Our first full day in Hua Hin was chock-full of activities. When we woke up, our plan was to take a bus to a bus that would take us to Santorini Park in Cha-am, a town just north of Hua Hin. However, the bus that goes to the bus only comes once every 30 minutes and it would have been too long of a wait, so the staff at our awesome condo complex called a cab to ask for the price - it was 600 baht one way or 1300 for the driver to stay there and bring us back when we were done.
Yes, please!
We ended up getting so much more than we bargained for! The driver spoke good English and showed us all kinds of places along the way, and we ended up seeing a lot more than we would have seen in two days had we been dependent upon public transportation. Hua Hin is much smaller than Bangkok and public transportation is basically a couple of buses, taxis, and tuk-tuks - they don't have a metro or light-rail system.
Our first, and longest, stop was Santorini Park, a gorgeous complex that has two separate sections: one is a small town that looks like Santorini, Greece, that has a bunch of rides like a Ferris Wheel, water boats, trampolines and a carousel, and the other is a water park, which looked awesome, but the twins are afraid of water that is in movement, so we know from the get-go that we wouldn't be going there. What we have at our Airbnb is plenty and enough at their ages.
The way it works is that each ride is 120 baht (about 12 shekels/$3) so not so bad at all, as long as you don't go crazy and on a million rides. There's a pass that anyone who is 110 cm tall can get for 495 baht (=4 rides and a bit) so if you go on five or more - it's worth it. Sophie is 107 cm. We literally checked the day before. Whoops, right? Wrong. They measured her and we told her to stand on her toes a bit and it was enough, she got the pass. We all went on the merry go round, and Rony and the twins got off and Sophie stayed for another round. She went to the second story of the carousel and I didn't mean to stay on, but suddenly we were moving so yey for quality mother-daughter time.
Our next stop was for ice cream because it was 5 million degrees outside again. It was delicious and so needed. Chloe turns hot pink the moment we walk outside - it looks like she's really suffering from the heat, but she doesn't complain at all, so we aren't positive.
Side note: I mentioned that the kids have been getting tons of attention, and Chloe in particular. We haven't yet been able to figure out what it is that make people jump at Chloe all the time for photos, many times ignoring the other two kids altogether. They don't care, especially since they have already posed for so many photos that Ethan has literally been telling random people no more photos. Rony thinks that the pink, chubby cheeks and curly hair must be a big part of it. She also plays along really well and flashes her smile at everyone. I don't know, but it's sure fun having her get so much attention when it's usually Ethan who does back home. I hope she doesn't need rehab when we get back home.
We went on to the next stop, which was water boats, but that's only from 100 cm or 110 cm, so the twins couldn't go on. Rony went outside with them for something else, and every place they went, they were told they were too young - even the gymboree! It was very very frustrating for them. We arrived very close to when the park opened, and it was very empty. Sophie was alone on the boats, so I am pretty sure she rode a lot more than the 10 minutes that she was supposed to ride.
We met back up with an extremely frustrated Ethan, Rony and Chloe. We all went up on the Ferris Wheel and the kids had an awesome time. Surprisingly, none of the kids were afraid of the height. Fun fact: Ferris Wheel is capitalized because it was invented by a guy named Mr. Ferris.
From there, I took Sophie to the trampolines, the kinds that come with a harness. She has been wanting to go on one forever and I always felt she was too young, but these were slightly smaller than what we have in Israel so I told her to go for it - and she was just through the roof ecstatic. Rony took the kids to the gymboree, but they wouldn't let them in since they aren't 100 cm yet (they are about 84 and 87 cm, more or less). There is no reason at all not to let them in there, there's nothing there that's dangerous and there wasn't even anyone there. The only playground said 4-8, but it was even a bit scary for Sophie - who was amazing! Check out her leg-work!
When Sophie got off the trampoline, I told Rony that I'm going to the gymboree and I was able to convince the poor teenager manning the place to let all of the kids go in - double score because the kids got to all play and we all got to be in an air-conditioned space! But there's a caveat - they need to wear socks. Apparently, one needs to walk around with socks in their bag at all times, at least when you are going to attractions for children. So I went back outside to get them socks - thankfully, the Thai are prepared and always sell socks at the attractions where they are needed.
So if anyone asks what shopping we have done in Thailand, our answer will be five pairs of socks.
This was our last stop at Santorini - it was already well passed the twins' nap time, plus we hadn't yet eaten lunch. We rushed outside as quickly as possible and asked the driver to take us to 1000 Sook Food and Farm, which we had read great reviews about. The reviews did not fail us - the food was delicious, even though portions were fairly small (which is true everywhere we have eaten in Thailand so far).
