Hua Hin and Prachuap Kiri Kan

Time to write again. Let me pick up where I last left off.

On four hours of sleep the BBA kids set off to Hua Hin, a beach about two and a half hours south of Bangkok. Courtesy of Thammasat and the BBA program, we were treated ridiculously well. We stayed in a five-star hotel, the Dusit, and enjoyed its gourmet buffet and private beach before we started “team-building” activities. A lot of them I had done before at LeaderShape, (yes, it’s spelled correctly), but I eat that sort of stuff up. The human spiderweb, the wooden islands, I love it all. When we were divided into teams and told to come up with a name for ourselves, how appropriate that each team came up with something alcohol-related. My team was “Singha,” which is the cheapest Thai beer, and our slogan was “smooth and fizzy.” Another one of the groups was “Happy Hour.” Beer is the major Thai cultural element that I guess we all readily identify with.

The resort we stayed at in Hua Hin:


After the games and get-to-know-yous were over we all spent the night on the beach, listening to music and truly getting to know each other this time. With the privacy of the beach we truly weren’t bothering anyone, which was nice. Something that made me laugh was that some of the other students who are not familiar with beaches panicked because the tide was low. I understand everyone’s tsunami fears, but come on. High and low tide!

The next day we visited the king’s summer home, which was my dream house. It’s technically a palace, but not ornate in the least. It’s a maze of highly polished, outdoor wooden walkways that connect small rooms (small, at least, for a palace). It’s all painted pale yellow and light aqua. Because the whole thing is on stilts, I felt like I was walking through a beautiful treehouse. It’s set on the water so it gets a nice breeze, and every room is open, so even while I was in them I felt like I was outside.

The palace:


After the palace visit the rest of the BBA group went back to Bangkok, and I stayed behind with about 10 others. We took a taxi to the city and got the first hostel that could fit all of us. It was… not nice. “Dark and gloomy” was how Lonely Planet described the hostel, and dark and gloomy it was. It also didn’t have enough rooms for us, so Marney, Meris, Charity and I decided to all share a room (one queen sized bed) for 100 baht ($3) each, but Charity got sick and threw up, so the rest of us ended up sleeping with two more people. Five to a bed was sort of fun, but every time anyone rolled over, we would all wake up and have to roll over, too.

All the girls in our 400 baht room:

The rooms locked with a padlock:

Not on the private beach anymore, Hua Hin was gross. It’s choc full of ugly Europeans who have been in the sun for too long, and when I got out of the water, a brown film was clinging to each of the hairs on my arms. Blech.

We stayed for one insect-bitten night and then did the most dangerous thing I’ve ever done before. We rented motorbikes (for $6 a day!) and left for Prachuap Kiri Kan, which according to all our travel books has a decent beach and a mountain in the middle of the town swarming with monkeys. The motorbikes were amazing. Amazing amazing amazing. I had been feeling homesick before we got on them, but once we got going that was no more. We went about 100 km/hr, which felt fast, for about 90 kilometers. And yes, I was wearing my helmet. We all were. I wish I could write more about it but I really can’t describe how I felt. Exhilerated, yes, but better than exhilarated. After the ride was over I felt a lot closer to the 6 other people on the bikes. We just kept saying to each other, “Eek! We’re alive! We’re so happy!” One of the guys I did it with (I was one of only two girls actually driving) was terrible. He weaved in and out of the road (for the most part, we stayed on the left shoulder) and would slam on his breaks at everything. If I was ever attracted to him before (not very much), I’m not at all now, haha. Oh yeah, and driving on the left side of the road was a trip. It’s actually not that bad, and I think I’m used to it now. At one point I found myself trying to remember which lane was the passing lane in the United States, and I got myself all confused.

Our newly formed biker group, from left: Bruno, Dylan, Brian, Jon, me, Meris, Brad, Natalia

The monkeys ended up being nothing special. They were really aggressive and all had a humungous tumor growing beneath their chins, which grossed me out. The town, however, was what I think of when I think of Thai beaches. Not clear water, but nicer than the water in Hua Hin, and a lot of green bluffs sit on the horizon. We motorbiked to one of them, and it was pretty incredible. Prachuap Kiri Kan is not a big tourist destination, and at both of the restaurants we went to when we were there, we ordered things that they didn’t have. (Basics, like chicken.) We should have just told them to make whatever they have, because I think we all ended up eating squid anyway. Prachuap is abundant in squid.

Marney at Prachuap Kiri Khan:

Still haven’t eaten bugs, but am now determined to tackle jellyfish. They dry it out here, which looks positively gross. I’m excited!

Last night was one of the best nights in Bangkok yet. We stayed in and made friends with a girl, Katy, who lives in the penthouse of the Rattanakosin. We spent the entire night on the roof of the whole building (38 stories high), just talking and looking at nighttime Bangkok. My friend Jake pointed out all the major buildings and temples that were lit up. I invited Justin but he couldn’t come because he’s getting over a cold. I can’t wait to hang out with him.

As I type this I’m sitting on a bench facing the river outside Thammasat’s cafeteria. It’s a nice day in Bangkok, and at 5:15 p.m. the sun is already beginning to set behind the water.