Working in the Issan rice industry

The BBC is currently airing a show called 'Blood, Sweat and Takeaways'. The premise of the show is that 6 young Brits are sent to the Far East to live and work in the food industry. Last week, the Brits were sent to Issan to work in the rice industry, I thought a synopsis of the programme may be of interest. On arrival in Thailand, the 6 were told that they would live and work as rice workers in the North East of Thailand. They would be paid the same rate as a Thai worker and would have to live off the wage they earned for a week. The show didn't specify where in Issan the Brits were sent to, but it was pretty remote, somewhere like Yasothon province. They first had to decide where to live, a local estate agent presented them with 3 properties to view. The first was 350 baht/day, was above a cow shed and looked pretty dire. The second was 420 baht/day and wasn't much of an improvement. The third was 450 baht/day and was by far the best, it had a light and was clean and spacious - they chose this one. The estate agent said that the rent must be paid on a daily basis. Day 1 They were then told that a local Thai farmer had agreed to employ them on his farm. He wanted them to pick a field, probably about half an acre, of rice in a day. He said he would pay them each 100 baht for the day. They worked much slower than the farmer expected and he had to bring in Thai workers to complete the job in time, because of this, he only paid the Brits 50 baht each for the 8-10 hours work they had done. This gave them 300 baht between the 6 of them, which they realised wasn't enough to pay the rent let alone buy food that night. They ended up spending 120 baht on mama noodles, chocolate and sweets from a mom and pop and promising they would pay the landlord 2 days' rent the next day. They tried to barter in the mom and pop shop, the shop-owner responded by raising the price. Day 2 The next day the Brits worked much better and were given a full day's pay of 100 baht each, giving them 600 baht. They realised that they owed the estate agent 370 baht from the previous day plus the 450 baht for that day. They decided to not eat and gave the landlord their 600 baht plus the 180 baht they had from the previous day, this of course was still 120 baht short of what they actually owed. Day 3 They realised that they needed to work somewhere where they would get more money, they were given jobs at a local rice warehouse and were told they would receive 125 baht for a day's work. They were motivated by the fact that earning this wage would enable them to pay their debt to the landlord and have some money for food. However, they soon realised that not eating any food the day before meant they had no energy and the work they had to do was heavy labour - filling 90 bags with pig feed and shovelling a lorry load of rice onto the floor to dry it out. The boss of the warehouse gave them a slice of bread and a mini banana to share between the 6 of them, this seemed to give them the energy to work hard and they completed the jobs and although the factory owner wasn't that pleased with their work, he paid them the 750 baht he had promised. They returned to the landlord, paid off the debt, then went to the mom and pop shop and bought lots of 5 baht 'pizza slices', which looked stomach-turning. Day 4 They decided not to work today, which meant they couldn't stay in the house. A local of the village they were in said they could have one of their chickens but they would have to catch and kill it themselves, which they did. They then spoke to the locals about what they did out of season, when there was no work in the rice industry. The locals told them that they sent their young to Bangkok to work in the factories. This led into the Brits deciding that they would go to Bangkok to work. The show ended there, with the next part being shown next week. BBC iPlayer - Blood, Sweat and Takeaways: Rice (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00kvj2d/Blood_S

I really enjoyed this series, but have to say my confidence in it's worth has been shaken. 450 bht a day for that house is absurd. What local pays 13500bht a month for a shack in the middle of nowhere? They were then taken to a shop and bought sweets for dinner! Then were shown "unable" to afford food the next day. It seemed to me as if the show makers were intentionally making their life harder than it should have been to compete with the Indonesian episodes. The trouble is that now it leads me to distrust the show in general. They were paid 100bht a day for rice field work too. Isnt that a bit on the low side?

They were being introduced to the concept of "screwing the foreigner," a valuable lesson for ex pat workers.

