Our adventure in sharing the places we live continues with our new home in Hua Hin, Thailand. Hua Hin is a beach resort town three hours South of Bangkok along the Eastern coast. It is a popular tourist destination for Thais and foreigners alike. It is even said that the King of Thailand has begun living in his summer home in Hua Hin full-time.
The Places We Live
We are currently house sitting in a lovely home in a suburb about five miles Northwest of Hua Hin city center. Our home is in a quiet, “gated” community a few blocks away from any major street. The word “gated” is in quotes because there is no actual gate, though there’s a place for one. Aside from one cafe a couple of blocks away, there are very few public locations that are at a walkable distance. Although, walking isn’t our preferred mode of transportation here anyway, as the area seems to be run by packs of wild dogs (who admittedly seem quite harmless, if not a little scary looking). However, these things all just add to the flavor of being in Thailand, and we are loving the location.
Our house is on a corner lot with a large front terrace and small patio. It is a three bedroom, two bathroom, modern home. We have a large kitchen to cook in, dining room table to work at, and a TV in the living room with an HDMI port so we can watch Netflix. It has been very comfortable and we are enjoying the feeling of being “home”.
Our room is bright and full of windows. We have an ensuite bathroom with a shower and tub (still no curtain, though) and a wardrobe to store our clothes. The bed is comfortable and, with the light linens, we find that we rarely even need the AC at night.
The Family
Our host is a teacher at an international school here in Hua Hin. She has been traveling around Asia for the last 13 years and has been in Hua Hin for the last three of those. She is very excited to be moving to the Netherlands for her next job at the end of the school year. As with our other hosts, she was full of great conversation and showered us with kindness while she was here. Now, she is on holiday in Sydney, visiting some friends.
Bear is a four year old shitzu whom our host rescued off the streets of Bangkok. She is super loving and is definitely the one who runs the house. She is obsessed with playing fetch, but otherwise spends the rest of her day cuddling with us wherever we are.
Coco is also a stray rescued after our host saw her get hit by a car in Chengdu, China. Coco still shows the scars of her previous life where she was very poorly treated. However, our host has done a wonderful job in making Coco feel loved. She is old and obviously still in some sort of pain, but she has a happy glow about her (sometimes) and she loves pets and attention as much as any dog.
And then, there is Jack, who obviously considers himself the “man of the house”. Like Bear, he was a rescued stray from Bangkok, but despite his diagnosis of FIV, he seems to be very healthy and happy. He spends most of his day outside hunting whatever creatures dare to step foot on the property and the rest of his time snoozing at Josh’s feet.
Critters of Thailand Living
Life here in Hua Hin is quite nice. Aside for the usual love and attention, the pets don’t really need us that much. The home is comfortable and we are slowly getting used to the neighborhood and settling in to our new Thailand life.
The critters of Thailand have been a bit of an issue, however.
As we mentioned, there are packs of stray dogs roaming the streets. They look a bit scary when I walk up on them but they have, so far, not shown any signs of aggression. They just look scary, cause traffic jams, and make a lot of noise when they howl at night.
Beyond that, we have had at least one critter encounter per day. One day we shooed a cockroach out of the house that was about half the size of my palm. Another night we found the house surrounded by a loud and persistent belching sound. Turns out we’re here during frog mating season, and the males make these strange sounds to attract the females. Last night, we had a large dragonfly trapped in the house immediately following a close encounter with a very large and very fast spider crawling along the wall behind the TV.
These critter encounters have been scary and unenjoyable but, surprisingly, had their moment of fun as well. Even the large spider was a rewarding kill for Josh and a brave moment of calmness from me. It is nice to feel like we are still growing, learning, and adapting to new ways of life… I just hope it doesn’t happen too often.
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The Places We Live 
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