Flooding in Thailand

There's a severe flood going on in Thailand right now (please be sure to keep the Thai people that live in these areas in your prayers). Due to this, we changed our plans from Lopburi and Chiang Mai to Cha-Am beach. Trust me though, I'm not complaining - I love any excuse to visit the beach!!! We departed from Bangkok around 10:30 A.M. on a full minibus at Victory Monument. It was an interesting experience to say the least and we were the only Westerners on the minibus. We stopped for gas after probably an hour and a half and then when we got back on the bus we saw the sign for "Cha-Am Beach" but we kept going. We thought that was odd. Then we started to see road signs for Hua Hin which is PAST Cha-Am...so we started to worry a little bit. When the bus finally stopped, we got out and find a nice young couple that spoke a little English and they were able to help tell the bus employees what had happened and they told us to wait and we'd get on another bus free of charge to Cha-Am. Well, it was time to load our bus so we got up front with the driver, stowed our bags, and got comfy. After about 20 minutes, we were told to get off because it was full. Really people?? It was definitely frustrating, but what can you do when you don't speak the language?

So we found a Taxi driver who brought us from Hua Hin to Cha-Am for 350 baht (this was AFTER we haggled with him. I really tried for 300.). 30 minutes later we were driving down the main beach road here in Cha-Am and looking for our hotel. Our hotel is a small one here in Cha-Am so it was an adventure in itself finding it, but luckily I spotted it and the Taxi drivers let us out and we were helped with our bags. Of course when we got to the hotel room it wasn't ready yet so we decided to go for lunch. After that we were able to check in, and get suited up for the beach! I put my bikini on with shorts and a tank top and headed down to the water. Only problem was I was the only one in a bikini! I was too paranoid to even take off my clothes, except my shorts, I didn't want to draw more attention than we already do for having blonde hair in Asia. We hung out there for a while just people watching and enjoying the scenery. It was crazy. Vendors are all over the beach. They sell beach toys, fruit, and even squid!

After that we decided we were hungry and got ready for a nice seafood dinner on the beach. We walked quite a while just to get to the fishing pier and eat on the beach. It was really nice though, although the food was only mediocre. We even made a few homeless animal friends that we were able to give our leftover food to. The restaurants were really neat though. All along the pier there are seafood restaurants with tubs of fresh seafood that you can pick out yourself and have cooked right there. Talk about fresh! Can't get any better than that.

Then on the walk back to the room, we stumbled upon this little park area with a big, fat buddha inside. It was amazing!!! Before entering the park however, we got the evil eye from some cows that live there apparently. I'm still not sure what the buddha means or what the park was for but I have full intentions of doing research. Here are a few pictures...I'll have lots more stories from the Cha-Am beach soon.