Blogs from Prachuap Khiri Khan, Western Thailand, Thailand, Asia

Taking the night train again, I went south, to Khao Sok national park, with Yurena. I booked the tickets for the train, bus and hostel, and around 23:40, we left the hostel, with the three of us: Brian was headed back to Bangkok, to find a hostel there and cross the Cambodian border the next day. Yurena and me, we had a second class ticket for the 'sleep train', to Surat thani, about six hours to the south. It just turned out that the tickets I bought, however, were 'seated', meaning, we would not be in the comfortable cocoon of a sleeping berth, but in a 'reclining seat'. Also: the train was delayed a bit. When I asked 10m before it was supposed to arrive, if it would be on time, the clerk answered '15 or ... read more

Five years ago we fell in love with PKK and the Sun Beach Hotel. Back then we stayed for five nights but this time we only had two. None of our friends had ever heard of the place but last year, to our surprise, we worked with acouple who had visited the town and loved it as much as we did. Our aim this time was to relax and we certainly did that. The very high tide meant that once again the beach was unusable so we'll have to check the tide times and levels carefully before our next visit! Lounging by the pool or wandering through the sleepy streets was good enough for us. The town had changed a bit. There are quite a few more hotels and restaurants but there didn't seem to be ... read more

Oli varattu lennot Bangkokiin jo talvella, mutta mitään muuta suunnitelmaa ei ollut. Tarkoitus oli sukeltaa, mutta se jäi pois laskuista, kun S tuli raskaaksi. Loma uhkasi myös peruuntua kokonaan J:n työtilanteen takia, eikä sen vuoksi haluttu vielä sitten mitään suunnitellakaan. Kun loma varmistui, kohteet alkoivat viuhua ja vaihtua tiukkaan tahtiin. Yhtenä iltana oltiin varmoja, että mennään Taiwanille ja Vietnamiin, mutta jo aamupäivällä tilanne oli toinen. Australia, Borneo, Bali, Malediivit... Ainoa kuvioissa jatkuvasti säilynyt oli Penang Malesiassa. Thaimaasta haluttiin lähinnä pois, kun ei millään löydetty yhtään houkuttelevaa paikkaa kovasta yrityksestä huolimatta. Muutama päivä ennen lähtö S löysi sivuston, jolla kehuttiin junamatkaa Bangkokista Hua Hinin ohi etelään ja siltä pohjalta matkaa alettiin suunnitella. J vielä bongasi hienon majoituksen, joka heti varattiin, sekä kol... read more

My dear fellowship. It is time to tell the story of another part of my journey, though be aware! It might be the last part and I might well have my live lost in eternity and may prevail in your mind only. How I would have written these last words then? Imagine that while losing my life, my last remnant of soul carved these words into my hard drive to be the final good bye. There comes a point at every journey, where you think that the journey might have no end – and no happy ending. After a while today I found myself on this never ending black road. It continued dead straight until it faded into the horizon at some point I was never to reach. The heat had grown under the unforgiving sun ... read more

And onto my last pitstop before I finally head towards Bangkok, and it would be just a quick overnighter. About 3h north of Chumphon lies Prachuap Khiri Khan, a quiet, sleepy seaside town in the Central Gulf that sees rather few tourists. I did spot a few walking around town, but they seemed to comprise only of elderly, retired couples, perhaps drawn to the slow pace of things here. Like me, they were probably also just doing quick overnighters in transit to the capital, or down south where I was coming from. The town has a highly visible temple (Wat Thammikaram) atop a small hill, from which there is a wonderful view of the bay and city, and one of the prettier city pillar shrines around. But apart from that, there isn't that much else of ... read more