A Walk Along Dolphin Bay

One lazy afternoon Cade and I went for a little walk down the road in front of the resort just to see what we could see. Here is what we saw...

one of many Thai massage huts along the beach...each of us took an hour of an afternoon (or two) to get a one hour massage for about $10!

dresses sold on the beach for anywhere from $3-$6...big spenders!

flowers...

 more flowers...

this little miniature temple is also in the background of the pink flower picture above...

the large community pools in the center of the resort...we actually didn't spend much time here...which was nice because they were not normally this empty.

a beached boat...

an advertisement in one of the nearby "shops"

one of the nearby shops where we picked up drinks, snacks, and fruit...

fruit is ridiculously fresh, delicious, and cheap in Thailand!

one of the restaurants down the road that was always busy...

I love capturing the little (or big) details of a place that I travel to and that give some perspective on how it feels to be there!

Monkey Island

Obviously we've been a little busy this week! My dad flew in from Thailand last Thursday and we've been on the go every day since! Of course I have many pictures of his visit, but I have yet to get any off the camera. It's a busy week in other respects, as well. So, I'll get to them when I can.

I think it was on our 4th day that we finally headed to Monkey Island. Friends had told us about this place, and Cade had been waiting for a long time to finally see Monkey Island.

So, we boarded our little boat and one of the local fisherman took us out there. A Thai woman on vacation joined us, so we ended up having an interpreter along for the ride.

The view of our resort from the water.

Handed off the camera for once, so I could get a picture of me. That one didn't turn out, but this one did...with a little sunflare.

Our beach again...from a much greater distance this time.

The beach at Monkey Island.

As soon as we arrived, the monkeys were all over us and the boat trying to get the bananas that we had brought. This one sat up on the helm right next to my head.

The beach was littered in little monkeys. They were friendly, but they were hungry!

Gretchen checking out the view...

The kids weren't too sure about the monkeys, especially after they started climbing on my brother's head.

They both enjoyed watching the monkeys...from a distance!

After we finished checking out the monkeys, we were on our way again. We went back to the national park, this time by boat. And we hiked back to the same cave again, too.

After a couple of weeks of frozen temperatures, a warm Thai beach sounds perfect! In other news, after about 10 days of well below freezing weather, our washing machine finally thawed this week and we have clean clothes again! Yay!

Ridin' on the Beach Road

The next morning after our trip to the national park, we headed down the beach road in the opposite direction. Our resort was probably about 3/4 of the way down the beach in this picture. 

We found some more colorful wooden squid boats.

Can you tell I love wooden boats?!

The beach was so much more quiet and clean away from the tourists...

Both kids thought they needed to wear goggles for our ride today!

On our way back, we headed down another road and checked out a huge Buddhist temple.

A very sweet monk showed us around both temples, but he wouldn't let my brother ring the bell...

There were some pretty incredible statues.

There were also an incredible number of clocks in this temple. Mostly digital. All hanging on the walls.

This image looks like Hanuman, the Hindu monkey king, to me, but I need to learn more about Buddhism! We're not going to have time to cover it this year, but there's always next year.

Afterwards, we headed back and turned in the bikes after one last trip for much needed "supplies"--all types of tropical fruits and snacks.

On the motorcy...

On our 2nd full day, we rented motorbikes, or "motorcys" as the Thai would say. We got three to start but couldn't figure out how we were all going to fit on them, so Eric thought that we should rent another one for me.

It had been more than 20 years since I'd gotten on a motorbike. When I was little, I drove a friend's around their yard for a few minutes before I burned my calf on the exhaust pipe. I hadn't even ridden on one since. So, I thought it might be a good idea to go on a little test drive first.

It was a good thing I tried first. I made it out to the main road...barely. I had just made the turn onto the asphalt when I started getting nervous. I must have been picturing road rash because I suddenly got nervous and rather than wipe out in the middle of the road, I decided to lay down the bike in the first grassy spot I could find.

Thankfully, I wasn't going very fast, so I just ended up with a few scratches and a bruised foot from where the bike laid down on it. I got back on and rode down the road a bit more before heading back, but needless to say I was not feeling a need to get back on and ride 40 km/h with one of my kids on the bike with me.

So Cade rode with Eric, Gretchen rode with Dad, and Kennedy and I rode with my brother. My dad looked like quite the biker with his do-rag!

We rode out to Khao Sam Roi Yod National Park which wasn't too far from where we were staying.

We stopped at a couple of sites along the road: a small cave, a temple, and a great view of the squid boats.

We had lunch at one of the huts along the beach before the guys took off for their hike to the sinkhole  cave...more pictures of that to come.

My foot wasn't feeling great after my little "mishap," so Gretchen and I hung out and had a beer on the beach while everyone else headed off.

The language barrier reared its ugly head after we raced back from our trek to find out that we had rented the "motorcys" for 24 hours and they weren't due back at 5:00 after all. If only we'd known; there was so much more to explore!

Highs of 40-50 km/h had their impact on my dad's hair...he looked like he was zooming along even while he was standing still!

Dolphin Bay Resort

What a great trip we had to Hua Hin, Thailand! The resort that we stayed at, Dolphin Bay, was nice, clean, and very family friendly.

Because there were seven of us, we reserved the three bedroom apartment which meant that we had our own pool--a real lifesaver once three of the seven of us had pink eye! Both kids got it almost immediately and Kennedy had been sharing a pillow with my brother (she moved out to the couch to sleep once he was ready for bed), so he got it, too. Nothing like going to Thailand to get pink eye from your niece and nephew!



There were two public pools that were nice, too. A little one that was perfect for Cade to be able to walk around in, a deeper one that Kennedy could walk in, and then a deep pool. This area got pretty loud with all of the little kids running around, though, so we were very grateful to have our pool to retreat to!

There were swings, a play house, and large grassy areas to play in, too. There was a nice little store that everything from citronella incense to fever syrup to pistachios...just in case you need them, and as it turned out, we did.

The beach was right across the street, and it was so nice to feel warm sand and warm water in the middle of December!

Yet another way my brother may have gotten pink eye...Cade liked to wear his snorkle gear in our pool!

Dolphin Bay is not exactly the...ahem...area for action or nightlife. I think if you had teenagers, they might be a bit...well...bored. There's not much you can walk to. Our resort was definitely the busiest place in the area. It worked well for our young kids, though. And we made the most of it!

The restaurant at the resort had pretty good prices and it was convenient! The food wasn't bad and the service was great. We had a lot of late lunches and skipped dinner, but it was nice to have it when the kids were convinced they were starving at 7:00!

We had a great trip. Since Cade had a fever the last few days that we were there, he and Eric were ready to head home. Kennedy and I were ready to find elephants, but I guess that we'll have to save that for the next trip!

I have about 165 more pictures, of course, but I'm not sure how quickly they'll get posted. I'm working on my latest unit: Middle Eastern literature right now. I'm excited to get into The Kite Runner in class, but it will be an interesting few months!