Revival in fortunes

'Mum', the owner...

After an absence of 18 months, I have started revisiting Mum’s shop in Pin Khlao.

When I arrived for the first time five days ago, she and her husband had just reopened their corner shop following devastating floods which rose to chest-level.

The place was a mess, and even now large piles of rubbish litter the area, as shopkeepers attempt to resurrect their livelihoods from the damage left behind. Parts of the street look as if a whirlwind ripped through it.

Three weeks before the floods struck, Mum and her husband Pa took over the lease of the Esan-style eatery next to their corner shop, paying 300,000 baht in family money for the privilege.

They had only just opened for business when floods forced an abrupt end to trade.

Three weeks later, the place is now dry, and the rebuilding effort has begun.

The eatery, hours before its opening 

The old corner shop, which is next to the eatery

Pa is a former army soldier who is good with his hands. He rebuilt shelves in the eatery, and extended the benchtop table for the corner shop.

Everyone lent a hand. Mum’s younger sister Issara is in town with her farang boyfriend, Charlie.

We set up tables for last night's grand opening, and cleared tables after guests had left.

The opening night for the eatery was a huge success, with every table sold.

I seldom saw the place so busy when it was run by the previous owners, who sold the lease to Mum after they decided they had had enough.

I entertained hopes that a swish place further down the soi, run by a young go-getter called Wut, would do well.

This eatery had its own bar, air con, modern toilets, entertainment area, even a waterfall.

In the end, it was Mum's place which has thrived - thanks to the injection of life provided by the eatery next door - and it is Wut's place down the soi which was forced to close.

Today, the shutters to Wut's place are pulled, and a For Lease sign hangs out the front.  ‘No one went to the place...it folded ages ago,’ Mum said matter-of-factly.

In the past week, I have also met two of the performing arts students I used to know in the area.

A glimpse at the street in front

 As students, they would gather at Mum's shop after finishing class for the day at their school across the river.

Like Mum, they come from Kalasin in the Northeast. At least five years have passed since they graduated.

Touchingly, they still refer to Mum as mae (the Thai word for Mum, from which Mum draws her name in this blog).

Even after a mere three visits over the past week, I have found my ties deepening with the place, and the family which runs it. We have known each other almost 10 years, and some ties appear not to fade with time.

  

I am happy for them, and admit I am surprised everything has come together so well.

When I saw the corner shop 18 months ago, almost all the regular custom had gone.

For more of Pin Khlao during the floods, when the Chao Phraya River burst its banks, causing mayhem over a large area, see this site (scroll down a bit).

PS: I took some poorly-lit pictures on my way to Pin Khlao of the canal running by our condo in Talad Phlu, the old Chinese market where we used to live.

A glimpse of a canal boat, taken from Talad Phlu in Thon Buri

Bangkok Yai canal,  which runs through Talad Phlu

Some of the housing on the canal shoreline