With Christmas out of the way spent with the immediate family on Samui, it was fast approaching time to make the trip even further South to visit the Father-in-law's family down in Songkhla for the annual family party.
This would be the first party for 3 years and was due to take place on New Year's Eve. The last time was up in Phitsanulok which I posted about here so we load the six people and luggage into the car and started the 360km journey South at first light in the same way as it always does, by boat!
No idea who that bloke is who photo-bombed my picture but he seems to add to the nautical, sun-rise theme!
I was simply the vehicle operator having 5 drivers along for the ride! As expected, the roads were chaos. There were police-check points every few miles with it being one of the 'carnage' weeks on Thailand's roads and interspersed with many toilet and noodle stops, it wasn't until late afternoon that we arrived at our hotel for the next three nights, a rather bland 'event' resort situated on the edge of town.
We did have one big stop however at a town about 30km from Songhkla city to visit the house in a small river community where Khun Phaw was born, 70 years ago.
This was the river in question, and like in so many places in Thailand, along the banks lay self contained communities with their their own local councils, shops and just enough room to get a motorcycle down!
A path runs along the banks with stilted 'houses' or shacks built on either side. The guy in the picture who obviously isn't Thai, is my bother-in-law, Robert the Bruce, over from Glasgow with the sister's wife for the holidays.
This was the community council's meeting place!
And there it is, Khun Paw's family home, still lived in today by a family who took it over when he and his family left. That's actually him looking happy! I was hoping his 'joy' would stop him contradicting Google maps at every turn and constantly telling me to 'slow down' and 'watch that motorcy' for the rest of the trip South...but it didn't!
Parents wanted taking straight to Uncles house where there would be whisky already on free-flow and for the wife and her sister, it was time to take a tour around their city of birth and where they lived until taking off for university.
Songkhla is actually a lovely, small city built onto a headland and surrounded by water. It has a lot of history as a trading point with both east and west and in the old town, the external influences are easy to spot. Now its a naval port and university town and the whole place is a wonderful mixing pot of cultures and religions, all combining to create wonderful human textures in a multi-layered snapshot of humanity. That's to say it had a chilled out vibe, miles of beaches, thousands of coffee shops and millions of annoying students!
There are also many parks, many in honour of former naval officers and like the Air Force prefer to mount their old aircraft on pedestals outside the bases rather than scrap them, the navy like to display their old torpedoes and anti-aircraft guns! If most of their old warships hadn't sunk, no doubt they'd also be laying around in parks rusting away!
Again, I have no idea who that person is and I did want the wife to hop on and ride the torpedo for comedic effect but she wasn't having any of it, so feel free to insert your own punchline at this juncture!
She was far too busy lighting joss sticks at this memorial to the founder of the Thai Navy who stands atop the rather natty, submarine themed pedestal.
As we drove around, with her excitedly pointing out the places she remembered as a child, we ended up at the police station and training school. The father-in-law is a retired plod and this is where he had been stationed and Fon was actually born in a police house in which they lived.
Was it still there?
Turned it was! In Thailand, most government agencies have free housing for their employees and depending on rank, the accomodation can range from a room, to an apartment and then onto various sized houses. Many staff no longer take up the free home, preferring to pay to rent their own as admittedly, a lot of the places on offer are dire, and thus the house Fon was born in, although still standing was empty. It did look rather forlorn and dilapidated, as did the whole are surrounding it as most of the houses were empty but there was a sign on the door with an offer to rent if you dropped by the local police station and enquired.
The padlock on the door didn't look very secure...
So encouraged by the good lady, and in true @slobberchops Urban exploring style, I gave it a 'gentle' twist and the damn thing came off in my hand. Whoops!
I just realised that I took the pictures of the 'break-in' with her phone and she won't let me have the pictures so watch out for edits later when I get my hands on them ;-)
So after a few minutes and possibly the first pee in the 'squatter' for a good many years, I did my best to stick the padlock back on the door and we headed for Samila beach!
Samila beach is the main beach in town and is a focal point for families spending the weekend, and like the whole of the coast, is edged by trees giving shade and a place to park and set-up BBQ's and picnics. The sun was going down now so just a few pics, this place deserves a post in itself (hint-hint!).
Running South from Samila, the tree-lined beach runs for miles and miles and unlike the gentle 'lapping' of the ocean on the islands, the sea here is often more like it is on a stormy day in Scarborough.
We also had a ride round the old town which is an mix of old, and refurbished buildings, some beautiful street art and art spaces and gorgeous coffee shops. A lot of the area was quiet now and many businesses had closed but there were a few of the older, traditional places still open!
Always time for some noodles at this noodle shop that has been open for 'hundreds' of years according to the wife and has always been her favourite noodle shop in the whole of Thailand. Noodles are noodles. Right?
And while we sat there, a bloke on a motorcycle drove past with a silver platter of food for sale balancing on his head...apologies, but I really can't provide any other explanation other than TiT! - This is Thailand.
After some tasty noodles, it was on to the 'oldest' ice-cream shop in Songkhla where they sell Egg-Yolk Ice cream, hand made to a traditional Chinese recipe, brought over when this family settled here, also 'hundreds' of years ago!
Sorry, I tried to keep her off the pictures but this place was so small. Obviously in love with Liverpool, the old lady on the wheels is the daughter of the original Chinese immigrant who opened the shop as you can see from the next picture of the information board placed outside.
Oh. The ice cream? Well, I mentioned egg-yolks right? Not only is the ice cream made with egg-yolks, it has a fresh, raw egg-yolk broken over the ice cream itself!
Two with extra yolks, two without! I'll let you work it out. The brown stuff is Ovaltine. They seem to sprinkle it over everything. Again, TiT!
The old town was a really lovely fusion of Asian and European architecture and cultures and as I mentioned earlier, all bases were covered!
Happily, there were also a fair few tourists around, many who had travelled over the border from Malaysia and were spending the New Years weekend in town. Again, the old town and the jetties with their fabulous street art are worth a post of their own so something else for you to look forward too!
Finally it was time to head back to the hotel and wait for the call to come from the Mother-in-law informing me that Khun Paw was pissed and they needed picking up.
Don't you just love holidays? And there was still the party to come!
