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  1. #1
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    Borey and the charcoal kiln

    Last week Borey was passing the time at his usual occupation (walking the streets and back roads in rural Isaan) when he met his brother in law, Uncle Som, the senior member of Mrs Borey's family. Uncle Som is a dieing breed even here. He still lives much as people did fifty years ago. He farms rice, fishes, and forages for much of his food. He has little need for stores. His only concession to modern life is his Suzuki motor scooter, which appears to be as ancient as he.


    That morning when they met, Uncle Som was working on his charcoal kiln. He told Borey that the kiln had been going for about a week and he would be opening it up in about an hour. Borey, finding this interesting, leaves and goes back home, stopping at a little market on the edge of town for a five baht bag of ice. At home, Mrs Borey is told the situation and that they will return with an offering of Coke and ice to view the opening of the kiln. As it is approaching noon on a 90 plus degree day, she is not too happy, but gets out her umbrella for the journey.


    As they parade through the village on the trip, it seems the question on everyone’s lips is, “Where are you going?” Mrs Borey responds to each query with the story of opening the charcoal kiln. When they reach the kiln, they find Uncle Som's wife and daughter are with him now. Earlier, they had been out looking for mushrooms. When Mrs Borey explains why they had returned, Uncle Som finds it very amusing. It seems that Borey had completely misunderstood what he had been told. Uncle Som had actually said that he had started the kiln only that morning, and that it would burn for about a week. They all laugh at the stupid falang.


    But the group did sit under a tree, sharing the large jug of Coke, and have a nice long discussion. Mrs Borey has never been close to her oldest brother. This is understandable with about 15 years difference in their ages. And Uncle Som has never had time for a worthless falang like Borey. No animosity, just indifference. So, Borey's expressing an interest in Uncle Som's work had led to a little social interaction between them.


    Mrs Borey remembered their youth, when the whole family would set up camp in the forests just south of the Mekong river. They would build a series of kilns which would be tended night and day for weeks. On one occasion their camp was raided in the middle of the night by the police, looking for another of her brothers. Her father had already helped Uncle Thom escape across the river into Laos. Mrs Borey couldn't remember what the offence was that time. Uncle Thom, to this day, has always been running from the law, or irate husbands or fathers.


    Before leaving, Borey looks at the basket of mushrooms that Uncle Som's wife and daughter had picked. He puts one mushroom to his lips, and asks if it tastes good fresh. He is told that they are poisonous until boiled and rinsed twice. They all laugh at the stupid falang.


    During the return home, as they walked through the village, the question on everyone’s lips was, “How did the charcoal turn out?” Mrs Borey was quite anxious to explain to all that her stupid falang husband had misunderstood what he had been told by Uncle Som. Borey is actually getting used to being humiliated.


    A couple of days later, Uncle Som's daughter comes with a gift of freshly made banana cakes steamed in banana leaves. Tasted very good. Then yesterday Uncle Som showed up to tell Borey that he had stopped the fires in the kiln. It now needed to cool off for a few days. He would let Borey know when it would be opened.


    It seems Borey has had another successful week in Isaan.



    This is a typical kiln closed up and cooling down. It is sealed and no longer smokes.

  2. #2
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    jamescollister's Avatar
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    Nice little story, with a morel attached. Show interest, no matter if it proves your ignorance and you gain acceptance. Jim

  3. #3
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    agreed nice post. Takes me back over 30 years to my first times on Samui.

  4. #4
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    The morel(sic) of the story Jim, is to learn Thai, or end up the village laughing stock on a kidney dialysis machine. John

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dillinger View Post
    The morel(sic) of the story Jim, is to learn Thai, or end up the village laughing stock on a kidney dialysis machine. John
    Don't think Thai does me much good out here. I speak and younger ones understand, everyone else speaks a mixture Thai, Lao, Issan and some old Chinese from northern Vietnam.
    My kids are OK, but even they throw me at times, took them swimming to a little water fall on Saturday. They didn't use Thai or English or anything else I understood for swimming and water fall.
    Turns out it's German, Aunt speaks very good German for some reason and thinks English and German are the same. Jim

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    Thailand Expat Pragmatic's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by jamescollister
    Aunt speaks very good German for some reason and thinks English and German are the same.
    Bless her. Adolf

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by jamescollister
    Don't think Thai does me much good out here. I speak and younger ones understand, everyone else speaks a mixture Thai, Lao, Issan and some old Chinese from northern Vietnam. My kids are OK, but even they throw me at times, took them swimming to a little water fall on Saturday. They didn't use Thai or English or anything else I understood for swimming and water fall. Turns out it's German, Aunt speaks very good German for some reason and thinks English and German are the same. Jim

    . I think it was King Willy who said on here that the best way for bilingual kids to learn is for the parents to talk in their native tongue. Sounds like good advice, I thought.

