One year in Thailand

Saturday, 5 October 2013

Last weekend of September in Hua Hin

Hello faithful readers!
Last weekend was the last weekend in September and we spent it in Hua Hin (pronounced wha hin) at the Jaidee resort. I found the hotel using TripAdvisor where it was voted #1 family hotel in Hua Hin with very good reason I might add! The resort is a 10 minute drive to the beach but they provide a free private shuttle twice/day so no big deal to get there really. The resort is very exclusive (only 17 rooms) but each room is in actuality a villa (cottage) with a bedroom and private washroom with shower. The larger villas have a sitting area, loft bedroom, washroom with soaker tub and shower. The amenities include; pool table, restaurant, free wifi, basketball court, pool, hottub, cinema, infrared sauna, massage, private lake (for picturesque scenery while you dine), water feature (tranquil scenery post dining) and one very, extremely HOT host! hahahaha

We went there with our new friends Julia and her daughter, plus another single mom and her daughter. The other two girls are 13 but we all got along famously. We spent the two days at the beach where horse handlers pace up and down the beach offering rides (for a fee of course). We didn't do that mostly because the horses looked like skinny-ass-flea-bags. We did go on a Banana Boat ride which could have been more exciting but for one of the young girls...she was very afraid and every time the driver sped up, she screamed.

Emily and I got in a bit of basketball practice and swam in the hotel pool. We watched 'Upside Down' in the cinema. The cinema is an upstairs room with 6 leather lay-z-boy chairs, a projection screen, surround sound and proper cinematic lighting-which is to say completely dark while the movie is playing. The movie was interesting. I would recommend it.

Now it is the first weekend in October. We have no plans because next week is exams. Emily is studying and I am preparing second quarter unit plans. However, as soon as exams are over Thursday, Em and I are jetting off to Bali for a few days (10-15th) where we will stay at the Sanur Paradise Plaza Hotel. We are joining http://baliecocycling.com/ for their cycling tour, their trek to Mt. Batur (departure at 2:00am!) and their snorkeling trip to the east coast of Bali. We have this opportunity to travel because it doesn't cost very much and it is very close. A comparable adventure of this kind would cost so much more from Canada. For example, the closest tropical island to home is the Bahamas.

Our 'Room'

The Beach

More Beach

Hotel used in 'Good Morning Vietnam'

Monday, 30 September 2013

Ancient City

Hi,

Well this has taken a while. So many activities and so many things to tell you. First of all, we visited the Ancient City a couple of weekends ago which was very interesting. It is a HUGE tract of land with all of the major Thai tourist attractions scaled down in order to give people who have limited time the opportunity to see all that Thailand has to offer! Of course, Emily and I have loads of time so we used it as an idea-finding mission; now we have an idea of what we want to see and where we want to go.

We went with our new friends (the ones who accompanied us to Safari World) which was nice. But the best part was we got bicycles and rode around the whole park which took us 5 hours and we in no way saw everything! But even better than that? My backside and legs were not even sore the next day!! hahahahahaha

We had a traditional Thai lunch in the floating market. Emily had papaya salad which was very spicy but she enjoyed it and I had rice, chicken and veggies Thai-style. We sat on the floor at a table on a raised platform right near the water. I think you can see our 'dining room' in one of the pictures. I will post an album in facebook in order to share more pictures.

Oh, I haven't told you the coolest thing: whenever you dine at a buffet-style place and have to pick up the utensils from a central location (including our canteen at school), you will find a crockpot filled with near boiling water for you to swish your utensils in to sterilize! What an amazing idea, eh?

One of the exhibits was a deer farm. Harry and Edward will understand when I say I made the elephant noise and scared all the deer, making them run away en masse. Hilarious. The rest of you should just imagine the trumpeting noise and elephant makes. I did that near a group of 15 deer which made them start, look up, turn and run away in unison. Very funny! I know some of you may say that's mean, but it's not. No one was hurt in the scaring of the deer. LOL

And on that note, I will end this posting. Talk to you soon.

Wednesday, 25 September 2013

One Night in Bangkok

Hello there!

It is 12:13am Thursday 26 September and I have just arrived home from a 'night on the town' in Bangkok with my friend Julia. Our original destination was the Wine Cellar, however when we got there, the promotion (all you can eat and drink 299 baht) had ended! So we walked on down Sukhumvit to the Londoner which is a British-inspired pub with really, really good food, a live band, ESPN and pints on tap!
This was my first night out since we got here, yes Emily stayed at home while I went out and partied. Yes H and E, I went out and met some new people and even had a couple of beers! I got two cards. One from an English professor at the University and one from a Learning Specialist with Ford. I think I may email them and keep them as wonderful contacts.
I had a really good time; got all dolled-up and am grateful to my friend for insisting I join her. Those of you who know me well, will know how difficult that was. But totally worth it.
This gathering happens every Wednesday so I may just go again next week.

Talk to you soon,
I have much to tell you about last weekend and this weekend.
But that will have to wait until later today because I need to go to bed now as I have to wake up at stupid o'clock for work.

Good night!

I'm too sexy for this dress...! LOL

Tuesday, 17 September 2013

Time flies

I'm baack
I just saw the last post was on 08 September...9 days ago! Obviously time flies when you are having fun. What has happened over the past week? Ummm, life I guess.
We have a daily routine now. Get up at stupid o'clock (5:20am), shower, breakfast and walk out to taxi stand for the ride to school. We have enough Thai to be able to tell the driver the street we need (Phokeow pronounced Po cow) and the basic instructions; go straight, turn left, turn right, stop, thank you.
After school we either take a taxi all the way or half way and walk home. It mostly depends on the time. If it is late (5pm or so), we walk because the traffic can end up costing another 20 baht. Which reminds me, the traffic lights are on a crazy schedule. The red lights stay red for upwards of 3 minutes. They even have a countdown LED display to 'entertain' you while you wait. Then, the weird thing is, green lights seem to last for only 30 seconds.
Once we are home, it's homework, homework, homework. For both of us. Seriously, Emily does about 2-3 hours of homework each night. Some of you may have seen the posting regarding her being artist of the week. Those of you who haven't, check it out on my facebook page.
We still swim, but do not visit the gym as often because we are wasting away.

The Thais love to shop! They construct the most amazing malls. Because we are visiting the malls as tourists instead of shoppers, we take photographs to share with out friends. So here are the pictures from our visit to Terminal 21;

The outside...