Twisting and turning the whole night after the fatigue from sleeping late at night and the anxiety that overwhelmed my mind pulled me through the never unending night, which was closed to consume me. The break of the dawn was announced by " unforgiven 2" and the bugging alarm clock of mind.

Hastily packed up my semi-authentic "The North Face" rugsack with essential stuffs and set off for the place I was told to come. Along the way I stopped by to pick up newspaper but to no avail.

Before seven I arrived at the appointed place and dropped down my rugsack and sat down to ring the bell and to settle down for a lofty breakfast; fries shrimp and fried-rice. When the sun had risen high enough to show off its power my traveling companions finally abandoned the everlasting make-up and beautification activities.

After the delayed preparation which bred small degree of exasperation we drove out finally with great anticipation only to be welcomed by the fleeing Bangkokians in their showy automobiles. The road to Petchaburi was packed out with cars and vans which were signaled by promise-keeping bobbies with dark body hugging uniforms and knee-high boots.

Stuck up in the traffic out of the city was rather astonishing and frustrating given the feeling that we all were going to be there the whole day.

Unexpectedly, we sneaked out from that melee and got on the way with uninterrupted ride punctuated by stopping here and there to figure out the exact way to out destination. It was already midday when we got to the much-sought place and drove about looking for places to stay, I thought.

But my companions seemed rather familiar with the place and headed straight into a fancy hotel which charged 2500 Baht for a night.

Certainly a cool place, well carpeted, comfy bed, separate dining room but the impression didn't last that long soon I opened the TV. All the channels were in Thai.

Brought up the luggage and dumped them and rested for a while. A moment later we ran down to get some spicy Thai food, papaya salad and sticky rice to harmonize our grumbling stomach. The sticky rice which was stickier then it should be made us befriend slumber and we all slipped into without any hesitation to recharge our- ran- out batteries.

I was awakened with the cries of our young companions demanding to go to the salty water. Plunged into the wavy water and we confronted the playful waves and swam with mouth filled up with salty water disagreeably mixed up with garbage. Some of us floated on the inflated tube and some huddled around it to keep afloat with less effort.

Wavy bliss and half -serious contemplation were sometimes interrupted by the force of the waves and frequently forced us to reposition ourselves every now and then. Time slipped away uninformed and we woke up on the wavy surface to find out that the bright sky was already conquered by the gloomy cloud while we were asleep and now it was ready to lash down upon us, soon.

So it came down in its torrential nature and forced out the sobered revelers of the filth-filled water as if prophesizing the looming threats in that water. The lashing drops splotched on my sun burned back with flirtatious prickly pain which encouraged me to hang about longer despite the obvious signs it had sent out to us.

Having swum for a prolonged period of time we managed ourselves out of the tainted-water and scurried back to the hotel with sandy feet and itchy bodies. Around 6 we rolled out from the sumptuous hotel in search of the famed Lucky Restaurant, quite closed to the memorial park of late King Narensuan. Soon we sensed the place we sensed the cacophonous air unleashed from the packed out place.

Perhaps nothing spectacular about the look but the food that laid down on the wooden table offset for the look. I ended up pressing the camera button in admiration of the fastened up blue colour painted boats, distant big boat with wiry top which gave the impression that their's wiry top caught up with plastic bags and god knows what and the somewhat greasy looking sea food juxtaposed to Dutch beer and American water.

Filled up and satisfied with what we got we bullied out from that bustling restaurant and rolled back to the hotel to give ourselves more time. I lay down on the pulled down mattress and began scribbling my memoirs with much enthusiasm and read few paragraphs to give myself a good night sleep.

I hit the sack faster than anybody in the hotel room and woke up at 4 in the morning to begin scribbling my memoirs which didn't go that smooth. As I sat in the dining room looking at my work contemplating with premonition weariness dropped by in my mind and lugged myself to sleep which lasted for half and hour, then I realized that I had promised myself some exercise and early sightseeing.

Put on my running gears and ran down to start my jogging exercise which I decided to keep it until it satisfied me. So it was promised I jogged along the beach among the smoke from grilling pork and early fishermen who had already arrived with net strewn with fish, crabs, lobsters and many things.

In the beginning I was just taking my time until couple of mangy dogs who trailed me with gnashing teeth. The beach was crowding out with car-driving Bangkokians camping in the cars as well as in the tents.

Drenched in sweat and satisfied for keeping what I promised to myself I came back to the hotel for a quick shower followed by a rich breakfast of both western and Thai. I opted for the western and devoured like a starving monster who had not had any food in days which was summed up with a nice cup of black coffee.

