Our 2nd Wedding Anniversary

Well, we've made it to two years without Chris killing me or me killing him - It's a minor miracle!!

We had an amazing anniversary!! As you already know we had decided to use the vouchers I won and go to Hua Hin so at 10am on Sunday morning, having had croissants and coffee for breakfast (Yes....that well known traditional Thai breakfast!!), our car and driver turned up (and before you have a canary it's not expensive here to hire a car and a driver - our trip cost about £30 each way) . Mr Sam was lovely and we'd been in the car about 30 minutes when he handed us over a CD and asked if we wanted to listen to it.....we had a quick look and then a laugh about some of the old songs that were on it so said yes. We were then a bit confused when a screen appeared on the dashboard of the car and Mr Sam plugged in a microphone - it was Karaoke!!! The car had Karaoke - I don't think I have ever laughed so much in my life!! We declined to sing as it may have put him off his driving but every time either of us looked at the screen we started giggling!!

It takes about three hours to get from Bangkok to Hua Hin but the journey was more than worth it!! The hotel was absolutely stunning - on one side you had the beach with the sea stretching out as far as the eye could see and on the other side you had the most amazing mountains. We got checked in (The room was lovely) and then went for a romantic walk along the beach (ahhh!!). Lunch was fab - we sat at a table actually on the beach and had a glass of wine (Oh my GOD it was good.....well actually it could have been crap but I was so happy to have some wine that I thought it was the nicest wine I've ever had!!) whilst we ate lunch looking out over the ocean. I promised Chris I would write about this (I am doing it under duress) - I had a donut moment!! I couldn't figure out why, when I looked through the binoculars, everything appeared smaller (Stop laughing.....It was definately the wines fault - my story and I'm sticking to it!!).

We then headed along to the swimming pool bar (It was one of those ones that is in the middle of the water and you sit in the pool on stools whilst you have a drink) and I actually managed to persuade Chris that it would be lovely to have a drink there. So, we spent what was left of the afternoon in the pool drinking champagne (which sounds very romantic till I tell you that I spent the time laughing at Chris as he wiggled his legs about in the water saying 'This is weird!!' and he spent the time tipping me in the water for laughing at him!!).

That evening we got a taxi into Hua Hin and went round the night market there (It's nowhere near as good as the one at Chiang Mai - I think we've been spoiled) then had a nosy round the streets. Hua Hin is quite different from the other places we've visited here so far and I liked it but not as much as Chiang Mai (and I have to say that I have never seen so many German tourists in one place in my life!!). We found a lovely little bar called the Monsoon Bar where we had a drink and then we continued to wonder round Hua Hin till we found an Italian restaurant that looked nice (We weren't looking for an Italian we just happened to see one that looked nice) where we had some dinner. When we got back to the hotel we had a night cap in their open air lounge whilst listening to a Thai couple sing opera (which was a bit odd but actually very good!!).

On Monday, which was our actual anniversary, we sat out on the balcony of our room and opened our presents (It was very exciting - I love getting presents!!). Chris had bought me some Issey Miyake perfume which I absolutely adore, some Issey Miyake body spray, a little notepad and a lovely casual cotton bag with a Nancy Chandler design on it. I bought him a snazzy wireless mouse (toys for boys - you really need to look at it before you figure out that it's actually a mouse!!) and a little wooden elephant. Apparently your second anniversary gift should be cotton so I had written him a little message, printed it onto a cotton sheet, rolled it up, tied it, put it into a small bottle and gave it to him. (I thought a message in a bottle kept up the beach theme). He lucked out with the cotton bag and admitted that he had had no idea cotton was the 2nd anniversary gift!!

We then went back into Hua Hin to visit a temple that we had spotted the evening before and then went a trip up to Chopstick mountain (which is also known as monkey mountain - you will see why in a minute). There is another temple that you can stop at on the way to Chopstick mountain so we decided that we would go and visit that as well. We took more photographs of yet another huge gold Buddha and climbed a very steep set of stairs to get to the temple at the top. The climb was worth it (even if I looked like a burst tomato yet again) and we spent quite a while gazing out over the sea - the views were absolutely stunning!! We then headed to Chopstick Mountain where we discovered why it is also called Monkey Mountain. There were monkey's everywhere!! Quite a lot of the females had little ones clinging onto their stomachs which was very cute so we decided to buy a bucket of food to give to them. God, they are not shy and they are also not quite so cute when they decide to stick their bums in your face (I was praying that it didn't need to do a big jobbie!!). We then climbed yet more stairs (I still hadn't recovered from the last lot - to be fair neither had Chris so I didn't feel quite so bad!!) and a lovely lady took our photo at the top.

That night we got dressed up and went and had dinner by the sea. The food was fab!! We had spring rolls filled with beef mince and blue cheese which were served with a honey dip (They looked almost too good to eat - they were served in shot glasses with the dip at the bottom) and lamb kebabs with a garlic dressing for a starter. We both ordered barbecued steak for a main course which was cooked to absolute perfection (Chris said that it was one of the best steaks he has ever had!!) then I had a chocolate mouse cake with creamy coffee ice cream and Chris had Cheesecake. The following morning Mr Sam collected us and brought us back to Bangkok.

We had a brilliant time!!