~ The beauty of nature lies in its imperfections ~

Sunday, December 04, 2016

Singapore to Hua Hin Oct 2016


our year end ride for 2016 took us on the little explored regions between Bangkok and Krabi.
somehow, us Singaporean bikers will just gun full throttle for Chiangmai and skip the hill regions of Khaosok and Ranong.


We headed straight for Our Jungle House in Khaosok, watching the weather forecasts and taking a 'gamble' as October straddles the dry and wet seasons in Thailand. Luck wasn't on our side and we reached Khaosok in the rain, parked the bikes in the rain and sat out rainy days in the resort :(



On the road to Ranong, a whole row of road side shops selling Pau of 3 different flavours!



Midway between Khaosok and Ranong, there is a quiet little cafe on a lookout point.  As usual, there is a HUGE expresspo machine in there and lots of cakes / coffee :)


We make it to Ranong, a quiet quiet little town with a Big C supermarket. They sold motorcycles for a song!

Stayed two nights in Ranong and even found the local hospital has a sideline business of running a spa!  I wonder which Singapore Hospital will have this entrepreneurial spirit!

Enough of the quiet spots... so we headed into Hua Hin, planning to stay at Mana Thai, Hua Hin.  It was the perfect little hotel, with huge rooms, secure parking and walking distance to EVERYthing a travelling biker could want :)

On a day trip northwards, we went to seek out Santorini Park, a man-made theme park.



On another day trip out of Hua Hin, we find the Hua Hin Hills Vineyard, approx 35km away from town and in a beautifully set countryside.  Gotta come back for more!

The tourists in us wanted to also have pics in front of the legendary Hua Hin Railway station.

On our return journey, we spent a night at Chumphon and picked this cute google color inspired container hotel :)  Looks fun and the set up is really neat & compact... BUT... the rooms were really small as well.

We also went seeking for Thayang Hotel, a place we stayed in 2002, when we did our 1 month tour of Thailand.  Thayang is still standing AND fully booked for the night!

Southwards we went, to spend some time in Krabi.  We attended the Ya Cooking School and she was even interviewed by Gordon Ramsey for some Thai cooking tips :)  her spoken English is fantastic and we had a great time doing the "Bang Bang".... (Ya speak for using the mortar and pestle) Pounding brings out the fragrance of the spices, not blending!

 After Krabi, it was sountwards to Hatyai and we couldn't resist this shot.  The best way to travel the highways in Thailand?   Gotta have it with Amazon Cafe :)