hhfarang wrote:Great photos. You seem to be making the most of your time here. I've been here 8+ years and never been to the teak palace between Hua Hin and Cha-Am. Nice to see some photos of it.
That looks like a good mojito. Which bar is that?
You should go, it's a nice day out. The bar was opposite Hilton Hotel but I can't recall what it was called, but I did take this photo of the toilet sign:
...the bar was brightly lit with lot's of mirrors and they only had about 5 CD's to choose from on the hi-fi.
My companion from the previous night turned up at my door last night and I had to turn her away.
She then came back (I didn't answer the door after the first time but I assume it was her) several
times knocking on my door. So much for the security guard! Suffice to say I didn't get a decent
nights sleep after all.
I did manage to force myself out of bed at 8am though and zipped the few km up the road to Klai
Kang Won Palace only to find it is not open to the public despite what I'd read:
[Link edited, no competing websites please]
It appears I'd missed out on boom boom and got up early for nothing. So I had a quick stop at Hua
Hin Wat near the Clock Tower then dropped the scooter off. I then took the opportunity to post
some postcards at the PO on Soi 61 before heading back to my hotel for some more sleep.
A few hours later I went for breakfast at I Rice again before heading down to the beach to meet my friends where we lounged about for most of the day.
That evening, wanting to get away from under the eyes of my married friends, I text them saying I wanted to get some sleep and would maybe meet them later. I then went to Moon's again for my dinner before heading to London Bar.
As luck would have it the young lady who'd given me a goodbye kiss a few nights previously joined me for a game of pool and I bought her a ld to show my interest and keep her with me. Unfortunately my mates turned up at the bar shortly after, which made things slightly awkward being with a bargirl when my mates wife's there. However she was quite reserved, occasionally putting her hand on my arm but nothing more, and I continued to chat with her and buy her drinks.
After a few beers my friends left and I decided to stay. As he was leaving Schroeder discreetly asked me "she's not a bar girl is she?", and so I replied "no of course not". I could poke fun at is naivety but then I recall how little I knew before my last visit, and to the unenitiated the P4P scene here is quite unique.
After another drink or two and a few games of doubles with another punter and his bargirl I barfined the young lady. She asked if we could go to a club and I felt like being nice so let her take me to Hilton Brewery. The live band was playing covers of famous rock songs and for two beers it was 350Bt. After the one beer the band was finishing and it was around 1am. I asked her if she wanted another and she asked to go somewhere else and I agreed. She suggested a couple of clubs and I let her choose which she seemed pleased about, choosing to go to Cat Club (I think labelled "Cat 2" on the nightlife map), and the drinks were more reasonable here at 200Bt for 2 beers.
Soon her friends turned up, some I recognised from her bar, which made her quite giddy. I guess it looks good in front of her friends if a farang's taken her out and buying her drinks. The freelancer I'd met a couple of nights ago turned up at the club too, it turns out their friends, though she did a great job of pretending I was invisible and there was fortunately no drama. At 3am I was ready to leave, my companion asked to stay for another but I explained I was up early in the morning and wanted to go back but if she wanted to stay she could. She decided to come back with me, she seemed a little mao anyway, so we jumped on a scooter-taxi back to my hotel.
I was leaving Hua Hin today so wake up early, packed my last few things and said goodbye to my companion. It was then a short walk to the Clock Tower (pictured above) for 8am to meet up with Charlie and catch the bus to Chom Buri where we'd transfer to a Ferry to Koh Samui.
We'd arranged this via Barry Stone at Mermaid Cruises who proved to be helpful and informative. The trip includes the coach from Hua Hin to Chum Buri and was 1400Bhat - drinks and sandwiches were also included on the coach.
We got to Chom Buri just before 1pm about 4 hours after we set off, and the Ferry set off shortly after that. I'd read that it could be a rough crossing but I felt assured in the knowledge that I'd got some seasickness tablets from the Pharmacy. One tablet thirty minutes before the boat trip. We started on the very top deck, however after 20 minutes of getting sprayed with sea-water and thrown about my seat I decided to go downstairs to get somewhere more comfortable. As soon as I stood up I started to feel sick but managed to safely make my way down the stairs to the centre of the lowest level and grabbed a seat. A member of the crew came round and rubbed some eucalyptus stick on the temple and I soon started to feel better massaging this in.
Unfortunately my stomach was a bit dodgy and I needed to dump a load so made my way to the toilets. The heat of the cubicle and being thrown around was too much and it ended up coming out of both ends. To make things worse I hit the shower tap whilst being thrown about and struggled to find the "sweet spot" that switched it off.
After a couple of hours of feeling pretty sorry for myself, like a terrible hangover, the crossing settled down a bit as we reached the first island(s) Koh Tao. Eventually we arrived in Koh Samui about 5pm-ish, at the port we got a taxi along with 2 other travellers for a cost of about 150 to 200Bt each to Chaweng. The girl had suffered from seasickness the previous trip and suggest that I should have taken 3 tablets like she had. Someone else recommended 4, splitting it 2 then 2 nearer departure.