Quote Originally Posted by pornstar View Post (http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/non-teaching-jobs-in-thailand/41154-working-in-the-issan-rice-industry.html#post1209221) I really enjoyed this series, but have to say my confidence in it's worth has been shaken. 450 bht a day for that house is absurd. What local pays 13500bht a month for a shack in the middle of nowhere? They were then taken to a shop and bought sweets for dinner! Then were shown "unable" to afford food the next day. It seemed to me as if the show makers were intentionally making their life harder than it should have been to compete with the Indonesian episodes. The trouble is that now it leads me to distrust the show in general. They were paid 100bht a day for rice field work too. Isnt that a bit on the low side? Yeah, good series BUT the price of accom is normally thrown in as part of the overall salary, and the Beebs prices were waaaaaaaaaaaaay to high. Sadly, 100 baht a day for actual work is a going rate on some farms though, although they do get everything thrown in an sometimes get a bonus if there's a bumper harvest. But, hey, they've got Hoovervilles back in the States and people are living in tent towns again!

Ah gentlemen welcome to the world of television. Although I did not see the program, in a previous life I worked the industry. Believe nothing you see. If they were to do all that they were asked and enjoyed it, with no obvious problem, it would not be of interest. Liken it to the road trip of McEwan and friend touring together on motor bikes. Just the two of them against the elements. Oh and the two enormous RV's, staff, camera men, mechanics, etc etc

Quote Originally Posted by pornstar View Post (http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/non-teaching-jobs-in-thailand/41154-working-in-the-issan-rice-industry.html#post1209221) 450 bht a day for that house is absurd. What local pays 13500bht a month for a shack in the middle of nowhere? I thought it was a bit OTT, you could of built that house for less than 10K. The worst bit of 'foreigner goes to deepest, darkest Thailand' TV I've seen was a show called 'My Super Sweet 16 - Exiled' on MTV, it followed a 20 year old spoilt brat from Beverley Hills to the 'swamps' of Thailand to see what life is really like. She actually went to an elephant trekking village about 50k out of Bangkok, was greeted by a lady who spoke perfect English and had an American accent. The girl refused to eat a chicken, refused to clean up some elephant dung and rode some elephants - wow, life in Thailand is soooo difficult! Exiled | Episode 4: Ava | Video, Photos | MTV (http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/exiled/episode/episode.jhtml?episodeId=138585#bio)

will this be shown in australia

Quote Originally Posted by Cawphad Guy View Post (http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/non-teaching-jobs-in-thailand/41154-working-in-the-issan-rice-industry.html#post1209194) They first had to decide where to live, a local estate agent presented them with 3 properties to view. The first was 350 baht/day, was above a cow shed and looked pretty dire. The second was 420 baht/day and wasn't much of an improvement. The third was 450 baht/day and was by far the best, it had a light and was clean and spacious - they chose this one. The estate agent said that the rent must be paid on a daily basis. Pretty much lost interest after reading the above. Glad to see those running the show did their homework, and the six guys rolled over like good little whiteys. What was the whole theme of this show?....How stupid farangs consistently work for peanuts and get raped by paying over the odds for everything in Thailand? Or is it.......how the average farang is consistenty outsmarted and hoodwinked by the crafty Thais? [image: http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/images/smilies/laugh.gif]

Did they have work permits?[image: http://www.ajarnforum.net/vb/images/smilies/mad.gif] Isn't farming a "restricted" enterprise?

On arrival in Thailand, the 6 were told that they would live and work as rice workers in the North East of Thailand. They would be paid the same rate as a Thai worker and would have to live off the wage they earned for a week. The show didn't specify where in Issan the Brits were sent to, but it was pretty remote, somewhere like Yasothon province. They first had to decide where to live, a local estate agent presented them with 3 properties to view. Quite a interesting premise until.... The first was 350 baht/day, was above a cow shed and looked pretty dire. The second was 420 baht/day and wasn't much of an improvement. The third was 450 baht/day and was by far the best, it had a light and was clean and spacious - they chose this one. The estate agent said that the rent must be paid on a daily basis. When it completely ceases to have any interest at all. Thanks for the warning.

Hi all, I'm interested in applying for a job in Sao Paulo in Brazil.