Hua Hin to Hua Mak

I moved to the Hua Hin campus yesterday. Although it’s dirtier and older, it’s also much more convenient to get into the city. Here I’m only about 10 minutes from the closest BTS skytrain stop, while the Bang Na campus is more like 45 minutes away from the BTS. I’m happy to have moved out here, even though I’m unfortunately the only teacher from my group here now. Most of us have been pressuring the school into letting us move, but it’s been a seriously uphill battle and I’m the only one to win the fight so far. A couple others are still making their case, and some are considering just paying for an apartment closer to the city. Either way, hopefully they will be in the area soon enough.

In the meantime, I’ve been meeting more people out here anyway. I’ve met a few other teachers in different departments, so I’m happy to be expanding my social circle. Yesterday afternoon after I finished teaching I walked around the neighborhood, through a market with fruit and other goodies, to the grocery store, and through another university campus. It was a nice walk and I already love this area for its liveliness much more than the secluded Bang Na campus.

Hua Hin beach group:

The weekend in Hua Hin was cool. We spent the days on the beach and the nights being uncomfortable at bars filled with prostitutes and sex tourists. I’m starting to see that it’s not a scene I’ll easily be able to avoid this year. One of my weekend highlights was the Irish-Mexican bar (yeah, IN Thailand) where Lauren Ladky had to show the Thai bartenders how to make Irish car bombs, where Rob and I downed a couple shots of delicious Thai whisky, and where we all ended up spending a fortune when the bartenders charged us for all their shots. We really should’ve been expecting that.

Thai-Irish-Mexican bartenders?

We also met a sweet Thai artist whose gallery was just across from our guesthouse. He has spent time in the US and is a former art professor at a university in Chiang Mai. He showed us his sketches and let us watch him make progress on his current painting, all the while happily chatting away to us about our adventures in Thailand and his curiosity about what John Lennon might have whispered to Bob Marley if given the chance. That pretty much made my weekend.

my new favorite person:

PS - I had lunch with Sam yesteray - she works in one of the ABAC offices and has taken an interest in helping our group. She told me that "Hua Mak" (my new home) refers to the area's past as a huge beetle nut market. So now you know.