We all managed a good nights sleep for a change and arrived at MyWay Hotel swimming pool around 9:00am. Tehya was straight in and jumping off the side (see Video).

Directions from Hua Hin to Pa La U waterfall in Kaeng Krachan National park

We had previously spent the day before chatting and swimming with a family from England / Thailand (Dave, Ben and Archie) and they asked us if we would like to go and see a waterfall called Pala-U in Kaeng Krachan National Park about 60km west of Hua Hin. We enthusiastically decided it would be an excellent experience and snapped up the chance to go and do a little sight seeing, as we are reasonably limited to what we can do on a moped (certainly wouldn’t travel 120km round trip on it).

We set off to the park around 12:00 and as we travelled out of Hua Hin the country side around us turned into green lush hills, with the mountains on our right leading to Burma (the boarder to which Ben explained was very close). The journey was around an hour and took us into an amazing national park of woodland, which has been dated as over 1000 years old. We walked as far as the 3rd tier (level) of the waterfall and that was far enough with the humidity and slipperiness underfoot with Tehya. It was wonderful, Tehya was excited about being with other children and insisted on walking all the way there and back - even when it was physically quite taxing. The pool when we got there was lovely, full of huge Carp and the kids saw a little fresh water crab which they thought was great. They spent about an hour and a half paddling in the cold water (which was so refreshing after the climb) feeding the fish and smashing the soft rocks to make their own mud!!!! As we headed back towards Ben and the picnic area we suddenly noticed that all the other visitors had gone - we walked back down the rocky waterfall we were surrounded by multi coloured butterflies, it was really magical. Then a huge thunder crack boomed through the sky and the biggest rain drops began to fall. It was wonderful, the air around us changed so dramatically, a grey rain mist appeared and the rain drops fell on us through the trees. We sat and ate a wonderful lunch with our friends, we tried various Thai foods supplied by Ben. While eating lunch Gavin spotted a huge Monitor Lizard which had us all excited, then Archie spotted a large wild Gibbon off in the trees. It was to far away to really appreciate or photograph, but that did not matter it still added another real bonus to the day. We headed back through the rain and the day just got better and better if that was possible, we saw another 3 huge Lizards lazily crossing the park road as we were leaving. Then we started to get flashed by cars coming in the opposite direction and as we drove slowly around a corner we were greeted by the site of a young wild elephant who was making her way down the road, sadly she seemed a little stressed by the experience and I would guess that she had come across the road accidentally. It was a truly wonderful day……..

I asked Tehya if she had enjoyed herself and she said “mummy it was a perfect day”.

Later that evening we went to Chang Am about 20km North of Hua Hin with our new friends and celebrated the end to a great day with a wonderful Thai meal, all the food was recommended by Ben and her friend Mae - which of course means we got to try some truly amazing Thai food. So thanks guys….. we really did have a fantastic day!!!