29.6.24

The bus from the airport stopped at the bus station in Hua Hin 3 hours later at 10.30am. I had dozed off and was totally disorientated, staggered like I was drunk and banged my head on the way off the bus.

A woman was asking where we were going, instantly I thought it was some scam to catch the newbies.

By the time I looked up where we were going she had disappeared along with the free transfer bus. So we ended up paying 300 thb, but so easy being dropped right outside the Chaba Chalet hotel.

The woman on reception was quite surly and we had to pay a 200 thb deposit for the room key.

Having booked a superior room I was disappointed to find there was nothing superior about it, not even the fact that the car park users could see straight into our room.

At £10 a night with breakfast there’s no cause for complaint. It’s very clean.

We did a little unpacking, then went to sleep for just over 3 hours. Even the incessant chatter at the reception which is just outside our door couldn’t keep us awake.

After much needed showers we headed off to see Blueport Mall, but got distracted by Market Village.

On the way we saw places for cosmetic surgery, a dentist, an optician, and adverts for hip & knee replacement. Everything we could ever need.

Along with the usual suspects, KFC, Burger King, Watsons, Boots etc there are a vast array of independent shops and stalls. We made our way to the large food court, priorities and all that.

I opted for a very good butter chicken and a somewhat tough microwaved garlic naan (twice in 2 days I’ve had microwaved bread, never seen it or knew it was a possibility before – not recommended) and John had pork pad thai. An iced mocha & an iced double choc went down very well. I’m in my element, I love iced coffee, even more so as it was 50p.

Our entire meal with our drinks was 250 baht, £6.00.

We bought prezzies to take to Australia later for Johns grandsons. Moshi Moshi was our favourite shop, we were in there for ages and loved the variety of incredibly soft toys. John loves shopping. Spending? – not so much.

As expected eating out is considerably cheaper than Fethiye.

For the benefit of research we went into a huge Lotus store, previously Tesco. We checked out prices compared to Türkiye, Lotus is mostly cheaper, but the main difference is the huge range of products which has always been sadly lacking in Türkiye. Imports such as cheddar, are predictably very expensive.

Of course Fethiye friends will want to know the price of beer.

It’s cheaper than Türkiye but not as ridiculously cheap as we remember.

After the supermarket we ended up in a part of the mall with puppies, kittens, rabbits etc etc for sale. We didn’t like it at all, too little space in the cages and the dogs were struggling to walk across the metal bars. We’re very much pro adopt, don’t shop, and hope these little souls get loving homes.

We walked back towards our  hotel, with a detour to the night market and had a beer and iced coffee break.

We’re doing a lot of people watching, wondering what our potential new friends would be like. Definitely not the British guy sitting on a bar stool with way too much to say. There’s always one in every town.

More walking in the night market, followed by a shrimp Pad Thai. At £1.50 a portion it had to be done. It was delicious.

We were out til gone 10pm!

The bar streets will have to wait until we’ve caught up on our sleep.