Blogs from Southern Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 4

Thursday 16th February Today it's hit the beach day. Our favourite is called Sai Noi, an easy and scenic 20 minute drive through pineapple territory. We toasted happily for three hours, avoided the sea as still a bit choppy after the recent monsoon, not wanting to be swimming alongside the ever-present threat of Jellyfish. Not many people took the plunge either. We were unfortunate to have a couple of Danish tourists take up the adjoining sun-loungers, who chatted loudly to all of their Countrymen throughout our time there, so not particularly peaceful. We got stuck into our current books, and read happily until we turned a nice pinkish colour, then decided to pack up and drive a further ten minutes to check out the neighbouring fishing village/beach of Khao Tao, glimpsed briefly on the day Leo ... read more

Valentine's Day and we are off to Hua Hin Fishing Lodge again, what a romantic way to spend our day. An easy 45minute drive, then we're settled, rod in hand for Leo, book for Paula. Takes a while for Leo's first catchable Siamese Giant Carp and it is a whopper! Took about 15 minutes to land him our helper guessed at around 20kgs and the physical effort required leaves Leo taking a few minutes before re-casting. Thus we spend a most enjoyable morning, bathed in sunlight, shade provided by trees, birdsong all around us. Around noon we decide to try the owner's award-winning Full English Breakfast. OMG. We both declared it was almost the best ever. It was huge and we fed the Lodge's resident dog with a remaining sausage and bacon that we simply couldn't ... read more

Hello everyone. We are having an extremely lazy weekend, spending hours doing absolutely nothing, at the beach.... read more

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 ... read more

Thursday 9th Feb Woke lazily, birdsong, sunshine streaming into our bedroom. 8.30am, not too early, not too late. The great thing about deciding to have one base for our month away, is that there are no bus/train/flight itineraries to adhere to. We have one house/one car/two bicycles and one month to enjoy. This is totally a different kind of trip. So far, we are both enjoying ourselves very much. The weather is perfect. No rain, clear blue skies, hot days and slightly cooler, sleep easy nights. So, a bit of laundry done, usual pints of tea consumed, morning ablutions done, we decide to visit the Royal Town of Hua Hin, 30kms away to the North, using sleepy, scenic roads. Leo drives. A nasty accident ahead very soon slows us down, but it makes us appreciate how ... read more