South Thailand I go

I din't want to spend too much time in Bangkok. I had few errands to do, but I was ready to leave after 2 days.

I looked for my next destination in the Lonely Planet book. First town that was promised to be non touristy was Prachuap Khiri Khan, it doesn't have a nice beach, but has few hills to hike with views of the bay with little fishermen boats. Sounded nice to me!

I decided to take the train, remembering how much I enjoyed my train trips in Vietnam. I didn't need to get my ticket in advance, just showed up at the station 20 min before the train departure.

I was surprise how old the train cars were. Still all wood inside, dirty and not much different that the ones in Myanmar or Vietnam. I bought the second non AC class, which was half cheaper than the first class.  I had 6 hours of travel ahead of me.

As usual the train turned out to be a great choice, the view was amazing, especially once we got to the country side. All lush green, with limestone mountains in the background.

It was dark by the time I made it to the little town. Finding hotel was easy enough. It started to rain soon after, so I put my rain jacket on and went to explore the night market. It was food lover dream come true. Little stands with Thai food, dinner for dollar.

One thing that I like about Thailand is that they don't have double prices. At the local market you pay what locals would.

I had a busy day the next day. I climbed the 365 steps to the temple on the hill, which has a huge population of monkeys living there. They said they hitched a ride here from Bangkok on the bus long time ago in a serge of fresh mangoes. Being surrounded by monkeys wasn't my favorite, especially when few of the brave ones came so close, they were basically rubbing against my legs. When I tried to shoo them off, one started showing his teeth at me. Well, time to run!

I rented a bicycle and went to explore the hill to the right side of the town in the afternoon .It is in the army base location, so you have to sign at the gate to hike it.

What a climb! It started with endless steps up the hill and got even more challenging when you reach the steep part, that has ropes stretched out  for safety. The trail was all slippery from the recent rain. I tried to make it all way, but you guys know how much I don't like rock climbing, especially when alone. So I made it to the view point and turned back.

I met lovely older lady at the bottom, we chatted for little and it turned out she was from New Zealand . We had lunch together at the beach food stands. We shared life stories, and she was rather inspiring. I would never guess she was 70. I got invitation to stay at her place in NZ for few days when I get there. I hope I will meet here again one day.

I biked around the town at the twilight hour, enjoying the little interactions with locals and the good light for pictures taking.

I had early dinner and got good sleep that night, feeling all sore from all that stairs climbing.

I took the local slow train to my next destination the next day. Bang Saphan Yai was exactly what LP said it would be. Beach with beach front huts, with basically no tourists. I would take long walks on the beach with meeting only local fishermen.

I became friends with 4 German students, who were great company for the lonely evenings.

We went for a night swim yesterday and to our delight there was fluorescent algae in the water that made our swim amazing experience. We splashed around making the water glow. What a great last night at this beach.

Back to Asia

Hello my friends. I am back. I spent 90 days in sunny California, visiting friends in a small town of Coloma. I took it rather easy and became a master at chillaxing. Biking, running, relaxing with my book by the river and cooking. Spending time with my old friends and making few new ones.  Summer went by fast and it is time to go back to traveling. 

Getting working holidays visa for New Zealand in March changed my plans, so instead of heading to Central and South America  I am heading back to Bangkok. I would like to spent some time in south Thailand, snorkeling and learning to scuba dive, than head more south to Malaysia and eventually making my way to Indonesia and Bali, which should be a good place to fly to NZ from. 

As usual my, plans might change as I go. 

Flight from SF was amazing, I had the whole middle line of seats for myself and being able to stretch out and sleep was just the best. Not even the crying baby could spoil my good travel. 

I am in Shanghai now, my connecting flight to Bangkok changed to earlier time so I might be able to take train to the hostel and save money on taxi.

I feel like a pro traveler now, already having my little routine, brushing my teeth, visiting the nearest duty free shop to apply the most expensive cream on my face. 

Second part of my trip turned out to be big pain. We boarded the plane and than had to wait 2 hours in our seats for the weather to get better so we could fly out. 

I was happy to be in Bangkok, getting through the customs was easy as always. Taxi took me to my usual hostel and I was sleeping by 2 am. 

Just few pictures from camping in Desolation Wilderness in California and visiting San Francisco, which is truly the most amazing town. The China town was a good warm up for my trip back to Asia.