Scooter Rental & Hua Hin Market

It would normally cost 100 baht ($3) to get a tuk tuk ride from our hotel to downtown. As you can see, this would add up fairly quickly so we decided to rent our own scooter for the week instead, this way we were able to go when we wanted and stop anywhere along the way.
The first bike we rented was a manual, I didn't like it that much, it was a pain to drive in the crazy rush hour traffic on the 'wrong' side of the road. However, we had it for one day and managed.

The next day we traded it for an automatic, it was sooo much more fun to drive! I started weaving in out and of traffic with everyone else.. why wait for the big cars to slowing make their way ahead when you can drive between cars! I can already tell I'm going to be more of an agressive driver when I go back to North America ;)

Anyway, we paid about 900 baht for the week rental and then a little more for as - it was a great investment.

We both road with helmets and sat properly on the scooter, but you would see many people in Thailand without helmets and riding side sadle as well. You could also see 3+ people on one scooter, not to mention people riding with infants on their laps without helmets either!


The manual, in red!



The automatic, in blue! Let the fun begin!



Hua Hin Market











Video of a drive on the scooter



Video in the market - a Thai grilling up fresh seafood!

Saturday Surprise!

After climbing Mt. Suri-San for the second time this Saturday we decided to stick around the apartment for the majority of the afternoon. However, we did end up on our way to a local market to pick up a few veggies for supper. On our way to the market, we came across lots of tents and shops set up on the sidewalk. We took a look around and found everything we wanted to pick up and more and only about 4 blocks from home!

For about 9000W $9 we picked up 24 eggs, a bunch of bananas, a bag of garlic cloves, a package of mushrooms and 4 small packages of tiny mushroom heads with long stems.. mushroom sprouts or something.



The best find were the extendable walking sticks. We were thinking about trying to find some of these earlier in the day while hiking - everyone else seems to have one too. They were just 5000W $5 each!

Wandering Around Sanbon Market

Last Sunday Krista and I decided to venture out in to a different direction from our apartment to see what we could find. We had not taken the subway or any buses yet so we walked the entire way (we were out walking for about 6hrs or so). During our adventure we came across this church with a nice stained glass window.

We walked a few blocks around the corner and came across a really cool local grocery store that sells a lot of fruit and the biggest green onions we have ever seen, no wonder why they put onions in everything here. We’ll have to stop there again another time. Continuing down quite a few more streets we stumbled across the Sanbon Market! What an awesome find!

There were TONS of shops and tables that sold red meat, seafood, clothes, toys, snacks, bakery items and a lot more. Below are a few pictures of some of the food.

Fish!

Squid!!



A bunch more seafood

Different kinds of Kimchi and other vegetables

Various noodles and other vegetables

Mmmmmm.. chicken with their heads still attached!


Lots of different kinds of Kimchi!






Here is a picture of Jon eating a snack - hotdog wrapped in some sort of dough, yum!

After we made our rounds, we stopped off at a little shop where a gentleman was selling sweets. He let us each try one and we decided buy a small bag. We asked him how much - he gestered 3000W $3. He put a bunch of everything in the bag, weighed it - came to 3600W and gave it to us still for 3000W. He did this while giving us each a sample of everything else he was selling, he just kept on feeding us! :) Meanwhile.. two Korean girls at the shop beside were giggling at us!

Here is a short video clip of all the people in one area of the market.