SUNDAY 1st MARCH:    08:30 breakfast. No fry-ups here (thank goodness), but the food is rather good with an eat-as-much-as-you-like policy. Coffee's good too.
Today is a case of getting some basic shopping stuff in to take up to Phanom Dong Rak, Surin tomorrow; basics like coffee, baby food, etc. which avoids the need to travel several miles to a store up in the back-of-beyond where the family farm is.
Late morning spent at Em's (Aom's friend) apartment after the aforementioned shopping interlude. 40 minutes of constant girlie-banter ended by toting not only the shopping bags but umpteen bags of baby-clothes donated by Em. This bloody great payload of stuff warranted a taxi back to our apartment.
2pm: Took baby Jack down to the apartment's swimming pool. This his first ever plunge apart from bath-times.

• TOP LEFT:   Jack's first swimming pool experience.
• TOP RIGHT:   The apartment's pool
• BOTTOM LEFT:   Another of Aom's friends, Kik [as pictured above] popped round to the apartment to pay visit.
• BOTTOM RIGHT:   Kik with baby Jack.

SUNDAY NIGHT: Popped out to one of the local bars for a couple of beers. Aom got a phone call from one of her friends, Kik who was staying nearby in Bangkok with her American boyfriend. She wanted to meet up with us so a 10 minute walk to a nearby Soi to us to where they were. I know Kik from old and quickly realised we were in for a long night. Suffice to say Kik is a very lively lady.
It was, of course, a pub-crawl, or rather a bar-crawl around Nana’s Sois (Soi is Thai for street). This session terminated at around 2:30am all suitably inebriated to the full. Some what I call silly drinks punctuated my Chang beer episodes. Slurred farewells to Kik and Andy and staggered back to our apartment at around 03:30. Some pics of the event below.

• PHOTOS ABOVE:   Last night in Bangkok with Kik and American boyfriend, Andy.

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MONDAY 2nd:   Well of course it was a silly idea staying out drinking so late last night (I blame it on Kik) because we had to get packed, breakfast and get ready to join our pick-up mini-bus taxi up to Surin Province. Originally, the pick-up was for mid afternoon but a phone call from the driver changed this plan. It turned out he was already in Bangkok and wanting to get cracking asap.
It was bloody hard work rushing breakfast but in the end we only kept the driver waiting 20 minutes.
On the road it wasn’t too bad although I felt somewhat hung-over and nauseous. Having the minibus to ourselves, the 3 adults & Jack, made for easy stretching out and kipping en-route. Lunch stop somewhere in Korat area was stifling hot, the temp being well into the upper 30’s. But we arrived at Aom’s family farm in Phanom Dong Rak at just after 4pm; a little under 6 hours which was actually good going (the bus takes upwards of 8 hours).

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• TOP:   Aboard A Bangkok Tuk-Tuk to eat at a restaurant.
• CENTRE:   An assortment of the plethora of street food available.
• BOTTOM LEFT:   More street food.
• BOTTOM RIGHT:   In Chatuchak Park, chatting up the birds?

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