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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2015 2:41:53 GMT 7
I was in Mae Hong Son a while ago, and found myself deep in the jungle where I found guys looking after elephants. I'll guess that they were loggers - I don't know. The guys offered me feed for the elephants, and I gave them money in return. From memory, fifty baht? a hundred baht? not sure. The look on their faces was a picture - and my guide for the day explained that these guys would be lucky to see a few hundred baht a month.
Her explanation was ( paraphrasing ) that they had no need for money. They lived in the jungle and took what they needed from the jungle. On my various travels around the north, I have seen plenty of people foraging, and I know the jungles do have a variety of foodstuffs ( though not many mammals, they didn't survive well after rifles appeared on the scene ).
To me - one of the greatest clashes in Thailand is between the agrarian lifestyle and capitalism - similar to the 19th Century Industrial Revolution. There's plenty of people in Thailand who will remember living in effectively a cashless economy. Do you see any of that in your area? |
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siampolee
Detective
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Post by siampolee on May 21, 2015 7:05:57 GMT 7
Certainly in our home in Sangkha in Surin, one see's a lot of the folk of all ages hunting and trapping their food, flesh, feathers or scales.Many vegetable and fruit products are still collected from the surrounding fields and I having partaken of the results have never suffered and ill effects.
The whole custom is not due to financial necessity as the village and its inhabitants are pretty well off but more linked to old practices, culture wise, which to my mind is not necessarily a bad thing.
When I cast my mind back to the days of my youth (1950'S) I can recall snares being set for rabbits and hares, fish were taken from our river soaked in salt and then cooked, birds were shot, rooks, pigeons and game birds in season and eaten and of course every village had its own poacher too.
I know our farm provided a reasonably steady supply of pheasants, partridges , rabbits and hares to the village with or without my fathers knowledge, although I never heard him complain about the matter. There was an abundance of fruit, blackberries, crab apples, sloes, elderberries and couple of quince tree's, mushrooms were often found, and both young dandelion and nettle leaves provided a basic salad supply.
Wild horseradish grew in one of the local streams and our cook used to make her own horseradish, even now I can recall the taste and the piquaint spicy eye watering affects and resultant sneezes that resulted in an over indulgence helping of her horseradish.
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Post by Fletchsmile on May 21, 2015 14:50:52 GMT 7
Those mushrooms look good Monty. Is that what you usually consume before posting on here?
Magic!
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2015 14:54:38 GMT 7
Certainly in our home in Sangkha in Surin, one see's a lot of the folk of all ages hunting and trapping their food, flesh, feathers or scales.Many vegetable and fruit products are still collected from the surrounding fields and I having partaken of the results have never suffered and ill effects. The whole custom is not due to financial necessity as the village and its inhabitants are pretty well off but more linked to old practices, culture wise, which to my mind is not necessarily a bad thing. When I cast my mind back to the days of my youth (1950'S) I can recall snares being set for rabbits and hares, fish were taken from our river soaked in salt and then cooked, birds were shot, rooks, pigeons and game birds in season and eaten and of course every village had its own poacher too. I know our farm provided a reasonably steady supply of pheasants, partridges , rabbits and hares to the village with or without my fathers knowledge, although I never heard him complain about the matter. There was an abundance of fruit, blackberries, crab apples, sloes, elderberries and couple of quince tree's, mushrooms were often found, and both young dandelion and nettle leaves provided a basic salad supply. Wild horseradish grew in one of the local streams and our cook used to make her own horseradish, even now I can recall the taste and the piquaint spicy eye watering affects and resultant sneezes that resulted in an over indulgence helping of her horseradish. Nettle soup - I worked during the summer at my local farm, and was lucky enough to stay on the farm for a few weeks. Nettle soup sticks in my mind, and it was far better than you would imagine. |
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Post by Fletchsmile on May 21, 2015 15:04:38 GMT 7
I love going out to the countryside. Most of the time though I'm office based in BKK, so see the same thing as Blether says, but from the opposite side.
It's often pretty apparent here in BKK that certain specialised skilled industries have a shortage of labour, and demand for that labour exceeds supply. On the other hand people migrate from the provinces to fill those jobs as they need money. Eeking out a living in Sakorn Somewhere is no longer easy when running in parallel is a consumer society which attaches way too much importance to money.
It's a shame that in today's world it's difficult for Agrarian societies to survive with such an income gap. The friendliness of up country folk unfortunately continues to give way to more mercenary life in cities.
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rubl
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Post by rubl on May 21, 2015 19:45:52 GMT 7
Living of the land sound nice but it's a hard living. Also somehow mobile phones, aircons, electricity, medical service, etc., etc. is hard to find in the jungle. The fried creepy crawlies also look too much like vermin (and some taste like it as well). As a friend of mine once said "it's survival food and luckily I never had to try to survive on that level yet".
I've been living in Bangkok almost 21 years now and only slowly away from the noise (Sukhumvit area, Phaya Thai to now Dusit area). That's still close to city centre though. Of course some of you lot have much more fun, you may have crocodiles wiggling through the garden, the odd elephant trampling around. Poor me, I have to do with squirrels, spiders, rats, millipedes and cockroaches.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 29, 2015 12:17:02 GMT 7
I was in Mae Hong Son a while ago, and found myself deep in the jungle where I found guys looking after elephants. I'll guess that they were loggers - I don't know. The guys offered me feed for the elephants, and I gave them money in return. From memory, fifty baht? a hundred baht? not sure. The look on their faces was a picture - and my guide for the day explained that these guys would be lucky to see a few hundred baht a month.
Her explanation was ( paraphrasing ) that they had no need for money. They lived in the jungle and took what they needed from the jungle. On my various travels around the north, I have seen plenty of people foraging, and I know the jungles do have a variety of foodstuffs ( though not many mammals, they didn't survive well after rifles appeared on the scene ).
To me - one of the greatest clashes in Thailand is between the agrarian lifestyle and capitalism - similar to the 19th Century Industrial Revolution. There's plenty of people in Thailand who will remember living in effectively a cashless economy. Do you see any of that in your area? Still quite prevalent throughout many regions of the country - in one form or another.
It's just life, not a competition.
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