troopytracks

After spending a relaxing day at the hotel, swimming and reading, we drove to Cha-am Beach today as Keith and Frances had not been there yet. It was just like a bank holiday at home with all the local Thais making the most of their day off for the Kings birthday. It was a great atmosphere with banana boats whizzing past full of screaming children, people paddling, swimming and generally relaxing by the water. We walked along edge of the beach with our feet in the sea, which was bath warm. No catching of breath as you do at home.

We then walked along looking for a reastaurant. On the way we saw a spirit house, which is normally placed on the site of a new building or development, to house the spirits that already live there. An offering of food or drink is then placed by the house every day to keep the spirits happy. In the countryside it is normally rice and fruit, in the developed areas it is often fizzy drinks and packaged food.

As we sat in one of the local restaurants, where a main course is still around 80 or 90 Baht, fireworks started to go off on the beach. Not official displays, but just street/beach vendors just selling a few to the visitors. We bought a couple of Chinese lanterns and set them off with a wish.

We know that these things are not great for the environment, but just this once! After driving back we watched the final part of the Kings birthday celebrations, the hotel guests and staff held candles while watching a televised ceremony on a big screen by the hotel pool.

The days just rush by when you don’t do much, and today was no exception. Only one day left with Keith and Frances!

Drove down to Hua Hin with Keith and Frances to explore and do some shopping. Graham is down to his last two t-shirts as the others have become embarrassingly grubby. Luckily genuine branded t-shirts (real one … same, same) are available for 180 Baht.

We visited two local malls and the big Market Village, which includes a big Tesco Lotus and lots of big brand outlets. We all came out clutching carrier bags, with us wondering how we could fit the extra clothes in Troopy, which is already full!

With the shopping done we wandered down to the beach to see if we had done it justice last time we looked.

After walking through the normal stalls we arrived at a really crowded beach.

On the way back through the stalls, we looked to see if anything tempted us …..

Resisting all the temptations we went back to the car and drove to the hotel again. Just by the reception there are great big stone pots filled with water. In the water there are petals of flowers floating to create different designs. It changes every day.

We swam and then walked to the village to eat, drink and treat ourselves to another massage. It really feels like a holiday now!

Down at the massage parlour, we were treated like regulars …. hmmmm first difficulty making a choice from the menu!

All too soon it was over. Could never really understand why people raved about massage …. now we understood! We said goodbye to the team secretly hoping for one last go before we went home. Costing little more than a pint of beer at home  for over an hour …..

Tomorrow we will take Keith and Francis to Cha-am Beach

Today we are meeting our friends who have been on a tour of Thailand and are finishing it off with a few days in a beach resort. They invited us to join them. It’s really strange, it’s taken us five months to get here and they’ve flown here in just one day!

During the afternoon we caught up with all their news and had a swim. Later on we walked into the village and checked all the menus before picking a restaurant for dinner.

After the meal we all decided to go to the massage place opposite and have a foot massage.

It is really relaxing and costs about 200 Baht for an hour. The first part is the cleaning of the feet in a bowl of warm water and soap. Even this is really nice. Then oil is applied to the feet in preparation for the massage. Part of the massage involves the use of a wooden stick with turned slots along its length. It is slid in between the toes, one at a time. During this process, Keith discovered that he had really ticklish feet.

Shame we can’t put video in yet as once the stick was inserted, Keith was beside himself with the pleasurable torture!

Graham also enjoyed the attention to his feet …. an hour seems like a long time, but it goes all too soon.

The massage was finished off with a shoulder massage. We all agreed that is was a really nice experience and agreed to do it again soon ….. maybe even tomorrow!!

Cha-am is much smaller than Hua Hin and the beach better. It is also a place with more Thai tourists than westerners, and is has a good feel. We are not in a hurry as we only need to be a few km’s down the beach tomorrow to meet up with Keith and Frances, so we decided to stay put.

