Coffee - Doi Chang Mountain

Yesterday, it was a nice sunny day as we got in the car and headed to Boonreang's, Daeng's son, school in Chiang Rai to talk with him and his teacher. 

It was an easy trip, about 60 Km, from our home in Mae Sai.  Daeng talked with his teacher at school for a few minutes without her son as he was sick.  He does have some allergy problems and was all stuffed up so he did not come to school.

After Daeng talked with his teacher, we drove over to when he lives, took him some bar-be-qued chicken for lunch and talked.  The concern is for his well being and his grades.  It was kind of a "What do you want to be when you grow up?" talk. 

I explained that we just wanted him to be safe, happy and have a good life.  We also talked about how I did not like school, when I was young, and decided not to go past high school.  I went into the Army and then worked in gas stations and construction becoming a plumber/HVAC technician.  What ever he wanted to do was okay by us.

He stated he wanted to go to school and would do the work to make sure he passed this semester with no zeros and a minimum of 2.0 total grade average.  He seemed to be happy with our talk ever thought I felt 2.0 grade average was a very low grade.

We said "Good-bye" for now and headed to Doi Chang Mountain.  This area is now a huge coffee area as the opium fields have been turned into coffee fields.

I learned a lot about coffee this trip.  To read about another trip we made  to Elephant Mountain in 2008 just CLICK HERE.  You can also see Daeng in Full Akha Dress at the end of that story.

When we drove the 100 Km up through the mountains we came to an area where the road was all torn up.  I walked down the road and felt the care we were drive, a Nissan March, was to low to make it through the bumps and mud.

We found our cellular phones did not work on the mountain so we drove up the high side of the road and asked folks if they knew were we were suppose to go.  Finally a sweet lady said we could use here cellular phone that worked in this area.  She was from Mae Sai and was very helpful.

We found out later that she knew Chom-nom and he would invite her to dinner sometimes when he killed a chicken.  It is a very small world up in the mountains.

It was almost dark but was only a few minutes after Daeng call him he jumped off a pickup truck and jumped in our car to give us directions to get to the coffee company that he worked at. 

It was a dirt road but the little car made it okay.  Chom-nom went right back to work. 

At this time of day the coffee bean picker bring the fresh, bagged beans to him.  He weighs them and gets agreement with the pickers and either pays them 18 Thai Baht a kilogram then or gives them a receipt to pay them 20 Thai Baht a kilogram when processed and sold. (1 Thai Baht = 03.28 Cents US)

The beans, after weighing, are pored into a pit with water in it.  They soak for a little while and then are pumped into the bean huskers.  Bean husker is what I call it as no one can translate it for me, just show me what happens.

The outside of the bean is mostly removed when the bean go through this machine and the inter part of the bean goes into another vat full of water. 

It is time to quit.  Chom-nom took us to a little house where we are going to spend the night.  We are going to sleep on the floor with mosquito net over us. 

It is a cool little house with modern, duel flush, western toilet, sink carved out of wood and shower with hot water.

Chom-nom cooked us an Akha dinner of jungle food and rice while Daeng made up the bed. 

We ate with Chom-nom and another man that lives at the coffee company, also.  The meal was very tasty and included vegetables that no one had an English name for them.  The only thing I could recognise was the rice. 

After dinner, Daeng and I said "Thank you for cooking for us and good-night."  We told Chom-nom we would see him at sunrise for breakfast.

In the morning before I woke up, Daeng picked some vegetables out of the jungle and helped make breakfast.  When breakfast was ready she came and woke me up telling me to hurry as food was ready to eat.

I crawled out of the mosquito net, threw on some clothes, brushed my teeth and headed to the cook house.

For breakfast I recognised three thing: rice, bean cracker and egg.  The bowl in the picture directly in front of Daeng is a vine she picked out of the jungle.  It was fried and I really liked it.  To the left of that is a gourd looking thing that grows on a tree.  Chom-nom picked some more and gave them to us to take home. Everything was great and it was wonderful to have breakfast together and talk about what was the normal day.

