After an exhausting 11-hour flight, we traded our blustery German winter for a jet bridge opening up to a small heatwave in the arrival terminal of Bangkok International Airport. Glued to the large windowpanes of our taxi bus, our twin boys’ eyes are wide open with amazement as they take in the immense size of Thailand’s capital city, its crowded streets and staggering traffic. The four-hour transit takes us out of the mega-city along an endless stream of strip malls and overpasses before depositing us at the long sandy beach of Hua Hin. Nestled along the eastern coast of the Thai peninsula, Hua Hin was once a quiet fishing village and home to the summer palaces of the Thai royal family, but since the 1920s, Hua Hin has become a fashionable seaside destination for the wealthy residents of Bangkok and more recently, kiteboarders.
We check off the first tasks on our list: a visit with longtime friend Dzevad Durgut, one of the first kiteboarders in Germany to be published in the magazines boosting big airs, who now owns a shop here in Hua Hin and is the importer for Duotone in Thailand. Gifted with a great sense of humor and a ton of energy, Dzevad entertains us in his kite shop plastered wall to wall with kites and lines us up with a nanny to help entertain our twin boys while we head to the beach to drown out our jetlag with our first kite session.
Kiting out into the middle of the bay, I gain a better perspective of the town’s long sliver beach, lined with resorts at the waterfront with temples built into the hillsides. As you follow the beach to the south, it terminates at a small mountainous peninsula that is home to the Buddhist temple Wat Khao Takiap with its sitting Buddha statue overlooking the bay… To read the rest of Behind Buddha’s Eyes subscribe to Tkb Magazine.
Tkb’s Vol. 17, No. 2 fall 2020 digital issue is available now. The print issue will be landing in mailboxes soon!
