davethegrinch.net

Dave Says:

Prachuap Khiri Khan has the following attributes:

1) Its half way down the Thai coast

2) It has a Wat on a cliff surounded one side by the ocean and three sides by monkeys

3) It’s on a direct bus route from Bangkok but then to nowhere else

4) On a hot hot Februray day it has a total population of about 27,700 Thais, and 10 westerners of which 2 of those westerners were wondering where they were and how they got there.
Our guide book informed us of attribute one, hinted at attribute two, stated the first half but neglected to mention anything about the second half of attribute three which led wholey to attribute four (well the last bit anyway - I doubt it had anything to do with the Thai population).
Our plan was to break up the long bus ride down to Krabi with a night in this pleasent provincial coastal town. After alighting from the bus at the bus station, which was more stop than station, we proceeded on foot and under heavy load to find a hotel mentioned in our guide. It was hot pink and unmissable said our guide book. After about 2km in the peak sun we decided we had missed it; not easy to do in such a small town but there you go. Sarah was struggling, her mood rapidly descending into frustration, and I had incurred blisters on my feet that were making themselves heard on each step. Then up pops a frenchman. Remember, ten tourists, two were us so he represented a 7 in 27,700 chance of both speaking english and knowing where a backpacker suitable hotel would be. He knew where the hotel was but, alas, couldn’t speak english well enough to tell us. We couldn’t speak french well enough to fathom what he was saying so he very nicely indicatated he would walk us to the two other hotels in town. Off we trudge - back the way we came - its still hot and our packs are still heavy. And trudge we do, all the way back to the exact place the bus left us at and there, not 10 yards from where we decided to turn left instead of right, were two hotels. Hotel one had a nice open front lobby area which proved very handy for Sarah’s imminent colapse and tears of frustration when we found out it was full. The nice people there sat her down and gave her a glass of water whilst I went, bloody knee and all (for I had fallen over carrying 40lbs and skinned my knee like a 9 year old falling off his bike) to the other hotel.
Oh joy, they had a room and I paid gladly even though it was a little rustic. Fan, wonky bed, half partition separating the squat toilet from the bed, no sink and a feeling that it would only be quiet between the hours of 2am and 4am. It was the last room in this two hotel town and I’m too damn old to sleep on the beach. Sarah has written an ode to this and other squat toilets so be sure to read her post.
Now we were here and situated, we had to find out how to leave. It happens that this was the wrong town to pick as a transit hub. A hub implies spokes but this was more like the transport equivalent of a wheel cut from a cross section of tree trunk. No buses went to where we where going and we either had to go somewhere else or back to Bangkok and catch a different bus down. But then, shimering in the early evening heat, was a train station. We wandered over and with luck the ticket guy spoke great english. However, the train also did not go where we wanted to be but it did go to the Malaysian border. Over a very pleasent dinner (no tourists to be seen) we decided that we didn’t really want to go Krabi anyway and, in fact, we were quite bored of Thailand period. Taking the next overnight train to Malaysia would kill two birds with one stone so we decided to do that. Once that decision was made and the tickets bought we were free to enjoy everything this nothing little town had to offer.
It turns out that this nothing little town had something to offer anyway. Once we peeled back the covers we found the town had quite a character. A little night market selling the finest grilled squid and pud see mao we’d had in the whole of Thailand, a wat surrounded by monkeys who would gladly take food from people’s hand, a celebration of something that was cause for a street fair and a school trip where the students came over to test their english and then their teachers did the same. All in all, it turned out to be our most Thai experience in the whole country and showed us that this is a place where people are happy and interested to meet visitors. I wonder if the other eight tourists also had such a good time.
Adendum: Heat, sun and heavy packs don’t mix. Since this episode we have spent a lot of money shipping even more stuff home.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2007 at 2:50 am and is filed under Global Travels, Thailand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.