Nakon Nayok

So we are in Nakon Nayok. The visit to the wife's family home is a ritual many expats in Thailand will recognise. While most of us tend to live in the well developed resort areas such as Phuket, our wives' families often live in more remote country areas. Family ties are important in Thailand so the wives want to visit and usually like it if hubby comes along to.

Don't get me wrong, I don't need to be dragged along. I love travelling around Thailand. There is so much to see and the hospitality really is genuine. However, once you have been to the same village a couple of times you have seen it and there isn't really anything new to do. So I limit my visit to Nakon Nayok to once a year. We will be here for five or six days. I find that is about the right amount of time for me to really chill out before I start getting tetchy and bored.

I guess I am quite lucky in that my wife's family home in Nakon Nayok is a beautiful little area. It is only 100km east of Bangkok in the foothills of Khao Yai National Park. There are rivers and waterfalls. There is a huge 3km-long new dam with a great lake behind it. This means that they can release a steady supply of water into the main river so that they have water all year round.

The area is a popular holiday retreat for the wealthier Thais in Bangkok. They come to play in the water, kayak down the rivers, etc. There are many local bungalow resorts and the land prices here have really rocketed since the dam was completed. The area seems to be very much off the western tourist trail - it doesn't even get a mention in Lonely Planet.

This visit is absolutely great for our kids. They have the time of their lives playing in the water and with the local kids. My wife of course is delighted to see her family and they will just picnic and natter all day. I get the VIP guest of honour treatment and I am introduced to an endless stream of local characters who embarrassingly all remember my name when I have no chance of remembering theirs. Drinks are constantly thrust into my hand and it is impossible to not eat. The only possible complaint about the hospitality is that at times it can be a bit overwhelming. It is difficult to find a quiet hour to yourself to just sit and read a book.

Thanks to the booming land prices here, my wife's family have a nice new home. When I first visited I was taken aback by the shack they lived in. It was a ramshackle old concrete pillar building with wooden boards and corrugated iron roofing that made one hell of a din in the rain. It was basic living and a real eye-opener to how Thai country folk live - and yet are so happy.

Fortunately, about 20 years ago they bought a 1 rai plot of land for 7,000 baht. Two years ago, they sold that plot of land for 1.4 million baht - how is that for inflation! Enough to pay off the family debt and build a nice little house. It is still cold showers with water pumped from a well but it is a far more comfortable stay than it used to be.

Anyway, tomorrow is Songkran so it will be water fight day.