Thursday 21st February 2008

We got up at about 8am this morning and, after checking out and then flagging down a taxi, we made our way over to the pier area of Mae Hat for some breakfast, while we waited for our boat. At just after 10am we got on the boat and were soon on our way to the mainland. The crossing seemed like it could be a choppy one, so I decided to try and get some shut-eye... it was a good job I did, because Nikki said it was crazy - and most of the people on board threw-up at some point. We had to laugh at one of the staff. Whilst the others were running around after the sick people, one decided to go out to the front of the boat for a cigarette. Once he'd rolled it and then lit it, he didn't bother coming back in - he just lay across everyone's bags and had a kip. The funny thing was - the bags were right in front of the main window - so EVERYONE could see what he was up to!

After making it safely to dry land, we waited in a place called Chumphon for a bus, which would take us the rest of the way to Hua Hin. The journey took a couple of hours - but the bus was quite comfortable, so it went quite quickly. When we got to our destination, we were met by a Dutch guy and his Wife from one of the local guest houses. Seeing as he was the only one, we decided to go with him to his place - called the Kings House. Believe me, it was anything but!

We were told we could have a 'lovely room - with two beds' and they made it out to sound amazing. Bless 'em, when we got there the room was smaller than a cabin on a boat - with a set of the oldest bunk-beds we'd ever seen! Also, the house was full of clutter, but It didn't matter, it's all part of the experience we told ourselves. We dumped our bags and then went out to explore. We tried looking for the beach but couldn't find it - and ended up walking the streets instead. When it started getting quite late, we decided to go for some food. Rather than eat in the 'touristy' places, we decided to go somewhere that was packed with locals. As we were waiting for our turn to be seated, we got chatting to another English couple and the staff asked if we minded sharing our table with them. We said we didn't and we all sat down to eat together. We're glad we did - they were great! They were called Kate and Rob and were from Blackpool. Kate said that her son had been traveling and that he loved it, so they loved listening to our stories. I think they thought we were quite brave when we told them we'd sold our house to come away... either that or crazy! We all got on really well, with them giving us some advice for Bangkok, which is always welcome, and then to round of a great meal, they paid for ours... jammy or what!?

Yippee! Free Meal... thanks Kate and Rob!