Our Awfully Big Adventure

Dublin - Bangkok - Hua Hin

So the flights were surprisingly bearable and the children miraculously relaxed. Robbie amazed us with his in-depth knowledge of aviation, learned, he informed us, 'from a programme on the television'. Our minibus was waiting for us at Bangkok and took us to Hua Hin, which seemed to take forever on an endless, darkened road lit mostly by bare fluorescent strip-lighting. Our first couple of days were a bit spaced out from jet lag but we are beginning to feel properly alive again as the days pass. Our rented house is minutes from town and belongs to a man from Donegal. It has splendid marble floors, air-conditioned bedrooms, no less than four bathrooms and a pool big enough for the kids to have a ball. Our rented Ford diesel pick-up 'truck' is essential for navigating the giant potholes of the side roads, where site after site of luxury houses are under construction by Thai builders wearing wide-brimmed hats and slightly creepy-looking balaclavas for protection from the sun. It is HOT, well over 30 degrees most days and as high as 36 or 37 on others. We are extremely cautious with the kids, not really going out midday, unless to air-conditioned interiors. Swimming in daylight means sunblock, t-shirts and hats, but mostly they swim after dark.

Hua Hin is a strange mix of authentic Thai life with pockets of absolute poverty, contrasted with chain stores for the wealthy Western 'farang'. Hazel was amazed to see Burger King, KFC, Tesco, Boots, Clarks shoes and two Starbucks. Lots of people point at her hair, but politely, behind her back. The boys, meanwhile, receive doting smiles and even hugs from motherly ladies. It's disconcerting to see so many mature English (and sometimes Irish) men walking hand in hand with young Thai women, although I am still not sure who is exploiting whom.

Highlights so far?
- The Standing Buddha, 19 metres high at Phraa Pang Haan Yad, where the silhouette of a monk with billowing orange robes stood incongruously alongside the high-rise apartment buildings along the beach.
- Short-haired Buddhist nuns at the temple on Monkey Mountain using sweeping brushes to whoosh the boldest monkeys away from naive tourists.
- A stunning meal for five of us costing 650 baht (13 euro) at the Night Market, where a prawn jumped off the giant pile of seafish and scuttled across the ground until grabbed by the chef.
- Sitting in the evening sun on a deserted beach at Dolphin Bay, while the kids made sandcastle cities from discarded coconut shells.

Thailand photos on Flickr