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Published: February 10th 2017
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Friday 10th Feb
Pineapple Surprise When we read about this region it said Pran Buri was the major producer of Pineapples. Bearing in mind we think Cyprus also grows them we realise we haven't actually ever seen them growing, what the heck do Pineapple bearing plants/trees look like? Therefore, after our usual slow start perusing the News and lots of tea and toast ( with a generous spread of our own homemade Cyprus Orange and Ginger Marmalade that we brought with us, (sad people that we are), decide to check out their cultivation enroute to the Mangrove National Forest Park at Pran Buri, 20 minutes easy drive away.Pineapples are a proper fruit and grow from spiky leafed plants something like Aloe Vera. Once we knew what to look for we saw acres and acres of them.Curiosity satisfied we continue to the Park. As a pleasant change we find it is free, however to really enhance the visit they offer boat trips through the swamps to the river estuary of the Pranburi river. Costing baht 450 (£10) for an hour's enjoyable trip it is well worth the money. And we see many species of birds and two very large Monitor lizards
which were over 1.5 metres long, we tried to photograph them but they blend so closely into the surrounding trees that they're not very easy to see. At the mouth of the river is one of the largest and colourful fishing fleets we have seen. Paula advises that it is a combination of the original Pran Buri fleet and the Hua Hin fleet which was made to relocate here when they developed the City's tourist area, very much a fishing port , the source of much employment here.Returning to the Park's main reception area Paula is overwhelmed by hoards of small school children trying to converse with the Farangs, (foreigners) thankfully their school trip was coming to an end so they were all shepherded onto coaches allowing serenity to return. As experienced on previous sorties into rural Thailand, we were an amusing spectacle for them.Leaving the Park we revisit the Ho Sai Noi beach where we people watch whilst savouring an ice cold Singha Beer, the beach today being full of tourists. Tonight we are going to the night market looking for bargains. Before heading home, we call in at the Bamboo Beach Bar, we tried to get a beer
there yesterday, but the owner, who we now know as Jonathan, had no beers, he apologised and we left. So today, we felt we ought to return to see if he'd managed to restock, and yep, he had. We treated ourselves to snacks of homemade Spring Rolls and chicken satay. It was Paula's turn to choose the food, and it was all delicious. Wife Jan's rolls were huge and we agreed possibly the best we'd ever eaten. Enjoyable afternoon and now a lot of Ex Pat local information from Jonathan in order to enhance our remaining stay here. In fact, we are going to do a recce of a modern condominium on the beach, just along from here for a possible return. At £300 per month with gym and pools, who knows what we might plan for 2018?On our way home we parked up and perused our local market. Mostly food,mostly dying fish drawing their last breath, ( They're not dead until you get them home, so lie there gasping) chunks of pork, too exposed to the warm late afternoon sun and flies to make a pork chop remotely appetising. Leo whacks his head as he is too tall for
the stall poles, king prawns fresh off the boats that we saw working this morning, all manner of sights,smells, and we bought nothing! We think we might stick to Tescos. Dinner at home , cold beverages and bed xx
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