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Published: January 15th 2009
Polly:
Well, after our yucky journey from Koh Tao aboard the Lomprayah ferry to Chumphon, we were whisked off in a taxi and dropped at the Merokot Hotel within five minutes of our arrival. For 400 Baht a night, the hotel was fantastic. It was clean, had a lift, spacious room, TV, fridge, air-conditioning and a bath. I haven't sat in a bath tub since staying with Nic & Jim in Australia, so was a bit over-excited. We didn't hang around long though as we both had empty bellies and I'd run out of shampoo & shower gel!
As we walked around the town I was struck by a feeling of calmness. Nobody was shouting; “'Ello, taxi?”, “You wan' look, nice nice?”, or the favourite line which seems to be applied to just about everything, “I have for you, same same, but different!” In fact, when we looked around, we seemed to be the only Westerners on the street.
We stopped at a little eatery, below the FAME hostel, where there were a few other travellers. With some western food on the menu, Ross made the most of it and ordered a chicken & mushroom pie with gravy
An old steam train...
...on the road to Chumphon stationand mashed potatoes, while I settled for some noodles.
After dinner we strolled back to the hotel, via a shop to get some toiletries. Unless you find a 'Boots' in Thailand, which do seem to pop up from time to time, buying toiletries can be tricky. Firstly, all the writing is in Thai symbols, so a phrase book leaves you none the wiser. You may recognise a brand name like 'Pantene', but then you still have to distinguish the shampoo from the conditioner. The second problem is that so many skin products on sale are actually for making your skin whiter, and this is no good for my tan!
We then went home where I had a long, much-needed soak in the bath. I then got into bed and realised we had a duvet. Again, a first since Australia! Normally you just get a thin woven sheet or a large towel, so cranking the air-conditioning up and getting snug under the duvet was very cosy. Ross then tuned in to some extreme deep sea fishing adventures on the box, and I think that just about finished me off. Zzzzz...
Some ten hours later Ross woke up and
Waiting at the bus stop...
...for a local guy who was trying to be helpful - bless him! finally made use of the bath, then went downstairs to fetch us our free coffee. We then gathered up all our dirty clothes and went in search of some laundry facilities. I think it was the biggest load we've accumulated whilst away, and as such, I was temporarily left with only my sarong to wear as a skirt and a long sleeved top - everything else was stinky. After five minutes in the heat, the long-sleeved top got too much, and I had to buy a bargain vest top from a street stall. We found a launderette, and after a lot of gesticulation and pointing at the calender, we established that she was going to do it today for us that day, and that we were to go back at 6pm.
We had a leisurely breakfast at a little coffee bar, then wandered to the train station to check out our onward transport to Hua Hin (where Ross had scouted out a kitesurfing centre on the internet). The attendant told us we could book a ticket on the special express train for 380 Baht or take the budget train for just 44 Baht. Unfortunately, there were no seats available
on either train for the following day so we headed off towards the bus station. The bus station wasn't really a bus station at all, just a few bus stops at the side of the road. There was no office, but a very friendly local fellow was trying to find us some help and kept using his one favourite English phrase: “Hang on a minute!”. After about fifteen minutes, and despite his efforts, no help arrived, so we decided to try the Lomprayah ferry office, where we'd booked our hotel. They were a bit more helpful, but still couldn't tell us any times of buses, only that a ticket would cost 240 Baht. They took our room number at the Merokot Hotel, and said that they would call us at 8pm.
We had a bit more of a stroll before heading back for an afternoon nap at the Merokot. After fetching our clean clothes later that evening, we grabbed a bite to eat, then headed back once more with a couple of bottles of beer.
The next morning we received a phone call, but it was all a bit 'lost in translation'. I'm sure the lady on the
phone said that we had to be in reception at 11.15 for an 11.30 bus, but she was not clear about where the bus was leaving from? We got to reception at 11.00 and the receptionist was also very confused. She phoned the 'office', but the lady on the other end also didn't know anything about it (we're not sure which 'office' they phoned!). In the end we hightailed it a couple of blocks, on foot, to the Lomprayah office. They seemed to know what was going on, and promptly took us to an even more random bus station for our 11.30 departure. At 1pm the bus eventually pulled up and we were on our way, although not quite sure where to as we'd both neglected to look up Hua Hin in the guide book which was now safely stowed in the bus' luggage hold.
