Days 281 - 284 - Summer home of Thai royalty...

Hua Hin is located in central Thailand, about 230 KM's south of Bangkok and is known as the summer home of the King of Thailand and his family. It certainly is a step up from some of the towns and cities we have already visited in Thailand. There is not much real evidence of poverty around the city as there is in other places. The city itself is average size and you can walk around alot of it.

It has a really relaxed atmosphere and when you walk the streets, there is no one pushing you to buy a suit or get a tuk-tuk! As I said, the city is known as the summer retreat of the Thai royal family and indeed there are several palaces around the city.

However most of them you are unable to enter especially as the royal family were in residence when we were there - and nor we did not get to see them. Not that we don't already know what they look like - all throughout Thailand, every few miles, there are paintings and pictures of the King and the rest of the royal family. You can sense that there is a real genuine feeling of loyalty to the family from the Thai people - unlike anything you would ever see in the UK.

One good bargain we got in Hua Hin was a camera that Shane bought for just over a E150 - it is like one of the ones that a real photographer uses so we expect that you will see much better quality photos on the blog from now on!! Shane is all delighted with the new camera - he's even taking photos of anything that moves now!!!

Hua Hin also has a beautiful beach and many temples. Of course we had to visit them and we have some pictures for you below. Although it is a nice place to stop off, we would not recommend staying here more than two days as you will have seen everything. Next stop for us is the capital of Thailand, Bangkok. We are heading on a 3 hour bus journey there tonight so check in with us later ...

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