Heaven?

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Hi there you have not heard from me in a few days. Well you can blame that on the hotel I am in who don't have WiFI and the fact that I am in this amazing spot where one does not want to spend too much time inside. I basicly placed a finger on the map when I decided to leave Bagkok and I hit on a spot called Hua Hin pronounced Hohin, long o. If this is what heaven will be like then I hope I get there. Ha. It is on the seaside about 2/12 hours south west of Bangkok. Apparently this is where the more refined Thais including the King vacation. Because of that it still has some nightlife but it is a bit better calibre including better restraunts etc. Then there is the scenery. The town is approximately 45,000 people and it is nestled on the ocean with at least 20 kms of fine sand beach, nice and clean and in the background are the mountains. I walked about 10 k yesterday on the beach, sat at a Thai restraunt overlooking the water and watched the fishermen come and go. Unfortunately this internet cafe computer will not take my memory chip from the camera so you will have to wait for the pictures. The restraunt was an expereince becasue I was the only farang in the place and looking at the menu with no one to help me decipher it I decided to go with the old staple, fish cakes. Well there are fish cakes and then there are Thai ones. These were made of swordfish covered in a potato coating and then deep fried in some spiced up oil. Think about being the only white person in a restraunt serving Thai food and after the first bite you think how do I get out of this one, there were about twelve cakes on the platter. I dipped them in the hot sauce and managed six or seven, which seemed respectable to the waiter but I tell you my stomach paid the price! Today I ate Thai again but I stuck with chicken Pathai with Almonds, it was great.

The other fun thing to do in this town I was told was to visit the temple near the fishcake restraunt and then after that feed the temple monkeys! Some Brit in a bar told me this, he set me up. So after visiting Bhudda I found the lady selling monkey food, she gives me this big basket and then asks do I want my picture taken, thank godness I said no. As soon as the monkeys saw me with the food I was swarmed, they were jumping off the roof of a barn on to my back, they were pulling at my clothes and I don't think I would be exagerating if I said there were about fity of them. When they started jumping on my back I literally threw the food basket at the lady who calmly finished feeding them, if she had had the camera I am not sure where it would have went. Then when she is finished she tells the monkeys in Thai all gone, they calmly turn around and scamper to where the hell they cam from! So beware.

I took the train from Bagkok here as I could get to the station on the subway from my Bangkok hotel and I also thought I should try it out. I went 2nd class as there was no first on this train, second class consists of an assigned seat on a very hard leather covered board with windows that open and remain open as there is no air, the car is made of wood on the inside, canteen services consists of locals jumping on and off at various stations selling there home made food. The train could get up to a good speed but that was rare because we were stopped most of the time. It is around 250 K from Bangkok I got on the train at 1 and it left on time and I got off at 5:45, am I taking a Thai train again, likely not!!

There is a night market here too and it is something, quite large, lots of foods and clothing. These people are hard workers because this whole market is set up and torn down every day as it fills in two blocks of the main street. Last night I bought a small monkey (toy) just to remind me of my traumatic day!

One other interesting observation is that a navy ship sits within site of the beach all day every day, no one seems to be able to tell me why. The King has not been here in over a year so I don't think it is for his protection, but is kind of interesting to be walking in such a tranquil place and to look up into this quite large ship with all the guns!

I don't know if you have heard but Northern Thailand and Vietnam are experiencing great floods so I am glad I am out of the North and decided not to go to Vietnam. Lot of people in this area are very worried becasue a good percentage come from the north and have family there, so most TVs, if not on a football match, are on the local stations following up on the crisis in their home towns.

Finally I have seen my first two Canadian flags, one on a bar owned by an Albertan who is unfortunately out of town this week and another on a bar I have not had a chance to get to but that is on the radar for tonight.

So if you are thinking of Thailand I would suggest that you put Hua Hin on your itinerary, I know for me, if I ever do come back, it will be right up there along with Cheng Mai, I like here better because of the Ocean.

Sorry there are no pics, next time.

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