Christmas in the sun, Hot Springs, Lady-boy Beauty Contests and Sung Tou Adventures

Christmas dinner at The Garden was a nice mellow social affair with a spread of food that resembled the attendees, a mix of Frarang and Thai. There was turkey and cranberry sauce with potatoes and gravy (neither of the last two resembling the kind we have back home) along side some interesting Thai dishes of rice noodles with green curry eggplant and other interesting dishes. During the midday dinner, the owner Tim had hired an Eastern Thai band to play and their authentic musical style was quite lovely. We had a lovely day as it was sunny and warm and we ate with our English friends Linda and Mike (they are from Hull). It felt a bit odd to be fanning myself and worrying about staying in the shade since we were outdoors for our Christmas dinner! It was a first for me. The owner of "The Garden" is British as well so there was a traditional fruitcake...I asked the Thai girl serving for "A small piece of cake and lots of ice cream". She didn't correct me so when I sat down Mike and Linda said "Wow you sure are going overboard there" and I just thought they were joshing me until I stuffed a whole mouthful in and almost gagged...felt like pure lard and tasted almost as gross. I promptly spit it into my napkin and said "That's not ice cream!!" which prompted the entire table to laugh at me and explain what "hard sauce" or "buttered rum" is.

Saturday, while collecting our laundry down the street, Kim and I were discussing what we should do after dinner when someone handed us a flyer for Miss Hua Puk 2008 Beauty Contest and Cabaret show. Problem solved. So after dinner we walked to the Thapae Gate area paid our 50baht ($1.45 per person) entrance fee and then watched the pagent, cabaret and comedy that was the show. So many of the contestants were so beautiful I had difficulty believing they weren't female-even when they made them take off the wigs! I used up every last photo on shots of the contestants and vegas style costumes worn by the cabaret acts. Check out more amazing photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/KimStJohnWoodward

Today we met Linda and Mike at their hotel early so we could join them for some rice porridge (Juk/Comgee) and then go on a Sung Tou adventure. We had heard that you could get to San Kampang by Sung Tou and so we took one out to the village. 15 baht later we found out that the hot springs labeled San Kampang Hot Springs is about a 30 minute drive outside of said village. After picking up a stray Aussie, nice young man named John, Linda managed to haggle another Sung Tou to take us for 20 baht each. We walked the floral laden grounds, boiled eggs in the hottest pool and then had a swim in a luke warm swimming pool with a light sulfur smell. It was a nice day and although it cost us 300 baht in a taxi to get back to town we all enjoyed the adventure of it all. We had the taxi drop us in BoSarn where the hand painted umbrella factory is. I had one of the artists paint an elephant on the back of my little daypack and now I am quite pleased with it. Before it was just a good deal being 50baht and slightly faded from spending years hanging in the night market but now it is nicely decorated for 50baht more and I like it even better.

Now however it is time to head out and have a little supper since the 2 boiled eggs and handful of banana chips I ate for lunch aren't holding me very well. Tough dilemma now...pizza or Thai food?

Anyone interested in reading more details about what Thailand is like...this writer's description is right on the money! http://mybt.budgettravel.com/_Thailand-The-Land-of-Smiles/BLOG/154630/21864.html

Tomorrow is New Years Eve and we are invited to a BBQ and then have booked in at the Holiday Inn for a Seafood Buffet/Music/Dance evening by the riverside. I expect it will be enjoyable and decadent . I will be thinking of all of you, my dear friends and family back home and around the world and wishing everyone a very Merry New Year!