As you approach Rayong on the highway from Bangkok, there is
a billboard that announces Rayong, the Detroit of the East. I don’t know how old this billboard is, but
Rayong’s manufacturing base is still going strong, most recently driven by
petrochemicals, but they make everything from furniture to pharmaceuticals to
canned pineapple. My principal told me
there are over 3,000 factories in the Rayong area, and at my school many of the
families are originally from elsewhere in Thailand (or occasionally from Laos
or Cambodia) but moved here for the work.
The other main economic driver in the area is fruit production, and not
only are there large industrial scale farms, but every other teacher (and/or
their family) I know has an acre or two of pineapple, mangosteen (the ‘Queen of
fruits’ in case you didn’t know, the ‘King of fruits’ being, of course, durian,
of which I’ve already eaten a lot), bananas, etc. with the odd jackfruit,
guava, or longan tree thrown in for good measure.
Since the climate is tropical, it’s pretty much a year-round
growing season, though there are technically three seasons: hot (early to mid-March
or so until mid- to late May), which is just coming to an end, rainy (anytime
from mid-June through September), and cold (October through February, but don’t
let the name deceive you, the low doesn’t get below the mid-70’s). Apparently the end of the hot season is the
prime time for many fruits such as durian and mangosteen, and I’ve been eating all
kinds of fruit non-stop since I got here.
So far I’ve had five different kinds of mangoes, five kinds of bananas,
mangosteen, durian, pineapple, rose apple, longan, lichee, and guava on a
fairly regular basis.
But I’m getting sidetracked.
Back to the topic of Rayong, or more specifically, to Nikhom Pattana where
I actually live, which is a smaller “town” 20 minutes outside. There’s not a whole lot to it, other than a
stretch of 4-6 lane (depending on how many cars are trying to pass each other in
each direction) highway with crossroads (called sois) every kilometer. I live just past soi 1 and the school where I
teach is at soi 12. There is a big
permanent outdoor market at the intersection of the main arterial highway and
another highway from which the 1 kilometer to soi 1 is measured, and there are
smaller open air markets on a 2-3 times per week basis at sois 3 and 9.
Most of the factories’ main shift is from 7:30 to 4:30, so
there’s a lot of motorcycle and song taeow (basically a covered pickup truck
with two long benches in the back for local transport) traffic just before and
after those times. I wouldn’t be at all
surprised if traffic accidents are the number 1 cause of death here (although
the driving here is actually not as crazy as in Vietnam). Two of my host father’s siblings were killed
in traffic accidents. It’s a combination
of lack of safety precautions, e.g. hardly anyone on a motorcycle wears a
helmet (and there are often 3-4 people on one motorcycle), and an extremely casual
approach to things like lanes and traffic lights. Then there are the Rot Dtuu (vans holding
around 15 people for medium-range transport) drivers, who drive like bats out
of hell even though they don’t make any more money for getting to their
destinations more quickly. I personally
always prefer to arrive still alive even if it means an extra hour. I’m quirky like that.
But again, I get sidetracked. I guess this bears witness to the fact that I’m
reaching to come up with things to tell about Nikhom Pattana. It’s probably best to let this rest for now.
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