Hua Hin, Thailand

July saw us jetting off to Hua Hin, Thailand for a week. It was my 30th Birthday present from Derrald but it was also kind of our "babymoon". A wonderful excuse to get away and spend time together doing nothing but sitting poolside, or beachside, or in giant bathtubs (see below).

Unlike the vastly popular spots of Phuket or Koh Samui, Hua Hin is visited more by local Thai people than by overseas foreigners and therefore has a slightly different feel to it. The spot was recommended to us by my Mother who had learned that Hua Hin was frequented by the Thai Royal Family and it goes without saying, if it's good enough for Royalty, it's good enough for us. In fact, we like to live by the Royal benchmark. Our hotel, Intercontinental, was right on the beach and was not a mega resort but proved to be quiet and classy. This was the view from our balcony!

Our bedroom looked just like the pictures you see online!

And there was a tub on our balcony!

And an even bigger tub in our bathroom! Big enough for several pregnant ladies. How could you not want to climb in immediately?

The beach was lovely. Every day we had a good breeze and after getting our morning sun, around 3pm or 4pm a tropical storm would roll in unleashing a downpour, cooling things down, and signaling that it was time to go in, take a nice long bath and clean ourselves up (maybe take a nap) ready for the evenings activities.

One of the highlights of the trip for us came as part of the package we purchased with the hotel and it involved a Thai cooking class. I thought it would be a group class but nope, it was just the two of us! We were picked up in the morning by tuk tuk to go with our Chef down to the local market and buy fresh produce for our menu. 

Then, we got a couple hours to relax ourselves by the pool while the kitchen prepared our ingredients for us. 

Token "toes in front of a pool" picture... but these are pregnant toes, can you tell?

Once back in the kitchen, we were given nice big "chef hats" and were put to work cooking our own lunch. 

So. Much. Fun. 

Our chef, Wanna, was ever so sweet. When Derrald told her that he loved mango sticky rice, she made some specially for us while we were eating our lunch. She would also buy fun fruits at the market for us that we hadn't tried before. 

We took turns frying and chopping and stirring and tasting and adding our own magic.

Once we'd got everything made and assembled we had quite the spread!!

Tom Yum Soup

Deep fried White Snapper with a Tamarind sauce

Thai Green Curry with Chicken

Seafood Salad

Hua Hin treated us well and we certainly got our fill of sun, sand and delicious Thai food but we still had a day to kill in Bangkok before our flight back to HK so we made the most of our time by hitting up Chatuchak Market, one of the world's largest weekend markets. It's a monster of a market and super fun (although, at this time of year it's also super hot!). 

We also took a hair-raising ride on a tuktuk with a driver who had clearly confused himself for Michael Schumacher, in an F1 Ferrari, on race day (instead of just a regular guy, on a motorized bicycle, in Bangkok rush hour). Still, we snapped a photo with nervous smiles and the thought that it might be our last, if our driver doesn't stop using the oncoming traffic lane as his own personal driveway...

Our last night's dinner was at "Cabbages & Condoms", a fun Bangkok restaurant popular among the tourists for it's gimicky displays made out... condoms!! We met this guy at the entrance who had a very important question for us...

... clearly the answer is "um, no - we didn't!"

I didn't actually check which size was bigger so I'll let you use your imagination and go with your heart on this one... whoever you think is better endowed, I'm sure you're right. 

I'll take a mint.