Mostly for the benefit of all my western friends who think I ought to have a permanent tan… The weather has been kinda weird all year actually: the temperature never really got much above 30°C except for a few hours here and there throughout the hot season; we had some of the coldest days on record in March, at 12°C or so; and this is the second BIG lightning storm so far, about a month too early for the raining season.

Even though we live in paradise, it’s been nice to have interesting weather as a change from one hot sunny day after a damn ‘nother!

Posted via email from Gary V. Vaughan

How much for a taxi to Bangkok, please?

Posted via email from Gary V. Vaughan

Gotta love these notices, translated word-for-word from Thai to English. LOL

Posted via email from Gary V. Vaughan

For some reason, there is a huge white alien at the North end of the main beach at Hua Hin… flanked by giant eggs. Maybe it’s to commemorate how an ancient invasion was repelled from Hua Hin by a giant egg hurling alien? Or not.

Posted via email from Gary V. Vaughan

We squeezed 6 of us (4 adults, 1 toddler and a hamster) into a friends car for the 4 hour drive to Hua Hin in holiday traffic, after the rental company we booked a hire car with lost our reservation – and so didn’t have any cars left for us when we went to collect.

The unseasonal weather was still in full force as we left Bangkok with some spots of rain, but happily, the further south we came the sunnier it got. Unhappily. as we left our hotel’s reception to head up to our rooms and freshen up… The duty manager stopped us and said that there was a strict no pets policy, and Ip would have to stay at the kennels down the street – which, of course, was closed for Songkran. The hotel then offered to let him stay outside in a shack with any hungry snakes, rats and spiders…

After failing to find any other hotels in the area with rooms left, we were just about to give up and endure another 4 hour taxi ride back to Bangkok. But, thankfully a friend of a friend with an apartment in the area saved us at the last moment and offered Ip a room in what appears to be the rather pet unfriendly city of Hua Hin.

Anyway crisis averted, and we’re enjoying the weather and wondering how long we’ll manage to get away before being soaked by a passing pickup full of Songkran commandos wielding buckets of icy water…

Posted via email from Gary V. Vaughan