The wedding crasher

Just to warn you, this blog post contains some gory details.  The last few days have been quite heavy, with yesterday night being the heaviest.  I’ve passed some personal borders as I ate chicken feet (in a spicy soup), oysters (which I’ve never tried before) and I saw a corpse lying next to the street.

Obviously all this (except the corpse) happened under influence of my friends Tam and Mo here in Hua Hin.  The first night I met them again after not seeing them for a few months, we went out and kept it quite decent, though the evening ended very late.  We started off by having one cocktail in a bar near to the bar where Tam used to work, as we were awaiting Mo who was about to finish his shift at that bar.  We jumped on Tam’s motorbike and had some drinks in a ladyboy bar which has the exotic name ‘Suky 2’.  There we started drinking San Miguel light beer.  I now know that the ‘light’ doesn’t mean that the beer is low on calories, but just that your head feels light after having some of them.  We then went to a discotheque called ‘Hua Hin Beer Brewing Company’, but it wasn’t good enough there so I vaguely remember going to another discotheque.  And of course we had some more beers.

At 2am the discotheque closed under curfew rules instated by the military government.  We then went for some noodle soup at a stand on the side of the road (which was still opened).  What to do when all bars are closed?  Well… when you know people, you KNOW people and doors are opened.  Thus we went back to Suky 2, were visibly the party ended, but in fact it was still going on behind the doors.  Some more beers later I saw on my watch it was already 7am and this fact was confirmed when I looked out of the door and noticed that the sun was already shining.  To finish we had another dinner (spicy chicken feet soup and oysters) at some dodgy restaurant.  At 8am I said goodbye to my friends and started wandering the streets of Hua Hin to get back to my hotel, where I finally saw my bed at 9am.

As now you should understand how my friends are, I will start writing about yesterday night, as I crashed into a wedding party they were at (something I would usually not do, but circumstances decided otherwise).  The evening started with my father calling off our daily dinner date, because his wife didn’t feel very well.  I decided to have a quiet evening then, go for a massage, pedicure and manicure and then have some light dinner in Hua Hin city center.  I walked to the city center and entered a massage parlor, where I had my nails and feet done and got a wonderful shoulder- neck- and back-massage.  I then walked around the small streets with bars and restaurants looking for the right place to have dinner.  Unknowingly I passed Suky 2 bar and all of a sudden I heard some guys screaming my name.  These guys were Tam and Mo, whom I thought to be at a wedding that night.  Apparently the wedding party was going on in Suky 2 bar, so I joined them for one beer.  They were there with a French guy and his Thai girlfriend and the married couple was a Dutch guy with a Thai lady.  A real lady.  So I want to stress again that I joined them for just ONE beer.  During that first beer, they started offering shots of tequila to everyone.  I was kind of obliged to participate.  When my first beer was finished I probably already had about 4 shots of tequila, Jägermeister and some pink liquor.  By that time, the second beer was already ordered, without my consent.  Anyhow, halfway that second beer I felt really sick as I hadn’t eaten at all that night.  So I left the bar and sat down on the corner of the street to cool down a bit.

My friends quickly joined me with a cold wet towel and some water just to make sure I was alright.  I took a small sip of water… and then all the booze I had that night came out the same way it went in, but probably just a bit faster.  Next thing I remember I was on a motorbiketaxi back to my hotel, where this morning I woke up feeling really sick.

I stayed in bed all day and just went out to the 7-11 to get some cold drinks.  While I was walking there, avoiding all cars on the roads, I noticed how dangerous Thai roads can really be.  A dog was hit by a car, his eyeball popped out of its skull and obviously the poor animal was dead.  And even though it was a street dog, the Thai people working at a nearby shop gave the beast a decent funeral as they were digging a hole and wrapping it in big empty rice bags.  This really illustrated to me how Thai people think about the circle of life and death.  And now back to the real world and try to get rid of this headache, while wondering how it can be that those small thin Thai guys can drink that much without having a hangover!

Sunshine and happiness

So last Tuesday I arrived safely in Hua Hin.  I was so happy to see my father, his wife Kanya and her daughter Kai-Mook again.  Once I got to the hotel, I immediately unpacked the stuff I smuggled in for them (5kg Nutella, some chocolate, a bottle of Laphroaig and 1kg of chicory).  My back was relieved as my backpack was all of a sudden almost empty.  The hotel I’m staying at (Korawan Garden Resort) is really wonderful, but as images speak more than words, I will not write about it, but show some photos:

In the last few days I’ve been here, I didn’t really do a lot, except from relaxing, tanning, swimming, going out with my local friends, … Oh yeah, and yesterday I cooked!  I made chicory in the oven with ham and cheese sauce and mashed potatoes, a typical Belgian dish.  We had a hard time finding nutmeg, we had to visit 2 stores before we found it and still it was well-hidden in that shop.  Above that I also had a hard time cooking the meal, as my father made some mistakes on what ingredients they had in stock at home, potatoes for example.  But in the end I succeeded in making a well-tasting Belgian dish in Thailand (without the mashed potatoes).

To get to my dad’s place the day before yesterday, I took a local bus, which was almost falling apart as we were driving on the highway.  It was quite an interesting experience, but the fare wasn’t high at all, so I’m not complaining.  The bus driver was very helpful and friendly, though he didn’t really understand where I had to go to.  Maybe I should work on my Thai language a bit more…  In the end he dropped me off at the right place after making 2 stops at wrong places.

