Hua Hin
Trip Start
Jun 14, 2008
1
14
18
Trip End
Jul 02, 2008
Hua Hin,
Thailand
Sunday, July 6, 2008
At about the 3 hour mark, the bus got packed and I had no idea how close we were to Hua Hin, To make things better, every stop they made, they didn't announce where we were at or anything like that. So i was kind of getting stressed b/c i was on the side of the bus where i couldn't see any street signs or signs saying how far we were from Hua Hin. The other thing going through my mind was that the bus was packed and they were basically just stopping at roadside bus stops, no bus station or anything like that. So if we found out it was our stop, there was no way that we were getting off at that stop. Luckily the lady that was selling tickets was paying attention to where we were going and made sure that we knew that our bus stop was comming up.
So after we get off the bus, there was a guy that came up wanting to give us a ride to our hotel. Nate said ok, and little did he know we were getting rides to the hotel on scooters. Our big huge backpacks and all. The guy that gave me a ride, seemed to know exactly where we were headed after nate told him and was being impatient with Nate's drive, so we took off. BAD SITUATION! I had no idea of the name of our hotel and the guy took me to the wrong place. Nate didn't show up and I was like what the hell? Now I realize how much we rely on cell phones back home. I had no way of figuring out where nate was or anything like that. My only lifeline was this scooter driver that got me LOST. He got on the phone and talked to nate's driver. So we went to another place, again now where nate was. The lady that came out front asked if i wanted to look at a room and told me a price. I said that I already had reservation, she shook her head no. I looked at the cab driver and said we were still in the wrong place. Luckily it was right around the corner from where nate was and he was standing out on the balcony of our room when we were driving by. So we were back in business!
It was the 4th of july so after we got settled in to the room, we decided to explore around and find a place to eat and have our own little celebration. I wanted a burger, since I couldn't grill my own. So we found this Australian place that served burgers and what not. We had a few beers there. After dinner Nate and I both looked at each other and decided that we were just going to go back to the room and chill the rest of the night. We were beat from our travels from Bangkok. What a couple of partiers, I ended up falling asleep around 8 30 on the 4th of july and nate said he decided to go to bed around 9 30.
Yesterday we got up around 8 and hit up the World News Coffee right across the street for breakfast. Over beakfast we decided we were just going to sit on the beach for the duration of the afternoon. We got out to the beach around 11 30 and were walking around. We ended up paying some resort 100 baht to sit on their chairs for the rest of the day. They also served beer and food if we wanted. We took turns getting in and out of the ocean to cool off. We each had about 4 beers while we were there, and I played the game of trying to stay under the umbrella out of the sun so i didn't turn into a lobster, no such luck. We left the beach around 4, the tops of my feet were bright red, but nothing else seemed that bad.
After we got back, we cleaned up and nate was starting to turn red, and I was still in the clear except the tops of my feet and my forehead. We went to a Thai restaraunt for dinner and then everthing started to kick in with the sunburn. What is wierd about this sunburn is that it looks 100x worse than it feels. It seriously looks like one of the worst sunburns that i've ever had, but i barely feel it. My back and the tops of my feet are a little tight and that's about it.
On the way back to the hotel from dinner we decided we were going to get some beers and hang out on the balcony outside of our room for a while. We were watching the night traffic and just hanging out. About 10, the two beers that each of us had bought were gone so we decided to find a bar to play pool in.
Before we found a pool table, there was a brewery that is run by the hilton, so naturally i wanted to stop in. We sat down and looked at the menu, THEY DON'T EVEN MAKE THEIR OWN BEER! What the hell, don't call yourself a brewery and not make your own beer. Anywho, we decided to stay for one beer, which was definately a good plan because of the story to come out of it.
We were sitting there hanging out sipping on our beers when I notice a group of about 5 guys and 1 girl at the table behind nate. They are all wearing green shirts, not the same shirt but everyone had some sort of green on. Then i saw one guy sit down and take out a HUGE wad of money. Going through my head is nothing good, gang/mob or something. To top it off the wait staff won't let anyone sit back in their section. So I'm trying not to make eye contact or seem too interested in what they are doing. But naturally what do you look at when someone says don't look over there. After about 10 min the light above them shut off. I was like what the hell, is something going down over at that table or what. I could just imagine me being followed by the gang members because I was too interested in what was giong on at their table, so I was just trying to lay low. About 2 min after the light turned off, half of them got up and went inside of the place. Then after another min. the other half went inside. So i'm a little more calm now, that the gang isn't 15 feet away from us. As i'm finishing up my beer i look inside and see that the "gang" is the band that is playing at the place tonight. I haven't laughed so hard once I figured out that they were the band. Oh man, it was hilairous! So we were on our way to look for pool.
We found a place that had pool for free.While we were talking we decided that doing anything outside today, would be a bad idea, so we decided that we were going to stay out and close the bar down. Thailand is the total opposite of Vietnam. In vietnam everything closes around 11, here nothing really opens up or gets busy till about 8 or nine. Plus beer is cheaper at the bar we were at than the Hilton, so free pool and cheaper beer.
After our first game of pool, which nate won, there was a girl about 10 years old trying to sell roses and what not. Both nate and i looked at her and were like what, am I going to buy him a rose? She wouldn't leave. We started another game of pool, she came up to me and said she was good at pool and wanted to play nate. She boasted about being able to beat nate, so i said go ahead. After about 2 turns she came over and said that if she won, i had to buy her a rose. I said what the hell, no harm here. Nate ended up winning the game, so i didn't have to buy a flower for her. She STILL came up to me and was said, you buy flower? I told her "No, you lost, I don't have to buy a flower." She called me a bad man and proceeded to pinch me twice on the back and once behing my right arm. That made me extremely happy since the sunburn was setting in. Good deal that after that she left me alone and went to bother nate. At one point she actually hit him w/ the roses.
So we closed the bar down at 2 15, they gave us 1 free beer at the end of the night, which i don't think we really needed. Since our hotel was right around the corner from the bar we accepted the beer then left and went to the hotel.
We woke up today around 8 then tried to go back to bed and finally "got up" around 10. Since it is hotter than hell here and the sun is in full force, we've just been lounging around in the hotel watching the 2-3 channels that have english on them and did some laundry. Now i'm all caught up, we are going out for a bit tonight then we head back to Bangkok tomorrow morning. I think we are taking the train back up to bangkok, it is supposed to take longer but we feel a little more comfortable riding the train after our bus experience.
Talk to you all again soon!
