Hua Hin,
Thailand
Saturday, June 14, 2008
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 bit longer than usual and so by the time we got back to Chumphon and found the bus station, the bus to Hua Hin had just left! So the very helpful guy who was there (with a bit of help from an interpreter to let us know what was happening) phoned the next place where the bus was due to stop (on the outskirts of town somewhere) to tell them to wait and then put us on the back of two motorbikes, with our rucksacks on, and drove us at break-neck speed (not literally, thankfully) weaving through the traffic in order to catch up with the bus! After a very scary and possibly longest 10 minutes of my life, we found the bus and could carry on to Hua Hin. It was amazingly kind of them, but people seem to be a bit like that around here.
The jazz fetsival was brilliant, and well worth the detour. It was held on the beach, with a huge stage at one end. Food stalls and places selling beer were lined up along the beach and there were thousands of people there all dancing on the beach, dancing in the sea, and generally having a great time. We met a Thai woman and her Australian husband who owned a bar nearby and they invited us back there afterwards for a few late-night drinks. They had also invited a couple of the guys from one of the bands and so we sat drinking beer and playing pool until very late into the morning with a world-famous saxophonist called John Spencer and his drummer. It was a great night.