After we ate, we walked across the bean drying field to the office and had coffee.  We talked about how the process of getting the coffee from the bush to the cup.   We also talked about the company set up of this company and Doi Chaang Coffee Company.

It was my understanding that all the coffee from Doi Chang Mountain went through the co-op of Doi Chaang Coffee.  Chom-nom explained that there we 500 coffee companies in the area and Doi Chaang was just one.

This company is the BECHEGE Coffee Company.  This company specializes in Arabian un-roasted coffee although they do have one coffee rooster and will roost a limited amount and package under their own name.

I might add that this coffee has a real kick.  Daeng and I drank only a small cup of this coffee and got really hyper.  I'm sure the caffeine contain is very high.

After coffee, Chom-nom had a little work to do before he could give us the grand guided tour of the place.  He told us to look around and he would see us in about 45 minutes.

The place is really beautiful, up in the mountain. There is a large pond along with a gazebo and everything is very clean.  It makes you feel good about drinking the coffee.

We started the tour with the scale area and water pools that the coffee is poured into after it is weighed along with the husking machinery. 

I had to laugh as the "Thai Way" showed through on the husking machine.  Instead of loosing the bolts on the motor brackets and moving the motor back to tighten the pulley belts they just tied a piece of bamboo to take up the belt tension.   

Now, after the coffee bean is picked and brought to this company, it's weighed, pored into the water vat, pumped into the coffee husker and dumps into another concrete vat.  There is sits for about 8-12 hours, pumped into another vat where it is stirred.  Then the husked bean is placed on a big cart and wheeled into the drying area.

The beans are then placed in the sun and turned everyday for at least nine (9) days until they are dry.

You can see coffee beans drying every place you look.

After they are dried they are run through another machine and then hand sorted for size and quality.  Yes, We said by hand. 

There were no sorters working today as they had all gone for a holiday in Chiang Rai.  To see a picture of folks sorting coffee beans just go toward the end of the story of our last trip.  CLICK HERE

The beans are then put in large bags for sale to packagers or rooster.  At this stage the price of the coffee is around 180 THB a kilogram (about $2.68 USD a pound).  Each bag weighs over 40 kilograms (about 90 lbs.)

While I was walking around the warehouse, all of a sudden Chom-nom and Daeng started yelling: "Bean, Bean!".  There were coffee beans all over the floor so I did not know if I wasn't suppose to walk on them. 

Finally Daeng said: "Stop, Stop!"  I stopped and she came over and pointed to this huge bee's nest with these giant bees flying around it.  Now I understood.

On the other side of the warehouse was the storage of "aged" coffee beans.  I never know that "age" coffee was more valuable than "new" coffee but Chom-nom said it was like having a savings account.  He also said they take very good care of it to be sure the beans don't get wet and spoil.

After the tour Chom-nom had to get back to work so we packed up everything.  As we were putting the bedding up Daeng started to scream and pointed to the corner of the room.  It was a big lizard. 

Chom-nom came; he and I chased it out of the house.  He said it was a lot scarier looking but could give you a rash if it jumped on you. 

We finished packing up and loading the car.  Chom-nom climbed the bushes and gave us some jungle food to take home.  It is a nice clear day and you can see forever.

We let our friend, Chom-nom, get back to work. going to head back down the mountain and spend the night in Chiang Rai.

Last 3 Weeks in Thailand

We haven't written anything the last three weeks as we got a little discouraged.  We'll try to show you why a little later in the story.  We're going to try and catch up with the tale of our adventures before we return to the USA. 

Since our last writing we have continued to work on our home with MI.  The old place is looking really good so we put it on the market to sell.  Here is the listing link: CLICK HERE

This is a picture of the area in the house that we use for a garage. 

On our last visit with Chom-nom we talked about how most addicts feel they are due a party when they get released.  In many cases this starts the whole problems caused by being an addict all over again.  So that did not happen we agreed to pick up Chom-nom upon his release.

We did not want to try and do the whole eight hour round trip in one day as we told him we would also go shopping for some clothes with him.  May 9th we drove the four hour drive south to the City of Lampang where the prison in located.  We spent the night in the Lampang Asia Hotel. CLICK HERE for March 24, 2012 Story.

