We arrived to Hua Hin, Thailand, 3 hours south of Bangkok for a 2 week stay near the beach & by the pool. We spoiled ourselves with a private car transfer for the trip, $81 & were delivered directly to La Casita Condominiums. We booked thru Airbnb at a cost of $42/nite, all in. We were greeted in the elevator with signs telling everyone that short term rentals were illegal in Thailand & punishable by large fines! But it’s still done & we weren’t worried. Our apartment is absolutely lovely - best equipped suite that we’ve been in. A strange set up though, you enter into a small kitchen & an attached bathroom, then a sliding glass doors separating the kitchen from the bedroom. The TV & 2 comfy chairs were in the bedroom plus a nice balcony. All in there were 6 chairs & 2 tables, including the balcony. We liked the view - across a green space with lots of birds & 2 grazing cattle to a screened off construction site of an additional to the Bangkok Hospital. We are spending a lot of time watching all the birds & checking on the cows, & we weren’t bothered by any noise.
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| La Casita Condominiums |
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| Folding table & chairs on the balcony |
We checked out the beach, about a 5-10 minute walk - long lovely stretch of sand, warm water, soft waves.
We are between 2 shopping malls, each about 600 metres away, both with restaurants & grocery stores so quick & easy to access. There is a public green bus/taxi going up & down the main drag, cost of 15 baht ($0.61) if you didn’t feel like walking.
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| Market Village mall |
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| Blueport mall |
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| Green taxi |
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| You flag it down, hop on & pay when you get off |
Our first day here we were out on the beach, felt nothing, but returned to hear about the devastating earthquake that had hit Myanmar with shocks felt in Bangkok, causing great damage. We were lucky to have left a day before & we appreciated the concern from family & friends checking in on us.
We are making good use of our little kitchen & are actually eating in more than before - we need to get used to having to cook daily when our adventure ends & we are back to routine.
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| All the fixings for fresh salad rolls, homemade, complete with a peanut sauce |
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| Tasted great, better than it looks |
The pool here is lovely, you can find sun or shade, almost enough chairs & loungers & the water is a good temperature. It’s a daily part of routine as is my daily run/walk, despite the high heat & humidity - 30-35C with humidity 60-70%. They are in the process of upgrading the sidewalks & the patterns are fun. Great for running as well.
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| Durian fruit |
We have checked out 4 different night markets, all a bit different, all entertaining.
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| Cicada - mainly arts & crafts |
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| Tamarind market, food stalls & live entertainment |
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| Lovely textured art |
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| Cicada - felt like craft markets back home |
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| Beautiful painted seashells |
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| Tamarind, lots to eat |
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| Set up outside the Market Village mall, food, beer, entertainment |
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| Hua Hin Night Market, downtown |
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| Local market at a temple |
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| Tasty rice treats |
We found a huge indoor local market, selling mainly to locals. I bought fresh shrimp, veggies & oh, so tasty sticky rice with coconut wrapped in leaves & we had a home cooked feast.
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| Only in Thailand - 2 of 7/11s in the same photo |
We have been a bit disappointed that we haven’t seen more birds throughout our winter but this place has a good variety that we can watch from our balcony.
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| Greater Coucal, sounds like a monkey! |
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| Red -Wattled Lapwing |
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| Javan Pond Heron |
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| The one iguana that we’ve seen |
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| Myna |
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| Red-wattled Lapwing |
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| Oriental Magpie Robin, he wouldn’t pose for me |
There are supposed to be a lot of monkeys at “Chopstick Mountain”, so we took the green taxi bus to the end & walked to the beach & the “hill”. We saw one monkey on a roof but the rest were hiding due to the heat. I walked up another “hill” to see a beautiful temple, a Golden Standing Buddha & some good views.
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| Young monks sweeping the steps, a lot of steps! |
Our time here is coming to a close, we have booked tickets on a bus to return to Bangkok on April 10, so our time lazing by the pool is coming to an end. This part of our trip has been relatively uneventful as we have grown weary of “sightseeing “ & we are enjoying “doing nothing”! I hope to fit in one more Thai massage & I had another haircut revealing way too much gray but I think my days of hair dye are done.
We have one more week in Bangkok & then we fly home, Still Living the Dream!
