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Published: August 20th 2006
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Our train arrived in Prachuap Khiri Khan at 4 am. To our delight the train station had benches & lights rather then just a bench on the side of a lonely rail road track! We asked the guard about a "toilet" & he took us to one nearby, as he lead the way over he was singing "toiiiiiiileeeeetetete...toilet, toilet, toooooiiiileeeet"... so that was kind of interesting. Megan tried to catch a wink but I think we both were still a little startled about the events of the last hour. We waited until sunrise & then began to hike around in search of a good place to stay. We bought some fruit (mangostein & some little yellow ball things) & some really fatty donut things. We checked into our hotel Yatichai at 8 am hot & sweaty already.
This place turned out to be one of our favorite places to stay: cute, clean & affordable. We could even hang our laundry out over the roof tops. We went on long walks while we were there. One day we went for a long way along the coast, eventually we stopped & ate a fish. It was 120 B for one large
enough to feed both of us, it had been grilled whole with garlic. I mean "whole" as in head, tail & guts. We came accross a large temple & I peeped into the darkness while the monk was teaching. I walked behind the building & saw where the monks live...very comfortable looking. We stood at the base of Khao Chong Krajok (a temple on the top of a hill) but we decided that we needed to collect some courage, long pants, tall socks, (maybe full armour would be better) & some sticks or something of that defencive nature before pushing past the barricade of monkeys. It turned out that while we were in this town there was some kind of merry making, so we had fun hanging out at the market stalls & then we went of an itty bitty feris wheel because it made for a seat with a lovely view. I hardly bought anything to bring home because the thought of having to carry it across the country terrified me. We did end up climbing the hill the next day, it was ok until we reached the top. There at the summit a monkey came running after me
with it's hands outstreached. The only thing I had in my hand was a new 1L. bottle of water that we had just bought. I held that between myself & the monkey, & then he grabed onto it with both hands & started to pull. I was getting mad because we had just bought the water & carried it all the way up the hill so I wouldn't let go...but then neither would the monkey. Finally Megan said "ok, you just have to give the water to the monkey & walk away". Unfortunately, this incidence made me extreemly jumpy & leary of any & all of the hundreds of monkeys. I snuck around taking pictures, making sure to hide my camera because I didn't want any monkey to get in his head to grab it from me...that would be an insult that I could not endure. The trip down turned out to be a disaster because there were multitudes of monkeys gathered on the stairs...& planted right in the middle of them was the big papa. I was as unsettled & jumpy as could be, so much so that I began to pass my nervousness on to Megan like a
contagious disease. She assured me that animals can sence nervousness & act acordingly, so that was really comforting. Finally Megan threw the last of our stones down amongst the crowd & we marched down while Megan coached me: "one, two, three...we can do this...one more step...ok...a step to the left...now around this one..." I don't think it was very serious, but I got nervous & couldn't stop it so that's where the problem lay. We ate at the food stalls just down our road...only 20 B a plate.
Megan had a novel new idea: to go the school & ask if we could watch a class. It was an interesting thing to try because we don't speak any Thai, but it was worth an attempt. To my amazment it actually worked! After maybe 10 min we had things well enough explained & we had the oportunity to sit in on a couple classes, then we were asked to teach...hmmm. The 7 year olds were in a class from 8am-12, no break. Megan & I had ants in our pants by that point, I don't know how the little kids can be so good! When the teacher wanted a break
she just walked out for a few minutes. The boys were busy playing rock-paper-scissor, the looser must let all the other players touch him at the nape of his neck with their finger...I guess it is an embarassment of some sort. When the teacher came back in the room they all get into their desks again. The teacher walked up & down the isles & would slap any slow workers with a ruler. Then when they had mistakes she pulled their ear & pinched their cheeks. I brought out my camera & confusion reigned, they were so excited to have their pictures taken & then to look at themselves. The teacher supplied us with goodies to eat & the children brought us water...complete with the head bow/hands together just like the kids on "Anna & the King". The children were so adorable, we loved them imediately. They tried to teach me to count in Thai. We had an enturage of about 30 kids as we walked around the school all of them saying "Hello" "Hello, how are you?" " "Hello". Everytime we responded to them they rewarded us with a huge rotten tooth smile. It was removing gum from hair
when we tried to leave.
Megan decided to try the same kind of thing at the hospital, I strongly doubted that they would understand what we wanted let alone let us in for a tour. I looked at the odds & decided to go for a Traditional Thai Massage instead. The door was locked but a group of ladies sitting on the sidewalk made a quick phone call & my feet were soon set to soak in some warm lemon water while I sipped sweet ginger tea. The lady who would do the massage soon arrived as a passenger on her husband's motor bike. I do really think that any girl who backpacks is entitled to a massage, no questions asked. It was a full body massage for an hour, for only 120B. It took me a while to get back to our room because I got lost, but when I did get there I was amazed to hear about Megan's good time at the hospital.
At 9:45 am July 28, we got on a 3rd class train. It cost 56B to go to Bangkok. Once on board we pulled out our information on Bangkok: a small section
from the Lonely Planet Asia book & some photocopied pages from a Thailand book. We located our train station & an area that seemed to hold lots of options for lodging, on a small & incomplete LP map. The train was very very dirty & the seats very hard. I saw lots of plots filled with water, lots of people burning off parts of the fields & those cow things with the hump on the neck. (I know, impressive) People come through the train regularly to sell food & drinks, I would have loved to be able to drink the cold drinks that they were selling. As we reached the outskirts of Bangkok we were amazed because it looked exactly like any other community along the railroad tracks: dirt poor. Hmmm, I wonder what part of town are we being dropped off in?
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