After breakfast in the hotel we checked out and drove to the prison.  It was about 10:00 AM and the guard at the gate told us to wait in an outside waiting area as Chom-nom would be coming out shortly.  We sat with some other folks and waited.  It was a nice day and Daeng and I talked about our hopes for Chom-nom.

Having used different forms of speed over the years, I can understand some of the problems with the disease of addiction and the "go fast" drugs.  The big problem is the disease says it's okay to use "Yaba" or "Ice" or "Meth" as it makes you feel like superman.  You can stay up longer, work harder and are not hungry.  If you stop doing the drug you do not get sick like you do with opiates, all you do is go to sleep or "crash".  So what's wrong with this drug?

"What's wrong?" is after using for a while, if you don't use you do not want to do anything.  In some cases it also makes people go completely crazy as with the man that molested this little baby girl and then burned her vagina with a hot frying pan.  By the way, that man is in jail and will probably be there for life.  When this young mother, from a village along the Myanmar (Burma) border, told us of the story and showed us the baby's burnt vagina it made me sick to my stomach.

After about forty-five minutes Chom-nom was at the entrance and ready to go.  We hugged and Daeng took our picture in front of the prison sign.  We said a loud "Goodbye" and headed to the City of Chiang Rai and shopping at "Big C" Department Store.

We stopped on the way and had Barbecued Chicken, Som-Tom Papaya Salad and Sticky Rice for lunch.  Chom-nom stated that was much nicer then broken rice joke that they feed them in prison.  Joke is like a rice stew, kind of like oatmeal but made with rice. 

I do not like to shop.  When I go to a store I go with a list, buy what I need on the list and get out.  We tried to get Chom-nom to commit to what he needed so we could do that but after two years, three months and ten days in prison he wanted to look around.  We did get him to commit to two pair of pants (jeans), belt, shirt, underwear, socks, one pair of shoes, shampoo, tooth brush and toothpaste. 

One thing that is nice at "Big C" is when you buy your pants them make the length correct right on the spot.  That was a great idea and pretty cool, as well.  You get the perfect size every time.

It started to rain on the way to Ban AYO.  On the way we talked a lot about the disease of addiction and how as addicts we can't take that first drug of any kind.  We also talked about alcohol is a drug and it would be hard for anyone to keep from using when our friends and family use.  If we drink or use drugs of any kind then we will want other drugs, as well.

It was now raining and just about dark.  We came over the hill to the edge of the village and Chom-nom told us to stop.  He explained that he had to go through a little ceremony by an elder of the village before he could safely enter the AKHA Village again.  They had to put a ring around him and do some blessings to keep the evil spirits out of the village.  I kidded that the ring was the circle of love.  We all laughed.

It was raining hard now.  We had stopped at the village market on the way and bought food for everyone for dinner.  We decided to have dinner with the family at his sister, Si's, home.

There were lots of good feelings seeing his family all together with him, again.

I did get discouraged as I watched Mechu, Chom-nom's Mother, pour a shot glass of rice whisky and handed it to Chom-nom.  He reached out to take it and Daeng stopped him saying in Thai: "Alcohol is a drug!" 

After we ate, the family asked us to stay with them for the night.  We explained that we were only forty kilometers from home and would like to sleep in our own bed.  We said: "Goodnight" and got back into the car during a period when the rain slacked off a little.  We did get really muddy.

We made it home to hot showers and clean sheets.  It was a job getting the mud off our shoes and out of and off the car the next day but "This is Thailand!"

It was nice to be home.  We went back to work fixing doors, windows, painting and making the old place look like new. 

Now, an ongoing problem with me, I am still having trouble accepting folks lying to me to save face or lying for any reason.  Folks in this part of the world want to make you happy soooo they will tell you what they think you want to hear regardless if it is the truth or not.  That makes me crazy!
Onward through the fog.........  This is Thailand!

Daeng's sister-in-law, "Hlong's" cousin, "Newt" who is the second wife of "Aabay" had invited us up into the mountain to a house warming party.  It is quite a drive up into the mountains but I told Daeng if she wanted to go, we would go.  This is in an area where the opium poppy fields along the Myanmar (Burma) border have been converted to tea plantations.

