Homestay is where the heart is – a Thailand family adventure

Want a more authentic experience for your next family holiday? Jeremy, Karen and Joseph Head (aged 7) are a little overwhelmed by the warmth of the welcome on their homestay in Thailand.

I was holding back tears when we said goodbye to Chay. He’d just driven us to the station to catch the night train back to Bangkok. We dumped our bags on the pavement. Chay bent down and Joe our seven-year-old gave him a big hug. I could see Karen my wife was having a watery-eye moment too.

Chay had let us share his life without reservation. We’d met his 96-year-old gran. We’d stayed in his family home, eaten and drunk with him. Slept in the room next door to him.

How deep do you go when you’re travelling?

Thailand is a perfect destination if you want more than just a holiday. People are SO friendly. This is particularly true with kids. Wherever we went, people’s natural curiosity in and attraction to our little English boy broke down barriers.

Whilst I and Karen cooed over cute little Thai children, locals did the same over Joe. Seeing the same tug of parent-emotion in their eyes was a wonderfully human thing. It transcended language, culture… everything.

Joe and a Thai kid would look wide-eyed at each other a moment, then dash off and play chase: no concern they came from different parts of the world and couldn’t speak a word of each other’s language. It was life-affirming stuff.

So… we were doing pretty well on the authenticity front. But our homestay took it to a whole different level.

A family homestay in Thailand

Khlong Noi is a community of 400,000 people close to Surat Thani in southern Thailand. If you’re spending time on the paradise islands of Ko Samui, Ko Phangan and Ko Tao, it’s easy to add on a visit. You’ll see a completely different side of life, and not just another tourist in sight.

The community relies mainly on growing coconuts, producing palm oil on small-scale plantations and fishing from the canals that criss-cross the area, but it has also been offering homestays for many years. There’s a handful of different families that happily welcome visitors into the houses. We spent a day and a night with Chay, his 13-year-old cousin Boom, his aunt Nee and his uncle, Mr Somsak.

We had no idea what to expect when we were dropped off at their traditional two-storey wooden house surrounded by lush gardens. Chay made us feel swiftly at home. Joe was a little shy, clinging to Karen’s leg. The promise of a Fanta worked wonders. Then Chay introduced Boom who was all smiles. Within moments Joe was showing him some of his toys.

We’d arrived quite late in the day so all we needed to do, was eat, drink and go to bed. Chay showed us around our sleeping quarters. They’d moved out of the lounge upstairs to accommodate us.

There were two double mattresses on the floor. What is it with seven-year-olds and beds? Joe couldn’t resist jumping on them. “It’s like sleeping in a tent!” he said, pulling back the mosquito nets that were draped over them and throwing himself in.

I should perhaps have pointed out beforehand that Karen doesn’t eat meat and Joe only seems to eat chicken and rice at the moment. Any embarrassment about our difficult eating habits disappeared quickly over a couple of beers. Nee cooked up chicken fried rice for Joe, Karen ate stir-fried shrimps caught from the river. I ate everything: smooth chicken coconut curry, eye-watering vegetable stir fry, even a raw vegetable called dogfruit. Chay insisted I dip it in the most fiery of chilli sauces.

The only antidote? More beer.

Canals, temples and coconuts

The whole point of a homestay is you just do the normal stuff that locals do. What’s interesting is how the every day for them can be fascinating to you. This is particularly the case if you’re only seven.

Early next morning we clambered aboard a long tail canoe to explore the canals. Joe tottered down the steps to the boat, ungainly in his life jacket. “Wooh. It’s really wobbly!” he said as Chay helped him climb in. Chay made Joe laugh heaps. He christened the boat ‘Titanic 2’ (hopefully with a better outcome..!).

Our destination was the local Buddhist temple, a place of complete tranquillity. Joe was fascinated by the golden Buddha statues here. Chay and Joe lit incense sticks together and pungent smoke wafted around us. It was soothing, peaceful. A pile of tiny square slivers of gold leaf sat in front of one of the statues. “Is this REAL GOLD?” asked Joe, awe-struck. “Yes!” Chay replied. He showed Joe how to rub them against the statue for good luck. Get it right and the gold sticks to the Buddha and won’t come off.

On the way back, despite mum’s worried looks, I let Joe sit right on the end of the boat. The wind tugged at his hair as we sped along in the hot sunshine. He turned back to look at me, grinning from ear to ear. This was fun.

Chay also took us out in his ‘Lamborghini’ (well, it was a pick-up actually) to see some of the local tradesmen. Bet you don’t know how many coconuts a coconut sheller can shell in a day?

The answer is over 500. Two men were working at frenetic speed cutting the husks off coconuts by ramming them down on to scarily sharp blades mounted on top of poles. Joe held one up and gave it a shake. “You can hear the milk inside!” he exclaimed.

Meeting the rest of the family

Chay also took us to the local boat building yard and the palm oil plantation, but the most memorable encounter was much closer to home. Chay’s parents still live in the 100-year-old wooden house that he was brought up in, just around the corner.

“Look dad, look!” shouted Joe. Chay’s father was showing him the huge live crayfish that he keeps in a tank beside the house. “We catch them when they are small and then feed them to grow bigger,” he explained.

The coolest thing though was seeing how he made fish hooks by softening needles with a flame and then bending them. Joe watched in amazement as the needle glowed bright red and was quickly bent into shape.

Watching the proceedings from a daybed nearby was Chay’s 96-year-old grandma. “She’s REALLY old!” said Joe. Everyone laughed. Her eyes twinkled behind her huge glasses.

We lined up for a photo. Joe was suddenly shy. He genuinely didn’t know what to make of her. Thankfully everyone laughed at his timidity. Just occasionally the immediacy of Joe’s reaction to things that scared or annoyed him provoked embarrassment.

Kids tell it like it is. When they like something, it’s magical. When they don’t… it’s not always ideal.

Monkey business in the mangroves

We finished our day with a stroll around the mangroves. It was a Saturday afternoon, and lots of locals were relaxing by the river, paddling around in kitsch-looking swan-shaped pedaloes.

We wandered in the sticky heat along the concrete walkway. Monkeys swung and chattered in the trees above us. The more daring scampered in front, on the look-out for food. One fearless one sat up on the pathway and looked Joe full in the eye. There was no question who was boss.

We could so easily have stayed another night. A host of friends were coming over for a special dinner as it just happened to be Mothers’ Day. We had to refuse countless offers of food and turns with the karaoke machine.

We had a train to catch.