Getaway office, Buachet

I'm currently sitting in a small restaurant in Buachet enjoying an early mid-morning Chang beer and “pad grabao neua”, so I guess this could be the right moment to put pen to paper and get started on some new field notes. Naturally, should also mention that I am going to blame you as prime motivation to get started on the mid-morning beer – need some lubrication to get going. ;-)

Not having been back to Buachet for over a year, I was naturally interested to see what progress had been made in the intervening period. The long promised skytrain hadn't yet materialized, the village drunks hadn't yet sobered up and the crowd of enthousiastic nurses waiting for me at Buachet hospital was as large as ever, so it wasn't long before I felt back at home.

For those of you unfortunate enough never to have visited Buachet, I have compiled a concise guide to the town in the style of Lonely Planet which can be found below.

I write from my office which is a small granite stone table in the Tukata restaurant just large enough for my netbook computer and several large (empty) bottles of Chang beer. In contrast to the local police station, this offers an unparalled view of the commings and goings of Buachet life; farmers on their way to market to sell their wares, schoolgirls topping up their mobile telephones, schoolboys and monks crowding the computer games shop and the odd granny sneaking her way into the off-licence...

Other facilities include a hairdressers where I once had my hair washed and massaged for the princely sum of 40 Baht, a pleasant experience only slightly marred when the stool in which I was seated finally succumbed to the munching termites and collapsed in a heap of dust, seconds before I was due to stand up.

Half a mile up the road is the district hospital where my wife works in the Emergency room. The hospital is firmly out of sight of the mid-morning beer restaurant, even with the aid of a powerful pair of binoculars...

Hospital staff enjoying a lunch break, Buachet. Not quite sure who's in the driving seat here. Lonely Planet Guide to Buachet, Surin, Thailand.
Introduction:
Buachet is a small dusty market town in Surin province near the Cambodian border and boasts a splendid collection of motley shops based around a covered food market selling a wide variety of strange fruit and vegetables, dodgy looking mushrooms and straggly lumps of buffalo meat.

Location:
Buachet is located about 66 km from Surin city and 17 km from Sang Kha near the border of Cambodia.

If you're really stuck, try this. Getting there and away:
Fastest way is to get g/f to pick you up in the car. Failing that, there is a daily bus to Sang Kha and Surin.

Dangers and annoyances:
Boss of Buachet hospital – Be careful when entering Buachet hospital nurses compound at night in the unmarried state as this heineous behaviour is frowned upon by the upper echelons of Buachet hospital society. If caught, best action is to 'wai' profusly and ask the way to the dental clinic. This can however backfire, resulting in an unwanted pulled tooth.

Beer bottle collections – One of the annoying things about drinking a (mid-morning) beer in Buachet is that all of the empty beer bottles are left in situ on the table by the restaurant staff untill the bill has been paid and the clientel has finally departed. When your Thai g/f or wife suddenly materializes in front of your table, this presents an ernormous challenge in pretending that this is your first beer of the day.

Where to stay:
Nowhere. Nearest hotel/motel is located at Sang Kha about 17 km up the road. (Or down the road, depending on which way you are facing.) Feining illness may get you a night's accomodation in the nearby Buachet hospital. Pointing your bare foot at the head of the town bobby might possibly be rewarded with the privilage of a short stay in the cells at the local police station, but might equally result in a swift bop over the head with a large trunchion.

Where to eat:
Buachet offers the adventurous traveller a wide range of culinary delights ranging from basic food stalls up to sophisticated up-market diners where a romantic dinner may be enjoyed by candlelight, especially during a power failure.

Red hot Som tam papaya salad Som tam
Two stalls vie against each other at the front of the market for the title of Buachet's best “Som tam”. A pungnant salad made by pounding a papaya fruit to shreds together with a fist full of chillies, garlic, tomatoes, dried prawns, fish sauce and sugar, “Som tam” is best enjoyed together with a large cold Singa or Chang beer.

Moo Yang Gaolee, great stuff... Moo Yang Gaolee
“Moo Yang Gaolee” which literally translated means “Pig roast Korea” is the newest, hippest trend amongst the socialites of Buachet. Every table is equipped with a large hole in the middle into which a large clay pot filled with burning charcoal is inserted. A round metal dish is then placed over the glowing fire. This dish consists of a domed center section upon which meat is placed for roasting and a surrounding “moat” which is filled with water, beaten egg, glass noodles, vegetables and waterever else was left over at 5 o'clock when the day market closed. Not to be missed, especially when a large cold Chang beer is available.

Hens waiting patiently for their 'Gai Yang' barbecued chicken, a popular north-eastern Thai delicacy.

Other dishes
For a quiet mid-morning beer, head off to the Tukata restaurant conveniently located a short distance away from the previous vendor where you managed to procure a mid-morning beer. (See “Dangers and annoyances” section on beer bottle collections.) This small family-run establishment features a large refridgerator well stocked with Chang beer and as a sideline also offers a range of traditional North-eastern Thai delicacies such as pig's innards soup and roast chicken feet.

Recommended by: Jon ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) 
Enjoyed several large beers and a “chicken feet roast” and still had change over from 150 Baht.

Not recommended by: Charlie Chicken
Stopped by at this restaurant for a quick beer and couldn't find my feet afterwards...

Then there's the local bus stop, a small wooden structure featuring a floor built on rickety stilts, open sides and a roof fabricated from dried banana tree leaves. (Could also be dried banana skins, you can never be sure around these parts.) Conveniently located opposite the town bottle store, it doubles up as a great place to meet locals for a drink (or two).

Looks like he could do with a large Chang too ;-) Things to do:
Shopping
Stock up on cheap rice-field ploughing machines and other essential agricultural products in the shops lining the small street adjacent to the market.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, there are various clothes stalls selling a variety of cheap Chinese clothes smuggled in from Burma by enterprising Cambodians.

Sightseeing
Wat Khao Hall (Buddha Park Temple Hall), located 17km just around the corner from Buachet, in Tambon Charat is good place to head off to when the local shops have run out of Chang beer.

School's out for summer... Night life:
Commences at around 4 pm, just as the nearby school begins to break up and hordes of school kids descend on the town. The vibrant Buachet nightlife really gets going just after dusk when the passing rice farmers begin to gather around for a quick whisky and begins to wind down at 8 pm when all of the drunken rice farmers have left although some shops persist in lingering on untill at least 9 pm.

After that, head off to one of the “Moo Yang Gaolee”restaurants just out of town.

And finally...
 For those people who feel that I'm obsessed by Chang beer, I would like to point out that I don't drink any more. But there again, I don't drink any less either.