The breakfast was over and now the time came for us to check out from that place and move into a place just one block from the previous place. It was by the road side and the beach was across the road. From outside it didn't give the impression of a hotel as the front part was a restaurant but the only way to put that hotel-like impression was the small booth manned by a Hawaiian shirted lady.

She showed us the way and we had to tread cautiously in between the narrowed walls to get to the booked room. Couples of maids were still labouring to clean up the mess from last night by the previous guests but we told them that we just wanted to drop our packs.

Everyone got to the place and we sorted out the plan to visit one gigantic statue of a revered monk in Hua Hin province. The road to place was not that long but there were Bankokians' cars already queuing up and allowing everyone to take more than calculated.

We also drove past the king's palace which I didn't realized until I saw blue-uniformed soldiers with M-16 rifle guarding the gates but the strong sun virtually pushed them to the shady part of the gate which made them more or less invisible.

After frequent stopping and braking we arrived at the place and got inside the compound of the temple to park the car. Hurriedly we pulled out hats, umbrellas and finally camera to capture the image of the revered late monk.

At the bottom of the steps to the statue was the smiling framed posture of the eldest princess of Thailand with her passed away son, who was carried away by Tsunami. Everybody picked up a small bowl and scooped up flower-sprinkled water to pour it on the row of small statues of the monk.

After that the devotees hustled up and stood in the line and dropped money in the donation box to press a button which sent up sprinkling water over the head of the gigantic statue. They all smiled with gratification and bustled to grab yellow candles fasten to incense sticks and blue orchids with fresh leave and the gold-leaf meticulously wrapped in think square-shaped paper.

Now the unfastened candles were lit up but put out by the gushing wind, however, the spirit of the devotees remained intact.

Gradually they burned the incensed sticks and walked about with them in their hands dodging possible burn and stumped them in the ash-laden miniature bronze boat while the candles were glued close to the burning sticks with rising smoke and the devotees rose from short meditation and headed for the gold-leaf pasted three statues which were sheltered in niches. The succeeding activities were about taking pictures and many went on the look-out for amulets.

The ride back to the Cha-Am was smooth only halting to pick up some durians. We dropped in at a restaurant along the way, in the middle of Hua Hin to check out the well-traveled talk of that restaurant. It was alright but the Heineken beer after a long day was the real solace.

Upon our arrival the beach was lit up with street lamp and the streaking colourful lights from the fancy restaurants by the road. A scrubby shower was indeed a relief and freshening and we strolled down the street to pick some local favourites.

In fact it was the same everywhere in Bangkok, 7-Eleven shops, Roti-shop which only rolled out at night and plenty of junk food. Instead of buying local favourites we came back to the hotel with one big box of ice-cream, sausages, Soya-milk and banana filling roti for which we had to wait for ages.

I settled for the cup of corn yogurt and crashed down soon I touched the pillow. At 5 in the morning I was already awake but I didn't have any intention to disrupt the happy time of my companions.

So I put on my sneakers and got hold of a soya-milk bottle and discreetly came out from the cramped hotel room. First I walked on the beach where I still found some people drinking and some kids already diving in the water.

With a determined mind and firmed legs I started jogging toward the other side of the beach and took the smelly road next to the temple in search of new places.

May be it was the food from last night that was troubling me and indicating me to halt. As indicated I stopped jogging and walked back along the road that I took while coming and fortunately I spotted a pay -and -use toilet and got rid of the load.

Relieved and light I started jogging again along the same beach where I jogged on my first day. On the way back I picked up a copy of Bangkokpost and looked at The Sunday Nation wondering why the shop still had newspaper from last Sunday.

It thought it was still Saturday. A while later we came out for a real Thai breakfast, boiled rice mixed with pork and egg and sprinkled with sliced garlic and soya-sauce and a cup of ice-coffee.

The stuffy breakfast stirred my adrenaline and I urged the kids to rent 4-saddle-bicycle so that we all could ride through the small town. But it didn't go as I had calculated instead we rented one pink bicycle with adorned with Kitty stickers, Japanese cartoon, and one which saddle was elevated above the handlebar for which we paid 60 Baht for an hour.

Rode through the town and concluded to go to the water again for few hours. With excitement I splashed in the water and the itch in my body came back which was now worse.

I bade goodbye to that place toying with the wish to be there alone to pen down my stuck up memoirs at the same time reminiscing the itch from the water.

In few hours we were home and I pulled out my pack from the trunk and rushed home to feel my solitude. When I checked my inbox there were some belated birthday mails from my old friends which they sent while I was away from the town.

Indeed a good songkran apart from the itch.

Check out the photo gallery on Cha-Am Beach here.