A Factory Visit, and Shopping in Phon

Photos by MJ Klein

Hui-chen and I took the bus from Khonkaen down to Muang Phon, were our friend Mr. Somkhit (introduced in this article) has his factory.  On the way down our bus was pulled over by Thai Highway Police.  This shot, taken through the windshield of the bus, shows the bus driver returning to the bus.  As far as I can tell, no fine or warning was issued.  Apparently the Highway Police needed to inform the driver of something, but I do not know what.

This, and the 2 following photographs are of the Phon bus station.

Hui-chen and I were standing there, waiting to be picked up when a nice young Thai lady offered to help us in English.  I guess we looked a little lost!

This is Mr. Somkhit at his desk.  We had some tooling made and our visit was to inspect the tooling and some sample parts made off the tooling.  I’ve pixelated the tooling to protect the interests of our customer.

Outside at lunch, the factory workers were playing their version of the game called Bocce.  Some of the players appeared to be quite skilled at it.

With our factory business concluded, Mr. Somkhit took us to this restaurant.  He told us that this place has been here for more than 50 years and used to service the railroad.

The rail station is right across the street (behind the trees).

This shot shows the section of building right next to the restaurant.  This is “old Thai style” construction, as Mr. Somkhit put it.

Same section of building, looking up to the second floor.  I really like historical buildings as they are a glimpse into the past.

After lunch, Mr. Somkhit’s driver took us to this store.

We’d been to this store once before and wanted to go back again!  You’ll see why in a moment.

The variety and quality of the goods here is excellent.

If these jugs of local wine seem familar, they should.  One of the things that I wanted to get was another jug of the “shao mi jeow” or millet wine.  I have plans for this jug that involve some characters from Taoyuan….

Just look at at all the stuff!

Hui-chen picked out some interesting tasty Thai snacks.

In the ice box at the back are Isaan sausages, one of my all-time favorites!

This is locally produced Thai wine.  Wine appreciation is on the rise in Thailand and several vineyards are producing Thai wine.  I haven’t tried it myself but it looked good.

“Which one should I get?”

We hope you enjoyed this article.

In our next article, we’ll take a tuk-tuk ride into a remote Isaan village and show you around.  It was a very pleasant and peaceful village and we had a guided tour.

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