Elephants, Mr. No and the Dolphin Girl

One strange (and lovely) side-effect of vacationing is the loss of time. Days run together... Hours pass by and at the end of the day you have to do a mental inventory to ensure you made the best use of your time.

Several days I woke not knowing what day it was. One time Gwenn and I were thwarted in our attempts to book a hotel room online. Over and over we refreshed the page- surely there are SOME vacancies in town? We gave up only to realize a few hours later we were trying to book for the previous day. Doh! 11th, 12th, 13th... They're all the same, right?

Let's wind the clock back to the 8th. This was a special day. Gwenn and I decided to book a tour to Pa La-U Waterfall and ride elephants. Since we had basically spent the bulk of our trip wandering and shopping, we thought it was time for a change of pace. We found the tour office while we were searching for a different place to stay on the waterfront. We lucked out on both accounts, finding a place on the end of a pier and an affordable packaged tour in the same 'hood. Oh, and we saw a monkey wandering the streets.

Accompanied by his giant balls.

We set our alarm to wake early for breakfast and packing only to (doh!) realize we set it for PM instead of AM... Woke up late, rush rush rush, Krista takes her Doxycycline (for the hundreds of mosquito bites I've received) and then some bad things happen. I didn't think I had a sensitive system until taking this stuff. They say to take it with a meal and, silly me, I thought taking it minutes before a meal would be good enough. Halfway through our breakfast I feel the wet mouth, throat tightening, stomach churning. I puke my guts out. After a couple good heaves, I come back to find our tour guide waiting. Ready to go??? There are three other people on the tour with us- a trio of Dutchies.

I thought I was better since there was nothing left in my system. I wolfed down some bread snacks we brought with us to counteract future nausea. I told Gwenn if I patted her leg she had to make them pull over. Not ten minutes in: stomach churns, throat tightens, mouth waters, pat pat pat leg. I barely got out the door before projectile vomiting onto the shoulder of the road. And of course, everybody sees. I was horrified. They quickly scurried around the van to give me the forward seat... just in case. Pineapple, anyone?

We toured pineapple fields (The little ones are so cute! Gwenn took about 40 pictures that I will spare you from) then hiked to the 5th level of Pa La-U falls. We bought doggie kibble on the way to feed the carp. I've never seen a fish feeding frenzy like that. They all waited in a line along the rocks nearest wherever people were. They went nuts, flipping over each other, jumping and hustling to wherever the nuggets dropped. Lots of squeals came from our group. Well, ok, just from Gwenn and me. We also saw a cute little frog resting in the hollow part of a tree, a strange little elephant cicada, flocks (?) of butterflies and mosquitoes that loved the little buffet my arms and legs had to offer. At the 3rd level of the falls we noticed there was a large boulder jutting out above the ground with sticks propped up under it. Our guide told us it's tradition- for luck. You put a stick under in the hopes that someday when you need support someone will be there for you, too.

The falls were lovely and no more vomiting for Krista. (Yay!) After a shared lunch on the way back, our group splits so that Gwenn and I can head to the "Elephant Village". We were the only visitors there at first and our guide hopped on the neck of our elephant as we strapped ourselves into the seat. High high high up, I might add. More squeals. After a lumbering stroll around the grounds our guide asked if we wanted to ride on the neck. Did we ever! Elephant skin is a funny thing. It's so thick and sparse, 2-inch long black bristles poke out sporadically from it's numerous wrinkles. The closest thing I can think of is on of those brand new bike tires with the little pokies on it. With a little dust coating. Anyway, it was really amazing.

After feeding our elephant some pineapple and bananas (and taking a million pictures), we headed back to town. Our best day in Hua Hin continued. Gwenn wanted some seafood, since the town is supposed to be known for it. We found a place in the main night market area and were treated to our favorite experience with a waiter. Possibly ever. We called him Mr. No since most of the conversations we had with him went like this:

"Do you have papaya salad?"
"No?, but we have... another salad with... vegetable."
"Oh, is it like papaya salad?"
"Noooooooo?"
silence
"Oh."

and

"We have... uh... the fish... barracuda."
"Oh, is that good?"
"I don't know?"
silence
"Oh."

and

"Are you... from... Australia?"
"No. Do we look Australian?"
"Nooooo?"
silence

Maybe you had to be there. Anyway. We snuck a picture because he made us laugh so hard.

After an... interesting... meal of barracuda and mixed seafood grill, Gwenn and I headed to the Plaza for Thai boxing. Here Gwenn takes another 40 or so pictures I'll spare you from, but it was a sight to see. The age range was from about 10 to 25 with 5 rounds, each with it's own age group. There was some gooooood people watching.

The fashions were cutting-edge.

The family next to us got a liiiiiiiiittle bit rowdy.


And this little girl (sneak attack pic- she's wearing the black and yellow dress) gave us our second favorite thrill of the night when she flipped her head to and fro just so slightly to get her hair out of her face. She did it so subtly she looked like a little dolphin wiggling her snout over the surface of the water. We watched her all night for recurrences. Dolphin face. It funny.

Now, the heat makes you a little loopy, as does consuming sickeningly sweet red bulls and vodka and Angkor beers. We didn't recall to clearly until the next day that we stopped at McDonalds for a late night snack. Ug. Silly and sleepy and full of grease, we wandered out to the deserted end of our pier. After more picture-taking and watching the water, we headed to our room and fell asleep to the sweet sounds of the sea lapping at the pillars under our floorboards.

Best day in Hua Hin.