Can You Believe It? Another Upgrade

Twice in one trip, we've been upgraded to a better room.  Put that together with the fact that we are now on one of the nicest (we think) islands there is, and you have got yourselves some very happy travelers.  More about that later, first we'll finish off on giving you the low down on Hau Hin.

Hau Hin was a lot nicer city than Pattaya, not as crazy busy as Bangkok and more obviously a tourist town.  Loaded with "farang" (foreigners), mostly German and a  of just about every other nationality including a couple of Canadians.  There is currently a bit of a real estate boom going on in Ha u Hin and there are all sort of housing projects going on.  Most of them are aimed at the visitors that may be considering relocation.  As mentioned in the previous posting, we looked at a few but we are now thinking that we'll see what Koh Samui and Krabi have to offer.  It truly is beautiful over here and the people are very friendly but it is a long way from home and we would have to think about the isolation from friends and family... lot to think about.

Hau Hin Train Station

                                                                  

Hau Hin Shores

Fisherman's Wharf Hau Hin

Anyway, enough about that and more about the traveling.. we finished our time in Hau Hin and decided to take a bit longer but more scenic route to Koh Samui.  We boarded a tourist bus that packed with other holidayers and rode it down to a place called Champon.  Long trip in a moderately comfortable and only somewhat clean bus. We were glad when that part was done with.  We then boarded a Catamaran fast ferry for the trip across the Sea of Siam.  About 3 hours and we arrived at Koh Tao, a place we had been before with John and Bev and Gerald and Edna about three years ago.

Koh Tau Boat Docks

Off Loading Passengers

 The boat offloaded quite a large number of people but loaded on even more for the continuation journey to Koh Samui.  All in all, it was an interesting trip, abet a long one.

Koh Tao

Once we arrived here we had transportation booked to the hotel... what a joy to get here.  The hotel is situated on a hillside overlooking the ocean and the outlying islands.

They apologized to us and told us that the room we had booked was not available and that they wanted to upgrade us... we cooperated.

View from our Room

Sunrise At Koh Samui

Pool and Restaurant

We think they gave us the nicest suite in the complex, directly across from the pool, adjacent to the restaurant and an unobstructed view of the bay below us.

If there were anything that might be a negative, it would be the up and down the hill to get from one place to another... not a big deal except for the extra exercise in the heat.  Check out this website for an idea of where we arehttp://www.mantrasamui.com

We decided to just spend a day or so relaxing at the resort after all the traveling.  Maybe tomorrow we will take a trip down to the beach or into the town.. the nice thing is, we are on holidays and can do what ever we want!!!  

Strangely nice is the fact that there are a lot of Brits at this resort and it is kind of nice to hear a little English being spoken.  Go figure?

We have a few more pictures of Hau Hin for you and a few from here - enjoy!

Out of Sin City and Closer to Paradise

Wow, Pattaya that was an experience... we just had to see it for ourselves.  Seeing things for yourself is far more enlightening than what you see on the Internet or what you read about.  I've thrown in some more pictures to give you an idea of what was there.





At one point Shelly decided to get her nails done in one of the shops and left me to wander about by myself.. found a new friend!!  I'm not sure of what gender this individual was, she/he was happy to have their picture taken with me.

Troubling thing was that some of the prettier "girls" were not necessarily girls.  Oh well, different culture.  Here they don't make a big deal about confused genders, they accept people for who they are. 

The next morning we headed out early for Hau Hin.  To get there we had to head up and through Bangkok again which was not to bad for the first part of the trip.. we rode in an nice air conditioned bus with nice comfortable seats and a nice view out of the windows.  From Bangkok towards Hau Hin it got more interesting.. here we were crowded into a mini bus with twelve other people and all their  associated baggage and wow what a ride!! The guy must of thought he was in a grand prix.  He didn't waste any time in getting us to where we were going, flying down the highway going 150 kph and with as little as 3 feet between us and the vehicles ahead of us.  The funny thing was that pretty well everyone on the bus except Shelly and I had the curtains drawn and were having a nap???

