Going West on the Gulf of Thailand

We like the water.  We like the breeze and the views, but we've discovered that our children don't like sand, so when we plan a "beach" vacation, the beach part is really optional.  Our first attempt was Pattaya for solar New Year.  We walked on the resort's beach, and Vivian complained about the sand in her shoes.  For the lunar Chinese New Year, we decided to go the other direction on the Gulf of Thailand.  The big beach town that way is Hua Hin.  There's a royal palace there, which is where the king and queen live most of the time.  There's a nice town, and quite a bit of sandy beach, for a price.  A little bit farther north is Cha Am.  There isn't really a town, and there isn't as much or as nice a beach, but it's closer to Bangkok, and the hotels are less expensive, so it seemed like it would be the right fit for us.

Agoda.com (my new addiction) had deals on suites at the Novotel in Cha Am.  The room had  a balcony with water views, the pool had a water slide, and there was a kids club.  I was sold.

We had a pretty easy drive there.  It took about two and half hours on not too crazy roads.  The lobby was open air and there was a wonderful breeze.  When we got up to our room, we were pleased with the view, and the fact that we still had the breeze.  There was a living area with plenty of room for the girls to sleep too.

The play pen fit easily through the sliding glass doors to the balcony, so we wheeled Elena out and had quality time on the balcony.

The hotel has three main restaurants.  We did the Thai one for lunch and the "sports bar" for dinner.  To the sports bar's credit, the chicken quesadillas I got were actually really good.  It was a very family friendly hotel, so all the restaurants had high chairs.  Elena was pleased.

As it got close to sunset, we walked out to the edge of the property to enjoy the view and watch the waves.

Vivi also tried out one of the hammocks.

We went back to hanging out on the balcony, and discovered that if we looked backwards we could see the town with the sun setting over the mountains.

Elena was great and slept through the night, but we still all got up bright and early.  Breakfast was open air with the awesome breeze, and then we got in our gear and went down to the pool.  The pool slide wasn't open yet, but we had the whole pool to ourselves.  It was just cool enough to be refreshing without being cold.  There was a large shallow part that Elena probably could have stood up in, but she freaked out and clung to me like a baby monkey.  She was fine with me carrying her around and watching what Jeff and Vivi were doing, but she had no interest in getting wet past her middle.  Eventually I took her out and wrapped her up.

We found some chairs in the shade, and I changed her and fed her.  She was perfectly happy to just lounge around.

She spent some time trying to figure out how goggles work.

After a while the water slide opened and Vivian made friends as she went down it repeatedly.  She even got Jeff and I to each go down once with her.  Eventually Elena faded, and Jeff took her up for a nap.  I kept an eye on Vivi and made her get out every so often to eat and drink.  She has a tough life.

After four hours at the pool, I decided to take her back to the room before she turned into a sunburned raisin.  It turns out I waited a little too long, since she and I ended up quite rosy.  

For her afternoon adventure, Vivian tried out everything the kids club had to offer.  One area was more for little kids, so she didn't stay there long.  In the big kids area she tried out one of their game playing pods.

The game was a pretty low key, Lego Star Wars one, but she got very stressed out when she couldn't figure out how to make the character do what she wanted it to do, so I cut her off after about five minutes.  Then we tried out foosball.  

Finally, she settled into the movie area to watch Rise of the Guardians.

For dinner, we tried out the restaurant right on the water that had a combination of western and Asian food.  We put Elena's high chair facing the table, but it didn't have any straps, and she loved the view so much that she turned herself around.

Jeff and I were sharing cheese cake for dessert when Elena started making little feed me noises and opening her mouth.  Turns out, she likes cheese cake.  She sucked it off the fork.

That night, on the balcony, Vivian decided we should play charades.  She has the basic concept of the game, but had a little trouble with easily understandable signs.  We'll have to practice, but all of our attempts produced plenty of giggles.

We got up early the next morning and headed home before the traffic got bad.  Elena took a little nap in the car, just like she had on the way there.

She woke up when we stopped for gas and a Vivi bathroom break.  The ladies who were pumping our gas were thrilled with her, so Jeff rolled down her window, and one of the ladies took a picture of her.  The blond hair and blue eyes seem to make most Thai women melt.

Overall, we had a nice, relaxing family weekend.  The hotel was easier to get to than the one we stayed at in Pattaya, but it wasn't as big and fancy.  We liked both, and we're getting a better idea of what's out there, so our next "beach" vacation should be easy to plan.