In Thailand, it is never a light matter when you do anything. Thai people like to consult the astrology charts in order to find an auspicious time to do something important. This can be anything from the day of your wedding to the time a new car can arrive at your home. The day and time for starting to build your house is also important. A special ceremony is arranged for erecting the first pillar or foundation stone of your house. Yesterday I had the honour to attend the ceremony for the laying of the foundation stone for the Paknam Tower. This is going to be a massive, 139 metre high tower with some amazing views of Bangkok and the Gulf of Thailand. There will also be restaurants, shops, museum and library.

Although Thai people are mainly Buddhists, ceremonies like this one are conducted by Brahmin priests dressed in white. In the above picture, a priest is asking for forgiveness from the guardian spirit of the land. He is also asking permission to build on this land. In front of him you can see the offering for the guardian spirits. Although this ceremony is mainly Brahmin, nine monks were also invited to do some chanting. Local dignitaries also offered food to the monks which enabled them to make merit for this event. I suppose in some ways this is like doubling your chances that the construction of this tower will pass smoothly.

According to Thai astrology, there are three days of the week when you should never start construction of a building. These are Tuesday, Saturday and Sunday. For the Paknam Tower, everything was done by the book. The day they picked was Friday 18th May 2007. The time for the actual laying of the foundation stone (see picture above) was also set for exactly 2.19 p.m. The number "nine" is considered auspicious by Thai people as it sounds like the Thai word for "progress". Everything is done in multiples of nine. There were nine monks and nine different kinds of food offerings for them. In the picture on the right, you can see a close-up of the astrology chart for the tower.

As well as the marble foundation stone, nine symbolic bricks are also used during the ceremony. Three made of gold, three made of silver and three made of an alloy. In the picture on the right, you can see nine symbolic pegs made of nine different types of wood. In addition to these items, there were jasmine garlands, flowers with popped rice and one baht coins which were all used during the ceremony.

Once the conch had been blown and the small drums banged, it was time for the foundation laying ceremony to begin. In this first picture, Khun Anuwat, the Governor of Samut Prakan Province, can be seen hammering one of the pegs into the sifted sand. Each of the dignitries then took turns hamering the other pegs into place.

Next came some cement. In this picture, Khun Watana, an elder statesman of Samut Prakan, is doing the honours. Again, everyone took turns.

In this final picture, you can see that the nine bricks have already been layed in a star pattern above where the pegs had been driven into the sand. More cement was then poured on top. Then, all of the senior dignitaries, (the person second from the left is Khun Chanasawat who is the Mayor of our city) placed the marble foundation stone onto the symbolic bricks. Following this, they then took turns to sprinkle flowers and coins onto the marble slab. Once the main ceremony was over, the local people, who had been patiently watching everything, were allowed to come forward and to also sprinkle some flowers and coins.

I had spotted two exact copies of this foundation stone made of marble. So, I presume that this one will be covered in cement and then the second one will be placed on show once the building has been completed. But, presumably in the exact same spot. As soon as all of the seating and tents have been cleared, I will go back to take a closer look. Over the coming months and years, I will be bringing you progress reports of this building. The Paknam Tower is actually being built on the site of the Old Paknam Prison. You can read more about the preparation for this day over on our sister blogs at ThaiPrisonLife.com.

I know a lot of the readers of these blogs love Thai food so I decided to treat you to some pictures of food I eat here in Thailand. I was at a restaurant last night called Paknam Seafood Restaurant. It is just around the corner from us on Sukhumwit Road. There were four of us, so we ordered five different dishes:

I always order a stir-fried vegetable dish. This goes with most dishes. It is quite easy to cook. I do a version of this at home a lot. In this dish, there is kale, baby sweetcorn, spring onion, carrots and mushrooms. It is probably advisable to pre-cook the kale in hot water first. Then heat up a wok and fry the garlic until golden brown. Add the vegetables. Season with oyster sauce, sugar, pepper and salt. Very simple but effective.

I quite often order this dish. It is very delicious. You can see in the picture above that the chicken is deep fried and crispy. Other restaurants just lightly fry the chicken. To cook, fry some garlic in the wok until golden brown. Add the chicken. Like any Thai dish, make sure it is already cut bite sized because Thai people don't use knives when eating. After the chicken is cooked, add onion, cashew nuts, fried dry chilis, and one green pepper (or red pepper if you like). Season with fish sauce, dark soy sauce and salt.

This is the first time I have eaten this dish so I don't really have much to say. It was my guest's choice. As you can see, there is squid, red chilil, green pepper and carrot. And of course salted egg!

This hot and sour prawn soup is always a favourite. However, I think it is safe to say that every restaurant I have been to use a very different recipe. Some of them are clear soup, others white, and as you can see, this one is red. I like it hot and spicey. The main ingredients are prawns, mushrooms, red chilies, coconut flesh, galangal (related to ginger family), lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, and is seasoned with fish sauce and lime juice.

This is green curry with chicken but you can have pork or beef. Just tell them what meat you want to add. Apart from the green curry paste and coconut milk, the main ingredients are eggplants, red chilies, kaffir lime leaves, sweet basil leaf and seasoned with fish sauce and palm sugar.