Ohhh Thailand....how I love
thee so......
Our kids couldn't believe
their luck....Christmas was coming early to the Crowhurst
household!!! How on earth could mum and dad be so powerful as to
pull Santa away from his last minute planning to come visit us in
Hong Kong 5 days early?? Well we are just so well connected it
wasn't a problem.
So another totally wonderful Christmas day passed
in Hong Kong...opening presents.....going for a run....catching up
with friends at the Santa party (how convienient was that!!! Being
organised on the same day as our revised Christmas Day, wahoooo). It
all passed in a haze of lego and dolls....
When Monday rolled around a
wee bit early at 5am we were up and hazy eyed, but ready to hit the
heat of Thailand. It was great as we flew into Bangkok about 10am
and a driver picked us up and whisked us away to Hui Hin. I had
never been to this part of Thailand before and it was nice to visit a
beachside place that was close to Bangkok (3 hours away by car).
Our
place was large but unfortunately facing the carpark....never mind,
if you sat in the chairs you could only see the green fields as we
were on the second storey. The pool was great though....and when the
sun was shining you would find us like lounge lizards lying around
it. The wind was a bit brisk some days so we chose to do other
things on those days.
Our first must see was the
Elephant Camp. We chose the elephant rescue camp as opposed to the
more populated, and popular, Elephant Village (our driver just
couldn't understand what we were talking about...but finally Google
maps convinced him where we wanted to go).
The kids loved seeing a
young elephant so close up. They were a bit scared at first, but
when everyone else was having a pat they decided it was going to be
ok.
It was fun seeing the show....all the normal things that
entertain humans....an elephant playing the harmonica.....an elephant
putting a hat on someone (Noah can you believe it) and an elephant
shooting a soccer ball into the goal.
What a great thing to do with
your kids. We got to enjoy being up close with this wonderful
animals, but we also got to share some of the elephants sad stories
with the kids so they could understand that not everyone looks after
animals like they should.
This was all good and well of course but
the event the kids had really been looking forward to finally came
around and they were all smiles – the Elephant Trek. We mounted
this dodgy platform (Cave Creek looked way more sturdy than this
thing) and were told to “quickie, quickie” get onto the elephant.
The girls took one, and the boys got a ride on the next one.
I have
never ridden an elephant before but they are pretty comfortable, in a
swaying sort of 'hope I don't fall off' sort of way. Hilariously
the most memorable part of the whole day was when our elephant did a
poo while walking along – the boys loved this!!! And then our
elephant did the longest wee in history....or so our kids thought!
It really topped the trip off to have some bathroom humour to keep us
all laughing on the trip back to our place.
One thing I must comment on
was the transport of Thailand. Everyone was tickled pink when we
called for a taxi and a ute arrived.
Non-plussed the driver hopped
out and lowered the back flap and produced a step ladder for us to
ascend into this mighty charriot. Huge grins and lots of giggles at
how “cool it was” to be riding around in a truck.
The next thing to check out
was Hua Hin Beach. The weather was a bit overcast and windy but hey,
when you only have 5 days you get out and do stuff don't you. As we
wandered down to the beach we didn't know the little surprise that
awaited us there.....horses!! Yes thats right....horses to ride on
the beach....oh me oh my.....my little girl was in raptures....she
was selling off her unborn children just to get on one of them.
Being the savvy bartering people we are (not!) we said no and moved
away quickly to avoid having to disappoint the people who begged us
to ride their horse.
We tried to convince our three that the trees
on the beach were just as interesting as a horse ride...and I
mean...look its sand!! Come on...when I was little, sand was my best
friend...something I could play happily in for hours by myself while
my parents read and slept and generally had a wonderful time..............but
alas the horses had made their impression and it was obvious that we
would need to come back another day and negotiate a price.
We
managed to play good cop, back cop and got 2 kids up on horses happy
as larry walking off down the beach. I must say we certainly got our
moneys worth as Noah walked away on his horse I could hear him
chatting away non-stop, and as soon as I spotted him coming back up
the beach he was still going....poor man who had to lead his horse!!
India of course was so taken with the whole thing she barely made a
sound, just smiled very wide the whole time. So there you have it –
two memorable Thailand experiences, watching an elephant do a massive
wee and riding a horse on the beach.
We also visited a really
super posh hotel and pretended we were off to the cafe for lunch
(arrrr no we aren't paying the price of our whole holiday for a pot
of tea....get lost) and instead hung out in their wondeful gardens
and childrens playground dreaming about the day where had grown up
kids and we could come back to stay at posh places like this....its
called my 20 year plan.
Then guess what.....it
really was Christmas Day.....for real.....and guess what......it was
the, the, the best Christmas Day in the entire history, of, like the
world!!!! Paul being a smart man knew when to blow the budget and
booked us in for the buffet lunch at the Intercontinental and it was
wonderful!!
Glasses of champagne, wonderful food and a pool right
next to us where the kids could go once they had finished. To call
it the most perfect day is not an overstated point – it was
BLISS!!!!
Again, this place went on my 20 year plan.
One great thing about the
place we were staying in was the soccer playing area (and the
wonderful laid back attitude of the Thai people....aren't they so
lovely.....I just wanted to kiss them after living in Hong Kong
because of their shrug and smile attitude).
Noah and Paul and Tobias
had many a soccer match. Noah is following in his dads footsteps and
has great dreams of becoming a goalkeeper so these one-on-one matches
are a must for him. They would often show up ruddy cheeked at the
pool and dive in quickly only to resurface with a start as the water
was pretty chilly.
India and I went to have
some girly time together. One day it involved getting our nails
done, the next day it was more realistic....we went and dropped the
washing at the laundromat and ordered the lunch at the shop across
the road. India was so excited to be getting her toenails and
fingernails painted. She had never had them done before (only by
herself or her dad....probably not quite the equivalent experience).
Her smile was totally worth it. Beaming away she lapped up all the
attention like a little princess. Only problem was....all her polish
peeled off in the pool the next day. Never fear...I just took her
back, and they painted it again so its like she got two experiences
for the price of one.
Did I mention I love
Thailand??? Well I adore Thai food....yummmmmm.....I could eat it
breakfast, lunch and dinner and never get tired of it. So that being
said we were pretty lucky to have such a great restaurant so close to
our apartment. For a mere $5 NZ we could feed the whole family for
lunch....and it was amazing food. Wish I had got some photos of it....alas I didn't........
Our kids loved travelling around with the wind blowing in their hair....
So can you believe all that
wondeful fun was only 5 days of our trip??? After lazing around the
pool until lunchtime we jumped in another groovy van and it shot us
back to the busy metropolise of Bangkok....but thats another
story.......
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| Munching pineapple in the car while driving to Bangkok - yum!! |
