Once again Bob has gone to the trouble to convert his old footage into the digital age and send these two great videos to me for your viewing pleasure!
About the first bit of footage Bob says “I took this video in 1968 from the 9th floor of the Ubon Hotel. I was facing south and you can catch a brief view of the Mun river. You can also see a house girl washing dishes and a samlow riding by the Lotus Restaurant. The Lotus Restaurant was air-conditioned and served delicious steak dinners for 30 baht ($1.50 USD).”
“I also took this video in 1968 from the 9th floor of the Ubon Hotel and I was facing north. Can you tell much change between 1968 and now?”
For anyone who has visited Ubon I think you would agree with me by saying the looking South, Ubon Ratchathani seems to have been stuck in some kind of time warp as noticing any changes is extremely difficult. Looking north however is a different story. The park, government compounds, temples etc have all undergone dramatic change. Thanks again Bob for giving us another brief look back in time.
You may have noticed that my blogging has dropped off a bit over the last few weeks and that is for a very good reason as we are on holidays! We left Ubon 11 days ago and have been having a blast!
A night near Khao Yai, a few days in Bangkok and the rest of the time has been spent around Hua Hin where is where I am blogging from at the moment. Lots of eating, coffee shops and shopping interspersed with swimming in hotel pools and visits to the beach.
Tomorrow we will check out from our lovely apartment and head further south. I had such great intentions to blog regularly while on the road with heaps of photos but the mood just never struck me, sorry! The photos have been taken and edited but the words are yet to be typed. Hopefully soon!
In the mean time, I will leave you with another video from Bob who says “Here’s another short video I took I believe in early 1969. I was on Upparat Road south of Mun River just about where the Ubon Buri Hotel is now. I took video from both sides of the road.”
Another eagerly anticipated email from Bob was received late last night. In it he wrote
“Here are four more pictures. Picture one is another picture I took in 1967 of the intersection at Chayangkun Road and Upparat Road.”
“I believe I took pictures two and three in 1968. In picture two, I was standing on base and facing check point Charley. This was the day the King was coming to Ubon and people lined up all the way from check point Charley to downtown to see him.”
“Picture three is of the car the King was riding in as he was being driven from base to downtown. You can barely see his form in the back seat. This was all that I saw of the King that day.”
“I took picture four in early 1969 of the Big Buddha that I believe is in Amnat Charoen Province.”
Another day, another great new email from Bob. I realise I could wait a few weeks and save all these photos and videos up and post them all at once but I am really enjoying the interaction between a few of the vets and some of the current locals so will keep them coming as often as Bob digs up another classic.
Over to Bob…..
I took this video of the Mekong River in early 1969 in Nakhon Phanom. From where I was standing, if I’d look to the north I could see the water was a little deep, but as I’d look to the south, the water was shallow or non existent.
I found the picture I took at the on-base barber shop and I’m including it. If you enlarge the picture, you can see the prices in the reflection in the mirror. You can also see the barbers were required to wear masks. I do remember seeing the barbers under the trees.
Ubon has changed so much since the 60s that I can’t remember where many things were located downtown.
Things are getting busy here in Ubon as we prepare to leave town. In the last few days there has been a lot of packing and organising of power/phones/internet etc. Unfortunately things are not as quick and easy as back in Aust/NZ where you just pick up the phone and they organise everything for you. Here you need to visit the phone company, visit the internet company, visit the – well you get the idea. Take a number, line up, show them more half a trees worth of paper and then fingers crossed that they are in a good mood.
I have completed one fully loaded 4wd trip to the village and will do another three more between now and Saturday. I also squeezed in a visa run which of course included 18 holes at the Sirindhorn Dam Golf course with a friend.
We plan to start our road trip very early next week and we are all really looking forward to it!
In the mean time, I thought I would continue the popular Ubon history theme from last week. This was the first bit and this was the most recent.
In this instalment I am very happy to show you some more old footage taken by Bob. This one for me at least is very exciting as it goes right past the current location of Peppers and follows the road that I have driven on average twice a day for the last 18 months.
I will hand over to Bob who explains his video in more detail.
I’m sending another video clip. The quality is not good. As I said before, I used an 8mm camera and had the old film transferred to VHS tape and that tape transferred to digital tape so I could upload it to my computer. I trimmed the clip and saved it at a reduced quality so I could get the file size below 10Mbytes. You can make the judgement call as to whether you think it is worth posting on your blog.
