Market Friday: a trip to town to fix the flooded water pumps.

It’s almost two years since @dswigle had taken a long break from #marketfriday. I have been hoping that one day @dswigle or Denis would have the time to begin blogging again. I always looked forward to checking out her lovely posts with photos of colourful flowers at the end of her posts. Things have changed drastically during the last year which might have unsettled people’s lives more deeply. People who were anxious about the future prospect of kinetic conflicts at a large scale have been trying to relocate to safer locations. So, I hoped they would be able to make their transitions smoothly.

The flood around the house had completely subsided except for the lower areas in the fields and banana groves. The dirt road was still muddy and slippery but with some careful attention, it’s possible to come through the thin layer of mud. I called a local tuk-tuk to pick me up so we could go searching for someone who could repair my flooded water pumps. It would be nice to be able to have the usual running water supply to the second floor of the house. The water pressure would only pick up during the night when most villagers went to beds. This house dat at the other end of the village water pump. That’s why I had to have backup water just in case something went wrong.

The driver was an old friend who used to drive me places a few years ago. So, she was glad to have some updates on the flooding of my house. We took three flooded water pumps in search of a kind and competent technician. The saturate room was flooded knee high, so the old pumps were also flooded. One backup water pump was still working before the flood; but the flooding made them dead.

I rarely left the house during daytime as there’s always chores to do around the house. So, this trip was good for me so I could observe the surroundings and take some photos. I noticed so many big old trees had disappeared during the last few years as more restaurants had been established along the riverside. People’s houses had also changed from old wooden house to concrete and brick houses. Modern townhouses and shophouses have been painted with bright colours of pink, green and orange. Everyone tried to make their buildings more attractive.

Several houses have set up noodle shops and food sticks stalls in front of their houses to make extra income. I would have liked to be able to set up stalls selling sweets and drinks but the logistic wasn’t right for that purpose. I would have to seriously think about ways to make some income in the near future. We passed shophouses selling rice, eggs, furniture along the way. The evening market was still asleep as it started to become alive in the afternoon.

There were small pockets of areas where rich people seemed to live in small clusters. Local people would know which real estate projects were popular with rich merchants and civil servants. These were sort of exclusive enclave for the rich. I always wondered how people could become rich in a very small town with thinly spread population. But some real estate had a few big houses for the whole family with strong fence and superior aura. One big house used to have ‘Harley-Davidson’ sign in front of the house, telling people that there existed a local big bike club. I wished I had the chance to meet these high society people in this small town.

Most shophouses and townhouses in town were of two levels to four levels. Some new hotels could be as high as seven floors. Fortunately, there was no high rise building or condominium in this town. The nearest town, about an hours away, had several condominiums and high rise buildings and an airport. It’s becoming like Chiengmai in the north. That’s where the high speed train hub would come through for passengers to connect with the newly extended international airport. So, Nongkhai was nicely situated to access the airport and high speed trains without having to become drastically developed or changed for the new transportation hubs.

The tuk-tuk driver stopped at the wrong shop; the owner of this shop could only repair cars’ water tanks and ventilators. He told us to look for a small shop next to a hair salon about one hundred meters down the road. I spotted the small sign in front of the shophouse, so we made a turn to park in front of this unruly shop. The look of the shop just reminded me of warehouses in Chinatown in Bangkok. The own was very skinny but active for his age. I was quite shocked by the cost of the water pump repairing. He gave me very little reduction and told me how much work would be involved in taking out the flooded parts to be cleaned and dried in special drying box.

We had a chat with him for a while to make sure he would repair the three water pumps today. It was fun watching him using all the different tools to test the pumps. He could see muddy water seeping out of these pumps. He seemed to know what he’s doing. But the state of his shop was just incredible. I wondered how he could find all the spare parts and tools in the mountain of years of collections of bits and pieces of hardware and mechanical parts. He told us that those sand bags were useless during the flood as his shop was also flooded.

He told us that he would repair the three water pumps in one day. He would call me to collect them before 4pm. After some chit chats, we left him with his work while I had to buy some small fish for the fish pond. During the flood, hundreds of our tiny fish were gone. The gardener only found two fish left in our fish pond. I was afraid they would feel very lonely in the big pond, but the fish shop ran out of these fish. Other people also lost all their fish and this was the only fish pet shop in town.

I wanted to visit the main temple of this old town as I hadn’t been there since during the plandemic. Then we made our trip back home to get on with some housework. I doubted if the repair man could finish his job in one day. To my surprise, he gave me a call at 3pm telling me that they were ready for pickup. The tuk-tuk driver picked me up for our second trip to town. I was amazed that all three water pumps were working perfectly and quietly once again. I paid the cost of his labour and skillful service.

The cost of the repair work was about half the price of getting a new water pump. Water pumps’ s prices have doubled over the last two years! So, I was contented with this outcome as we now have two working backup water pumps. Hopefully there wouldn’t be any severe flooding for at least ten to fifteen years. I had a quaint feeling of some natural disaster which would upset things more drastically in the long term. Meanwhile I kept praying and being grateful for minimal damages in comparison with other villagers.

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.

#markeyfriday created by @dswigle