A large part of the Subaru Forester regional launch in Thailand last month was the two-day road trip up to Hua Hin from Bangkok, and most of the driving wasn't done on tarmac roads, which was entirely awesome.
Post-briefing, we headed down to meet the cars for the first time. The air was alive with excitement as we explored the cars and waited for the arrival of our police escort. But before we could thoroughly explore the Forester, a voice came through the walkie-talkies, commanding us to get comfortable and get set for the drive ahead.
Even though it wasn't a convoy of supercars, the sight of almost 20 Foresters bashing their way through the dense city traffic was one to behold. And thanks to our police escort, we stopped for literally nothing and no one, as we raced for the highways to Hua Hin.
The fun began when we exited the monotonous highways and found ourselves on empty stretches of Thai back-roads that would lead to our lunch stop. Not only was the Forester an absolute darling at high cruising speeds, the Japanese Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) was also quite the dancer on the touge-like back-roads.
Alas, the twisty back-roads ended and we arrived at a seaside restaurant in the Pran Buri district to refill our stomachs. More than anything, however, I was glued to the picturesque, unobstructed sea view - something you don't get to see back home.
When I finally regained my senses, put food in my system and picked my chin up from the floor, our adventure continued.
Again, we found ourselves on some pretty interesting back-roads but post-lunch lethargy slowly made its presence known. To combat this, we connected our phones to the Forester's media system and blasted our favourite beats. Luckily for us, getting the music going was extremely easy in the Forester (some cars have systems that aren't as forgiving) and the head-unit controls were a joy to work.
Even though the cars were taking on the course much faster and accelerating through corners at speeds we wouldn't even attempt on tarmac, nobody lost control of their cars - simply because the Forester was intelligent enough, and controlling it even when it was 'out of control' wasn't difficult.
Soon, the bunch of us were having too much fun kicking the Foresters around and forgot that daylight was running out, until the commanding voice resounded through the walkie-talkies again, reminding us that more fun awaited.
And that voice wasn't kidding. En route to our tarmac test site, we negotiated tight back-road hairpin turns and even squeezed our way through a massive pineapple plantation. On top of that, the drive was accompanied by one of the most beautiful sunset sceneries ever. Forget what The Beatles tell you about strawberry fields, fighting your way through a pineapple one against the backdrop of Thai mountains is more fun.
Sadly, all good things, and times, had to come to an end and our shenanigans on the airfield had to make way for tamer driving towards Hua Hin, where we were to stay for the night. What wasn't sad though, was the amazing ocean landscape that welcomed me into my hotel room, but that's a story for another time.
What an adventure and what a day it had been, I thought to myself, as I cracked open a well-deserved cold one.
