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Published: March 11th 2007
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Beach Bumming
We lounged for a while on the beach... I tried to open a coconut but with no luck - I'm just not meant to live off the land! Well I've certainly had a change in lifestyle after the last blog update. We've since rendezvoused with my Aunt Judy and Uncle Larry who've flown to Thailand to join their nephews and Trevor. We gave them a brief tour of Bangkok (seeing as how we've spent like two weeks total in the 'City of Angels' ) and quickly booked into a very nice resort in Hua Hin, which is located down the coast on the Gulf of Thailand.
It was nice to be back in Thailand after spending a few months jumping around Indochina, and especially nice to be staying on a beautiful beach drenched in sun. We got to play some more volleyball and even swim in the fancy pool at the hotel! We took it pretty easy for the first day, picked up some Gin and Tonic and watched the sunset and smoked come celebratory cigars. Judy and Larry went golfing the second day, and the boys and I spent our time on the beach, by the pool and everywhere in between. After golfing they were quite in need of some drinks, and we were quick to introduce them to Chang O'Clock. However, we were surprised when they
Cowboy?
It's hard to be a cowboy on a beach in Thailand, riding a mule 4 sizes too small, and wearing a hat sized for a 5ft Thai guy. But I try! said they knew all about Chang O'Clock (from the blogs) and were quite anxious to partake. Though Springfield Resort had so many facilities we really just decided to hang out amongst ourselves in our luxurious beach side condo.
Later that afternoon Jason and I signed up for a horseback ride along the ocean. At 4pm we met two horse handlers down at the beach, with what they presumed were horses... after a few much needed laughs and some photos we explained/showed them that there was no possible way we could ride these mules. A half hour late they came back with... larger mules... over which we didn't bother to quarrel and simply saddled up, after they maxed out the stirrups for us. The ride was pleasant, we trotted through the surf and enjoyed the beginnings of the sunset until... whammmyyy. As Jason got the horses to start cantering (on a gravel road just off the beach), his horse (Joey) quickly decided that he would much rather run without a huge guy on his back, and bucked Jason from the saddle. I simply looked on in amazement as we were riding side by side. After I got my horse (Karma)
Goodbye Fresh Seafood
I'm going to miss the copious amounts of fresh seafood that southeast Asia has offered... to finally stop, I returned to the crash site to find that Jason was still alive, well and unbroken; except for a very large battle wound on his forearm. We rounded up his horse (which was grabbed by a group of nice Thai people up ahead) and swung back to the beach for a much more relaxed, and slower, ride back to the resort. We had quite a bit of fun considering the fall, and didn't regret the ride, though there's no way I'm ever going to ride horses in a country without real cowboys.
The following day we spent hanging out around the resort, trying to use as much of the free amenities as possible. We were able to play some tennis due to two very nice Swedish sisters that brought rackets all the way from home. We challenged them to a match, which we later realized was a very bad idea - what kind of amateur players would bring rackets to Thailand? Not amateurs at all! It turns out one of the sisters (Mikeala) is a top 10 professional tennis player in Sweden and her sister (Sandra) isn't too shabby either. Even with our long reach and
Beached Boats
Preparing for launch at high tide. We enjoyed their tasty catch of prawns, fish and squid at many a restaurant. attempts at trick shots we could barely return her serves and had trouble making any points at all. All in all we had fun and realized we really need to pick up our tennis game if we want to compete on the world circuit.
After 3 nights at Springfield, we had to move south on the beach to another resort due to a Thai holiday that had the hotel all booked up. "Beach Gardens," as it was called, was very nice as well, but I don't think anywhere could be as nice as Springfield... We signed up for a few rounds of golf courtesy of Judy and Larry (Thanks!!) We had to wake up at 6am in order to hit the course by 7:30-8am (the sun was scorching hot by noon and made golfing almost unbearable). The first day Trevor, Judy, Larry and I took on the links at The Royal Hua Hin golf course (the first/oldest course in Thailand) and didn't do too shabby. We enjoyed a few cocktails along the way, and by the time we reached the 13th hole we weren't ready for what we saw... a cluster of monkeys inhabited the trees along the fairway,
Rendezvous!
The late night welcoming committee greets Judy! which proceeded to try and steal our golf balls after we teed off. Larry's ball was the only one completely stolen by the sneaky primates and after a few funny pictures we moved on. We ended the day with decent scores (considering Trevor and I hadn't golfed in quite some time,) Judy and Larry did quite well. Jason came out on day 2 at the golf course (his elbow was still quite raw from "horseback riding.") The night prior we had made some bets as to who would win in a pairs competition. Naturally since Judy and I were both 3rd born and Jason and Larry were both 1st borns, we decided to make teams based on birth order. After the front nine, Judy and I were ahead by a few, but not much. We battled hard and eventually came out with a victory of about 10/15 shots over Jason and Larry. Woooo!
Hanging out on the beach, swimming in the pool, and eating at our favourite beach side restaurant (mmmm chicken and cashew nuts along withburying our feet in sand to keep cool) got a little too repetitive and we decided to head into "town" and watch some
Khao San Road
It's good to be back... well not really but it's certainly a sight to see; great for people watching! Muay Thai. Neither Larry nor Judy had watched the Thai kickboxing before and were pretty excited. The fights went well, fighters young and old graced the ring and offered a good show. Our ringside seats made us feel like part of the match!
With "so much" time on land, we arranged for a snorkeling trip in the Gulf. After a 2 hour ride south, we hopped on some fancy speedboats that took us out to a cluster of islands which offered some pretty amazing snorkeling. We explored the reefs and many cool rock formations at a small rock island before heading to Koh Talu (a bigger island with bungalows on the beaches) where we did more snorkeling and had a delicious lunch on the beach. After a couple hours to hang out on the white sand we were boated back to the mainland and made our way back to Hua Hin for Chang O'Clock.
We left Hua Hin on Mar. 9th and headed north back to Bangkok where we quickly realized how much nicer the beach was than the very loud, smelly and busy capitol city. We visited the weekend market that comprised of acres of vendor stalls
Hua Hin Beach
Our hotel door was steps to the right... selling everything imaginable! Afterwards we crossed town to the massive MBK shopping center where we picked up and last goodies before heading back to the hotel. March 10th was Judy's birthday and we celebrated in the room where we enjoyed a smorgasbord of room service and a plethora of cocktail concoctions. Happy Birthday Judy!
Sunday was a farewell day for us all. Judy and Larry flew back to Vancouver in the early morning and Trevor and I said goodbye to Jason in the afternoon and wished him luck on his next leg to Europe. Trevor and I are now awaiting our flight out of here much later tonight (1am) and have spend every last Baht that we have on random trinkets.
I can't believe the trip is coming to an end!!!! It's been such a blast!!!!
I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing about everyone at home in the coming weeks/months!
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Emily
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Great Finale!!
What a wonderful end to a what looked like a fantasic trip full of adventures in a far off land!! Glad you're coming back- I can't believe how fast the time has flown- sounds like you sure are going to miss the place though. Looking forward to eventually see all the pics (I'm sure there are thousands). Sure sounds like someone has the travel bug, any thoughts of where you might like to go next? WELCOME HOME!!