Yesterday I mentioned a flying 36 hour visit to the village to visit the family, pick up some more personal belongings but mainly to show Ben the ‘real Thailand’.
Picking him up at Ubon airport was the first time I had ever laid eyes on the easy going bloke from Sydney. Ben Groundwater is a Sub editor and sports journalist at the Sydney Morning Herald. He also writes a blog which gets huge amounts of web traffic called The backpacker.
A few months ago Ben blogged about heading off on a round the world trip and wanted to meet up with expats in their adopted country in the hope of seeing the real side of what ever country he was visiting.
I flicked him an email and a link to this blog inviting him to visit which is how Ben ended up in the wilds of Thailand for a few days.
It was a real shame that we had moved out of the village since he accepted my invitation but the flying visit was better then nothing. He said he had a ball and it sure did seem like it to me. In fact I had a great time as well as not only was he fantastic company it is always nice to show someone else your little slice of life.
We walked the village, saw the river and ate all sorts of thai food. We went to town and he held my hand while I had more dog bite needles at the hospital. He visited a massive temple ceremony twice and cooked pork ribs over the coals while enjoying a few local beers.
I managed to convince him (it didn’t take much) that he needed to sample the local rice whisky otherwise known as Lao khao. I poured him a generous shot at the back of my brother in laws shop and for some reason he didn’t ask for a second one.
Psyching himself up.
Down the hatch
The aftermath!
He was my first visitor since we arrived late last year and if everyone who follows in his footsteps is as nice as Ben then I am going to have some great times ahead of me.
Speaking of visitors my next one is just two days away. My best mate Clint is on his way for a three day visit. It is more business then pleasure but that doesn’t make me any less excited to see him.