the beach in december

We hear that our Canadian friends and family are enjoying chilly winter weather back home. Roving Reporter Alex G reports MINUS SEVENTEEN in Montreal and Northern Correspondant Pam McCowan has let us know that she must exit her home through a snow tunnel. Meanwhile, we are enjoying chilly winter weather here in Thailand. And I'm not just saying that to make folks bitter. Really! Right now the weather is colder than I've ever experienced in Bangkok. Yesterday I wore a button-down cotton shirt and a zip-up sweater all day long. Admittedly there were many people going around in t-shirts as per usual, but I think it's important to seize the opportunity to wear thrilling layers of clothes at a time when I won't get heat stroke as a result. It was super fantastic. Bangkok is an awesome city when it's 'cold'. I walked six subway stops without breaking a sweat. Phet took Ji to Lumpini Park and they went paddle boating and neither of them is sunburned. At night we didn't have the air con on, we kept the windows open, and we snuggled up together. I highly recommend that if you want to visit Thailand, come soon while the good weather lasts.

On Friday we headed down to Hua Hin, a resort town by the ocean, for the wedding of my school's Principal. The cold weather made the holiday absolutely perfect; it was just like an early summer weekend up at Sauble. Though, admittedly, we didn't require sweaters or fires at night.

We woke up early on Friday and got ourselves packed up and ready to go. Unfortunately, the bus station for Hua Hin is on the other side of town - an additional 15 minute ride past Phet's office, and you know from the map posted here earlier this week how freaking far away that is. Why, you may wonder, are there two bus stations in Bangkok? Well, there's not just two, there are three. The eastern terminal is near us. The northern terminal is up by the weekend market. Then the southern terminal is out in the west end (?). I think the reasoning is that if they put all the buses in the centre of town it would take everyone 3 hours just to get outside Bangkok city limits. Thus, the constellation of stations on the compass points of the map.

We took a cab to the station and once again had super luck with the tickets as the bus was leaving in 5 minutes. Phet bought dried squid and chips to snack on and I got a tasty banana-leaf wrapped savoury sticky rice cooked with peanuts and dried shrimp and yummy stewed pork. The bus was middle-of-the-road in terms of quality. There was a bus stewardess in a robin's egg blue uniform, but she handed out water only and no snacks. Luckily there weren't any movies shown during the ride, and we enjoyed dozing and watching the scenery pass by. It was a nicer route by far than the one to Pattaya. The city finished itself up quickly and we were then treated to farming vistas punctuated by old fashioned wooden houses and the occasional temple. There were a few factories along the way, but they were well-spread out and not particularly obnoxious. It was especially nice to see red dirt roads leading in toards the highway. In Bangkok we can go for several weeks and not see healthy looking dirt, just car-exhaust dirt griming up building exteriors.

The resort was in Cha Am, just outside of Hua Hin, but we took the bus right into town. Hua Hin seems like a very nice place. Relaxed, low-key, busy enough but not over-run by tourists, calm citizenry. We had some fried rice and noodles and then caught a truck tuk tuk to the resort. Unfortunately, it turned out that there was both a Verandah Lodge and a Verandah Spa and Resort. We were taken to the Lodge and then had to turn around and head back up the highway for several kilometres to get to the resort.

The Verandah Spa and Resort gets a four and a half star rating from us here at fixed address. I took off a half a star because they had no body lotion or conditioner in the bathroom, and the overly-architecturalized sink didn't drain fast enough. Nonetheless, we very highly recommend it to anyone visiting Hua Hin who has a stack of cash to spare. It is very elegantly designed and has a gorgeous, wide beach. As you enter the resort, there's the begining of the fountain / pool / sea continuum. The main foyer is open air and is divided by a rock-lined, foot-wide brook-type pond that leads to a wider central courtyard pond. The rooms are arranged around this courtyard. As you continue walking alongside the pond / fountain, it morphs into an enormous pool. The pool was very cool, not your typical blue rectangle. It was some kind of poly-sided shape, nudged in here and tucked around corners there. There were two trees that had been allowed to stay in the middle of the pool and the pool walls had been built around them. Also, it was an infinity pool, so the vast edge of the pool appeared to simply drift off the edge of the horizon, where it merged seamlessly with the ocean beyond. It was very cool.

