Road Trippin'

Hua Hin (South Thailand)
August 13-14, 2010

Hua Hin is a beach town a couple hours south of Bangkok and is a fairly popular destination with Thai families and expats. We checked into our hotel, a place owned by a friend of Jade's friend. I'm finding that it's definitely worth it to spend a little bit more at night for a room with a/c, soft beds and other amenities rather than slumming it to save a buck or two--really makes for a much more relaxing experience. After check-in we made our way to the beach where we read and napped for a while before heading back to shower and get ready for the evening. We ended up at the night market for some shopping and some devouring of a great shwarma before going out to a local establishment where we sat and enjoyed the people watching for most of the evening.

Later we went to a place where we could lounge on pillows and watch and/or play pool. We ended up running into this girl who we'd seen earlier in the day on the beach that we'd taken notice to as she made some bizarre to a Thai waiter (which I wish I could remember) that we overheard. Anyway, let's just say this girl was a little strange: clearly American, clearly travelling alone and clearly a little strange. She was wearing some clothes that didn't really flatter her figure: an extremely low cut tank top, a super tight skirt and these boots that were reminiscent of Peter Pan--now I think you can wear what you see fit, but it just really helped with her persona. She turned out to be an amazing and extremely entertaining pool player. After each shot she would seductively look her opponent in the eyes and strut around the table all the while dragging her finger along its edges and when I say strut I mean like catwalk style around. Then when it was her opponent's turn she would either get reallllllllly low over the table and kind of sway back and forth making really awkward eyebrow raises and such or she would hold the pool stick between her arms behind her back thus projecting her front side for the world to see. For those of you Always Sunny fans, picture Artemis. There was a family at the table next to us who were getting just as big a kick out of this as we were and the mom leans over in a European accent: 'do you speak Eeenglish?' "yea we do" "dees girl is CRAZY!"

Saturday marked check-out and the trek home. We stopped for lunch at a local noodle shop where the owner kept yelling 'gai gai gai' to me and Josie (which means Chicken, chicken, chicken.) After we went across the street to a quaint outdoor cafe overlooking the ocean and is known for its cheescake and its chocolate pudding cake. As we were enjoying our sweets the heavens opened up and we were in the middle of a deluge. Thankfully there were some tables under the roofed in area (even though there was a bit of a leak above us) so we could finish and head on our way. Due to the rain we decided to nix the beach we were going to head to and made made our way to an outlet mall; when I say made our way I mean we legitimately forded our vehicle across lanes of traffic as though we were a covered wagon in Oregon Trail The mall turned out to be kinda lame and definitely priced the way American outlets are -->not that cheap.

Next we paid a visit to the grounds of one of the royal summer palaces built by King Rama VI. The palace is on set on a beautiful nature reserve right on the water and is spotelessly painted in pale yellows, blues and reds. We spent the afternoon exploring the grounds and learning about life in Thailand past and seeing the flawlessly kept grounds--pretty interesting to see where the servants slept (hard wood floors in a tiny little room) and what everyone's job was (including a page who would run from his house to dinner before the king got dressed based on a system of flags that were raised and lowered.) We also made our way through the mangrove forest and got a taste for the local wildlife (aka some birds and a bunch of mudskippers)--if you don't recall they are the part fish, part snake, part prehistoric critters that slither and jump and skip and slide through the muck: not something you'd want to land its way onto your lap in the swamp.

After our cultural excursion we were pretty beat and made our way back to the big city (not without some car games and sing-a-longs to pass the time!) All in all I'd say a pretty successful road trip.