Most of the invited folks that live in Mae Sai went early in the morning by pick-up trucks.  That's correct, maybe 15 people in the back of a pick-up truck.  We left mid-day after doing some more work with Mi at the house.  It was a two and a half hour drive up the mountain and on roads that my GPS did not show.

This is what a new house usually looks like in this area.

Now here is a picture of Aabay's new home.

It was a big party with lots of food.  Everyone helped as there are no catering services here. 

Here is a picture of Daeng's brother, "Tun", and "Newt" cooking pork and beans.

Hlong, Daeng's sister-in-law, washing dishes.  There were a lot of dishes as they feed almost two hundred folks for the main meal as well as a lot of folks all thru the day for two days.

Then the men chopped up the two pigs that gave their all for the feast.

Daeng helped out were ever she could as she loves to be part of the party.

And then some of us just hung out on the roof and looked beautiful.

Most of the young children had never seen a "farang" (Thai for Westerner) and were afraid of me to start.  After an hour or so of kidding they all warmed up to me and then stuck to me like glue.

It was a great meal and a nice party.  We turned in early, around 10:00 PM, and the party was still going strong.  AaBay's first wife made us a nice bed in one of the downstairs rooms and we slept really well. 

We got up around 6:00 AM and had coffee with some of the folks as the kids were getting ready to go to school.

We had a great breakfast and headed down the hill to home.  Tun and Hlong road back with us.  I felt bad for Tun as he gets motion sickness.

For the next few days we got our part of the home ready to leave for three and a half months while we are in the USA.  Tun and Hlong live there also so we just cover our bed and furniture in the master bedroom and put our tools and motorbike in the storage room.  When we return in September it's back to home as usual.

On May 24th we had a smooth trip to Pattaya.  Easy car rental return at Avis, Air Asia plane was right on time, John, our ride to Pattaya, was waiting at the Bangkok Airport and the folks at Henry's Apartment were happy to see us. 

We did have some problems with the noise at Henry's Apartments so yesterday we moved over to the newly remodeled Honey Lodge on the next street.  In the past, before it was remodeled, we had stayed there.  Here is a little video that was made at the Honey Lodge: CLICK HERE

We are very happy with an artist that was able to take a small newspaper picture of Andrew S. Kinsinger and put it on canvas for us to give his daughter.  To our knowledge it is the only picture of him in existence.  He was a great man and I am happy to say I knew him.  To find out more about him just CLICK HERE.

We will be resting up here in Pattaya until tomorrow when we take the long plane ride back to California.  That trip does mess with our heads a little as we leave here at 5:05 PM and land in Los Angeles around 8:00 PM, two hours later.  That is after being in the air for over 14 1/2 hours and changing planes in Taipei.

Goodbye Thailand and Hello California!

Open Letter to Rev. Sunit - Rumors of Chom-nom at Ban AYO

Dear Rev. Sunit,

    I am sending this note in an open forum as Daeng, my wife, received a very unusual call on May 24^th from a lady with the telephone number 081-401-2368. The lady would not give her name but kept telling her that she should not have anything to do with Chom-nom in Ban AYO as he was a liar, a drug dealer and not a Christian.

She also told Daeng that he was telling people he needed money for water and that was not true.  Daeng thinks she recognized her voice as the lady pastor from Ban AYO.  Daeng tried to explain the truth to her but she would not listen.

I called her back and explained that we have been working with Chom-nom in Ban AYO for many years and yes, he had made some mistakes.  

I also explained that we are helping him and as of last Friday he now has water to the water tanks on his property just below the Ban AYO church.  He also has temporary electricity so he can keep building.

The goal is to have a safe place for kids to have food, shelter and a friendly environment for education.

I also asked her why she did not think he was Christian as he has been going to the Ban AYO Church with family members almost every Sunday.

The reason I’m sending this to you is I asked her for her email address twice and she has not given it to me. She won’t even give me her name. I wanted her email address so I could send her all the information and pictures so she could see what Chom-nom is really doing.

