Lee n Tan

Up reasonably early……9am! We don’t go to sleep until after midnight. We decided today to take the cable car up to Khao Wang which has King Mongkut’s palace sitting on top called ‘Phra Nakhan Khiri (Holly City Hill). The views were amazing they took in the whole city. The grounds were just as breathtaking, the hill was covered with very very old, gnarled & twisted white Frangipani trees and numerous buildings including, wats, chedis and gazebos. It is said in the guide books that this town is not for tourists but we think that this is the best tourist site we have visited so far.

We dropped off the scooter, checked out and got a taxi to the bus stop. We were only there a couple of minutes and a white mini van pulled up and said he could take us. What a quick trip, what was supposed to take 40 minutes took us about half that time. He was just flying, weaving in and out of the traffic. He slowed down behind a police car but then got restless and just flew past them anyway. I don’t think speed limits are enforced in Thailand!!! (made a movie of the quick trip)

We have now arrived in Cha-am ‘the beach’ a favoured place for provincial Thai families to get away. We have checked into ??? (its only in Thai) just across the road from the beach. No beach views we are actually in a box, literally – no windows, no vents just a box with aircon – luckily – and a very small bathroom that you have to manoeuvre around to shut the door!!

First item on the agenda, change into our togs and hit the beach!! When you step onto the sand there are rows and rows of umbrellas all overlapping (so no sunlight can get through), underneath these are 2 rows of about 8 deckchairs around small tables. Thai families are dotted everywhere, eating from the many people walking around selling Thai fishcakes, deep fried calamari, fried chicken, crabs, prawns, fruit, sweets, you name it you can get it.

After a swim we hired a couple of chairs and sat back to relax reading our books. Lee went over to the 7/11 and bought some Sang Som, Soda & Coke and we had a couple of nibbles. You just pull up a chair and everything is brought to you…..what a life!!

After a hard day on the beach we went back to our box to freshen up and sleep (not planned). We had dinner at a little Thai joint on the esplanade. There is no way these eateries would be allowed in Oz but the food they produce is amazing.