I’ve been exploring the surroundings of my hotel too, and discovered a Russian-Orthodox church here, as well as some very poor housing.  Seeing this kind of housing makes you realize Thailand still is a third-world country and it gets your feet back on the ground from all the glitter and glamour in the luxurious hotels and resorts.

Today is my fathers birthday and I arranged with the hotel that we would be eating here and they will be preparing a special menu for us.  I went to a french bakery and bought some delicious-looking eclairs.  I hope their taste is as good as they look.  The next few days I won’t be blogging a lot, as I extended my stay here until the 22nd and I don't want to make you all jealous with my beach and swimming pool stories!  After that I’ll be leaving for Cambodia and Laos, skipping Vietnam as there is really too much to see and visit there, so I decided I’m going to make a dedicated Vietnam trip in the nearby future.

The Hangover: British edition

Yesterday I safely arrived in Bangkok, after two enjoyable, but exhausting flights.  As always the service on Etihad Airways was excellent.  On my Brussels - Abu Dhabi flight I was traveling next to a French guy from Toulouse.  He introduced himself to me as a former police officer of the French police and started talking about himself.  He quit his job because he found it to be too heavy and frustrating and thus he decided to become self-employed.  He also told me quite immediately he had severe sleeping problems due to the things he saw and did in his days as a cop.  As it was a night flight, that wasn’t good news.  The six hours from Brussels to Abu Dhabi he didn’t stop talking about himself, his family and his daughters.  I tried to act as if I was falling asleep, but it didn’t seem to bother him, so he continued rattling on.  When he learned I was single, all of a sudden he started me showing lots and lots of pictures of his daughter.  As the guy was on his way to Phuket, he also asked my advice on… Thai women!  So I made up some story about how to hit on Thai girls and that he has to be careful as the most beautiful Thai women often come with a small package between their legs.  At the end of the flight I felt tired, but it didn’t disturb me that much as I really had a good chat with the guy; I even didn’t have the time to watch a movie on the in-flight entertainment system.

During my 3h50 stopover in Abu Dhabi I bought some tax-free stuff for the folks home and enjoyed the courtesy of the Al Reem Lounge.  As I was really tired, I fell asleep in the lounge and I woke up about 30 minutes before my Abu Dhabi - Bangkok flight was due to depart.  As the lounge was in terminal 2 and my flight was departing from terminal 3, I got a bit stressed.  Luckily there was no queue at security and the terminal transfer went quite fast.  When I got to my gate, there wasn’t anyone queueing anymore, which made me think the gate was already closed.  But when I got to the counter, I saw that the gate was still opened and that boarding was still going on.  When I entered the aircraft, I said to myself that I was definitely not the last one boarding as there were still lots and lots of seats available.  In the end I was the penultimate passenger to board and the aircraft was almost empty, what made that the stewardesses were even friendlier as usual.  I watched Interstellar on the in-flight entertainment system and slept a bit.  I also tested the on-board internet which functions great, though in the end I couldn’t login as I forgot my password (stupid me) and I had to pay a second time.  Luckily T-Hotspot has a great customer service that refunded me my first payment.

When I got to Bangkok Airport everything went really smooth: I passed immigration really quick, my luggage was on the belt when I got at the carroussel and there was an immediate train departure to the city centre.  Thus from the airplane to my hotel in Silom, it took me just over an hour.  I dropped off my luggage at the hotel and went for my first cocktails and first foot massage for this trip.  As always, I went to the Balcony bar.  The waiters were again very happy to see me there.  The first cocktail I had was a cosmopolitan, followed by a mai tai and for dessert I had a margarita.

Whilst drinking my cocktails on the terrace I met 2 crazy girls, Karen and Karen.  Karen 1 was from London in the UK and Karen 2 was from Hasselt in Belgium.  They were ‘celebrating’ Karen 2’s last day on holiday, which was a quite painful fact as she had been traveling for 1 year and a half.  At some point Karen 1 made some drunk vomiting scene.  But everybody in Europe knows that it’s just standard British travel behavior, so we weren’t really surprised by it.  In fact, I had the very social gesture to be a good drinking partner and kept her hair out of the vomit.  In the end Karen 2 had to finish all the alcohol, as Karen 1 couldn’t stand it anymore.  No really, they were 2 really nice girls and as we were blabbing about everything and nothing, another Belgian guy from Brussels joined us.  His name was Koen and he was on his first Thailand trip, which he got from his friends for his birthday.  We had so much fun at the bar that I didn’t go for that foot massage.

Around 2 am I got back at my hotel, after making sure the girls found their way back to their apartment.  This morning I woke up quite early, but I felt really rested, awake and most importantly, I had no hangover!  I got out of bed, made my backpack and went out to find some fresh fruit for breakfast.  I enjoyed the pineapple I bought, together with a cup of tea.  I then took the train back to the airport to catch the 13.30 bus to Hua Hin.  I miscalculated the transfer time from the city to the airport a bit and got to the airport two hours early, so I took the time to eat Tom Yam Kung (sour & spicy prawn soup) there.  I still had more then an hour left after my lunch, so I took a foot massage, as I originally planned to do yesterday evening.  After the foot massage I went to my luxury first class bus and we left for Hua Hin.  I’m currently on that bus and it is packed with old people.  Thanks to me the average passenger age went down with 10 years.  Anyhow, I’m looking forward on seeing my dad, his wife Kanya and her daughter Kai-Mook in a few hours.