Cards King in Huahin

Now I think I am getting this right. I have corrected all the incorrect email addresses now so we should be all okay now. If you think you have missed out on an email, tough. Today is Tuesday, not that the day means much to me anymore. Mel and I are working on the ‘days till’ scale of time. x number of days till we go somewhere else. Its a good method. The weather is not the greatest today. I awoke at 5am to a torrential downpour. There is nothing like being curled up in bed with the waves crashing and the rain tapping on the roof. However its still warm but not warm enough to make a cold shower in the morning anything other than a COLD shower in the morning.

We are staying at a place called the Bird Guest House. Its real clean and cosy. We discovered we have the only room without a TV yesterday but who cares. We have a double room with two beds, a shower and a toilet. All for 300 baht (that’s like $17). I negotiated the price down from 350b but they were very quick to take my first offer. My bartering skills need some more work. I have been told that you should always start with half, so that’s what I will start doing now. Its quite a brilliant system really. And its funny how the small corner shop offers you better prices than the malls and department stores. I bought a camera from a little film shop in Bangkok for half of what some of the department stores were asking for. Its kind of backwards from NZ. There is no consumer guarantees act and no homogenous pricing so you really have to shop around. In retrospect considering our room has no TV I should have shaved another 100b off the price :)

Last night I successfully reclaimed my title of International Cards Champion by clobbering Melly 7 nil. Felt a bit like the America’s Cup really. Last card, stop the bus, memory. All the classics but unfortunately (for Mel) she was no match. Looks like all those years of camping paid off. However if we were playing snap then I think it would be a different story especially when Mel doesn’t take off her rings (or turns them upside down!).

Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs on toast. I am becoming very fond of scrambled eggs on toast. $3! We were kept up last night by some German guys drinking and talking till 1am. Well it wasn’t the German guys that actually kept us awake, it was the angry French woman yelling at them. It is so interesting being on the other side of the globe and being surrounded by not only Thai people but German, French, Brits etc. We bumped into a couple of ex Kiwi’s returning home. And today some people from the UK heading for NZ. See, not everyone is leaving the country!

Yesterday I tried to send an email from a cyber cafe and I am afraid I have become very much a ‘user’. I had no patience for the damn machine. It kept disconnecting and failing to reconnect and I knew what the problem was but I was NOT GOING TO FIX THE STUPID THING. Melly and I made a pact a little while ago that we would travel the world crashing cyber cafes. Bangkok — check, Hua Hin — check. Well actually in Bangkok I was halfway through an email and I got this really strange error message come up on my screen in very bad English saying ‘press key’ so I did and then my computer turned off. Hmmmm, not one of the familiar windows error messages. I have a feeling that if I hit ALT TAB I would have been back into my email somehow. For those not familiar with computer geek talk IT WAS A CON! You live and learn.

I cant seem to walk up a street without being offered a tailored suit. Every 5 meters! Well I am interested in a nice new suit for the UK but not now. Like I am going to lug a suit around with me for 2 months. That’s the down side of Thailand when you are a white tourist is that you are constantly having suits, fruit, Tuk Tuk rides, menus and sunglasses shoved down your throat every 5 minutes. How many times do you have to say no?

Today there is no plan. Just hanging. Mel and I have clearly defined out roles while traveling. Melly is the linguist (she knows more Thai words than me), location finder and page knower of the Lonely Planet. I was trying to navigate our way around Hua Hin but unfortunately I was looking at maps in the completely wrong province. Once I was on the right page, no worries. So I am official navigator and map reader. I stop us from getting lost (assuming I am on the right page). Melly is the dispensary and spelling tutor and I am also the negotiator and guesthouse finder. It works!

I must sign of now and get back to… ummmm… well we will think of something. Perhaps tomorrow. Ahhhhhh this is the life.
See ya,
V