Thailand travelogue, part II

I’m writing this back in Finland. No more constant sunshine and happily smiling people — instead -20C and long johns.

I got the previous piece posted on an Internet café nearby our hotel — blessed are the USB sticks. After that I just checked my emails with my mobile phone every day and kept myself out of the net. Purifying experience in some sense, quite horrifying on the other hand to be perfectly honest…

The days in Hua Hin were quite similar. We got up around eight, worked ourselves to the breakfast room, ate good and basked in the sunshine on the pool area until lunchtime. Then Aapo was brought to our hotel room, fed and put into a nap. Someone watched over (usually me) and read a book.

After naptime we visited the town, sometimes we had errands to run, but usually it was just lazy strolling around and looking for something interesting.

On Wednesday we met with my friend and his family in a Japanese restaurant on Market Village shopping mall. The food and the company was excellent, but Aapo was so tired that someone needed to be with him all the time, no exceptions.

Thursday afternoon we had a trek to elephant village, and had one hour ride on top of a huge Indian elephant. The ride was surprisingly bouncy, like being in a boat in a mild strom in slow motion. After the ride, I ended up being a goal-keeper against an elephant. It kicked pretty vigorously and managed to score despite my best efforts.

The major event on Friday was visiting Starbucks, so you can imagine how laidback the holiday got.

Sunday was fully reserved for travelling to Finland. We woke up at five in the morning, finalised packing and checked out from the hotel. Our private transport to the airport took three hours, then three hours waiting at the airport, and ten hours flight to Finland.

The flight was on time in Helsinki, no bags were lost or damaged, my car was intact in the parking lot and we could fit all our belongings inside for the final leg to home.

There were 30 centimeters snow on the ground, and we had to shovel our way through the door before unpacking the car. The rest of the evening was spent on unpacking, eating and having a sauna before dozing off.