Following what felt like a very long flight between Auckland, New Zealand and Bangkok, we finally arrived in Thailand. Because we were heading west the flights were during daytime hours, meaning very little sleep to help the time pass. We were grateful to arrive at our hotel in Bangkok at midnight and surprised when we all basically slept the entire night. The next morning as our bodies began to adjust to the shock of the heat and humidity, we enjoyed a swim in the pool before taking transport for a lengthy drive. during our journey we saw many statues and Buddhist temples, lots of golden Buddhas on hills overlooking the surrounding and a huge triple headed elephants. The journey out of Bangkok was slowed by construction as they are currently building a double-decker highway, it was quite amazing to see. Alastair picked up the motorcycle he is renting, despite the hot temperatures he is wearing safety pants, long sleeve clothes, and close toed shoes (unusual in Thailand). The rest of us also got fitted for helmets so family members can ride as passengers one at a time, (not family style seen so often in Asia).
For our one month in Hua Hin, I booked a beautiful Airbnb villa with its own swimming pool and Lotus Pond, complete with crocking frogs. After torrential rainstorms (with amazing thunder and lightning) we found 18 large frogs vs. the usual 3. The living space is dominated by large windows allowing us to see the beautiful garden. The home is decorated with Japanese art, antiques and Buddha sculptures. The owner, Michael, has had two different phone conversations with me. He is a lovely Swiss gentleman who used to love Heli skiing in Canada. The biggest disadvantage of our villa is its location requiring a transportation to go into town or even get to the beach. We are grateful for our rented motorbike but will probably end up renting a car for parts of the month. The local beach is very long, at least 5 km and beautiful. There are huge jellyfish on the sand, which makes us nervous to swim. It is an area known for box jellyfish. On the hill facing out to the ocean is a huge Golden Buddha, as well as a smaller Buddhist statue and a few temples.
Michael also connected us with a local Thai woman, Dawan, she is interested in working for families that are staying at his home, offering legitimate Thai massage or coming to cook traditional Thai meals. She made us a fantastic soup with pork meatballs and red coconut curry with chicken and potatoes. Dessert was sticky rice with fresh mango. We are hoping she will come once a week while we are here.
The Hua Hin night market is one of the popular night markets in Thailand, it is bustling and full of life. With the usual variety of very interesting and different food, some looking and smelling wonderful, other offerings less appealing, particularly the dried fish and squid. We all enjoyed looking around and limiting ourselves to a few small purchases (backpack and long-term travel) is teaching Aiden shopping restraint. He was excited to find one of his friends and special gift. He did find himself a really need etched wooden rubber band gun providing hours of amusement with target practice. Video games have made his interest in shooting much more than I ever imaged I would allow in our home. Sophie found a nice shirt and we all enjoyed some sugar dipped strawberries. We now understand why night markets are a thing in Thailand, it gets so hot during the day shopping at night is much more pleasant.
Retrospectively high lights from our time in Hua Hin include: Aiden “I really enjoyed having the swimming pool and having enough space to spread out my Lego fully”; Sophie “I really enjoyed using the swimming pool and having my own room that I could settle into and unpack properly I also really enjoyed the big open space in the middle of the house which I used for stretching and the little green space outside that I used for Dance tricks. I got a backbend and a handstand bridge while we were there”; Alastair “Hua Hin was a nice city to stay in, it was great. I enjoyed going for rides on the motorbike with Helen and getting into a running schedule and walks in the morning. I enjoyed helping Sophie with her gymnastics moves by spotting her and going for swims in the big pool with Aiden, helping him work on his front crawl. Song Kran was fun! I really enjoyed my Enduro bike day trip”; Helen “I really loved the home we were staying in and was glad we splurged; the beautiful pool and pond were a huge highlight for me. It was nice to have a kitchen that was well stocked for a full month, and we were able to buy a few groceries that we wouldn’t have otherwise purchased. Sophie who has been missing baking made delicious brownies one day Unfortunately, the barbeque didn’t work well, we ate our meals outside every night and did a lot of self-catering as we will be eating out more on other parts of our journey in Thailand. It was great to have Dawana come and make us two traditional time meals, as well as this was much better than things we tried in a restaurant. I loved going to the beach each morning with Alastair on the back of the motorbike, getting a beautiful walk and sometimes in the evenings as well. There was a great beach bar, which was very thrown together and we would sometimes share a very cold large beer following our walk just as the sun was disappearing. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the motorbike, as a couple we took some great trips into the countryside and to different forest parks, national parks or beaches. The kids took the same opportunity, but they did not want to go for longer rides. Riding on the back of the motorbike gave me a fantastic opportunity to see the local area, people and scenery from a different perspective.”
