This week we have been a lot more active, we now have a car (Toyota Saluna) with the necessary air conditioning.

We have visited a few of our favourite beaches, and they are still as lovely as ever, except for a beach up north where there are statues in the sea and the locals visit it at weekends. Unfortunately, a hotel is now being built there and though the beach is fine, it has destroyed its uniqueness and promises to be very busy in the future. We love its quietness, and it is so picturesque. There is a place where we normally eat, they produce some lovely food but today they wanted 200baht each to use the pool. We decided to use the ‘free’ sea next door. Jamie wandered off and came back half an hour later carrying a Thai flag (he didn’t say where he got it from). I and Sue discovered that we really like lime ice cream, and now we scoff one at every opportunity (It might even be preferable to Singha beer!)

We went to our favourite ATV course (Quad bikes) located just up the road from the hotel and Sarah, Jamie and I had a brilliant time thrashing around the courses getting splattered with mud. Later on, we found a place for a foot massage; we all had one, and it was lovely. Afterwards, we hired some tyre inner tubes and flopped about in them on the sea off a local beach south of Hua Hin. We scoffed yet more lime ice-creams. I don’t feel guilty as I spend half an hour in the gym each morning to compensate!

The other night we ate at an Irish Bar called Crawfords in Cha-am. They were not very busy, and we spent until midnight chatting with the owners. They kindly gave us free drinks (Jamie got drunk on several different cocktails and was very happy). The landlord, Murray Mexted informed me he played for the All Blacks at No. 8 before becoming an All-Blacks Rugby coach during the first World Cup. He moved on to coach the South Africans and then Italy. We swapped a lot of rugby stories (his were better), then moaned about the state of English soccer (it was on the TV at the time) before discussing the merits of drinking Guinness anywhere but Ireland (there wasn’t any).  He dropped into the conversation that his first wife was a Miss Universe winner from New Zealand. Sarah and Jamie played pool all night and Sue talked to his wife about everything under the sun, but mostly concentrating on how difficult it can be married to a rugby player.

Today we drove out towards the Burmese border to Pala Alua, it is a waterfall in the jungle. You reach it by dirt track. When we got there, the Rangers told us it was closed as it was too slippy and dangerous. The track was very muddy and though I didn’t have a four-wheel drive, we decided to go anyway. We had a great time. Sue enjoyed watching some enormous colourful butterflies while the kids and I splashed about in the water and did a spot of gully bashing. A little later Jamie and Sarah decided to gully bash their way down the river back to the car (about a mile away). To calm Sue’s nerves, I promised to keep an eye on them but as the river plunged into the jungle, I quickly lost sight, but sure enough, they emerged out of the river an hour later, full of exciting tales of nearly drowning and river snakes (not what Sue wanted to hear). On the way back, we stopped at a local roadside market to nibble on some of the local cuisine, I found some durian fruit, I have been looking for it since I arrived but have failed so far to discover any. I now have tomorrow’s breakfast!!!