Of elephant riding and wine tasting

     We finally made it to Thailand. You may recall how I ruined our original plans to come here by falling on my face nearly two months ago. But now I'm fully recovered and able to do all the normal things you'd expect when visiting Thailand, like touring one of the emerging vineyards at this latitude on the back of an elephant.
  

Your intrepid tourists atop Honey the elephant. She showed her appreciation (disdain?) by going No. 1 
and No. 2 during our tour. That inscrutable, ever-present smile is tough to read.

Ead and Honey. 

     Hua Hin Hills Vineyard is built on a former elephant corral, where the Elephas maximus were domesticated for any number of uses. Honey's keeper, Ead, says these elephants have been known to live to 100 years old. At 40, Honey is just entering middle-age.
    This vineyard, located about 20 miles inland of the seaside resort of Hua Hin (125 miles south of Bangkok), was founded in 2004 and has produced some award-winning wines under the Monsoon Valley Wine label. During our visit to the Sala Bistro, conveniently located above the vines, we tasted a Columbard, White Shiraz and Shiraz. All three were excellent, even the rosy White Shiraz.
     Our table was set with three wine glasses and a plate of Thai hors d'oeuvres. But being complete oafs, we ate all the food with the Columbard instead of waiting for the other two wines to be served. No worries, or as the Thais say: "mai bin lie."  After completing the tasting, our waitress Kanokporn happily brought us more food and a full bottle of the Columbard which seemed to go really well with Sala Bistro's Thai-inspired tapas. (Before any of you get carried away with the porn in Kanokporn's name, be advised that many names in Thailand contain this seemingly fitting suffix given this country's reputation for anything-goes hedonism. I'm fairly convinced the porn in their names was added to humor immature American males like myself.)
     

Chicken satay, fish balls, shrimp won tons, 
coconut rice treats in banana leaf, toasts 
and several dipping sauces.

Kanokporn keeping our wine glasses full.

   

View of Hua Hin Hills Vineyard from The Sala Bistro.

We spent the other two of our three days in Hua Hin largely hanging out at the beach enjoying 
the incredibly soft sand and warm waters of the South China Sea.