Stickmen, stickwoman, stickmen

Caught a minibus from Victory Monument in Bangkok, 2 hours + south to Hua Hin. Residents Michael (aka Mike, aka Pottsy) and Tai met us at the bus station and drove us to our hotel which was near the centre of town. We caught up with them later at JW's, the bar where Pottsy plies his trade and as a pool shark and raconteur. We watched Pottsy play some competitive pool on a couple of nights at JW's and I let him beat me a few times as well just to enhance his reputation with the other locals.

We were originally going to stay 2-3 nights in Hua Hin but liked the place, so extended to 4 nights and on the 5th caught an overnight bus to Phuket. The royal family has a residence at Hua Hin and it and nearby Cha Am are popular weekend spots for Thais. The beach at Hua Hin is wide and white sanded and at this time of year not crowded even with the weekend influx of Thai people. There is the usual resort array of eating places, shops, bars and girlie bars, but the town has a pleasant feel to it. We had the added advantage of Pottsy's local knowledge and his chauffering.

A couple of days in Sue sprained the top of her foot slipping on wet tiles poolside. Later that night we both had an hour long massage after which Sue found she was unable to walk. Lying on the massage table had exacerbated the sprain. Great consternation ensued amongst the massage staff. "Not massage?!? Not massage?!?" they cried. I was also concerned as we were late for JW's....

Leaving Sue in capable concerned hands I hurried out to look for a long umbrella to buy to be used as a walking stick. Instead I found a shop selling wooden items including various walking sticks. Perfect. I selected a stout looking carved stick, bargained the price down from an outrageous 950 baht to a very expensive 500 baht and returned brandishing it to much laughter amongst the massage staff. Off we went to JWs.

The next day Sue's foot improved hour by hour which was just as well as in the afternoon the handle of the  stick broke cleanly off. Early evening we took it back for a replacement or preferrably a refund as we didn't need it anymore. On approaching the store with the pieces in hand the man who sold it to me turned from extrovert to introvert and his English language skills deserted him. In the face of our persistence he called in an older colleague who turned "bad cop". There was no way he could refund or replace as Sue had clearly placed too much weight on the stick. How impolite! At my suggestion that we perhaps we should go to the Tourist Police he became more belligerent. "You go, you go, you bring Tourist Police!" Our bluff was called.

Bluff what bluff?  10 mins later we were back in a lovely air conditioned tinted window squad car, with two handsome and dapper young policemen. More accusations concerning Sue' excessive downward force on the stick ensued, whilst we quoted parts of the NZ Consumer Gaurantees Act. The lead policeman examined at length and minutely the break point in the stick, before coming up with a solution - we pay 100 more baht and we get a replacement stick. We settled on 50 baht. Face saved all round, the police return to base with another case solved and we head off with a walking stick we no longer need.

Clearly another win, win, win.