We have been here for 3 weeks now and I am pleased to report that we have settled in and found our way around town. Both Justin and I have driven the car , but our main mode of transport is the song thiew up to the modern malls of Market Village or Bluport. Each have lovely glass fronted stores and delicious cheap ‘street food’ in their basements. A lunch can be bought for 40-55 baht ( about $1.30 to $1.80) and it’s a plate of rice , pork or fish , vegetables and an omelette! 
We eat like this at least 3 times per week.
Hua Hin is our largest city next to the village of Khao Takiab (where our home is) and it has a population of about 65,000 people including thousands of Europeans and Scandinavians who have chosen to retire here ,either for the weather or the cost of living. One must be 50 years old to apply for a retirement visa and have proof of $25,000 in a bank account. No one but Thais can own a house on land but can certainly purchase a condo , and many have. The current economy , like all over the world , is slow and property values have dropped. This makes reselling difficult and doesn’t seem to deter the thousands of condos being built along the shore near here in Cha am. It’s beginning to resemble Daytona Beach in Florida ! Sad really as it takes away from the natural , quiet serenity that the beaches had.
The large population of foreign residents have brought with them a variety of French , German and English bakeries and stores. It’s not difficult to buy a flaky, buttery croissant and a freshly ground espresso anywhere in town. 
Coffee shops are plentiful as are Boba tea stalls.
Golf courses are one of the reasons that Hua Hin is so popular with visitors. It had one of the first courses in Thailand and has continued to build more resorts with them since. We bumped into two men from Scotland who told us that they come for 16 days per year , every year, and play golf for 12 of those days. They seemed very pleased with the course standards here.
We have been tending to my parents home , making small adjustments to meet our needs. We visited a large home improvement store and were very impressed ! Most of all Justin of course ! 
We have a puppy called Birdie from a local temple ( they are teeming with stray dogs whom are all fed and allowed shelter unconditionally) and she has been happily chewing our flip flops and has settled into our family pack very quickly. 
We got up early the other morning and I cooked food to gift to the local monks as it was a special day to honor family. I naively thought I could cook it the night before and hand it to them in the morning . My parents said of course not , they eat it when they get back to the temple , there’s no way to heat it up. Oops my bad. So up I got and cooked rice and a spicy pork dish with holy basil at 5:45 am , we brought small cartons of water and juice and walked into the village by the 7/11. Many others had gathered here and a table was set out by a vendor to buy pre made hot food for the monks 
Next time perhaps , although there was a pride in cooking it myself and putting it into little plastic bags as they do here.
The monks were quiet and gracious , allowing us to fumble with our offerings and non verbally guided us as to how to hand them the food. We each had something in a pot to give , and each monk lined up in front of us and opened his metal pot which he carried in a sash type bag. We placed the rice , etc directly into his pot. Then we stood as they chanted a blessing over us. What an experience !
As we were at the 7/11 ( ours has a large selection of food and coffees available) , we bought food and walked down to the beach to eat breakfast as the sun came up. The temple the monks walked from into town is at the end of our beach so we were delighted when we could watch them against the sunrise walking along back to also enjoy their breakfast , and possibly only meal of the day.
Khao Takiab is a fishing village and the small harbor has many colorful wooden boats which catch fish and squid with large nets. 
At night the boats go out and shine odd green lights onto the water which apparently attracts squid. My father told me that for a while they were overfishing the coast of Thailand and the green lights could be seen outlining the coast from space !
There is also a passenger ferry that for 1200 baht will take you across the gulf of Thailand to Pattaya ( an adult type place not really suitable for kids )
We have been to a wildlife conservation park where we saw elephants being taken for a walk , threw bananas to whooping acrobatic gibbons and saw species of birds and animals that I thought only was in ones imagination !
Our kids are getting an education that no school in the land could offer. We do school 3 days per week , focusing on math and English but all of nature and science , culture and art is right here , where we are .
There is so much here to see and learn about.
We worried for a brief moment that this might not have been a good idea , not anymore !
Seven Months in Siam 