It was already about 2 pm and we were all so hungry that we forgot to ask for the food not to be too spicy. Which, in retrospect, was an awful thing to forget. The kids' food was fine, but our food was whoa. My food was fairly spicy, but Rony's was kill-him spicy and he turned bright red. How red? The servers all huddled by our table and laughed at him. I'm not even kidding. At one point, 2 guys came by the table with a broom, looked at Rony, smiled, said hi to Chloe, and walked away. He was all, "Hey, look at me, I'm holding a broom, I'm going to clean - oh guy turning red haha."
We saw a dessert come to the table next to us and we were like we need dessert. We ordered a magnificent dessert that's absolutely a family dessert, and since the server said it would take 15 minutes, Rony took the kids out to the farm part of the place.
A few minutes later, I get a text message from Rony: Someone gave us free tickets. Makes sense, we've been getting free stuff since we came. Just like in South Korea and Japan when we flew with Sophie when she was one. Asia is clearly our thing.
The dessert was divine and after we finished, I went back to the farm with the kids to see the rest. There are very few animals there, they look well-kept, and the kids enjoyed playing with the rabbits again. The place itself is beautiful and it was very nice to walk around, if you don't factor in the killer heat.
We got into the car, and approximately 12 seconds after sitting down, the twins fell asleep on Rony. I did what every loving, caring, considerate wife would do.
I took a picture.
Our next stop, which was 100% thanks to the driver suggesting it on the way there, was the big Buddha at Wat Huay Mongkol Temple. The twins didn't wake up so we put them in the stroller so they could continue to sleep and I walked up to the top with Sophie. They were still asleep when we got back to the car, but we made them wake up as it was already 5:30 pm. We made a quick stop at the grocery store to buy diapers, water, and some fruit, and then headed back. We got back to the condo around 6:15 PM - we left at 10 am! We ended up paying the driver a more than he asked for (after adding more for the extra stops and time), and it was such a great day. We were very lucky to get him and we absolutely would not have done and seen as much had we not had him. Chances are, we would have eaten at the park and gone straight back home without the rest of the stops.
Obviously, at this point, the day was over for us. We ordered a pizza and all went to sleep, though it took the kids about 400 hours to fall asleep because they had napped late and Ethan's mission in life is to not let anyone sleep early right now.
Rony and I were insanely excited about the next day - we got to visit the WFFT where we had volunteered 6.5 years before! But more about that in our next blog post.
Yes, please!
We ended up getting so much more than we bargained for! The driver spoke good English and showed us all kinds of places along the way, and we ended up seeing a lot more than we would have seen in two days had we been dependent upon public transportation. Hua Hin is much smaller than Bangkok and public transportation is basically a couple of buses, taxis, and tuk-tuks - they don't have a metro or light-rail system.
Our first, and longest, stop was Santorini Park, a gorgeous complex that has two separate sections: one is a small town that looks like Santorini, Greece, that has a bunch of rides like a Ferris Wheel, water boats, trampolines and a carousel, and the other is a water park, which looked awesome, but the twins are afraid of water that is in movement, so we know from the get-go that we wouldn't be going there. What we have at our Airbnb is plenty and enough at their ages.
The way it works is that each ride is 120 baht (about 12 shekels/$3) so not so bad at all, as long as you don't go crazy and on a million rides. There's a pass that anyone who is 110 cm tall can get for 495 baht (=4 rides and a bit) so if you go on five or more - it's worth it. Sophie is 107 cm. We literally checked the day before. Whoops, right? Wrong. They measured her and we told her to stand on her toes a bit and it was enough, she got the pass. We all went on the merry go round, and Rony and the twins got off and Sophie stayed for another round. She went to the second story of the carousel and I didn't mean to stay on, but suddenly we were moving so yey for quality mother-daughter time.
Our next stop was for ice cream because it was 5 million degrees outside again. It was delicious and so needed. Chloe turns hot pink the moment we walk outside - it looks like she's really suffering from the heat, but she doesn't complain at all, so we aren't positive.
Side note: I mentioned that the kids have been getting tons of attention, and Chloe in particular. We haven't yet been able to figure out what it is that make people jump at Chloe all the time for photos, many times ignoring the other two kids altogether. They don't care, especially since they have already posed for so many photos that Ethan has literally been telling random people no more photos. Rony thinks that the pink, chubby cheeks and curly hair must be a big part of it. She also plays along really well and flashes her smile at everyone. I don't know, but it's sure fun having her get so much attention when it's usually Ethan who does back home. I hope she doesn't need rehab when we get back home.
