In Country a trip report

[pfotoguy369]

OK, I'm new to the board and I have been reading and trying to stay with in the "guide Lines" and spirit of the board.

I like reading trip reports and travel and I wanted to try to add something to contribute to the board.

Hopefully it will give to some some insight to Thailand, it;s people, and it's culture.

Hua Hin, Pattaya. Phuket are not Thailand. They are resorts. they are to Thailand like Cancun is to Mexico.

If you want to see and experience the real deal you just gotta get out of town.

Any way we'll give this a try and see where it goes.

In country

I know a lot of people that read the board just come here on holiday and only see Pattaya, Hua Hin, or Phuket sometimes a couple of the islands, All the touristy places. That’s all well and good but there’s so much more to see here in Thailand.

I’ve been fortunate in my life to be rather World traveled. I’ve been all over the world, well here and there anyway. Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico, South America and there’s more that I would like to see.

When I was looking for a place to retire Costa Rica was at the top of the list. Then for some unknown reason Asia came to mind and I started to do some research on that.

My first experience although not the best one was in Vietnam in 1965. I won’t delve deeply into that subject other than to say I found it a scenically beautiful country and I found the locals, at least the ones not shooting at me to be charming and friendly.

I was from California so I liked the heat although it was a little exasperating at times with the humidity especially on those little jaunts into the jungle.

While there I took a couple of R&Rs one to Manila and one to Bangkok. I must say both have changed in 40 years but that’s to be expected.

We’ll save Manila and the PI for another day.

I don’t remember much about Bangkok other than is seemed like the “big” city and it was also beautiful and the girls, how could you not fall in love with the girls.

I used to have a ton of pictures of VN, PI and Bangkok but unfortunately they were almost all slides (in those days that’s what I took) 35mm slides.

But someone broke into my apartment and relieved me of ALL my belongings including the food from my refrigerator, and my slide projector and the canisters.

To this day I wish they would have at least dumped out the slides in a pile on the floor and if they would have left me with that and nothing else I would have still been happy.

But as all thieves, they were scumbags and didn’t.

Where the hell was I? God I’m going off on a tangent and unfortunately “I’M” not on meds.

Oh ya, Thailand, I was talking about Thailand.

I started doing research and happened upon several forums and started to learn about all the great things LOS had to offer. Cheap food, cheap booze, and beautiful girls.

Did the usual and asked all the newbie questions and everyone was patient and I got some good info and in sites from people who were living the life here.

I came here on Dec 3, 2005 stayed 17 days went back to the US, quit my job, packed up and moved here by Feb24th 2006. I’d have been back sooner but my ex died and had to help my son with that and I had a hernia op that needed to heal before I left.

Been here ever since, found an apartment straight away moved in and it was “Honey I’m home”. For me.

One of the big reasons I moved here was because it was so centrally located. From here I could branch out and travel to places like Cambodia, the PI, Laos, Vietnam, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Burma which is now Myanmar, and well you get the picture.

But there’s a lot here to discover right here in Thailand.
I love seeing the country and visiting the villages and meeting new people.

So this is where this report goes. This is on my last trip up north to visit my TGs Noi and her family

Now some of the time I fly and some of the time I rent a car and drive. If you’ve thought about renting a car but were a little afraid of driving around the country, don’t be!

Once you get out of the heart of Pattaya or Bankok or Hua Hin its easy going. And if you’re like me and want to take a lot of pictures it allows you that freedom to stop and go as you wish.

I’ve used Avis and Budget and both are good you just go with the best price and the best vehicle you want to drive.

Note #1: When you ask your girl where she lives she will give you an answer like Chonburi or Ubon Ratchathani.
Do you have any idea how large Chonburi province is? Well it’s huge.

Note # 2. You will ask her if she knows how to get there and she will say yes.
Guys, this is a LIE!!! They have absolutely no idea where they live or how to get there!

You’ll come to a T in the road and you ask do I go right or left? And the answer is often, “yes”.

My lady said she is from Ubon. Well actually she’s from 80 clicks SE of Ubon from a village called Buntanik. But to her credit she’s been to Ubon twice to go shopping at Tesco so I guess that counts as being “from there”.