Check out our photos of the resort and our room.

After we settled into our room we checked out the ocean. The beach was nice and the waves were good. The water was a little murky, but that's par for the course for sandy beaches with crashing waves. It was relatively clean unlike Pattaya and there weren't any jellyfish. Ji had a great time nearly getting knocked over by waves, and then dug endlessly in the sand while we relaxed. Before dinner we luxuriated in our super deep bathtub and then, well-scrubbed and sun-kissed, we went to happy hour. Hurrah, buy one drink get one free. The lounge was just next to the ocean and featured a super groovy bar covered with irridescent tiles. You know that colour that Barbie's overskirts are, it's like a white colour gilded with a shiny haze of purples and pinks and pale blues, that only show up in the right light? Well, that was the colour of the bar. Ha ha, a Barbie bar. We left happy hour quite a bit 'happier', and ate at the resort's restaurant, and then kicked back and watched The Whole Ten Yards which unfortunately sucked. I like prat falls way more than the average person, and even I got bored by the repeated tumbles in the movie. Yawn.

On Saturday Phet booked himself into the spa and got an ultimate massage while Ji and I played in the sand. For lunch we walked down the road next to the sea and found a great seafood restaurant on the beach. It was filled with Thai families chowing down, and we made ourselves right at home. The only problem was that the dishes were Thai-family-sized. Our fish alone could have fed about 12. On top of that we had a tray of fried rice and a bucket of papaya salad. Ji knocked back Pepsis while Phet and I slowly plowed our way through the food.

That evening was the wedding, and so we got ourselves all gussied up and out to the reception area on the beach by 4:30. It was entirely beautiful. The sun was just starting to set. The staff had set up a long walkway from the pool down to a flower-filled archway next to the water. Chairs wrapped in satin and tied up with blue ribbons and flowers were arranged next to the archway for the ceremony, and then tables for dinner were set just behind that. The wedding didn't start until 5:20, and the free-flowing champagne and wine kept the guests well amused. It was an interesting mix of people; some school folks, a bunch of well-put-together Englishmen, and then the bride's friends and family. There were several kids and Ji became best buddies with an almost-four year old named Kieran. Five minutes after they met, Ji convinced Kieran to go down the beach to see some boats, and they were halfway to the fishing village before Phet raced after them and told that they'd better get back for the ceremony, pronto.

Ji was exceedingly well-behaved during the ceremony and we found out the next morning that he had memorized the entire 'I do' section of things when he repeated it verbatim on our porch at 7 am. The bride and groom who had both been quite nervous before the wedding seemed very happy with everything, and looked gorgeous. After the ceremony there was a wait of an hour before the food was officially ready. This gave the guests even more time to imbibe and visit. Ji made a number of new lady friends, three of whom he tried to drag up to his hotel room after dinner. Of course, as at any wedding where he is a guest, Ji was the star of the dance floor. He's developed some wicked awesome moves lately, and the fact that the floor was actually made of sand was very conducive to spills, rolls, and frequent wipe-outs. Ji wore his tux to the wedding but got heated up on the dancefloor, so we took off his shirt and sent him back bare-chested which brought the ladies on in droves. When Ji came back for another break, we wrapped a satin sash at his waist and Phet gave him a brief lesson on successful dancing with the girls. "Ji," Phet told him, "You have to give the ladies attention. They want to see you dancing, but they also want you to watch them and make eye contact with them. They feed on the attention." Phet and I gave him a good psyching-up and sent him back out on the dancefloor. Ji ran out, grabbed the first girl he saw from behind, and plowed his face into her derriere. She, of course, was delighted and rocked out with Ji. You can see her calling out for more in the second-to-last photo of this set. All in all, a great wedding. Superb location, rock lobster and grilled shrimp and eight hundred other things for dinner, heart-felt speeches, amusingly inebriated guests (one woman from the US tried to talk very drunkenly to Ji in Thai, and he very haughtily informed her, "I'm Canadian, you know. I don't understand what you're saying."), free drinks, cool breezes, and good company. Cheers to the newlyweds! [On The Road-20-December-2005]