Our plan for today is to take it a little bit easier. Were starting to wind down towards the end of our trip and its time to relax a little. Not too much, mind you! So, today we head south, to the beach at Hua Hin. After breakfast (which was served to our room) we headed out towards the Khao Ngu Stone Park. It looks very impressive in the pictures, and it was pretty, but we both felt the pictures oversold it. But as we were approaching the site there were several monkeys on the roadside! Of course we had to stop and take pictures, and a couple of the critters came up to the car! As I rolled the window down to take a picture, one of them came closer and prepared to jump in! I had to snap the picture through a small crack.
We drove a couple minutes further to the parking lot. The place has seen much better times, obviously. The parking lot was huge, but empty, an area was set aside for touristy stalls but most were closed. There were some other people there, but not many, taking selfies and riding the paddleboats on the
pond. The place itself is a large outcropping of rocks, cliffs jutting upwards, and a pond nestled between the cliffs. Theres a main area as in, a footbridge and pathways around the edges of the pond, but the end of the bridge and the pathways were all flooded. I guess they never planned for the water to get so high! So we had a look around, enjoyed the view, the birds and fish, and got ready to go.
We got some potato crisps - actually one potato crisp cut in a spiral from a while potato and skewered in a bamboo stick, then fried, and spices dumped liberally on it all. It was actually pretty good (if oily).
Our next stop was a gamble - Google said Tham Khao Luang cave may be closed but we decided to risk it anyway. Theres a very large cave there with a temple inside it. The town of Phetchaburi, where the cave is, is a real backwater. Nothing of interest except the way to the cave. And the cave was closed, but right next to the (closed) entrance theres a temple - Wat Boontawee (Tumklab) - that looked interesting,
especially since there were a couple monkeys hanging around the gate. So after a little convincing (No, theyre harmless, really!) Gilat agreed to get out of the car and we went in. The temple itself is just another temple, in need of renovation, but it backs up against a steep hill and theres a bunch of tombs or stupas on it. We climbed up the stairs, being watched closely all the way by a troop of monkeys to explore a bit. The monkeys seemed wary of us but not menacing or scared. Just keeping an eye out. We looked around, took pictures but were respectful of them and didnt stay long.
Back in the temple grounds they have a different kind of guard - two sculptures of large dogs, quite lifelike, and chained to fenceposts. And on either side of the entrance gate was a demon warrior.
We had our fill of wats and monkeys for today, and headed for the beach! We got to out hotel on the beach of Hua Hin and checked in. This place is nice! Its a smallish hotel right on the beach, the room is huge and overlooks the pool and
We dumped our luggage and sine it was still early, we went to find the Sirindhorn Mangrove park. We eventually found it, quite a large area with a few tiny paved roads through it and canals from the sea inland crisscrossing the area. We parked and went for a walk along the beach and to the entrance from the sea into the canal. We watched a fisherman wade in the sea and cast his net, and went for a short walk through the forest (mainly tamarisk and acacia), and found some swampy, flooded areas covered with mangroves too. There were several Thai locals jogging in the park, the first wed seen on our trip (so the Thai do exercise after all).
Back at the hotel we had a shower and went to find a massage. My back really needs one. Gilat got a foot massage and I tried an oil massage. The tough granny who did me scolded me for not having more massages, she said I need it! I tend to agree...