We hadn't planned to stay in Chumphon for more than one night, but are really glad that we did. It's a funny little town, and you can't help but feel refreshed after a couple of days there. Apart from being near the ferry port, we think that the town is mainly used by foreign
residents from the east coast islands who are undertaking visa runs to neighbouring Myanmar. Otherwise it's a pretty unspoilt town where you see local people going about their daily lives without the hindrance of hordes of tourists. There's not much in the way of sights in the town but there is a national park on the coast to the north.
Ross:
After three hours on the bus we finally rolled into Chumphon. With the lack of a decent town map we were winging it a bit but hopped off outside a large shopping complex. In contrast to Chumphon, the end of Hua Hin we were in was teeming with pink Western tourists and McDonalds-style restaurants. Our intention was to use Hua Hin to break up the journey to Bangkok, and maybe to do a little bit of kitesurfing...
Our chosen bus stop was not far from a little row of guesthouses, all offering rooms for an inflated 900 to 1800 Baht. Polly finally managed to barter OK Guesthouse down to a reasonably acceptable 700 Baht a night and we settled in to our loft room on the top floor, a little bit frustrated that we'd ended
up in what seemed to be a fairly tacky tourist trap. There were overweight, loud Germans everywhere. After having a quick gander at the nearby beach, and in need of food, we ate at a nasty little Thai fast food place, trying our hardest to stay out of the pizzerias and other Western fast food joints. We had a quick gander in Tesco's (yes, Tesco's...) to see if we could stock up our fridge with some sandwich-making material, but the prices were ridiculous, especially for cheese.
On returning to the street on which our guesthouse stood, we found a bar with a weak WiFi signal and checked up on e-mails and the like, before heading to bed. Unfortunately, thoughts of cheese got the better of us and we opted for one last jaunt to a little cafe opposite our guesthouse for three rounds of cheese-and-ham toasties with chips. Despicable behaviour!
The next morning we headed to the beach which was about five minutes walk from where we were staying. It was very crowded with Westerners of all shapes and sizes huddled under beach umbrellas, and even a few lady-boys in bikinis thrown in for fun. Nonetheless, the wind
was blowing and there were kites in the sky so the lady-boys would have to wait. After a ten-minute march down the beach, Pol set up camp in a slightly quieter area whilst I investigated the two kitesurfing centres nearby. Although both centres were providing lessons for beginners, the wind that day wasn't quite enough for a proper blast so, vowing to return the following morning, I took the opportunity to scout out the aforementioned gender-realigned beings under the pretence of a half-hour jog down the beach.
Towards the town end of Hua Hin beach, the super-hotels began, with the likes of the Hilton and the Marriot sprawling back towards the main road, armed security guards at the beach entrances to stop the riff-raff (us) getting in. Just around the corner, the beach ends at a promenade leading to numerous waterfront restaurants with jetties reaching out into the sea. A little bit further up the coast is the King of Thailand's coastal palace, heavily guarded by a massive no-go zone and four gunboats moored offshore. The area was being policed very heavily as the King was in for the weekend.
After getting the last drop of energy out
of the sun, we returned to our lodgings, showered and anti-mozzied, then wandered down the main road in the direction of the town to investigate travel options to Bangkok. We first called in at the station to see about catching the train. There were no bookable seats left for the following day but we were told that we could turn up for one of the third class trains on a first-come, first-served basis. The train station was very quaint, looking like it had just been lifted straight off the Severn Valley Railway.
We then tried the bus office. They had plenty of seats left on most of the buses the following day so we decided to book a couple of tickets for the 4pm bus, rather than run the risk with the train. With onward transport sorted for the next day, we wandered through the night market to one of the waterfront restaurants for a Thai tea, glad to have finally seen a slightly more authentic side of the town. We wandered back to the guesthouse along a moonlit, deserted Hua Hin beach, with the gun boats lit up like Christmas trees on the horizon.
I got up
fairly early on our last day in Hua Hin to get an hour of kitesurfing in before leaving for Bangkok. I rented a 16m Airush Vapor, twin-tip board and harness from Kiteboarding Asia for 1000 Baht for an hour. The wind was blowing about 14 knots cross-onshore by the time I got on the water but dropped off to about 10 knots by the end of the hour, meaning that staying upwind was pretty hopeless. After drifting some way downwind, followed by a couple of marches back up the beach, I was pleased to have had a go but happy to return the equipment. Polly had made it down to the beach by this point so we had another couple of hours sunning ourselves, before finally returning to OK Guesthouse, packing up our belongings, flagging a ride to the bus stop and heading to Bangkok.
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