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Hello everybody, hello.
The night market last night was interesting and mildly overwhelming at some points. It was sort of an Asian Camden market but just down one long road. There were massive live lobsters and other strange looking crustaceans that I can't find the name of; whole pigs that had been completely gutted and boned, laid out flat like a skin rug grilling on a BBQ; vats of sticky coconut rice waiting to be ladled into little half sphere grill pans, fresh pineapples, fresh coconut ice cream being served in whole coconuts, mopeds speeding across the end... The list of crazy and delicious goes on.
We were really hungry so decided to have a sit down dinner instead of street food... We just didn't know what enough of the food was to be able to fill up on it and English is limited in places like this market. We went to a place called Bird Chilli. They had a full menu book set up on a stand outside and although there was a waiter there ready to bring you in, there's absolutely no pressure if you decide not to go in after looking at the menu. They had a good variety of meat/fish and spicy/non spicy and they had a stall outside with fresh lobster for you to choose and they BBQ it for you in the street. They had Simon at lobster, BBQ was just a bonus! It was obviously a place for expats and tourists, a good balance for a family palette. Anyways, Simon obviously had the Lobster Thermidor, which I tried and thought it was delicious! (Dad, I've also had crab meat spring rolls here and liked them too!) I had a pork stir fry and it was pretty s***... It tasted like it was made with tomato ketchup! Oh well!
We had heard about a restaurant that just served desserts too and that was a couple of buildings down so we went there after. It was a really lovely, funky little joint run by an English couple from what we could gather. We had our delicious desserts and a chat with one of the Thai ladies serving us. She was really lovely and wanted to tell us all about traditions they have here, she kept getting fun and funny mixed up so kept telling us that their traditions were very funny! So sweet.
One of the food stalls we had been looking for, was one we saw on the tele; pancake style things with banana and condensed milk, we have really been looking forward to trying it but couldn't see them anywhere, that's why we went to the Sweet Garden. Well, as we were leaving, we saw three separate stands selling them!! We'll definitely be going back in the week!
When we got back to the hotel, we learned something incredibly cool... Our certificates from our cooking course had an unusual date on them 13/08/2558 and we weren't sure if it was a typo or not, so before bed I googled 'what year is it in Thailand?' I know it sounds silly, but I got a pretty awesome answer...
Thailand mainly uses the Buddhist Era (BE) which is 543 years ahead of the Gregorian calendar that we use, so the year AD 2015 is actually 2558 BE! This means that Simon and I have sort of travelled 543 years into the future!!! Who needs a TARDIS?!? Haha!
This morning I was awake quite early so managed to catch the sun rise as it was quite clear skies! There were a few fishing boats out getting their daily catch too. Lovely.
It has been SO hot today. We're not sure of the daylight temperature but as we were just coming back at 8:30pm (dark for 2hours by then) it was 29.8•c!!
We've had a very relaxed day as we've got a string of day trips coming up (Simon phoned the tour operator today and our Bangkok excursion is going ahead!!! Woohoo!), we relaxed by and in our jacuzzi, reading, talking and listening to music. It was far too hot to be sat in the sun as there was no breeze on our balcony, so we decided to go and have a walk along the beach as the tide was out. It was really lovely. A nice breeze and so many cool bits of wildlife to see! We spotted some fishing boats beached in the distance so walked towards them to get some pics.
We decided to venture to the Hua Hin Market Village this evening. We were both expecting a borough market/camden kind of set up so stalls undercover... When we got there we were quite surprised... It was a massive shopping mall! But in the mall you could buy anything from designer jeans to a fake Rolex and a knock off DVD! So boldly fake as well, it's crazy!
On the bottom floor they were selling these massive prickly fruits called durians (they are banned from our hotel because...) and they absolutely STINK!! Mum and Dad, do you remember the really pongy cheese you bought at the Xmas market and how it made your fridge smell? Well that's what a durian smells like.
We got some proper Thai food from the food hall, two savoury courses each and then I had mango with coconut rice (again!! It's sooooo gooooooood!!) and Simon had a drink called apple yoghurt, made with absolutely no apples or yoghurt at all, just syrups! For all that food it cost us 310Baht which equates to just £5.62!!!
Oh, final ridiculous story of the day... We'd been sat in our jacuzzi for about an hour when Simon suddenly shot up and said 'oh s***!' He then pulled his wallet out of his pocket which was full of thai money and information for our hotel!! What a plum!! (To put it politely!) We had to lay the money out on half of a towel in the sun and then fold the the other half back over itself so it wouldn't blow away if a breeze started up. Luckily, they have plastic fibres in their notes so they hadn't torn or damaged at all. He then emptied the rest of the wallet and was able to wring it out it was that wet! What is he like?!?
Right, I need to go to bed as we have an early start and busy day tomorrow. Speak then!!
Lots of love from both of us to all of you! xxx
- comments
Dad Glad you enjoyed the night market and still soaking up the atmosphere of the place. Soaking!..,..Simon, what are you like you numptee, lol. Speak soon, love to you both x
Matt Awesome!