Hua Hin!

Two weeks away from my working life.

Relaxing trip in Hua Hin before the long and boring week in PD.

On 4th Aug, we took the flight at 8.55pm fly to KL and reached at 9.55pm. First thing we did after touched down in KLIA2 was to search for Maybank and CIMB bank atm machine. (^.^)  After we got our sources for spending, we headed to dinner at Shihlin, the oyster mee sua that I enjoyed a lots during my Uni time. Met up with friends who working in Selangor and Sarawak as well, and our hua hin trip with 5 of us began.

The first time in my life, I slept on the floor in the airport. (>o<) The upper floor at the departure area is a good spot for those who failed to get a place to sleep in capsule hotel or other places. [ We did visit to capsule hotel and it stated FULL! Bad luck ] There are lots of long chairs at the waiting area that you can lying and sleep (if you managed too). When we reached there, most were occupied. Thus, we searching for a quiet spot and settle down to get some sleep when the hand in my watch hit 2am . The floor was extremely cool and hard as well, and we didn't prepare any mattress for that like some others did. Luckily I was tired and I slept right away on the cold hard floor. Most of my friends couldn't get sleep due to the over chilling environment.

5am in the morning, we checked in our luggage and checked in. We had Mcdonald before heading to our departure gate, L20. We took Malindo Air to fly us to Bkk, The flight is spacious enough and in front of every seat there is a small screen allow passengers to watch movie, mv, and play games. I was too tired at the time so I fell asleep right away.

After an hour plus journey, we reached at Don Mueng airport, Bkk. 2 of us bought prepaid card from True Move H, a mobile operator in Thailand. The prepaid card costed us each 299thb with the plan of 1.5GB internet speed with unlimited usage for 7 days. The internet speed might be slower after you hit a certain amount of internet usage. Our driver came with a commuter van after we waited at Gate 2 around 10 minutes. There was a small problem we encountered with the car hire we found from others blogspot. Just the day before our trip while we're on our way to airport, the car hire in charge named Ah Boy who we made a booking with month ago decided to charge us with higher price, He told us there was a mistake that he thought we were planning in hua hin just for 3d2n instead of 4d3n. The charge 10000thb is based of the former, so the actual charge should be 12000thb. We showed the previous conversation between us and him, which we stated 4d3n in hua hin, with the whole itinerary we planned, as well as the way we stressed on the days and prices when he charged us 10000thb previously. We had double and triple confirmed with him on the itinerary and the charges, and he never talked about 12000thb before. This last minute price raising is seriously pissing me off, since there is no way for us to find car hire now. After a few message exchange, explanation and negotiation, he finally agreed at 10000thb, with no more further message.

When we reached in Bkk, to our surprise the Ah Boy told us there is be another driver comes for us, and the driver can speak english. After we met with the van driver, we had hard time to communicate with him since he can hardly speak and understand english. We had to use hand signals and body gesture as well to communicate, thanks to the irresponsible car hire personnel that we made deal with. Despite the difficulty in communicating, the driver is rather nice and a patience person, Mr. P. He told us he was under the agency, and what we paid is to the agency, and he only will get from them the pay afterwards. While Mr. Ah Boy promised us with unlimited time for transport with no extra charges, Mr.P told us he won't get extra pay for over time, and no petrol coverage as well, so he was hoping for us for a bit petrol payment if we want him for extra time or else he has to cover all those charges by himself.

Back to the trip. Bkk is such a busy city, with traffic jam everywhere. The traffic jam in Penang is not even a match when compare with Bkk. After 3 long hours of travel, we reached Santorini Park. The entrance fee is 150thb per pax. The place is really nice with blue and white painted building, but most of the shoplots are selling clothes. There are a few games and activities as well such as bumper boat, ferris wheel, and horror house. Of course, you need to pay extra for each of the facilities.Thus we skipped all the activities and just took photo around the park.

The next station is Swiss Sheep Farm. The entrance fee is 120thb per person. Each of us entitled to a bundle of grass for sheep feeding. There are a few smaller size sheeps sneak out from the sheepfold and hung around. They are gentle and friendly to the tourists. Since it's just our first day, everyone is having a good mood in photo taking. We took lots of photo around the garden. Other than sheep, there are ducks, geese and hens as well. Many looks-alike 'photo booth' station for tourist, specifically lover to take photo. We snapped as well though we are single! >o<

On the journey searching for the place we going to stay for the next 3 nights, we passed through hua hin town, which is quite a busy town full with people, mostly tourists with no doubt. The apartment we rent through Airbnb is situated in a rather quiet and further from town, it took us an hour before we finally got the place right. [Phewww!] As it was a long day for us and the driver, we decided to take dinner in somewhere nearby tonight, and only will explore the town tomorrow.

The place we stay in named Chelona. The building is painted and decorated in santorini style, greece feeling. The blue and white color covered the whole places, there are few swimming pools along garden toward the beachside. I had the feeling that I'm landed in some wonderland or magical land which totally detached from the reality. Surrounded by the garden and beautiful building and Greece style decoration make me feel relaxing.

The apartment is very nice as well. As we unlocked the door, the kitchen is on our left, the washroom and bedroom is on our right. In front of us is the living room / dining room then balcony of the unit. The kitchen is well equipped. There are rice cooker, kettle, fridge, microwave, all sorts of cup, glass, plates, bowls, forks, spoons, knives, and so on. There is a dining table, besides that placed a lying chair, then sofa and a small table. The house is well decorated. The table in the living room is glass-made, you can see sands, sea shells and others laying nicely 'in the table'. The house is full of sailor-ness, as we can see the photo of people in sailor like outfit, the lifebuoy on the wall. Outside in the balcony, there is a wooden table with two chairs blue in color. In the room, there is a double decker bed, and a king sized bed. Although the room is not big, but its just enough for 5 of us. There are hot and cold water supply in the washroom. The material used for the washroom gave me the egypt-kind-feeling. We love the house and the uniqueness of the decoration!

Since we not familiar with the place, we walked around the area after checked in, and settled our dinner with 7-11 stuffs! I really love the 7-11 in Thailand and Taiwan~ There are a lot of food we can get from there, with really cheap price. After dinner, we took good bath and rest earlier as all of us were depleted energy due to lacks of sleep in the airport previous night, Rest is needed for us to walk longer journey tomorrow!