tags or rope collars and with some of the groups, if you look really really carefully, you might see a nomad herding them on horseback to better pastures. Sometimes, they just seem to roam at will. The nomads live in ‘Gers’ which the Russians call Yurts.

This charming couple are locals to this area of the Gobi. They actually have two yurts; one that they cook and sleep in and another that functions like a living room. Powered by solar panels and a small wind turbine, it has satellite TV, a fridge/freezer, a playstation (for their kids, who weren’t at home at the time) and pretty much most of the comforts of home. The loo however, was a pile of breeze blocks some 150 metres downwind, which wouldn’t be much fun in winter….

I tried mare’s milk for the first time while I was there, imagine a sour, slightly fizzy cream and you’ll get the idea, but it wasn’t as bad as it sounds… After the milk, they gave me snuff, from an ornate gem stone bottle – which is apparently something that male children receive at their majority from their parents and it becomes as family heirloom. I can’t say that I cared for the snuff, it was like spices in talcum power, but they seemed to enjoy the sight of me sneezing my way through it. They also enjoyed the sight of my face when they gave me a large silver soup bowl (also an heirloom) full of vodka. I thought that it was to pass around the room, but no; that was for me. The next stage of the journey passed painlessly. Apparently.

This shows you a little of the vastness of the Gobi, but it reminded me a lot of the Australian outback in that there’s nothing there at first glance, but when you stop the car and look carefully, you see the animals, the birds of prey and in the case of Mongolia, the isolated Nomads Ger’s.

I stayed in the ‘socialist workers paradise’ of Tsog Tsetsii (Sog Set Si) while I was in the lower Gobi and it’s a small coal mining town. It had a very basic guesthouse which had brown water and cable internet that killed my work computer, but their food was good. By that stage of my trip, I had of course, given up asking what I was having. I was checking out the local hospital and seeing what kind of infrastructure there was in the area and the hospital had plasma and oxygen (my first two questions) but no x ray machine (my third). I did however notice that the hospital had a clap clinic, so clearly the mines have contributed something to the town!