Now I must say, once we decided to go on the trip she dug into it full force and studied maps day and night for 3 days planning navigation from point A to point B and in the end did a bang up job “Yeah Noi”

I picked up the car in the morning, came back to the condo and we loaded up. Suitcases, bags of goodies for family, (you will be spending money on family if you decide to go so count on it and put it in your budget) and food and drink for us.

Another thing to Noi’s credit she was excellent at handling food along the way.
I’d say Sweetie could I have a sandwich and like a Gazelle over the back seat she would leap and I could hear the sounds of bags and jars opening and slip, slop, bing, bang and a nicely made Ham and cheese sandwich would be handed to me over the back seat.

You = want = soda = Darling? Sure Sweetie, I’ll have a soda. My wish was her command.

I LOVE THAILAND! What a country.

The basic route is taking 3 to 331 to 304 to 24 and hang a left till you get to Det Udom which is where her kids live and go to school.
One is 19 the other 13 and they both live in an apartment (1 room) and pretty much take care of them selves. I was quite impressed.

I think straight away it took about 11 hours to get there. (my friend says it shouldn’t take that long) but this trip it did.

Maybe the next one will be shorter if I don’t lolly gag along the way.

Well I’ve bored you long enough with writing so now let me bore you with some pictures of friends, family and scenery.

On one of our side trips we went to Sirinthon Dam. It was a pretty large lake with nice grounds and I believe places you could rent. Also had a golf course. Someone may know the area better than me. I’m not a golfer.

If you put the next 3 together it makes a good panoramic.







My Telak, not bad for someone that turned 40 the other day.


This was a nice little picnic area at the Dam. Like I say there were some houses for rent but I couldn’t get any info at the time.





This was another Dam project down the road a bit


People net fishing


This is what they were catching


This place is in one of the several National Parks in the area






Another picnic area, all stone tables and seats


Don’t know what made this; I just know I don’t want to run into it!


I believe this is a clam shell of some king at least 3 ft in diameter


There were some hiking trails




I have a fetish for taking pictures of trails. Don’t know why? Just do




Floral and fauna


Some wild life



And of course your stone carvings






One of the things I like about driving yourself through Thailand is the freedom to stop and go as you wish. When you see something that attracts your eye you can stop and take a picture and try to capture that. You don’t have that when taking the bus.

I saw this little place by the river and it just looked so peaceful. If and when I do buy a place in Thailand it has to be near water.







I kept seeing this sign every where; of course the only thing I understood was unseen paradise. I’ll have to see if they’re on the net.


Well it’s time to meet the “family”
For those of you who are contemplating doing this let me pass on some of my own personal experiences. You can take them as good or bad, depends on your personal perspective of things.

This is the 3rd time I’ve taken a girl home and it does very a little but a lot of it is the same.

Housing can vary from anything from hap hazard shack with little or no electricity, no running water, no toilet, with windows that are merely a hole in the wall and a dirt floor.

It’s kind of funny to me when I see these post about Bar Girls and how they have a choice (well they could work in a factory or Big C) some can some can’t. They come from extreme poverty, they have no education, and a lot can’t read or write. They were raised on farms so the may know about growing rice or animals.

But for the most part the only skill or product they have to sell is their bodies.
They are usually under great pressure to “provide” for the families. Most of the time they have a child of their own whose father has a 50/50 chance of being a family member.

Then there’s the Thai culture to deal with. One thing I’ve noticed is this responsibility most of the time falls on the daughter and not the son. Why? I don’t know.
The son seems to be able to sit on his butt and get drunk and take money from the mother that was sent by the daughter.

OK, sorry I got off track. Back to the visitation.

You will be more than likely expected to “Feed” the family. How many varies.
Actually it’s not that bad. You can go to the village market place and buy fruit, vegetables, meat, poultry and fish really cheap. I think I paid around 6 or 700 baht and bought a shit load of food.

The family will of course cook it.

Note: Issan food is very, very spicy. I would suggest you bring something YOU can eat with you. Sandwich stuff, ham and cheese, peanut butter, you know survival food.

Also, once you get out of “The city” don’t expect to see KFC, Burger King, Pizza Hut etc. cause there ain’t any!

My back up food is the roasted chicken. I can always eat that.
If you buy raw poultry and they cook it you may get a soup with a chicken foot sticking out of it.

