Issan

[Snick]

ROAD TRIP !!!

[gunslinger]

Next time, bring me with you!!!

Sure you dont mind "roughing it" big fella?

[gunslinger]

After all that 100 Pipers I'm pretty slow to rouse the next day, and everyone seems to have vapour trails coming off them, we grab a tuk-tuk into town and head to a big market near the centre, it seems we have to bring some food with us, its a large open air affair and everything seems to be only 10 or 20 Baht............

I thought we were only going to get a couple of things but this is rapidly turning into the "Friday Night Big Shop" It seems that every village in the province has run out of the 3 major food groups meat, vegetables and 100 Pipers whiskey...

[gunslinger]

So I'm now wandering around with 6 bags of groceries with a raging hangover in the midday heat, shit I thought this was supposed to be holiday. Then as if it couldnt get worse we come to the "bus station", this is how we will get there I'm told, the buses are basically trucks full of people and everything from furniture to live chickens, and there are even people hanging off the sides of some of them.
And as luck would have it the one we need to get on is already full with about 6 people holding on for dear life on the back.
"I think we'll wait for the next one" I suggest, which is about 30 mins later, and as oon as it comes I offer an extra 40 Baht to the standard 20 Baht fare to get us and the whiskey seats in the cabin, the meat and veg goes in coach with the chickens. The power fo money eh?

[gunslinger]

So its goodbye Kalasin.........

[gunslinger]

and hello..........er...........hello?.Is anyone out here?

It suddenly dawns on me where I am, and feel a bit apprehensive. I start to think that I could end up hacked to death and put on a BBQ like that other guy last year..

[Guest]

i agree, alot of nice girls up there, i was lucky enough to be taken upcountry by an ex, it was mad, did not see another farang for 5 days!

[Ladyboy_Loser!]

I love Surin, great weather, cheaper than Bangkok, I can breath the air without hacking up a bucket of phlem, no traffic jams and a pace of life that lets me relax. Don't go there looking for LB'S cause unless you are dialed in you will be out of luck.

[gunslinger]

Kalasin is surrounded by small villages connected by a network of narrow roads, on the map, it might look quite close but this particular method of transport we've taken isn't exaclty the express service it takes us more than an hour to get to our destination, as we have to do detours off the main road to stop at all the other small villages on the way. I sort of wonder if we will get there at all in this heap of junk.

         Thanks to all your financial contributions "Cash" here has now recovered from that terrible illness...........

[gunslinger]

Finally we arrive , it's a village of around 30 houses with a single main road going through it, we get out and head into one of the houses. they are pretty basic to be honest, some have been re-built to a certain degree or extended , others still look as they did 30 years ago, simple wooden shacks. I'll be lying if I said it didnt shock me.                                                      
                                 There are 3 young girls  sat on the floor, as soon as they see me  they give a   one of them immediately jumps up and tries to clean the room up as best she can, she is embarrassed about how her home looks. It's pretty hearbreaking and I nearly lose it for moment They are poor, very poor but very welcoming. We dump the food off and take a walk around
                                   Someone shouts to us from the window of the next house, I turn to see this young girl in a towel with wet hair beaming at us. She gestures that she is going to put some clothes on, we walk around the front and sit down with the family who are sat out the front, i've seen some laid back people before but nothing will ever top this lot, like Pogue said the pace of things make you chill out in no time.
                                After a while the girl with the towel, now fully clothed, comes out and sits down with us, every now and then you see a girl who makes you wonder how you got into all this ladyboy stuff, in the first place and it takes my best efforts to stop staring at her. she. They sit jabbering away for about 10 minutes after which, I'im nudged and asked
                              "What do you think?"
                              "Yeah, its a nice place."
                              "No, what do you think of her"
                              "Er, well she is beautiful."
                               "Looks same as a girl doesn't she?"
                              "Well yeah, thats because she is a...girl.....isnt she...you're not telling me she..."
                               "She ladyboy"
                                This just blows me away, I just sit there shaking my head and the only thing i can say is "unbelievable" Which if i remember correctly is what i did the first time I went into Obsession., but this was something else.
                             Just then her boyfriend arrives on a motorcycle she hops on, smiles and waves back at me as they speed off.
                             I just laugh to myself, what a country!

[gunslinger]

We move on the next house, there is a young ladyboy on the front porch shaping a girls eyebrows with a razor blade, seems like some people are born to work in a salon. They both turn and smile, people from the other houses start to emerge and call to us, I look across to the next house and recognise one of the ladyboys from the previous night and we wave to each other. There seems to be a ladyboy in every home pretty much. My guide tells me that even she is shocked when she comes back because there are so many, and that every time she comes back there are more and more....

[gizmo]

great TR. very nice pictures.
Something I would like to try
someday!    

[TTChang]

This thread is brilliant - many thanks gunslinger!  

[katoeylover]

The best thread i have read in a while, thanks for the insight Gunslinger.

[divertwo]

...great stuff but I'm sure heart wrenching as well......I know I'd probably lose it and try to help everyone...........but then they all seem happy and content wihtout all the material crap we westerners seem is necessary for life.......keep the story rolling I can't wait for more..............ALOHA