I also tried to explain to her that God is a loving God and a forgiving God and it is not God’s way to spread rumors about people that are not true.  I also told her I would pray that God forgive her for doing this as she was uninformed and did not know the truth. 

I again asked her for her email address so I could send her the true story of Chom-nom’s activity.

Now, you can read everything up to his arrest at this link: http://terrysstories.blogspot.com/2011/10/ban-ayo-trip-tears-anger.html

After his confinement, in the 2 ½ years, Daeng and I are the only ones that visited him to make sure he was okay.  We visited him twice and picked him up when he was released. 

You can read more about Chom-nom by clicking on this link: http://terrysstories.blogspot.com/search?q=Chom-nom

You can also see everything on facebook at www.facebook.com/funnyplumber.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE contact her as she needs to stop this bad talk. It is not what a Christian Pastor should be doing and it further gives her a bad name in the community as the Akha people of Ban AYO and surround area can see what he is doing.  

With God's help, Chom-nom is doing the correct things, one day at a time!

Sincerely,

Terry and Daeng Johnson

www.FunnyPlumber.com

www.TerrysStories.blogspot.com

www.facebook.com/funnyplumber

Trip to Ban AYO & Kids

We had our normal breakfast of chicken, sticky rice, coffee and Pa thong Ko at the Ban Pa Meat Morning Market. We then headed south from Mae Sai stopping in the little settlement, Huai Khrai, just south of the immigrations check point.

Daeng bought cookies, salt, small fish and fruit to take to Chom-nom's Mother in Ban AYO. While we were at the main market I saw a big truck with what looked like an arm. We walked over and sure enough it was part of a large statue. From the looks of it it is a rival for anything made in Texas.

In the pick-up truck in front is a life size statue and in the tractor-trailer is just part of the right arm. When it is put together is will be huge.

We made our way down route #1 and turned west on route #1130. From there we wound up the hill making sure we did not follow the directions on our GPS as it would take us through the villages and not on the new road.

When we got to the Ban AYO turn off sign we could see the burnt ground from the recent fires.

At the shelter area we could see that much of the over grown vegetation had been cut back and burned, as well.

Just to bring everyone up to date, we worked with Chom-nom to help build a children's shelter for children at risk. It was close to being inhabited when Chom-nom was arrested for possession of drugs and went to prison for a couple of years.

Here is a link to those stories: http://terrysstories.blogspot.com/2011/10/ban-ayo-trip-tears-anger.html

When we arrived at Meechue's home, Chom-nom's Mother, there was no one around. We were told she was in the jungle getting bamboo for her leaking roof. We sent out some scouts on motorbikes to find her. We hung out in the little shop area across the road from her home and had water and cookies.

About 15 minutes later, a motorbike delivered her to us. She was very dirty and said she was going to go get cleaned up at her house. We walked across the road to her house and hung out as she changed into her normal "Akha" attire.

A farang, non-Thai or Westerner, is not a common sight in this area so the kids come to see what the farang is all about. Most of them are scared but wander about this fat, white, funny looking guy is all about. They also like the cookies we usually bring. One of the girls remembered me from the video we did a few years ago. To see that video just CLICK HERE: http://www.funnyplumber.com/akha.wmv Chom-nom is the main singer.

Here is a picture of some of the kids.

We also had a nice surprise, the man that we had lunch with at the edge of the jungle in 2007 came by as he heard "The Old Fat Farang" was there and wanted to see him again. We laughed together and he said his wife left him so he cut his hair. You can read that story by clicking on this link: http://www.funnyplumber.com/Stories/10-21-07_Terry

If you have trouble with this link you can read the story at www.FunnyPlumber.com on the "Stories" Page listed as "Terry's Trip into the Jungle". He is on page 10 and 11.

We all talked for some time. We drank coffee, ate cookies, pineapple and laughed at the pictures we had brought for them. It was almost 2:00 PM so we gave Meechue a little money to help finish the repairs to her roof and said "Goodbye for Now."

We told her we were going to make the trip to see Chom-nom this week and would come back to tell her of our meeting with him.