BTW when they say “not spicy” they mean not spicy to them! It will burn your frigging throat out!!

My lady has 2 kids or “babies” as they like to refer to them. One is 19 turning 20 on the 9th and one is 13.

This is Boss


This is Bank


Where do they get these names from?
As for Bank he doesn’t like his picture taken, He also has not or hasn’t as far as I can find out had a girl friend. Hmmmm. He’s studying to be a Veterinarian.
Mama, Papa, A brother and sister in law live in this house which is pretty upscale for a family of farmers. They all grow rice and raise cattle.



It’s more or less in town on the main road.

The other Brother lives out in the boonies here.


This is where the cows live


This is where the family lives, above the cows. The floor has big spaces/cracks in it just in case you want to roll over in the morning and check to see that the cows are still there.

This is the guest bedroom


The main bedroom was to the left.

This is the food storage area. The glass cabinet is what they use as a refrigerator. No cooling of course.



This is the Sister in law preparing the feast


This is my emergency BBQ chicken leg. I ate the leg and thigh, she ate the foot. With much glee and delight I might add.


Families in the village and the neighboring farms all seem to be inter related.
Brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, grandparents. The only ones that aren’t there are the daughters that were sent of to the big city to bring home the bacon.

Mama


They all look at you and smile, until you bring the camera up.
I’m working on some stealth shooting.

Papa


Ready for the feast


Random pics. Hell I don’t know who these people are






















She’s making the bamboo sticks they the cook the chicken with










The family dog


The family cow


The family lizard


The family tree


Future food source. I like to sneak upon em and yell KFC, KFC, and watch em run like hell


I know the girl that was raised in this house; she did get an education enough to work in a bank. She was making around 8500 baht a month in Ubon.

The family actually pressured her into coming to Pattaya to work bar and sell herself to make more money to send home.
She lasted about 3 weeks and went back to Ubon. She just couldn’t do it.

The catch is, now she is a disgrace to the family for not providing. BUT they still take the money she makes at the bank and they make her feel unwelcome when she does go home.


Grandkids helping fix Grandpas bike




Most of the family grows or works rice fields.


I owe, I owe, It’s off to work I go








These fields are probably 3 or 4 ft high by now


Mechanized water buffalo


Well this ran on a lot more than expected so I’ll do the trip home in another part.
Lots of pictures of 3000 year old temple ruins and such.
Peace

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Foto

If you really didn't want to know the answer, why the hell did you ask me the question!!!

[Lev]

Nice report but I'm glad you didn't upload all of those pics here as it would have killed our bandwidth ... and it takes about ten minutes to load it up!
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Sponsor HHAD | Hua Hin Hotel Bookings | Hua Hin Property

[john bell]

that was great, very interesting,cant wait for the follow uo

[johnnyk]

For those who haven't done it, if you get the chance its a must!
pfoto is absolutely right, its Thailand: largely rural and subsistence economy.
Great pics!

[prcscct]

Good stuff PG, thanks. As you say "mechanized water buffalo". Not a real kwai in sight anywhere. How times have changed. Every family used to have a small herd. Pete
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"What America needs is a huge hypodermic needle of morality." Alice Cooper 21 Sept. 2007

[lomuamart]

Good photos. I've got loads on my computer, but I don't know how to upload them. And they're from some time ago, when I had a digital camera.
Don't want to mess your bandwidth up, Lev.
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"I spent a lot of my money on booze, birds and fast cars - the rest I just squandered". George Best.

[BaaBaa.]

Great report and photos. Nice one!

[pfotoguy369]

[Pagey]

Why can't I see the pics ?
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Learn all the rules so you know how to break them.

[BaaBaa.]

Because they're still loading?

No Eyes?

[migrant]

Very nice, and interesting

Thanks

[JD]

Thanks pfotoguy369, brought back memories of all the Issan trips I've done over the years. Seems like that part of Thailand never changes much.

I also remember all the new roads, and telephone boxes that seem to be on every corner of every remote village around, and the red juice that seems to be spat out everywhere.
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Per Angusta In Augusta.
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www.hamandbacon.co.th

[caller]

The only downer being, "this is my experience, my knowledge, so it is". That said, its a lot more than mine! Great photos and brought back memories, soon to be re-lived again.
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I know nothing