Post by Tony:
Cha Am
We grabbed a train out of Sukhothai late in the morning and arrived in Cha Am just after dark. We were a little surprised when, after we were told our stop was coming up next, the train slowed and finally parked itself with our car a good 75 yards from the end of the train station platform. We jumped out and hoofed it over softball sized rocks that lined the tracks as quickly as possible (ever-vigalant not to break an ankle) and made it to the station just in time for our train to get some speed and zoom away.

After taking a quick breather on the platform we looked around to realize we were the only people that got off in Cha Am, hence we were at the scamming taxi drivers mercy as far as what they wanted to charge to get us to our guesthouse. Supply and demand... whadda ya gonna do? We knew that the place we wanted to stay was only about 2km away (a little over a mile) and that it shouldn't cost more than about $1 to get there. We were floored when the 2 motorbike taxi drivers there blurted out "100 baht!" (or $6) when we asked for a price. Based on the ridiculously inflated price (and a little of my "machismo") we turned down the ride and decided to take to the "Puma Express" once again. About 1 mile later, and what seemed like 3 pints of sweat each, we found a guesthouse (complete with 5 dogs & 5 cats) and got some sleep.

The next morning we got up and decided to hit the beach! We walked out and surveyed the options. The beach was covered with umbrellas and chairs to the point that it looked like they were small umbrella cities all over the beach. Each section of them were so tightly packed that hardly any sunlight made it to the sand within it's umbrella-city limit. After some assessing, it appeared that we could either sit in the sun and bake our selves to a crisp or rent an umbrella. We opted for the umbrella. The first person that we spoke was firm on her price, no haggling to be done. Bummer. But, the great thing about tourist resort towns is that there's always someone else selling the same thing just around the corner. In this case it was just 50 feet down the beach. We chatted up this nice lady that had her city set up just as tightly packed and asked if it was ok if we just rented the umbrella (sans 6 chairs, 3 tables and a waste basket) being that it was only Dom and I. She said it was cool so we struck a deal. We spent most of the day hanging out under our big-top umbrella and sampling the seafood that roamed by in trays sold by the local vendors. $1 here, $1 there... all fresh-caught that morning... what more could you ask for? Later we decided to peek outside of the umbrella and get a little sun and it completely back-fired on us. We underestimated the power of our solar friend and he made sure we didn't forget the instance. Dom was burned on her legs and most of her upper body. I think I got the worst of it though. Burns of a deep red on my face, back, shoulders to mid-bicep and from just above the knees down. Most of it was gone after a few days but, it was awhile before my shoulders didn't feel like being touched with a cotton shirt was kin to being touched by jelly-fish tentacles. We are now both dark golden brown, and the locals are starting to talk to us in Thai.

The next few days we retreated back to our air-conditioned room to rest and get over the burns. It was nice to have a haven with soft sheets and cool shower at our disposal. After the first morning of sleeping in we realized that the resident pets liked to bark and hiss and fight all the time. We knew this because the guesthouse was actually more like what I imagine a renovated 4-story methadone clinic would be like, completely tiled from stem to stern. Sound bounced off the walls and up to our 3rd floor room as easy as pie. They also had a homeless guy living in the main floor common room (along with the dogs & cats). We never figured out if he was part of the family that owned the place but he really loved taking naps on a bench that sat off to the side of the room... there, and the steps in front of the 7-11 next door.

After the second day of rest we were able to get out and explore a little more. We had more and more seafood. I had a different kind of grilled squid on a stick every day. We also tried this thing that was like a mini-waffle with pineapple preserves inside. Man, it was so good! Being that this town catered more to the elite Thai crowd and not so much the American backpacker we eventually had to resort to pointing to random things on menus and hoping for the best. I figured, we haven't had a bad dish yet so what are the chances we'd get one now? Luckily, my back-country wisdom paid off and we where surprised with nothing but great tasting dishes! We decided to move on after 3 nights of crappy sleep (due to the dogs barking and cats fighting). Thank God for a local internet cafe owner who hipped us to where the bus stops were and the easiest way to get to them. We each jumped on a motorcycle taxi and took a 20 minute bus ride to Hua Hin...another beach town. We both have a feeling it'll be a little nicer to us.

