Random Pictures...a visitor from Ayer's Cliff

I forgot these three pictures from the last post of the temple on Monkey Mountain.

Lots of stairs.

 Bells

 View from the top of the mountain of the fishing village or "sea market"

The art teachers having some fun,

This is the title of a real book. Falang (farang) means guava but is also the name for a foreigner. Scooter riders who venture on to the main road downtown on a regular basis all have stories of weird tickets. Best to pay and go.

 We seem to be collecting bikes and scooters.

I rode into school on Friday and my bike was making a noise than I couldn't recognize. On the way home it was louder so when I stopped to talk to a friend I took a look.....well, then it became a case of seeing how much of the 2.5 km ride home I could cover before it blew. 200m later it sounded like a shot gun went off and I was walking it.

I coach swimming to 6-8 year olds after school 3x a week which is a ridiculous amount of fun. However, at the point we are in with rainy season the storm usually come right around start time. Lightening is the issue and the head coach wears a lightening meter since we have to get out before it's on top of us. This often means waiting around the pool to see what will happen. This day it was cancelled but pouring so hard we didn't leave.

 Our little gang of longer distance runners have decided to start our weekend run super early....as in 4:30 am. Last week it poured just before I left home and created a bit of an obstacle to get around.

4:30 am and I am balancing on the curb since the grass and road are both lakes

We usually take a picture of us but we forgot so this little (big?) guy is a replacement.

This gives an idea of his size. If the guards see him he will be "el soupo"

The upside of getting up early is that Vince and I got an early start and went to the local market with a stop at our favourite coffee place...The Lord of Coffee.

We had a super visit for three days from Michelle Crook (Ayer's Cliff) who was on her way to Bangkok to do a month long research project on liver disease in children. We initiated her to a foot massage (picture below), our favourite local eatery and she became skilled at both klong riding and scooting around the neighbourhood. 

Hua Hin Golf Weekend.

The thing about living here is that no-one our fellow teachers have very few commitments to anything but work, travelling and finding an adventure. We have one long weekend each month and almost everybody goes somewhere. The trouble is that you have to keep track of all the travel arrangements.....tough problem, I know.

So our last trip was to Hua Hin which is a coastal city about 200 km south of Bangkok. Essentially a 2.5 hr super comfortable bus ride. It was a golf weekend for Vince and I tagged along because I couldn't think of a reason not too. Didn't try too hard either.

Hotel are often jammed in the smallest places and this is our humble abode for a couple of days.

We got there at night and I was so thrilled to wake up and see hills.....actual hills!!!! 

Rooftop pool which no-one used but us.

One of the many funny mistranslations.

One of the best ways for me to discover the area close by is to go for a run....so i did and I headed straight for the hills. That wall actually goes around a golf course and the last thing expected to see was monkeys....tons of them.

Some other pics of my run...

It started out kinda like this.

These flowers are all over and come in so many shades.

This is the first time that I felt that I was actually in the country side which actually posed another problem. Since 7-11s and corner stores are absolutely everywhere you rely on them for water. We always carry a small bottle since it is always 30 deg C or higher but it heats up pretty quick and always need replenishing. So, it's the first time that I have actually ever been worried....and hotter than anything. I started at 6:30 but by 8 am the sun was pretty much beating down on me. In the back of my mind I knew that anyone with a truck or scooter would get me back to the main drag which at this point was fairly far away. 

My running picture.

The town is a parallel system of beach-hotels-road-train tracks-hills. Once I crossed the tracks I knew I was almost there....long morning.

Hua Hin train station

Working with nature-beautiful seating area.

The waiting room for the Royal Family.

 Vince had a full day of playing so I entertained myself in the afternoon with a walk down the beach to  Khao Takiab which is a temple near the beach on Monkey Mountain.

Monkey Mountain in the distance.

Saw many of these jellyfish which explains the lack of people swimming.

Feels barely closer and my plan is foiled by the Hyatt Regency because my beach ran out....must have been high tide. 

No problem I thought, I'll just walk through the property, back to the road and find a way back down to the beach. Well, it's that kind of thinking that got me lost on their property and likely on every security camera. Nice place by the way.

Woohoo.... made it to the temple.

Dog being a monkey or monkey being a dog?

Tough life!

Fixing buddha.

 t was worth it. the view from the temple: back over the beach and Hua Hin.

 There are not many places where you will see monkeys, a monkey statue, a statue of a mink, a real monk and two dinosaurs in the same place. 

Seriously, way too many monkeys.

Felt Steven King ish.....the writer not the therapist.

 Fishing village on the way to the temple.

On my run I saw this hemet shop and Vince wanted a slightly smaller one so we came back in the afternoon.

Success.  

We walked down to the water. Lots of restaurants hang over the water precariously perched on wooden stilts.

Had to stop for happy hour.

Golf in Thailand...

Weekends in Thailand often mean there is a round of golf in store. As my friends in Canada squeeze in one more round as the temperature drops,  we try to get the earlier T-times to avoid the mid 30 Celsius temperatures during the day. Yes there are distinct advantages of living in these parts and so you just have to drink more liquids to avoid drying up. Here are a couple of shots of the  Banyan Golf Course in Hua Hin where I played two rounds with some friends from the school Bridget teaches at.

 There are the usual hazards, water, trees, bunkers and pineapple plantations on the course. Once you avoid these, the fairways are actually a good place to land the ball.

 

Certainly the appeal of this course is that is is not flat, and there are no other buildings in site, nor any phone towers!. It is amidst some rolling hills, very beautiful.

 

One of the challenges to hit over the water but avoid the drinks tower. The watering hole is a must stop on this course.

 

View of the unassuming proshop in the distance.

When in Thailand, after a hard day of golfing, drinking and flirting with the caddies… you absolutely need to get a massage…

 

Sometimes, you just don't want to know  !!  and NO, I did not get a massage here...

Bridget's Birthday

Well after a couple of weeks in Australia, I came home on Bridget's birthday and managed to see her for 15 minutes prior to her daily cycle in to school. She had returned the previous day completing a half marathon on her last day in the half century, so now she is officially on the next segment of her age cycle. So she comes home later in the afternoon and appears to have a few more aches so now she is stretching these new kinks out..

She bounced back perfectly for the next day she was ready to celebrate her birthday with a few of our close friends. The two girls belong to Alis and Dan, who live in our village and often come over to chat and show us things. About 20 minutes before the cakes was brought out, the youngest  Thea went to Bridget and asked her when the cake was coming. Not knowing anything about the cake, Bridget replied 'there is no cake, this is just a dinner for us all'. Thea replies "yes there is a cake for you, it is in the fridge over there".  And so the surprise was almost complete when the cake arrived and of course they had to help blow out the candles.

Well all this hard work, teaching, running and partying is sure to get to her as she is now a little older... so there is only one remedy for that, a good old Thai massage.

Bridget does just fine actually and the massage was a few days later but hey, it was a good story ...and Happy Birthday Bridget.