Peacefull Beach

We experienced the biggest difference you can ever have! Our last night in Bangkok we payed a visit to the highest tower in the city, The baiyoke Tower. 304 meter above the huge busy city. Beautifull to see.! if we looked 9800 km to the west, we could see the Netherlands.. to bad it was already dark outside! haha
It was a amazing night to end our stay in bangkok. Eventhough it was hard to say goodbye to Benya again, i was relieved to leave the big busy busy city the next morning. Early wakening, a train ride in 3rd class on wooden benches and ofcourse alots of delays but it was well worth it.. and besides we are not in a hurry.. like they say overhere ''let it go'' but then ofcourse in their own pretty language but i can't write that.. :(
After 4 hours we arrived in the peacefull little beach town: Cha-am! not knowing where to go we just took a taxi, because tuktuk's don't excist outside of bangkok, and there it was.. the beautifull beach, fresh air and a little rain.
Our hostel was 100 meters from the beach. as soon as we dropped our backpacks we got our swimming suits out and we ran to the beach. becasue Cha-am is a on the north shore, it is not a beach with blue blue water and white sand but more like a beach we have at the 'Noordzee'. nevertheless we loved it!! our toes in the sand and sea instead of having black toes aftrer a day bangkok on flipflops. haha besides swimming we also fell a sleep as soon as we were laying on the beach.. I guess sightseeing Bangkok in 4 days is kind of killing..
At night we had lots of street places and restaurants to choose from, and we ended up at a really nice and cool place. live music, really good food (eventhough it was to spicy for me to even taste a thing). great place, if you are even in cha-am, you should go to Zone haha
sad thing about cha-am is that there are alot of white old guys with young thai girls, just the most disgusting thing tto see!! so many of them just grosses you out.

The next, and our first full day, we rented a bike and went biking. The funniest thing you can do here in thailand, nobody cares where you bike. we had to get used to the fact that we had to drive on the left side of the road instead of on the right side, i messed up a few times but I am still a live. :D
We biked around 15 kilometers, and ofcourse half way caorlien got a flat tire.. well how to tell a thai that doesnt speak english that you would like a new tier... well you can't. gladly there was a lovely thai girl who could speak english and helped us out. 120 Bath and you have a new tire.. that is around 2.50 euro's.. i think they can learn something from that in the netherlands.:P

we were broken when we got home, and slept for 2 hours on the beach. Got something to eat and drink and went te bed early in th evening. all excited because we were traveling to Hua Hin the next day.. just 40 minutes from Cha-am but a lot more to do and a lot more people.
eventhough Hua hin is a city and it is sort of busy. it is alot better than bangkok.
The day of arrival (sunday) we just experienced and enjoyed the city live. town market, beach, pier and a few nice cocktails at night. The surprising thing in Hua hin is that there is a bunch of nationalities with their own businesses here.. and esspecially Scandinavian. we asked a britisch bartender how that happend, but he actually has no clue. He worked all over the world so its normal for him to have so many nationalities.
after our great cocktails, we rushed home to go to bed, because we were gonna be picked up at 8 o'clock in the morning the next day (monday).
We went to the Kaeng krachan national park. the park is 3000m3 big and has lots of thing to see and do. Tigers, elephants, waterfalls and hiking mountains.... sadly the book did not tell us that you had to be there at 5.30 am to join the tour to all those cool places. haha FAIL
but not really.. we walked around the lake and had some pretty views of the mountains, walked on a cracking hanging bridge. kinda scary. And because our taxi driver was gone before we found out we weren't gonna walk for 5 hours, I walked along the side of the road for two hours. Just to see the locals, how they live and how that build their houses. walked in some bush bush and tried to find a way up the mountans but without luck. It is amazing to see how people here can live with just the basics.. the roof wasnt even finished.. so basicly they didnt even have a roof above their head... Interresting and cool to see.
after my two hour deadly hot walk, which everybody laughed at me and probably thought i was crazy walking along the side of the road. I got back to carolien and the driver was back again. :) yay! He drove us around the macigal landscapes and brought us back to the hostel... meanwhile i spoke to his daughter on the phone because he himself couldnt speak english, but his daughter is teacher and translated what he wanted to say.. we got invited to a party tonight.. i guess it is in our own hostel, at least she is meeting us here. i am curious how the karaoke party is gonna be. :P

Tommorow is a rest day, beach and nice viewing points on the rocks. Wednesday we are going to a national park on a organized trip and then Thrusday it is time to go to the Gulf of Thailand.. To the blue blue water and white beaches at the islands! :)

So many more lovely things to do.., and it is already trip of the year!! I love the Thai culture. except for the rice and noodles for breakfast.. haha but i guess we will get used to it! :)

Love,
Anne

p.s I wish i could post some pictures but sadly the computer doen not have the card reader. so you'll see them with the last story i write in about 4 and a half weeks.