We went on to the next stop, which was water boats, but that's only from 100 cm or 110 cm, so the twins couldn't go on. Rony went outside with them for something else, and every place they went, they were told they were too young - even the gymboree! It was very very frustrating for them. We arrived very close to when the park opened, and it was very empty. Sophie was alone on the boats, so I am pretty sure she rode a lot more than the 10 minutes that she was supposed to ride.
 |
| The view from the Ferris Wheel - this is mostly the water park |
We met back up with an extremely frustrated Ethan, Rony and Chloe. We all went up on the Ferris Wheel and the kids had an awesome time. Surprisingly, none of the kids were afraid of the height. Fun fact: Ferris Wheel is capitalized because it was invented by a guy named Mr. Ferris.
From there, I took Sophie to the trampolines, the kinds that come with a harness. She has been wanting to go on one forever and I always felt she was too young, but these were slightly smaller than what we have in Israel so I told her to go for it - and she was just through the roof ecstatic. Rony took the kids to the gymboree, but they wouldn't let them in since they aren't 100 cm yet (they are about 84 and 87 cm, more or less). There is no reason at all not to let them in there, there's nothing there that's dangerous and there wasn't even anyone there. The only playground said 4-8, but it was even a bit scary for Sophie - who was amazing! Check out her leg-work!
When Sophie got off the trampoline, I told Rony that I'm going to the gymboree and I was able to convince the poor teenager manning the place to let all of the kids go in - double score because the kids got to all play and we all got to be in an air-conditioned space! But there's a caveat - they need to wear socks. Apparently, one needs to walk around with socks in their bag at all times, at least when you are going to attractions for children. So I went back outside to get them socks - thankfully, the Thai are prepared and always sell socks at the attractions where they are needed.
So if anyone asks what shopping we have done in Thailand, our answer will be five pairs of socks.
This was our last stop at Santorini - it was already well passed the twins' nap time, plus we hadn't yet eaten lunch. We rushed outside as quickly as possible and asked the driver to take us to 1000 Sook Food and Farm, which we had read great reviews about. The reviews did not fail us - the food was delicious, even though portions were fairly small (which is true everywhere we have eaten in Thailand so far).
It was already about 2 pm and we were all so hungry that we forgot to ask for the food not to be too spicy. Which, in retrospect, was an awful thing to forget. The kids' food was fine, but our food was whoa. My food was fairly spicy, but Rony's was kill-him spicy and he turned bright red. How red? The servers all huddled by our table and laughed at him. I'm not even kidding. At one point, 2 guys came by the table with a broom, looked at Rony, smiled, said hi to Chloe, and walked away. He was all, "Hey, look at me, I'm holding a broom, I'm going to clean - oh guy turning red haha."
We saw a dessert come to the table next to us and we were like we need dessert. We ordered a magnificent dessert that's absolutely a family dessert, and since the server said it would take 15 minutes, Rony took the kids out to the farm part of the place.
A few minutes later, I get a text message from Rony: Someone gave us free tickets. Makes sense, we've been getting free stuff since we came. Just like in South Korea and Japan when we flew with Sophie when she was one. Asia is clearly our thing.
The dessert was divine and after we finished, I went back to the farm with the kids to see the rest. There are very few animals there, they look well-kept, and the kids enjoyed playing with the rabbits again. The place itself is beautiful and it was very nice to walk around, if you don't factor in the killer heat.
We got into the car, and approximately 12 seconds after sitting down, the twins fell asleep on Rony. I did what every loving, caring, considerate wife would do.
I took a picture.
Our next stop, which was 100% thanks to the driver suggesting it on the way there, was the big Buddha at Wat Huay Mongkol Temple. The twins didn't wake up so we put them in the stroller so they could continue to sleep and I walked up to the top with Sophie. They were still asleep when we got back to the car, but we made them wake up as it was already 5:30 pm. We made a quick stop at the grocery store to buy diapers, water, and some fruit, and then headed back. We got back to the condo around 6:15 PM - we left at 10 am! We ended up paying the driver a more than he asked for (after adding more for the extra stops and time), and it was such a great day. We were very lucky to get him and we absolutely would not have done and seen as much had we not had him. Chances are, we would have eaten at the park and gone straight back home without the rest of the stops.
Obviously, at this point, the day was over for us. We ordered a pizza and all went to sleep, though it took the kids about 400 hours to fall asleep because they had napped late and Ethan's mission in life is to not let anyone sleep early right now.
Rony and I were insanely excited about the next day - we got to visit the WFFT where we had volunteered 6.5 years before! But more about that in our next blog post.
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