Holiday to Hua Hin

After the wedding in the last post we then got on a bus for the 8-10 hour night bus. Luckily me and Moni slept most of this journey with two 15-30min breaks on the way for the toilet and some refreshments. I am quite use to these long journeys so I always take enough food and drink on the bus with me just in case there are no stops.
We arrivied in Hua Hin, booked into our hotel on the 21st May which is were I started writing again on this blog because they had wifi. So while in Hua Hin we did all the normal holiday things ate well, drank lots, partied and went swimming. Me and Moni had arranged to meet up with a couple of friends Brendan and Alice for her birthday and the days in Hua Hin, Koh Samui and Koh Phangan so while in the hotel we met up with them. The first night we went to a bar that Moni's friends owned and I don't really remember much more of that night other than Alice had taken some awful pictures of me falling about drunk :P luckily I don't have those pictures so you can't see them. The next night was Moni's birthday so we went to a few bars including a Karaoke bar where the girls belted out quite a few songs while trying to get me and Brendan to join in.

We also enjoyed yet another visit to a temple but this one also had MONKEYS!! :)

Moni's Mum and Briss Birthday

Out in Isaan it seems quite rare except for older children to celebrate their birthday as I found out as a couple of days before it was Briss's birthday who turned 3 years old and today was Moni's mums birthday and no one has said a word. Well luckily Moni remembered to tell me so we ordered a cake for her mum that evening and celebrated :)

Wedding

I have been quite looking forward to going to a Thai wedding and this is my first experience of one. One of Moni's cousins is getting married and we got an invitation through the post. Well it's a rare occasion we ever see the postman because only the electric, water and internet bills come by post which involves a man on a scooter dropping them off. The electric and water bill are not by the same postman and you usually have to give him the money before he leaves, anyway I digress.

So the wedding is on the day we are suppose to be leaving early to go to Huahin, Koh Samui and Koh Phangan for Moni's birthday celebrations and a small break away. We decided to go to Moni's cousins the night before and stay to the late afternoon and then catch a bus to Huahin (8-10 hour drive) so we could at least join in some of the wedding celebrations. So me, Moni and Bill (Moni's 8 year old neice) got on my scooter and drove off to Nong Bua Daeng were the wedding is being held. On the way it pissed it down so much when the rain drops hit your face they stung so needless to say we all got soaked. We finally arrived at the bride's house after about 15 minutes of driving in the rain she they let us dry off and change clothes there. Lot of relatives had come the night before so there wasn't really any space for us to stay at the house so me and Moni got a hotel room nearby.

This little bungalow is about £8-9 a night and was like my little bit of paradise because it had a hot shower, toilet, bed, tv and aircon :) I have to say I haven't really missed any of these but it was nice to have them back for a brief time.

The next morning is the wedding but Moni has gotten ill overnight because of driving soaked so even though we turned up at her cousins wedding we only stayed an hour before Moni felt too ill and we had to go back to the hotel. As we left the groom was just about to arrive at the house so even though I count this experience as going to a wedding I am yet to experience the whole thing. Unfortunately we got 1 picture of the bride and the cameraman couldn't figure out how to use my camera :( Also I feel I have to mention that only the bridge and groom dress up for weddings it seems and everyone else wears what they want.

So I still want to go to a full wedding but also I want to go to a funeral because they party day and night up until the cremation which is usually about 4 days.

We actually stayed in the hotel an extra night and woke up very early the next morning to catch the bus to Huahin.

Shopping from Home Isaan Style

As with most things the Isaan/Thai way of shopping from home is slightly different to our western ways and involves sitting at home and waiting for either a beeping of a horn or loud speaker strapped to the top of a pick-up truck. This alternative way involves random drive-bys through the village from vendors selling merchandise. You can buy anything from food to furniture and I think so far I've bought a mattress, wardrobe, food and some medical supplies. Like always some pics to show, here is an Thai ice cream treat thats home made coconut ice cream in a wafer cone sometimes with rice at the bottom and sprinklled with nuts for about 14p each:

This is a picture my fave ice cream driver Dio he sells Nestle ice creams:

 A Angry Bird ice cream from Dio about 25p:

This is more of a walk-by but she sold some medical supplies:

This local woman is also a walk-by and she sells quite tasty but also quite bony BBQ chicken for about 25p a chicken kebab

A pick-up truck selling chicken in a cooler:

This guy sells what they call sweet ice, its ice with some flavoured sugar syrup squirted on followed by some other sugary stuff for 15p.

