Month: September 2025

lifeintheuktestweb.co.uk

A lake surrounded by mountains. Peace, tranquility and healthy living at Phuu Fa Nam Organic Farm.

Tucked away on the back roads is an organic farmstay in Suphanburi. A working farm supplying organic produce to markets in Bangkok.

Applying for the new Thai e-passport is super quick and efficient. Except when your brother is a minor under the age of sixteen. We had to get a form from Amphoe for his passport. The other complication was that Dad is stuck in the England trying to organise a visa for the family to move and settle in the UK.

In which case he is required to provide a letter confirming that he consents to my Mum applying to renew passports for my brother and myself.

This he did.

He posted us the letter of consent together with a copy of his passport which took three weeks to get to us. Note for Dad, next time pay the extra and send it priority delivery.

Then when we eventually got up to Bangkok we found that they couldn’t accept it. It needs to be certified by the Thai Embassy in London on an official form, all in Thai.

He took leave, the train to the London Victoria Station and the District Line to Grosvenor Rd. From there he followed Google maps to the Thai Embassy.

The Embassy was not quite as efficient as they are in Bangkok. At first he joined the wrong queue but eventually got everything done and arranged to have the letter of consent and certified copy of his passport mailed back to him in the self addressed envelope which he had bought from the Post Office which is a priority service they offer.

He later found Rosa’s Thai Cafe which is near the London Victoria station before taking the train home. The documents will take three working days to process and when he gets them back he will courier them to us so we can pick the passports up when we next go up to Bangkok.

 

Every year stalls pop up on the 3086 from Kanchanaburi selling termite mushrooms which the local villagers collect from the mountain forests.

The het khone termite mushroom is regarded by Thais as the king of them all. And at the height of the mushroom madness cars from Bangkok and even further afield can be seen queuing up to buy this expensive and much sought after delicacy.

They appear when the weather starts to change at the end of the rains. After the termites have swarmed from their nests to establish new colonies. Giving the mushroom spores in the organic matter the ants have gathered, the chance to germinate and sprout.

In the central region het khone are found in the Phetchaburi, Kanchanaburi provinces as well as the mountainous part of Suphan Buri. But the sweetest, tastiest mushroom are to be found in Nong Prue in Kanchanaburi.

This small farming town has a well established reputation as the mushroom capital of Thailand. And the stalls pop up every year at the intersection with the road into the town, transforming it into a bustling market as the customers arrive in search of the freshest and the best mushrooms on offer.

These are special days for the local people who wait patently for the first mushrooms to appear. And just before the rains cease completely there will be extreme hot and oppressive weather which they refer to rawn het or “mushroom heat”.

There is another variety of het khone grows in Isan. They are called het pluak by the locals and can be found at the beginning of the rainy season, from late May through early June. And the villagers gather them for eating rather than to sell. But when the price goes up they find their way to the markets in Bangkok.

Everyone is cutting, cooking and prepping the young bamboo shoots that are sprouting with the rains.

My Dad has been working in the UK for the last eighteen months.

In international terms Thailand is a relative late-comer as a coffee producer.

Although coffee has been gown for a little over a century, the country only started exporting  Robusta beans in 1976.  Growing to become one of the top twenty five coffee producers in the world.  Unique in that it exports very little of the coffee that is grown.

Most of the consumption remains in the country, having developed a booming specialty coffee ecosystem where farmers, roasters, cafes and consumers symbiotically co-exist.  An example of a working coffee ecosystem where coffee is produced sustainably from both economic and environmental perspectives. A rare achievement in the coffee world. But one that is typically and uniquely Thai.

Double crust creamy chicken pie

Chicken Pot Pie Recipe

It’s not difficult. Worked out well. But pie making takes up time.