Author: keg » December 21, 2007, 11:13 am
I lived in my wifes village for about 3 months with her prior to moving back to Udon. I know her family well and we are welcome anytime, but even we call them prior to showing up as courtesy even though not reqired. For some reason you want this to be a suprise and can't extend that basic courtesy so you have to assume your visit will not go over well with the family. You don't say what the nature of your visit is but it does not seem like it is for something good such as you have won the lottery or something of that nature, so again you have to assume you won't be welcomed with open arms. In fact, it seems like you may want to be confrontational in some fashion and that will go over even worse. I would heed Maligators good advice.
Above was just speaking of the family. The rest of the village will be even more curious to what the story is. If you are not seen as being there to anounce your engagement or marriage to the girl, her and the family will be looked down on for being involved with a farang on a casual basis. If a confrontation occurs that confirms that she was involved with you in the past, it will be seen as even worse.
It seems as though you want the family to lose face. Even if they were aware of or complcit in something bad the girl did in the past, causing them to lose face in a confrontational manner for all the village to see, and involving a farang, is a dangerous game.
If I have read this wrong and you are going there unannounced for a good reason, then maybe things could be different. The villagers will be instantly judging you to determine how rich you are and more important how rich her family will become. When I moved to the village, talk was that I was poor since I only owned a motorcyle and moved to the village and rented a house. Everyones first question was what I did and how much money I made. After buying a new truck I was suddenly vaulted to millionaire status even though nothing had changed. They automattically assumed her family was rich and everyone started asking her mother for money. Bottom line people start to become jealous of the families new status in the village, real or not, and look for anything to say bad about the family.
I am not sure of your intentions with this visit, but face and status in a small village is a real issue and the families loss of face in public will not go down well. The villages reaction may also relate to how big her village is and how much they have dealt with farangs in the past. If it's not too personal, explain your reason for going unannounced and maybe we can better judge the reaction.
Keg