Chapter four

Our forth week began with our arrival Hua Hin. After an adventurous train ride we were hot and frazzled so simply checked into Ruen Kanok Thai House. We had already decided that having had a full week last week we would just enjoy some R&R.
Firstly I should describe the hotel, it was a wonderful old Thai style made from deep red wood – a blissful change from the concrete buildings most hotels are. Each little cottage set around either a small pond or the swimming pool. The restaurant was like a tardis, in that it seemed so small on the outside but produced such great offerings and so well presented. The preserves were all in dainty little ceramic pots and the whole thing was made out of old market stalls on steel wheels. It was simply very quaint– well I liked it!
It was a place for quiet contemplation, reading your books or simply daydreaming.
We met two sets of interesting guests there. Firstly there was Viola and Gregory, she was from Poland and he was from Folkestone. They were really interesting to us as they were property developers, a subject we are also keenly interested in. They lived in Warsaw and worked in Kent. They were both good fun and also interesting – we managed to exchange details before they took off to Pattaya where they have their own holiday home. We hope to catch up with them at some later date.
The second family we met were from Denmark, to our shame we never did ask them their names despite speaking to them on and off for three days. A couple in their 40’s with three young children. The story of their family was as fascinating as it was brave. Unable to have their own children they adopted, but not from within Denmark, oh no. Their first child a young girl adopted from an orphanage in China from an impoverished background, then their twins, two boys also from very difficult background who came from a Thai orphanage. One of the boys was taken in the knowledge he had a brain trauma limiting the use of his left leg and arm.
Now their daughter is 12 years old and has since been taken back to China on a 12 week journey, so she can understand a little more of her background, and the boys are now 8 years old and are in Thailand with the family for a similar journey.
Having seen the neurologist in Denmark and following some intense therapy the boy with the brain trauma is visibly fully fit, but his mother says he will struggle academically.
They were a truly brave, and for us, motivating family showing such courage and now happily together on holidays, just great to see.
With our days spent by the pool this left our evenings for the short ride into Hua Hin center, there we found an extensive array of bars and restaurants to choose for our evening meals. This town was busy but not in the same league as Bangkok – thankfully.

Wednesday saw us collect our new friend – a Honda City car. For the first trip on Thai roads we set off to a town called Prachuap Kiri Khan. It is only around 1 ½ hours south of Hua Hin but is a very different place. The only similarity is its holiday makers are largely German like Hua Hin, but it is nowhere near as developed. There are no bars really, they seem to have the only bars in restaurants, kind of all in one, and when I say restaurants they are much more basic. BBQ grills on the pavement cooking freshly caught fish and served with any sort of rice or noodles you want. The cover if they had one was simply scaffold bars covered with blue tarpaulin. No McDonalds here or any other recognized outlets, and the locals spoke hardly any English, making life a little trickier but all the more rich for that.
We made the mistake of booking a hotel with no swimming pool, we were on the beach and thought it would be fine but there were lots of large jellyfish on the sand everywhere so I could not be tempted into the sea beyond a brief paddle. The afternoon heat is so intense that you need a cool pool to refresh yourself in – lesson learned. We only stayed there two nights before setting off on the long drive down to Kaoh Sok.
Friday morning up at 06:00 and out in the car trying to avoid the worst of the heat, we set off on our 5 ½ hour drive south. We shared the driving on the way down and saw all sorts of driving habits, many of

which were alarming. The road system here has a sub culture, the principle road drives on the left as we do making things easy. The sub road is the far left hand lane/verge. This seems to drive both ways especially, but not exclusively, for mopeds. So frequently you would be driving with vehicles going in the opposite direction on both your left and right! My personal favorite was the two men on a moped riding along and trying to make a U-turn on the main road whilst carrying a 20 foot bamboo pole. One way or another we made it without incident and arrived in Kaoh Sok, as you approach this region you start to notice the soaring limestone cliffs that this area of the world is so famous for, and the road gets much more winding as you weave your way through them.
Our first port of call was the Monkey temple Khao sok – of course, Wendy loves monkeys so we called in en-route to the hotel. No feeding allowed this time I have now heard too many tales of bites and the risk of hepatitis and rabies so she got to see them but not have them crawling over her looking for nuts and bananas.
We then traveled on to The Bamboo Family Inn, our house for then next three days.
As I sit here on a sunny Saturday morning I feel myself constantly thinking which trip shall I go on today and where shall we go tomorrow. Then I am reminded by Wendy that this is our life for the next couple of years and not a holiday, as you might normally consider, so we don’t have to be doing something each and every day. She was of course right, I remind myself that I am on a journey, in part a geographical trip around south east Asia and in equal part a journey from full time work to retirement. I miss the easy option of getting up every morning knowing what I have to do and what is expected of me but I am coming to terms with living without that and finding something to do for myself every day. I confess that’s not hard here when my daily tasks amount to no more than where we should visit, which hotel to stay in next and where to eat dinner. In the coming months we will be living in an apartment which will, I think, be a little more like ‘living’ rather than ‘holidaying’.
Keeping in touch with the family is relatively easy with wifi and we maintain weekly contact with all of them. The time difference is actually very good here. Plus 8 hours means mornings are exciting for news, as most people at home are at work if they contact us it is in the night for us so we wake up to messages and Facebook updates every day which we really enjoy.
Saturday afternoon saw us visit Cheow Lan lake, a wonderful man made lake flooding valleys in the limestone rock formations. This national park has elephants and tigers living in it – not that we saw any but it is kind of spooky that you could actually come across one in the wild when there.
We arrived late at the lake for two reasons, firstly the day was so hot that we wanted to avoid the midday heat and secondly we could see the sunset over the lake. We were lucky by missing the hottest part of the day we were fresh when we got there and could fully appreciate the views. Secondly we got to watch the sun setting over the remarkable limestone formations. We did not see any wildlife but nonetheless it was a special time sitting in the quiet watching the view and listening to what we believe were gibbons as well as the many birds chirping away.

We left just after sunset and set off home on the way we passed through Ta Khun and saw there was an evening market on an a fun fair so we stopped and spent an hour window shopping. The highlight was for my first time I saw a stall selling fried insects and a selection of different size grubs. The funny thing was that they were flying off the shelf, I was too shy to take a photo in case the guy got the hump but it was amazing to see. There were crickets, smaller fly type creatures and 4 different size grubs, I was looking around for Ant and Dec I thought is must have been an episode of I’m a celebrity get me out of here.
Back home for a quiet super of less exotic offerings.
Sunday was a quiet day spent wandering around the forest area and checking out the elephant experience – although we didn’t take a ride as we felt it was not an ethical establishment. The internet says there are many more elephant friendly places in Chiang Mai so we will wait until then.