Western Thailand – Page 2 – Simply cycling around

Ratchaburi, Pottery factory visit with Pita

This afternoon, Pita offered to visit a pot factory. Pottery is the emblem of Ratchaburi which for decades had the best mud in the country and produced very good quality products. Today it’s still the case but there is more competition with material coming from north of Thailand. Today, their worse enemy is plastic. Since the last 10-15 years, their production decreased a lot because people prefer using polluting plastic rather than handmade pottery. Naturally the prices are very different but that should not be a reason! By 2050, because of our crazy plastic production (helped by the overfishing industry) there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans! Humans, we are irresponsible.

Ratchaburi, Still working and learning on Adobe house

When I’m not visiting some places with Pita, I keep working on her house. Today I’m learning how to do my first window. Then we will keep doing some other walls. Stephane has left this morning to go to Bangkok. I’m going soon too for few days, only with my bicycle. I will leave most of my stuff here. Then I will come back for few days before we will be cycling with Pita towards Chiang Mai. She planned to visit her friends, stay there as long as she needs and then catch a train back here. After Chang Mai, I will have about 3 weeks left to arrive in Laos which should be long enough. That’s the plan! (kind of).

Ratchaburi, visiting fabric factory, brick factory and Adobe houses (50km)

Today is a plenty day! Pita did for us a pro tour with lots different things so see and discover. First we worked on her Adobe house this morning, had lunch and hopped on our bicycles again. The original goal was to visit one of her friend who is an expert in Adobe house. He lives about 20 kilometres from where we started. On the way, we stopped first at a factory where they made traditional textile. Then we stopped at two other places where they do the same but handmade. Then we kept cycling and stopped on the way at a brick factory. The guys were very nice and showed us the whole process. Then, we kept on going until we stopped to the place where Grandin (The monk I’ve been cycling with from Singapore to Malacca) built an Adobe house for a friend. And finally, 4 or 5 hours later, we arrived at Pita’s friend property where we had dinner. After that we cycled the 20km back to Pita’s home.

Rachaburi, visiting the pagoda Phra Prang Wat Mahathat (30km)

When Pita offered us to visit a Pagoda she said “it’s very old and not nice, do you really want to visit?” haha, we said “yes! of course, sounds good :-)” We hopped on our bicycles and started the tour. This temple is actually a new one. Well the original was built 1000 years ago, then destroyed partially, then finally restored 700 years ago. I guess the white patworks have been added along the way to maintain the Pagona in a decent shape.

Ratchaburi, visiting a place where 100.000 bats live

This morning we worked a bit more on the Adobe house. Then Pita brought us to see 100.000 bats that leave their cave every day around 5:30pm. This place is apparently more famous than I thought. Today there is even some biologists and other scientists who stand on the hill, next to the cave’s entrance, to catch some of those tiny bats and verify if they are fine.

Ratchaburi, Pee Ta’s Place, Adobe house project, second day

Second day working on and learning about Adobe house. Build a mud house is not that complicate and it’s even easier to destroy. Today, Pita asked us to cut the sides of the walls around doors and windows because she wants to be able to open them and fixed them against the wall when the wind becomes very strong. Before we started, the wall was like new. Now it’s a mess. But that’s what she wants :-)

Ratchaburi, Pee Ta’s place, Adobe house project, first day

Here we are :-) Pita is showing us today how to build a wall with mud. These is not only mud of course. In that case, we don’t make bricks. To be able to build a thinner wall Pita made a bamboo frame that we are going to cover with a mixture of mud, water, straw and rice peel. Once the mixture (mixed by foot without the straw) has the right thickness, we shape by hand an handful of straw with that fresh mud. The shape looks like a long tube about 50cm long and 3 to 4cm wide. The next step is to apply the “mud pipes” on the bamboo frame by hooking them up on it and then press around to make the desired shape and flatness. This is harder to explain than to do actually :-)