This is me eating my first sweet ice:

Another pick-up selling chicken:

A pick-up selling lots of random food stuff. Fish, chicken, curry, veg, soup etc:

Differences with bringing up their children

So another difference in lifestyle I've seen and have been amazed about is how children are brought up here. They seem to be allowed to do anything to a degree for example Mixer (just a little over 2 years old) you may have seen in the building posts picking up a hammer and nail and copying his dad, another picture you can see him practising sawing a piece of wood. Now when they pick these dangerous tools up they are of course yelled at to be careful but are then allowed to proceed, if at any time they look like they are mis/incorrectly using these tools they are yelled at again and on the odd occasion and adult will run over to stop them. Mixer because of this can actually successfully saw and tap a nail on the head a few times to get it in, personally I find this amazing at such a young age.
Some other activities I've seen are Bill (Moni's 8 year old niece) ironing her clothes in the evening each day for school.
Bris (Moni's just turned 3 year old niece) picking up quite a sharp knife and then using it to slice her own Mango.

 

Also children starting at the age of 8 are taught to drive a scooter if they want and quite often you seem them driving down to the local shop to get some food on them, I will get a picture of this when I can.

I have asked if there are many accidents with children and Moni said yeah Mixer has cut himself a few times but then learns to be more careful.

Police Road Block

One day we headed off to the nearest town Nong Bua Daeng (12 miles) to do some shopping and along the way we spotted some Policemen up the road ahead stopping most people who go past. Moni quickly explained to me that they do this looking for people who are breaking the law and are looking for cash in hand fines to let the culprits go. She explained further that they do this to pay for their lunch and usually get enough money together to also pay for sex after their lunch too. We pulled over on the side of the road a few hundred metres before the Police were some locals of this village were standing by the side of road watching. Moni explained if we drive through then we will have to pay a fine and maybe a steep fine because I'm a foreigner and we (me, Moni and Bill) were on our scooter and not wearing any helmets on this rare occasion. Moni proceeded to talk to the locals here about the police first and then asked politely if they knew a way we could get past them, some more words and pointing of fingers were exchanged and a thank you and off we went down the drive way of one of these houses into a back lane for a bit and then out the drive way of another house past the Police then off to Nong Bua Daeng.

Stomach bug

I don't know if it was just a coincidence but the day before we had lunch at a noodle shop and I had a bad tasting orange juice. It had bit of a plastic taste but I was so thirsty I downed it all :O Shortly after I had a few stomach pains but they shortly went away. By the end of the evening I got some really bad stomach pain/cramps which lasted the whole night and next day. During this time I had a high temperature and I made frequent trips to the bathroom which actually when I finally got use to the squat toilet.

In the future if you are all lucky I might give you a brief blog with clothed pictures of my toilet and shower use.

Another Temple

As much as I would like I will never be done visiting temples because of the family I am living with mainly but also every once in a while one comes along that's a little different from the rest. This time this temple promised a vegetarian alligator that the monks look after and have brought up since a baby on only rice. Unless you get to the temple at the right time when the monks are feeding him the little shit likes to hide so I didn't actually see him but this temple also had a little zoo so here's some pictures from that.

There was some monkeys, turtles, terrapins, rabbits, guniea pigs, chickens, birds and a reclusive alligator. I will try go back again sometime and get a pic of eating rice :P

Also you can feed the fish in a lake at the end. Lots of different fish and a few big catfish.

Honda Click 125

So while I am over here I decided a while back I would buy myself a scooter so about 2 weeks in I purchased a Honda Click 125. Here's a few pics of my bike.

Bamboo

So my first proper experience with Bamboo is when the neighbour asked if Moni could drive her to the local market. So off they went to get some food and they came back about an hour later with Bamboo. Now Bamboo was dirty so we had to give it a clean first.

Yeah that's right Bamboo is my little dog :P Apparently they had some puppy's at the market and while Moni was having a look they asked her how many she wanted so she took one for me :)

Also he came bathroom trained from day 1, we keep him inside my little house during the night and if he wants to go to the bathroom he yelps for us to open the door.