Letters from Thailand: Brassiere Beach Resort

New Year's Day has come and gone, but the the New Year's Parties are still going strong. Along with the Trim Factory Party, which I've shown you already, my company also has the Trim Bangkok Office party, usually held the first weekend after New Years. The Bangkok office only has 35 staff members compared to 750 at the factory, so their choice of locations is not limited to the parking lot. Typically, it is held outside of Bangkok, usually at the beach or at a mountain resort. This year it was held at Brassiere Beach Resort in Pranburi, just South of Hua Hin.

Compared to the Factory party, the Office party is a much more civilized affair (i.e. no pole dancing by the office staff), but what it lacks in depravity, it makes up for in picturesque views and stuff that Nuch likes, so she came along, too. As usual, we were juggling schedules and it ended up that on Sunday we had to drive directly to the airport (3 hours) to catch her flight to Sydney. She's a good sport - a 3 hours drive is not the ideal way to spend your time before an 8 hour flight.

What to say about Brassiere Beach Resort? First, to get there, the road wound through endless rice fields and palm tree plantations, then came to a sudden stop at the ocean. We had to drive on the beach to get to the Resort, which was a little disturbing, as I wasn't sure if we could get back during high tide and catch Nuch's flight, but it all worked out. More importantly, it was the first time the tires of Nuch's SUV had ever touched dirt, so that was a big moment.

The concept or theme of Brassiere Beach Resort, as the name suggests, is lady's underwear. Each room had a different lingerie name, for example - Victoria's Secret, G-String, our room was Bikini. There was also a 'No Bra' room. Oddly enough, it was run by a team of transvestites.

Here is a picture of the main lobby and restaurant. The rooms and bungalows were in the back.

Here's a view of the beach and the resort lawn.

I'm guessing these two small islands just offshore are the inspiration behind the 'Brassiere' theme.Once again, our room was "The Bikini Room"...

... which came with a bikini key chain, but that's about as far as the theme went.

Here are some pics and videos of our room - it came with a jacuzzi on the back patio and a cat with no tail.

When we arrived at our Bungalow, this cat was on our back patio. It ended up spending the weekend with us. We called her 'Spring' because she is a breed of Thai cat that is born with a curly, pig-like tail, instead of the traditional cat tail. I've seen this kind of cat before, but at the time, I honestly thought they had been nipped by a dog or, more likely, harassed by a gang of school kids. Nuch set me straight, but it makes me wonder - how many other assumptions have I gotten wrong about Thailand.

Only cat I've ever known that likes potato chips.

For resorts that want you to have that home away from home feeling, it's not a bad idea to provide a loving animal with your room. We spent more time with this cat than we did on the beach.

Here's something you don't see everyday. I was enjoying the view of Brassiere Beach with Nuch and some co-workers, when a herd of cattle mosied (sp?) by.

I found a spirit house graveyard on the plot of land next to our resort. Similar to the Misfit Buddha Images, they can't be thrown away, and are left out of sight and forgotten. Their cinder block cemetery wasn't so nice, but they had a peaceful spot tucked among the mountains, overlooking Brassiere Beach.

Nuch wasn't so impressed but just down the beach from our resort a fashion magazine was having a photo shoot.

Normally, during the day there are games and team building activities, followed by a seafood dinner and karaoke until the wee hours of the morning. However, this year Thailand saw the unfortunate passing of the King's elder sister, so the government declared a period of mourning for 15 days. This meant all public celebrations and parties were not allowed. So, without any organized fun, we buried the people in the office that we don't like.