First thing in the morning we walked north along the beach to see Andre’s truck. It is a Mercedes 911 truck, built in 1980 for the border police. We are not familiar with it, but it is very popular with overlanders as it is four wheel drive and has a massive range of over 3000km. It is heavy though and weighs over 5 tonnes. It would be great for Mongolia!

Andre’s family are due to join him in a week and they will travel around in South East Asia for a while.

During the rest of the day we caught up with some business admin and general emails and spent a bit of time walking. At one point we came across a statue with hundreds of cockerels lined up around it …. one of those things we just don’t understand!

In the evening we met up with Andre again and went for an Indian meal ….. tasty! We will be back here in a couple of weeks with the boys and so it is good to find a few nice places to go.

We spent the morning driving down to Cha-am and then on to Hua Hin. Cha-am Beach has a nice feel and there are lots of friendly little restaurants and bars along the way. We found a hotel that had a nice pool and vacancies for 3 nights when Tom and Ben arrive, and so decided to book it.

On the drive down to Hua Hin there are a number of resorts, mostly spread out and fairly isolated from the normal bars and restaurants. We will be staying in one of these with our friends Keith and Francis for a few days from 3rd December as we happen to be in the area!

Maybe we just missed it, but the beach in Hua Hin seemed to be very narrow and was crowded with chairs and sun shades. We’ll have another look.

We then drove inland into the hills towards a floating market. This turned out to be a newly built tourist shopping area, so we avoided it, and instead followed signs to a fishing resort. On the way down the tracks the road went through areas of bouganvillia.

The fishing resort is called Greenfield Valley and has lakes filled with huge specimen fish from Asia and the Amazon. It also has cabins, so that you can stay there. There is a lake with normal size fish which is reasonably cheap, but it is expensive to fish for specimen fish (understandably). It was opened by John Wilson (TV Go Fishing series) and his brother is there most days. It is a lovely setting and worth a look. http://www.fishinginhuahin.com

On the way back we drove through tiny rutted sandy tracks to the main road through pineapple fields. The young pineapple flowers are really pretty, before the pineapple forms underneath.

The fruit then forms and the ‘flower’ opens and turns green.

A short run back to Cha-am Beach and we found a place to camp right next to the beach. The beach here is wide and shady at the back, so we decided to stay here until 3rd, when we meet our friends.

In the evening Andre, a German overlander came and said hello. It was only the third one we had met on our way. We decided to head off into town for diner and a beer to chat about our respective trips. Tomorrow we will walk up the beach to check out his truck.

Left Pattaya and drove up towards Bangkok. We were hoping to skirt the city on the south so that we could avoid most of the traffic. It is actually built up all the way to Bangkok and out the other side. Lots of traffic and as we went around the ring road (9) it was slow going with lots of queues.

During a coffee and refueling break we finally cracked the mystery of normal pickups with huge loads ….. simple …. you just bolt on some truck springs!

After we turned off the 9 we saw a sign showing a short cut to Cha-am on a rural, scenic route. This was not on our map, but decided that anything was better than the big busy roads. It was actually a great choice and it wound its way down close to the coast. All the way along were what we think are oyster beds, miles and miles of them. Every so often there was a river to cross, crowded with colourful fishing boats.

Along the road there are racks where people are drying the small fish.

We turned off onto a small road to Puk Tian Beach looking for a nice spot for the night. This is a very quiet resort, some of the big buildings looked unused. It is like it has been developed a little and not quite taken off. Maybe there is just too much choice. It did however make a nice overnight stop, very close to the water. In fact so close that we started dreaming about tsunami’s!

That’s the great thing about touring Thailand in a camper, there are so few around that people never mind where you park. Just to the left of the camper you can see the Lady of the Sea. We do not have a reference to this and have not searched yet, but we think it is for good luck for the fishermen. Let us know if you look!

Tomorrow we will continue down towards Cha-am to find a place to take Tom and Ben when they arrive in a couple of weeks.

Woke up this morning and received a few birthday greetings from friends and family. The boys sent this …. thank you!!

