Quiet evening by the river; cycling to buy an ice cream.

I have become addicted to having an ice cream by the river during the sunset. I have been cycling to the village shop three days in a row for my ice cream treats. The shopkeepers began to recognise me and my choice of ice cream. The supply almost ran out, there were two left in the freezer. So, I hoped they would order new supply soon.

There used to be a very friendly orange cat guarding this shop. The shopkeeper told me she belonged to the neighbours but she liked to sleep in front of this shop. I guessed she just liked to watch people like those French people sitting in front of cafes. We often has a nice chat and she wanted to follow me to the river. But I told her there could be stray dogs running by the riverfront so she changed her mind.

The sky has been full of white sheets of curtains which prevented us from seeing dramatic sunsets. There’s so much micro dust from the burning of fields and woods. It didn’t help the ecology of the river when two big factories were located near the riverbank on the Laos side of the river. Last week there’s dramatic accident in Laos which reminded me of the ‘train accidents’ in America, the trains were full of hazardous chemicals when they turned over and poured the chemicals into nearby river. The big truck carrying sulphuric acid turned over and poured all the acid into the dam. This sounded liked a planned accident to me as the probability of such an occurrence was very, very low.

Fortunately, the officials took immediate actions and gave warnings to people downstream to be aware of highly toxic chemicals in water. They did use other chemicals to neutralise the sulphuric acid. This occurred above the dam which meant that toxic water was running downstream affecting fishes and villagers’ drinking water. The Thai officials were in a panic as the whole truck load of acid was poured into the dam. We didn’t get much details of the damages in Laos. But I reckoned load of fishes had perished during the first day of the accident. They didn’t explain how the truck actually happened to have the accident at that vulnerable location. I wondered what kind of industry or factory would use tons of acid in a mountainous location in Laos. That story just led to many unanswered questions. There were no details about the number of people who had been poisoned by the solution of acid in drinking water.

On the Thai side, the toxic water took about three days to reach the river in Thailand. Thai officials found some dead fish floating on the river as soon as the toxic water arrived in Thai section. I reckoned the level of the river would have suddenly jumped as the dam in Laos would need to empty the poisoned water as soon as possible. My gardener told me that the water level did rise up but the drinking water wasn’t affected and the fishermen could still go on fishing as usual. So, the bulk of the negative impact was cushioned by people in Laos during the first three days after the incident.

This incident has raised my need to have a borehole in my garden as a part of my survival plan. An alternative source of water is essential in times of crisis and unexpected disappearance of local water supply. In the past, the local supply was distributed on the principle of gravity so the pipe water was very slow and stopped often during daytime. Nowadays two pumps were used to ensure speedy flow of water but whenever the electricity was cut off, people would have no running water. Most people would buy large water tank for backup. Though we had rain water tanks for watering plants on one side of the garden, the capacity of these tanks was too small for the whole house.

Then, I had to think about alternative source of electricity for pumping up water from the borehole (in time of blackouts). So, I hope the bull run after the BTC halving would be long lasting so that I could finish all these survival projects. The invisible being around the river might have thought I was too anxious and neurotic about future upheavals and survival issue. Nothing bad might come to pass, but I couldn’t help feeling the need to prepare the basic necessities in life. I wished I could contact some friendly aliens so that I could ask them about the future and what I should be preparing for the uncertainty.

I guessed I was very lucky to have found this place. I met a retired Swedish guy with doctorate and experiences in forestation management. He visited Thailand as he was thinking of moving from Africa to a safer location. He would be visiting the famous village where lots of expats had settled down with local villagers in Udon. There were supposed to be several Swedish expats living in this village. Last month I also met an elderly Englishman who spent one month in Bangkok before deciding whether he should move from England to Thailand for his retirement. This is very interesting time full of anxieties and challenges. I hope and pray that my guides would continue to lead, protect and help me in times of difficulty.

Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.

Stay strong and cheerful.