Celebration in Hua Hin

On August 9th, we traveled for the first time since the Covid-19 lock down in Thailand and the death of our beloved Wurstchen. The motivation for the trip was to get together with Mom and Papa to celebrate Mom's 82nd birthday, our 28th wedding anniversary and as it worked out, the Thai Mother's Day which was on the 12th.

We were fortunate to have our good friend and neighbor, Anni look after Malala, the birds and our plants while we were gone. We had a little going away party before we left which was a lot of fun before the trip even started.

We took the night train to Bangkok Sunday night. This is the newest train on the line and we had a first class cabin. It's comfortable, but very cold. The AC blows directly on the upper bunk, making blankets a necessity.

When we arrived to Bangkok, we took a taxi to the minibus station. After some confusion as to which terminal to go to, we found our bus which took us directly to Ban Pong where Mom and Papa were waiting.

After resting during the afternoon, we went to the family restaurant for a feast that Papa had prearranged. Mr. Gii and Mr. Yeoung and his wife Lek joined us for dinner. Mr. Gii's wife was there, but she was in another building where there was some kind of lottery going on.

That's just a small sampling of the food, which also included German pork by special request. Tuesday morning the four of us caught the morning train to Hua Hin. We joke about Mom and Papa practicing extra social distancing while waiting for the train.

From Hua Hin, we traveled by Grab car to Khao Tao (Turtle Mountain), about 20 minutes south of the city. We'd booked an AirBnB next to the ocean. After some confusion by our driver as to where we were going, we finally arrived to find a beautiful condo waiting for us.

The first night we stayed in and partied. A little birthday dancing and a lot of drinking.

The next morning I hiked up to 7-11 for supplies and Mom made her delicious microwave scrambled eggs. After breakfast, Barbara, Mom and I went for a swim in the ocean followed by a swim in the pool.

The condo looking back from the beach

We decided that using Grab wasn't such a good idea. I went back to Hua Hin and rented a car from Charles. He gave us a brand new Toyota Yaris, which was very comfortable. His price was $23/day (700 Baht), but he had a 3 day minimum. We took it anyway. Two days for $69 was ok with us. I used Grab to get the car. I got picked up in VIP van, which would have been a great way to go, but we could have just as easily been picked up in a compact car.

The staff at the Chelona Condominiums were great. They picked us up and brought us back to the room with an electric golf cart any time we wanted to go out. The condo also had an elevator, which as it turned out was a good thing. We think the the swimming may have tweaked Mom's knee. It was more than a little sore after the swim. Seemed like the LCL was a kind of sprained, so the rides were much appreciated. Papa did the walk on his own one day. That was good to see. He doesn't walk much anymore and I think it did him a lot of good.

We drove back into Hua Hin to go to a favorite restaurant of Mom and Papa's. It was also just at the edge of the night market so we took that in as well. It was our first time to Hua Hin. There were plenty of people there, but apparently nothing like Mom has seen in the past. The night market was not shoulder to shoulder as before.

Thursday morning was R&R in the condo. I went for a walk up the beach to see Wat Tham Khao Tao. I saw three people during my hour walk. Two Thai women going for a swim and one farang riding his bike along the water. It was beautiful and extremely peaceful. Nothing but the sounds of birds and the surf.

There is a squid fishing fleet shown in the pictures below.

Thursday afternoon, we took a drive down to Dolphin Bay, about 40 minutes south of Khao Tao. It's an even quieter and more beautiful setting than where we were staying. We had lunch next to the ocean at the Dolphin Bay Resort.

Friday morning we packed up and checked out. We had plenty of time since we had a 4pm train. We went to see the old part of Hua Hin where Mom and Papa stayed in the past. It was an old hotel built out over the water. Mom said you could see through the floor boards to the sea below.

Parking was kind of tough in that area.

We found parking in front of a restaurant that was closed. Since Mom wasn't walking well, we went to the closest seaside restaurant that was open. This turned out to be Philippe Damonte's incredible Brasserie de Paris. We had an amazing meal of seafood and lamb with a beautiful bottle of Bordeaux wine for Barbara, Mom and me and a delicious Napoleon Brandy for Papa. Alloy Mak Mak. Next to David's Kitchen in Chiang Mai, this may have been the best western food we've eaten in Thailand.

This guy was collecting clams as we ate lunch...

After lunch we got ourselves to the train station and the rain came. We were very fortunate with the weather. The entire time we were enjoying the partly cloudy skies in central Thailand, it was pouring rain in the north. We all went together to Ban Pong, where we said goodbye to Mom and Papa. Barbara and I continued to Bangkok, where after a very short break, we boarded our train and climbed into our bunk for the night.

This was an older train and we traveled 2nd class. We both agreed it was actually more comfortable. The train left Bangkok at 10pm and arrived, right on time at 10 minutes after noon on Saturday. Trains being on time is notable here in Thailand. It's a nice train for sightseeing. You wake up about the time it goes into the mountains and the scenery is quite beautiful for the entire morning ride.

Our friend Pantuwat picked us up at the station and Anni was waiting for us at the house. Chiang Mai really feels like home how with all the good friends and family around.

Sunday was our actual anniversary and we celebrated by bringing Layla home. She's a delight. Malala is still deciding if it's going to be ok, but we see signs that they are going to get along.

Life is good.