Mook's old kitchen or Samui tradition, part 2
It's about time to followup on
Mook's old kitchen or Samui tradition, part 1 story, which I posted about two weeks ago, before our trip to
Sao's wedding and our visit to
Phuket. Since I'm also starting a new
IDC tomorrow, which you can follow on my
dive blog, time will be restricted to post much, so today's a good day for the final part about
Mook's kitchen.
There'll be a few exciting pictures of some very old old utensils, almost with museum value, in my opinion, so let's have a look.
First picture is straight away bingo, it shows a very ancient grinder, used to grind rice etc. It works similar as grinding stones in Dutch windmills, in case you're familiar with their function!
On top right of the grinder, previous picture, is also this tiny light, here proudly shown by Jaay, Mook's Mum. These kind of lights were used back in the days when one went outside the house during the night or darkness, like a visit to the bathroom. Toilets were (and sometimes still are) separated from the main house.
At my wife's parental house, in the middle of the night, the bathroom is; out the main door (passing through the living/sleeping room), down the stairs, under the house, walk a good 5 to 10 meters away from the house, enter toilet and reverse your tracks, 'luckily' nowadays with electrical lights).
A slightly more 'modern' cooking set up. These kind of coal burners are still widely used in
today's normal live throughout Thailand. When my wife cooks fish, she uses one of these, outside of the house, for the smell! Note the
separated wooden bars, for all trash and garbage to drop as chicken food.
In the living room, on the wall, is this lovely gun. Still in working order, if cleaned properly.
A stuffed deer. They used to live in the hills on Samui and my wife and all of her family heard them for the last time when Mook got married, about 8 years ago. They used to come really close to the houses. Mook's house has 4 stuffed deer heads, all originating from Samui. Nowadays, with all the construction going on around Samui, I doubt that there's that many deer left. Most certainly not in Plai Laem. Unfortunately.
Jaay posing on the veranda of her 100 year old house. Most of the daily family life takes place outside, in the cooler, fresh air, either like here, on the veranda's or under the houses. Most old style houses, are build on stilts, high enough to allow for a sitting/hanging out area below the house, sometimes even with TV's etc.
Jaay in front of her house.
A side view of the house, the window on the left is on the veranda and the window on the right is in the kitchen.
A frontal view of the house.
Last but not least, a view on the new house. It's gonna be a lovely new house and they will be happy to live in it, but still it's a bit of a shame that old tradition like the old house will have to go.
Hope you enjoy the pix, leave some comments if you like!
Camille
The sun is trying to break through some hazy cloud layers with bigger clouds looming over the Gulf.