Hua Hin
After the tip from Cha Am's local internet cafe nice guy, we hopped a bus to Hua Hin with tremendous ease. We showed up to the bus stop and no faster than you could say "Has anyone seen a bus to Hua Hin?", a bus showed up going the direction we needed. We jumped on and promptly paid our fare to the next slice of heaven on a beach. It took about twenty minutes to get to Hua Hin. Once we got there we realized that the bus stop which was to be the bus' final destination was not quite as far as we were hoping. After discovering this, I sent Dom to the front to bat her deep dark ones and see if we would be going to the "other" bus stop on our map (about a mile away and far closer to the guesthouse we had in mind). Of course there was no way the bus driver could say no... so on we went. A few minutes later and many impressive negotiated turns through thick traffic later, we were at our desired destination. From there we were able to catch a cab to our guesthouse of choice. On the way we realized the city was not quite as large as we thought it was and that we could easily walk from place to place if we wanted.

We checked into our guesthouse (Mod Guesthouse). It was a decent place for the price despite the moldy bathroom and wallpaper peeling of the walls. I stared at the worst section of wall, and came to the conclusion that if you were in a 5 star hotel and saw something like that on the wall, all it would need is a frame and someone would certainly call it "art". It wasn't until I noticed how not secure the door was (even while locked) that I thought we may want to spend some time looking for another place to stay.

Before doing anything, we decided that the heat of the day dictated we have some sort of ice cream or cold something with sugar integrated in some manner. We found the answer in the form of a small gelato shop on the south end of town. It was about a 20 minute walk in mid-day heat but completely worth the time and effort. On the way to our bliss in a cup we noticed there were a large amount of "ethnic" foods in this town. Every other place was German, Italian, French... this town apparently catered to all. Shortly after our gelato we found an internet cafe and did some searching for our new guesthouse. We had a few options in pocket as we left. Ultimately we ended up just going next door to Fulay Guesthouse. It was a million times better than the last place we had. There was no A/C and no TV... but the TV showed nothing but Thai channels anyway and you can only make up the dialog of whats on the tube for so long before it stops being funny. Our new guesthouse had an awesome mini-pier over the ocean, which is great for hanging out and drinking beers.

The seafood in Hua Hin is every so slightly better than that of Cha Am. We decided to splurge on our dinner for once and have a nice seafood dinner out on a pier. It was so nice to sit out there in the sea air and enjoy the bounty of the sea. We had a mixed plate of seafood along with a stir-fried dish that was served in a halved pineapple as well as some fried spring rolls. We enjoyed every last bite and, after a few drinks at one of the local pubs, slept like babies. All the local food has actually been very good (seafood or otherwise). One night we ate at this local spot. It took us a while to get seated, because it was just that popular, but were rewarded for our patience with some great dishes. The feeling that we were on the inside track and not some
outsiders looking in was also rewarding in itself.

The rest of our time in Hua Hin was spent hanging out at the beach, just relaxing. We spent hours just sitting there in the shade of a palm tree watching the world go by. Every once in awhile we would muster up the will to go down into the water (which is the temperature of a warm bath), and mull around in the short waves. They were like little pats on the back from the Gulf of Thailand, welcoming us to her shores. There were of course all sorts of things we could have done while at the beach (horse back riding, banana boat riding, drinking at the beach bars) but we were content just chilling. While walking around town we stumbled across a mini-parade, which consisted of dancing "lady boys" backed up by a pick-up truck with music blaring. It was pretty funny. Dom & I sometimes play "he or she?" Sometimes it's easy to tell...especially if the guy is 6+ feet tall. But, other times it's more difficult. Some Thai guys actually make pretty girls!

Quick note before I finish with Hua Hin... Starbucks is evil. I know most of us know this due to the fact that they are trying to slowly and sneakily take over the world one street corner at a time but it has never been so apparent to me as it is now. In our search for a place to post this very entry we stumbled across another two story Starbucks in the middle of Hua Hin. We noticed that there were folks in it on laptops and a sign in the window that said "Wi-Fi". We decided we would endure the normally sub-standard coffee at inflated prices if we were able to use our laptop for free (as it is done in most cafes). Well, we get there and order our coffee, which tasted like something a five year old would concoct with tomato paste, vinager and coffee flavoring and were then told that the Wi-fi connection was not actually free and we had to pay an additional amount to log on (and it wasn't cheap). All together now... "Booooooo!" After finding this out we forced down our "coffee", assuming that if nothing else these should have some sort of sugar or caffeine in them which may come in handy later. Lesson here: those evil empires in the good 'ol U.S. of A are even more so over-seas... at least if you ask me. I will not be going to any Starbucks ever again... or at least until they have those yummy green tea fraps again!!! Hahaha!

Well, after this we are on our way to Chumphon. There, we will need to decide if we are going to go through the hassle of getting our visas extended in order to give us the time needed to get out of Thailand without any penalty, or just try to high-tail it out of here as soon as we're done with the few islands we want to visit. Until then... -t
Cham Am/Hua Hin Pics