Thailand, part I

We flew out of Warszawa on New Year's Eve to head to Thailand for 2 weeks. We spent one day in Bangkok, then headed south to Hua Hin on the coast. Actually, we headed further south and stayed at Dolphin Bay Resort, which is much more remote and on a more clean, though not pristine, beach with only a handful of developed resorts along it. After that mostly relaxing week we returned to Bangkok for the ISS job fair, of which we secured our next post to Borneo!
Below is a bunch of shots, included Iza's first time in the Gulf of Thailand and swimming in a pool.

Us on one of several buses from Bangkok to Hua Hin. We took the 'cheap' option and nearly died in seatbeltless taxi in Bangkok and had to hassle with 3 buses between transfers and breakdowns and sitting out in the hot, humid weather and then negotiated an overly expensive taxi ride from HH to DBR. Shoulda, coulda, woulda...

This is the son of the woman taxi (pick up) driver.

Sweet ride!

Our beach was about 5 miles long and the southern part is home to a few fishing boats which take tourists out to Monkey Island (the 'sleeping figure' in the background) when the waters are calm, which was never while we were there.
Obviously, there's monkeys on that there island.

dead stingray

Jill wasn't sure why she was smiling

Dolphin Bay Resort: two pools, a water slide, lots of open air eating yet protected from the wind, good food, friendly staff, Thai massage, excursions galore. Certainly a place to return to if we're back in the area

Iza got to do some real swinging in the kid/baby-friendly courtyard

Tropical flowers

Iza, too, loves Singha beer
(pronounced "sing", not "sing-ha")

Iza got to practice her walking skills on crab grass, wood, tile and the beach but still not quite able to do it on her own...

next-door neighbors

reflecting on her fine position in life
and enjoying the sea breeze through her hair

travel buddies
iza then took the girl's binky out of her mouth



We made a few excursions to Khao Sam Roi Yot national park, south of Hua Hin. The region is mountainous, marshy, close to the sea and full of a huge variety of wildlife

we even fed some monkeys

lemur mama and baby on the park HQ's roof

a nature boardwalk through the marshes and bogs...

with tons of mangroves

they're shoots grow long enough up high until gravity pulls them down and they plop in the water, stabbing into the most soil below and taking root, and growing into a whole new, soon-to-be intertwined tree

next up was a short river boat tour, seeing some birds and impressive rock cliffs and formations

one of our Thai guides from DBR. Sadly, we never got his name, but he was really fond of Iza, as are most Thia people of babies, especially chubby white ones!

a limestone crag in the waiting...
this cliff would be perfect for a sport climbing area, with easy boat access, possibly a walk off and a variety of cracks, chimneys, aretes, and a few pumpy overhang moves, but overall a moderate wall... this was just the tip of the iceberg of the climbing potential here


I'm not sure what truck or tractor they took this foul smelling engine from
... but it worked just fine

next stop...

a Buddhist temple



the temple was full of several statues, all meant to be 'touched up' with additional gold leaf flakes. This, of course, is the Buddha dominating the temple

and a detail of another statue's plastered head


as is tradition, we rang the bells while walking clockwise around the temple.
Iza got a few in herself


Sai Cave was next up, with an arduous hike that felt more vertical than horizontal for much of it


our fearless guide

the fearful cave

this reminded me too much of a tooth pulled last summer
:(


a collection pool had been built up to provide fresh water to its select visitors over the millenia

this is the closest thing to a WI 3+ frozen waterfall that I've laid my eyes on since our trip in Slovensky Raj in Slovakia 3 years ago!




so where's Iza through all this?

she was nappin' in the backpack on daddy's back... and now she's up and shyly flirtin' with our fellow travelers

being in Thailand, she got to eat lots of mini-bananas, pineapple, jack fruit, dragon fruit, watermelon... and she's so excited about it!

and mom, too. Tasty white fish dishes... even dad had some of the fresh stuff straight from the Gulf of Thailand