Some of that seems so long ago!

We stayed at the Grand Jomtien Palace, just across from the beach and easy access by taxi/bus to Pattaya centre (about 20p each).

Nice pool to cool down in.

In the afternoon wandered along the beach and indulged in birthday treats!

During the evening went into Pattaya with the idea of having drinks in Walking Street to watch all the people go by …. and there are all sorts!! Surprisingly no young girls offered to help me along the street … maybe Marjool put them off. Some nice people offered to show us a table tennis show (they called it ping pong show) but we decided that we could see this in the village hall anytime we liked!

In the morning we spent some time by the pool. Graham’s sandfly bites are still red and have blisters. They seem just like tick bites that we get at home sometimes. At least mossie bites go fast …. these have been itchy for a week. Avoid them if you can!

The only place to park the camper for the three days is in full sun, so we try to pop the top during the day as the fridge will struggle in a boiling hot enclosed space. The solar panel is only 38 Watts, but it seems that it is just enough to offset the fridge power consumption and keep the battery charged (showing 12.5 V) without running the engine. I know its boring, but someone asked!

Walking around the seafront we noticed some more unusual uses of the sidecar, as well as the standard mobile kitchen and food stall.

This one is a winch used to pull big boats up onto the sand. Made from bits of a car.

The balcony of the hotel was the ideal place to dry washing. While hanging it out, we were reminded what a small world it is. Graham started chatting to a Norwegian man who was staying two doors away. He is an ophthalmologist, and uses some equipment in his shops that has components in it that are made by the company that Graham used to work for. Turns out that he knows people that Graham knows! Nice man ….  maybe he will visit us in the UK one day. If not I am sure he can recommend some good fishing spots in Norway for the village fishing club! Marjool thinks it might be a better destination than Pattaya as you never know what you might catch there!!

In the evening we got a taxi/bus to Pattaya main city and beach area. You just jump on and when you arrive at the beach you pay 10 Baht each. Great value for the 15 min ride.

We were planning to go to Walking street tomorrow, but as we passed it on the way to the Taxi, we had a quick look. It is certainly busy and unusual!

Back at the hotel to find that the aircon had broken down ….. so much for the cool night!

As we drove towards Pattaya we passed the ferry port for Koh Samet.

Just along the road we watched as two monks collected shells on the beach. The colours stood out beautifully against the sand and the sea.

It is starting to get more built up as we continued past the ferry port and we saw the first high rise buildings since China! We decided not to go to the island itself as we had spent quite a lot of the last week on beaches and fancied seeing something different. We do not usually make for big town and cities, but felt ready to visit some shops, bars and restaurants. It is Graham’s birthday on 29th and so we decided that we would find a hotel for a few nights to recover from some very hot nights in the camper.

We decided to stay south of Pattaya in Jomtien as it is more family orientated rather than Pattaya’s main beach area.

Both resorts are very popular with Russians. Shops have signs in Russian. Russian food is available and offices offering tours are manned by Russians. There are also lots of French and Scandinavians. Surprisingly few English.

There are however lots of very old men in Pattaya, but being the friendly people that they are, the Thai girls hold their arms to steady them on the slightly uneven pavements. How nice is that!

We left our camping spot at the aquarium and set off along the coast towards a bay with more beaches either side. On the way we saw another common use of the pickup. This one had 17 people in and not a child seat in sight.

We knew that we were getting close as we saw a motorbike and sidecar loaded up with a few inflatables to sell at the beach. Not sure that he saw us though!

Spent a few hours walking and swimming, but it was very hot and could only go in the shade until the sun started to go down. Picked the best seat to watch people swimming and messing about in the water.

Health and safety is still not too big in Thailand and we watched with our fingers crossed as two powered paraglider pilots buzzed only feet over swimmers and children paddling in the shallows. It was all OK though …. maybe we fuss too much!

Another lazy day over we camped on an empty building site (grass) on the opposite side of the road to the beach. Nobody seemed to mind.