A LONG , LONG AND WINDING ROAD ( BUT IT WAS WORTH THE RIDE )

Yes it was a long , long and winding road, But , this is Thailand and I was a guest of our local Tessabon , and even tho I poked fun at the bus ride , I must say that I had a great trip and Ciejay was with all her neighbors and friends and was in Thai heaven. We did travel down at night and as the music was loud and the folks were having fun there was no way I was going to get any sleep , so I took advantage of all the 7 stops and ate all the snacks my heart desired and Ciejay was sooo busy having fun that she didn't seem to notice ( until we got home ).We stopped at several Tessabons on the way down the next morning and they all had food and snacks for us and we got to hear about all the things they were doing to make life for the folks there to live in harmony with each other , nature, and their surrounds , and to provide some type of economic, enterprise within their Ampore ,to provide as many jobs and income for the residents as possible . I was really impressed with all the OTOP projects that they were doing in their communities and taking advantage of the local tourist places of interest also , they were kept real clean and well maintained with folks to answer any questions you have and folks available to act as tour guides if you needed them. I was glad to see that the city leaders were doing all they could to make their (sometimes ) very small village , great places to live and raise their families .
Of course the Beaches were beautiful and I have never seen sooo many Parks in all my life, and all of them were very well maintained , even tho I did complain that the vendors at the beaches seen to occupy all the good spots and access to the beaches was limited. We stayed in a inter-city hotel and were bused to the beach , and I must say again that it was a long ride to get to the beach, and the famous walking street . We were limited on our time and we were there only during the day and just before we were to leave the beach area it came a down pour of rain and me of course having wondered off to catch a glimps of the para-sailer was caught far away from any shelter and got soaked. I would love to return , someday , not with a tour group , just Ciejay and me , at night to take a walk in the famous Walking Street , with all the lights and vendors and folks enjoying themselves.
The next night we stayed at the famous hydrolectric dam in the National Park , that was a project of our King and what a nice place the hotel was , located high up on a mountain and above the dam and along side the golf course . What a view we had from our room and the decks at the hotel. The local Tessbon treated us to dinner that night and to top it all off they even had a talent show , with each of the visting buses , each had to provide some type of entertainment for the locals and other visitors , what a blast , some great singing, and some very funny stuff to , wish you could have been there , it was a late night and a noisy bunch , all wound up from the night of fun , sooo to be on the safe side we had a police escort all the way to our hotel ,red flashing lights and all. The next morning we were again bused further up the mountain to a large convention center and office building and were treated to one of the best Thai ,Western breakfast that I've ever had, there were short speeches and hand shakes , and we were off to another Tessabon, really deep in the jungle and right on the bank of the river . This village is famous for their production of natural fish sauce, the village head and Mayor said that FISH was their very life and every thing that provided income for the locals included fish , I was very inpressed and my nose can vouch for the fish smell , I ask about the smell and they (the locals) said all they could smell was money , ha ha .
Back on the buses and headed home , we made a lot of stops at OTOP's to buy gifts to bring back with us from all the local villages we passed , and one thing I forgot to mention , I have never saw sooo many rubber trees in all my life , in some places as far as the eye could see was rubber trees.
I had a great time and took lots of pictures , hope you enjoy them . Malcolm