hopkinsonfamilytravels: Lazy day in Hot Hua Hin

Leisurely start to the day.

Liz did some hand washing before breakfast to stick out to dry on our hotel balcony, and Jim to his horror realised that he had failed to bring any other t-shirts from Bangkok, so had to put back on a pretty dirty one from yesterday - will need to buy one in the night market this evening - and hope that the street vendors can't smell the desperation when we start talking prices!

Kids made full use of the totally passable hotel swimming pool. Unfortunately there was some construction work taking place in the hotel - but the kids were unaffected by the drilling and welding noises unlike adults.

About midday we got our act together and had a walk down to the beach - going by a different route in order to explore Hua Hin better.

The beach was much better than we had feared, by walking just 10 minutes we had a large section of beach to ourselves - good white sand and the water as warm as a bath.

Every 20 minutes or so a beach vendor passes by offering ice creams, fruit or clothes but they were not persistent and there was no hassle - so we had a good relax, while listening to the sound check for the jazz festival that's kicking off this evening.

From the beach we nipped back to the hotel for a shower and to remove large amounts of sand from our clothing.

Then off to a local restaurant for a fantastic Thai meal - something for everyone - which included a cocktail each (not alcoholic for the kids) a Singapore Sling for us. Again does not feel like us. The total cost of the meal for all of us, including plenty of drinks was less than £20 - about the price of a Pizza in Australia.

From the meal we had a quick look round the night market and Jim negotiated the purchase of a new t shirt. The kids both bought a bracelet with their holiday money fund from neighbours, grandparents, uncles and aunts.

To finish off, Eleanor, Katherine and Jim had a massage at the night market (Liz having drawn the short straw and taken Joseph back to bed as he was once again out on his feet). This time Jim had a Thai massage - which consisted of being contorted, twisted, knelt on etc - I am sure there is some science to it - or perhaps they were just having a laugh at us gullible foreigners. It was painful at times - but felt good afterwards.

This really does not feel like a typical Hopkinson holiday, but then we only have 4 full days left of our holiday, and we ended the day well in budget.