The road that runs in front of the camp (Uppalisan I believe) was a dirt road in the 60s and many times was impassable after a rain storm. At its best, the road was rough to travel by car or truck. I was driving my Honda truck west on Uppalisan road towards checkpoint Charley (the entrance to the camp) so the camp is to the right in the video clip. I gave my camera to my friend and told him to do the best he could to film the road and immediate surroundings. If you look closely, you will see many taxis waiting across the road from checkpoint Charley to take the GIs to town. I stopped at the intersection with Chayangkun Road and turned right or north. The video shows the narrow asphalt road that was Chayangkun in the late 60s. The video clip stops when I was probably just north of where Robinson’s Department Store now stands.
Bob also replied to something he read that was posted by Rob who was also stationed here at the same time.
Hi Andrew,
I was reading your blog about a guy named Rob who was stationed at Ubon about the same time I was there. He mentioned several things that brought back memories. He spoke of the open-air barber shops downtown and I do remember those. A guy would get a pair of shears and a stool and set up shop under a tree. I have a picture I took in the on-base barber shop. You can see the prices in the reflection in the mirror. I believe it shows haircuts for 30 cents and a massage for 25 cents. You can see the barbers had to wear masks because of tuberculosis.
Rob also mentioned tailored clothes and Playboy magazines. I went to a tailor named Kiat Poosa. She would hand me a Playboy and ask me to pick out a style for a shirt or a suit then I would select the material and she’d make the shirt or suit. I would get tailor-made shirts for 50 baht ($2.50) and I got tailored suits made from Thai silk, Italian silk, sharkskin, etc. with two pairs of pants to each suit for 700 baht ($35).
Rob also mentioned a shoe maker near the Ubon Hotel. It may be the same one I went to. He would have me step on two pieces of cardboard and draw an outline of my feet. He would take a couple heel and toe measurements and have me pick out a sole and top made from elephant hide or other leather. I went back in a couple days for a fitting. He had the basic shoes completed and I would try them on and walk around. I would point out where they were a little snug or a little loose. He’d remove the insert, scrape out some leather or add some leather and then put the insert back in the shoe for me to try again. Once the shoes were comfortable, I’d come back the next day and he’d have them completed. A pair of tailored shoes cost 140 baht ($7).
In this blog entry Bob told us that he paid 24,000 baht for his new truck. I emailed him back and said that it seemed rather cheaper even 40 years ago so I asked him about other prices back then in the late 1960′s.
This is his reply. “In 1968, the American dollar was worth 20 baht. The Thais paid a housegirl 100 baht ($5.00) per month. You could ride the “baht bus” from camp to “downtown” Ubon for one baht (5 cents); a samlor cost 3 baht (15 cents) and a taxi cost 5 baht (25 cents). The waitresses at the clubs were paid 100 baht ($5.00) per month. They made more money in tips from the GIs. I thought the best fried rice was at the Playboy Club Restaurant for five baht (25 cents). A large bottle of Singha beer was 20 baht ($1.00) at the clubs or 13 baht (65 cents) at the open-air Thai restaurants. The best restaurant on the 9th floor of the Ubon Hotel served a great steak dinner for 30 baht ($1.50). I believe the beef was imported from Australia. You could get a Kobi steak dinner (huge hunk of meat) for 60 baht ($3.00). Gas cost about 2 baht (10 cents) per litre.”
Along with his reply he sent some more pics. Judging by some of the online comments received and some personal emails it would seem that a lot of readers are enjoying this series so I will keep it going.
He first of all sent two photos of a round-a-bout that used to exist on Upparat Road just north of the bridge over the Moon (Mun) River. The first picture was taken during the dry season and the other was taken during the rainy season.
In another email Bob wrote “I noticed on your blog that Michael Hare mentioned some information about buses in Ubon. I found a couple pictures of buses that I took in Ubon in 1968. I took the first picture near Base Supply (on base). This bus was free and was used to transport people around the base.”
“I took the second picture of a bus on the same road that runs in front of the Ubon Hotel and near the first intersection to the east of the hotel.”
“I took a lot of 35mm slides when I was in Ubon but the humidity caused some damage to them. I scanned them into my computer anyway. I imagine you have many Australians who follow your blog and perhaps some who were stationed at the base in the 60s. My picture 3 is of the inside of the Australian NCO club at Christmas 1967. Sorry about the poor quality of the print.”
Looking at this on my screen makes me think it is time to start getting ready to head north to Thailand for the winter! http://t.co/f1Zvr2lv20 hours ago
Left the house at 5am for a 10k run and it was still too hot! Might try 4am with a head torch tomorrow! I hate the buildup to the wet season 1 week ago