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by jamescollister
    They didn't use Thai or English or anything else I understood for swimming and water fall.
    hehehe, looks more like you've got no 'international' ear....

    swimming = schwimmen
    waterfall = Wasserfall

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dillinger View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by jamescollister
    Don't think Thai does me much good out here. I speak and younger ones understand, everyone else speaks a mixture Thai, Lao, Issan and some old Chinese from northern Vietnam. My kids are OK, but even they throw me at times, took them swimming to a little water fall on Saturday. They didn't use Thai or English or anything else I understood for swimming and water fall. Turns out it's German, Aunt speaks very good German for some reason and thinks English and German are the same. Jim

    . I think it was King Willy who said on here that the best way for bilingual kids to learn is for the parents to talk in their native tongue. Sounds like good advice, I thought.
    Did have a look at the language thing, kids born in Australia, first language was English. We moved here and they switched to Thai plus. Went back to OZ the start of last year, took about 4 weeks before they switched back to English.
    Try to get DVDs in English, kids prefer them to Thai, I pads and computer are English, school is Thai and village is what ever mixture they speak.
    Luckily the wife is/never going to work teacher and did Uni entrance English, 4 years in OZ.
    I am told that kids that grow up with multiple languages, not only retain those languages, but their brains wire in such a way that they can learn other languages easy.
    I see it, kids can count in Spanish, Dora Explorer, littlest one laughs when I use Lao words.
    Jim

  10. #10
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    I have seen a couple of these kilns around here but I have a question..

    Are they made from clay or what

    Got me thinking about redoing the design a little putting a stone slab hearth in it a there you have it a pizza bread oven.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gipsy View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by jamescollister
    They didn't use Thai or English or anything else I understood for swimming and water fall.
    hehehe, looks more like you've got no 'international' ear....

    swimming = schwimmen
    waterfall = Wasserfall
    Guess when I was living in the UK I was more interested in Spanish and Greek than German.
    What do they say, what do you call a person that speaks only one language, English. Jim

  12. #12
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    Always look forward to the next post by Borey the Baldey. Brings back the memories of being back at home #2 in Isaan. Thanks for that.

  13. #13
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    Borey, I really hope you will share more anecdotes of the life of Borey with us. Your writing is attractive, and Borey's life holds some learning points - for me, at least.
    Thank you so much.

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by afghanpicker View Post
    I have seen a couple of these kilns around here but I have a question..

    Are they made from clay or what

    Got me thinking about redoing the design a little putting a stone slab hearth in it a there you have it a pizza bread oven.
    Borey has proven his ignorance on this topic, so will say little. This area has high quality deposits of both white and red clays. Uncle Som used the white in constructing this kiln. Borey assumes it was available there.

    The idea of a pizza oven had passed through Borey's mind as well. Should work, but attention to details would be a must.

  15. #15
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    Borey stopped out at the charcoal kiln this morning. It had been emptied and reloaded with a fresh batch of wood.



    The new wood has been restacked under the clay dome and a fire burning under it all.







    This show the kiln from the opposite (upper) side. Smoke is coming out the vent hole. A large bucket of water nearby is there to regularly repair the kiln as the clay dries and cracks. More wood is stacked for the next batch.

  16. #16
    Gohills flip-flops wearer
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    Would all this wood overcook the pizzas?

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    So much for hie promise to tell you when he was going to open it.

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by gusG View Post
    So much for hie promise to tell you when he was going to open it.
    Borey got sick on a fine meal purchased from one of the notorious super market chains. He spent a week recovering, and was unable to attend the unveiling. Maybe the subject of another thread, "Borey and the meal to die for".

  19. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by withnallstoke View Post
    Would all this wood overcook the pizzas?



    They don't look overcooked to me,

  20. #20
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    To my knowledge, real Italian pizza is cooked in a stone/clay oven at temps of over 600 degrees with some as high as 900. These are no some new fangled deep dish squishy crust things but, the real thin, light bubbly crust types. There are plenty of vids on proper construction on you tube. Interestingly, they are shaped similar to the kiln.

  21. #21
    Gohills flip-flops wearer
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    Quote Originally Posted by sranchito
    real Italian pizza is cooked in a stone/clay oven
    Real Isaan pizza is eaten raw.


  22. #22
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    Yes it is, and tasty too. Long as there isn't no plaa dek as I am allergic to fish.

  23. #23
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    Borey, You can make a pizza oven with a lot of materials you have on hand at home. I had a cement ring used to make septic tanks at home, I filled it up with dirt and capped it with cement and red brick. The Bamboo chicken pens used all over Thailand I placed on top of the completed base covered that with banana leaves and cut out a door. Made a mixture of clay found in my yard, sand and cement, plastered on with my hands to a thickness from 4-5 inches thick walls, cut a tin can on both ends and place it opposite to the door, I start a fire with scrape wood, place a wet rag in the tin can vent hole and bake all kinds of vittles.

    Cheap to make but does take a bit of work to complete. I would post a picture of it but I could never figure out how to use that feature.
    I do not use it much now because I made a 55 gallon drum Adobe oven that I can use less wood to cook with.

    Cheers:

  24. #24
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    Nice piece this, it reminds me of some of the good writing in stickmans archives.The charcoal kilns are common in cambodia near the forests-or what remains of them.

  25. #25
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    I always wondered what those big clay mounds were for. Great submission!

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