Chom View Hua Hin

Here we are, at the beach for a couple of days before the big flight home. Pierre agreed to go, despite the extreme heat and the fact that he's simply not a beach person. I had picked the site at Hua Hin for a few reasons:<br>1- it can easily be reached by train under 4 hours<br>2- it's considered older (ie. as in an older crowd) and therefore, there are less beer-swigging yahoos, ski-doos, motorboats and by default, should be less ...

... and to meet (=drink beer with) some Finnish friends of mine who happened to be there on their Thailand holiday at the same time. <br><br>The most action you could see in the rather boring Hua Hin were the preparations for the ASEAN summit (Association of Southeast Asian Nations, though for instance Australia, Japan, India and China were also present) which is held here, starting today actually. Roads are blocked and policemen with the military are everywhere along ...

The beauty of Hua Hin is unique to it's nature. The air is filled with<br>the beach town vibe while containing all the comforts of a city. This<br>beach town has not lost it's good old rule generosity and hospitality<br>due to mass influx of tourism. Many other cities have been culturally<br>dominated by the ways of the west. For example in Koh Samet when<br>entering a store I would "wai" the shop keeper and he ...

... away, so, after unpacking and because it was almost sunset we lept back into the truck and headed to it only to be caught up in snarling traffic. Almost at the beach and a policeman turned us back...parking not allowed on the waterfront. Gave up and found a little restaurant that served steak and chips. Marvelous, because 99.9% of the meals we have had this last few weeks have been rice or noodles!

We found out in Koh Tao that there was an international jazz festival in Hua Hin, which was on the way to Bangkok, so we decided to have a look. There had been a large storm in Koh Tao the night before we left and the sea in the morning was very, very rough. The catamaran journey was pretty exciting, and the staff had to keep running round the cabin with sickbags for those who couldn't cope (we were fine, luckily)! The rough seas also meant that the journey took a ...

... to the water and the crashing waves and they were amazing. The ladies climbed all over us and catered to our ever need. The ladies decided Jeff's feet needed some work, so a bunch of ladies clipped and filed away at his toes and then put on some ointment for the bug bites that he had. They finish off with an A535 type run down that leaves you feeling a bit numb and then they give you some really yummy ...

Well well well.... The purpose of my trip to our Bangplee camp (details in my last travel log) was to train hard as i had a fight scheduled for 28th June... Yes i must be mad - first fight in thailand, against a thai, no protection, in a stadium, being filmed for TV... oh it was all happening... So my training was going sooo well, was feeling bloody fantastic and ready to take on the world, really strong, really ...

... to get something to eat when the whole town was shutting down at about 12am. Ended up finding a place where the mozys had a bigger feast than us. Next day we got chatting to a very interesting guy over breakfast. He was the owner of the cafe and he had traveled all over the world. He was from Canada and had lived in India for a while and looked a bit like one of the Rolling Stones ...except had weathered as ...

We arrived in Thailand on Jan 19 after spending a few days in Sydney with Allan and Glenn and William. We drove down to the coast of Central Thailand to the Hua Hin provence, where we honeymooned for a week at the Evason spa resort. Lucky for us we were upgraded to a private pool villa because we were honeymooners. It was a very relaxing few days before putting on our backpacks and heading north.

... hours before that probably didn't help...) Nash and his wedgy pillow--how can you resist a face like this?!? my wonderful family--I couldn't do this trip without you!! Another funny episode happened as soon as my flight touched down in L.A from Denver. No fewer than 7 people around me whipped out their mobile phones to call a ?loved one?, but no, not to say, "Honey, I'm home, I'll be there soon", and no, not "Hi, I've just landed, can you come pick me up ...