Our Trip To Surin To Visit 'In-Laws'

Well, it’s Saturday morning. We left Pattaya yesterday at 6am. It was a long drive. I think a total of 700kms I drove yesterday. And in Thailand, that’s a very tiring drive. A lot of stop starting, driving slow behind some truck or old driver, etc. Very tiring. Surin is way out North Eastish of Thailand, near the Cambodian border. Along the way we were as close as 25kms from Cambodia, and there were many check points. For those that have heard about the fighting between Thai’s and Cambodians recently over a temple, well, that’s not too far away from where I now sit, maybe an hours drive.

Anyway, we finally got to Lahan Sai, which is where Suntiphap’s family is. Suntiphap is one of my workers, whose family lives near Kae’s, so he came with us in case I needed another driver. We arrived here about lunch time, and within 1 minute of getting out of the car, beers were brought out. I loved it. But we could only stay a short time as we still had a while to go.

Nearby was this fantastic looking Temple, called Wat Prasat. Very nice. On top of a hill. But there were many trees so you couldn’t see ‘the lay of the land’. Cut away the trees and it’d be a fantastic view. But also cut away the trees and it’d be even hotter than hell.
I brought some neat little nic nacs to send home for mum and my own home. Cheap as shit too.

We finally reached our destination around 3ish. Many people were waiting for us, as I also had Kae’s brother and Mother with us. Again, beer was brought out, so at least I was happy for a while. Then the process of greetings, good luck rituals etc began. For me, weird as hell, but for Kae and the rest, normal every day stuff.

After a while we finally hit the road again in search of a hotel. I need air con guys, so there was no way I was staying in a hut in the middle of rice fields. We found a nice neat little hotel about 15 minutes away. Guess what, owned by a pom. But at least there was someone who spoke English for me to chat to.

By 8pm, I was a goner, sleeping through the entire night. Now it’s early morning, and we are getting ready to visit the old people yet again. Leter this afternoon I’m heading off to Surin with Suntiphap and Bear, Kae’s brother in search of bars and beer.

I’ll post some pics up soon, I have some fantastic photos…..