Needless to say, we did of course make to Hau Hin.  What a pleasant change from the hustle bustle of Bangkok and the craziness of Pattaya.  The city is still a busy place but not so frantic.  You can tell that it is more of a vacation type of town.. people from Bangkok and other areas of Thailand come here for vacation.  The town is also very popular because of its great beaches and the fact that the Thai Royal Family come here for vacations.

Once we out into the streets and had wandered around a bit we found that there were people from all over Europe and a ton from Russia vacationing here.  In fact, many of the signs here were in Thai and Russian... a little different than what we are more used to, Thai and English.  It seems pretty well everywhere we travel the favoured tourist language is English.

Yesterday was a down day for us as I was stricken with some kind of food poisoning which we suspect  came from some seafood we had eaten.  Funny thing is that one might expect that something like that might happen from eating street food, but this came from a fancy restaurant overlooking the ocean.  Can't judge a book by its cover.

Today was much better as far as health was concerned... Shelly went out yesterday and got some medicine for me and it seems to have done the job.  We spent some time viewing properties today with a real nice Real Estate fellow from Germany and has been living here
for the last seven years.  Saw some pretty nice places, some we might even consider... they had to have a nice outside garden area and had to have a swimming pool.  Once we were done with that, we checked out the nice "air conditioned" shopping malls and did a little shopping.  A nice break from the heat.







 Tomorrow we might rent a motorbike and see a little more of the city and area... but for now, I'll throw a few pictures into the blog and then call it a day.. talk to you soon.

A Nice Day in Pattaya

Pattaya Skyline

Our first full day in Pattaya.  Still as hot as ever, but we are adjusting to it a bit.








Last night we went out to the notorious "Walking Street" and did the tourist stroll.  It is amazing to us the variety of people out doing the stroll.  There is usual red faced and overweight older guys happy that there are all these younger women paying attention to them to the families out with the children getting a different kind of education and taking all sorts of pictures and of course the curious couples like ourselves.  To round out the lot, there are the tour groups freshly of the tour bus and obediently following their flag carrying tour guide.  There are Go Go bars, Discos, beer bars, show bars of every and I mean every type, restaurants and street performers.... the place is just alive with activity.  Night life takes on a new meaning here.   But of course when I went to take pictures of it all, the camera battery went dead so we are heading down there again tonight to experience it all again.

Shopping is great here.  We spent the hot part of today cruising the air conditioned malls, picking up a few things.  Tomorrow will be another traveling day as we make our way over to Hau Hin on the other coast of Thailand Bay.

We have a few more pictures to share as we picked up a card reader today for the other camera.  Hope you enjoy them.  Talk to you soon.

One last picture from the Wat temples in Ayutthaya

 Some shots of the night market in Ayutthaya where we would eat each night.

A couple of typical tour buses we see traveling around.

Over the top Buses
 

 A view of our bus trip to Pattaya as we pass through Bangkok.

Scenes from the night markets in Pattaya... Full of life and colour.

The police officer in the picture is holding a baby bunny in his hand,

The picture on the left is of cooked crickets grubs and grass hoppers

The picture on the right is of the fresh (still alive) crickets.. now that's fresh!

 

 More Night Market Scenes.

Ronald MacDonald in His Thai Pose

Today we went out with a couple of Realtors and looked at some houses.  One we didn't like and the other we just loved.  It was a three bedroom Bali style of home, which is like a free flowing one level home.  Has a very zen like peaceful feeling to it.  The tiles were in an earth tone in the main living area, wood floors in the bedrooms and the bathrooms have their shower inclosed but outside.  The best description is the pictures that are incorporated into this posting.  The only thing we had against it is where it is located.  At this point, we are not to sure that we would be happy living in Pattaya... but who knows.

Kitchen

Living Room

Dining Room

Guest Bedroom

Master Bedroom

Pool and Yard

Front yard

Car Port

The House is located in a gated community with additional amenities like clubhouse, pool and such.

 
More Downtown Pattaya