Tips for Living in the Mountains

I just got menaced by a snake. It reared up and menaced me and not knowing if its bright colours meant “I'm poisonous” or “I grant wishes”, I ran like a girl from its slithering advance. I bet it wanted to avenge the snake I ate last week.

Although unfriendly animals are occasionally encountered here in the mountainous countryside, the main threat comes from boredom. If one intends to up sticks and move into this sort of environment, I think preparation for this is helpful.

I used to exercise once a day, but I've now increased that to twice a day because there's so much time available. I've always been a big reader but was back home I was mostly distracted by computers with their websites and video games and didn't read much during university. Now I spend a considerable amount of time reading and it's great. Living in the village is a great chance to actually do some educational reading too, or “book learning” as the Thais say. This always makes me think of Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel from The Simpsons. I always have to stock up on literature when I go to Bangkok and I never get enough.

There are frequent distractions in the village (carrying a termites nest home to feed chickens, holding a muscular dog's mouth shut for a rabies vaccination, harvesting various things and erecting stuff) but they don't last very long and it's important to be able to occupy oneself. I'm beginning to wish I was a proper builder or engineer because practical skills would be useful. It's all very well knowing about law and economics but there's no practical use for it here. I want to build stuff like some sort of crank and pulley ventilation system to generate a cooling breeze without using electricity, but I don't know where to start with that and even if I work it out, I probably couldn't build it.

I won't be updating this blog any more - go to The Penang Blog to see my new and exciting Malaysia blog!