Hau Hin & Bangkok, Thailand: I took a quick 2 day vacation to a resort that the Thais tend to visit during their holidays: Hua Hin. This is a small fishing / beach resort 192 km (120 miles) south of Bangkok. Mr. Sam, my driver from the day before, drove me down to my hotel – City Beach Hotel. The hotel was new…back in 1936. Hey, what do you expect when paying $50 a night? It was a bit depressing sitting in the room / lobby so I headed down to the Hilton and hung out in their lobby. The raining season has finally begun so for the past couple of days, it has been rather cloudy. Today (Sunday) was the first day of the Buddhist Lent, Khao Phansa. Way back when, the farmers complained that the monks would tramp all over their recently planted crops so Lord Buddha declared that all monks had to stay in the Wats (Temples) for the first 3 months of the raining season to protect the crops.
I think the monks revolted this morning in Hua Hin since they were blaring their music from the main temple outside my room starting at 5:30 am. By 9am, I gave up and decided to head back to Bangkok. This time I decided to take the VIP bus. They have a unique bus schedule: when the bus is full, it leaves. So after waiting 40 minutes, I was surprised that we were headed out with only 3 passengers. I realize soon enough however that I had the luck of being on the “milk run”. We would stop every 5 km and pick up or drop off passengers the whole route to Bangkok. I unfortunately was right by the door so I ended up being the doorman for everyone. After more than 25+ stops, we pulled into Bangkok. Since it was still early, I decided to catch a movie. I was sitting eating my popcorn when everyone in the theater stood up. Here it is customary to play the King’s anthem prior to every movie and everyone must stand.
Well…tomorrow is my final day prior to heading back to Chicago so I will be getting the last of my tourist activities done before leaving.
