Prachuap Khiri Khan
I am having to go backwards now in order to recap a few of the weekend trips I have taken. This particular trip was to a small beach town about six hours south of Saraburi. I have already mentioned some of the reasons that I like Saraburi in comparison to its tourist counterparts. However, another great aspect of living close to Bangkok is that if I ever do wish to travel to the beaches of the south or the mountains of the north I can do so very easily.
It is a 100 Baht mini bus ride from Saraburi to Bangkok and the bus leaves from a spot about 10 minutes away from my house. A mini bus is a small white bus that fits about 14 people comfortably, they leave whenever they fill up and are a great way to get around, especially if you are trying to get to Bangkok. The bus takes about an hour to get to Bangkok and I have been blown away by how quickly and in such uncomfortable positions the Thai people can fall asleep. The bus pulls away from the stop and literally half the bus is already asleep heads hanging to their chest or bouncing off of the nearest window. The trip to Bangkok was no problem and I ecentually made it to Victory Monument, which is where the mini bus makes its last stop. I hopped on the sky train from there which is a monorail type train that runs over the top of bangkok. I was headed to Samut Prakan where a few new friends of mine live. I finally made it to there house after being kidnapped by a taxi driver for the 100th time. I say kidnapped, but what I mean is that he repeatedly told me he knew where he was going when in fact he did not. No worries though after a few wrong turns and a couple of conversations with local motor bike taxis we found our way to my friends place. The easy part was over.
We found ourselves getting faranged, my new term for being tricked in to a less than pleasing option by virtue of being a farang and not knowing any better, in to getting on to a bus that made a stop about every two miles in order to pick up another passenger. Mind you these were not people at bus stops with bus tickets, but people standing on the side of the rode holding out some money. For most of the ride the bus was packed to the point that the row down the middle had three people squished shoulder to shoulder all the way from the front to the very back, which just so happens to be where I was sitting. Now a little more information needs to be given about how truly faranged we had been. The trip from Bangkok to Khiri khan should take about 4.5 hours and very comfortable one way busses with televisions, free water and snacks leave the station we were at about every half hour. Our problems started when we got out of the taxi at the bus station and were immediately confronted by a short, stout very animated Thai woman asking us repeatedly “Where do you go, Where do you go”, it being early in the morning, around seven, and having had a few beers with my friends the night before I very “sleepily” told her we were headed to Prachuap Khiri Khan. “Oh ok ok ok” she responded, “bus leaves now right over there, you get on 200 baht”. The price seemed a bit lower than expected so we started to ask in my broken Thai whether or not there was air conditioning on the bus and if it was a nonstop trip. She smiled and told me in her broken English, “of course air conditioning and you stop only few times, very fast bus”. At that point my friends and I reconsidered getting on, that is when she pulled out the big guns, “next bus does not leave to Khiri Khan until 4 p.m.” she said as we almost started to walk away, “this bus leaves right now either get on or wait”. We not knowing any better and not exactly being in the best mindset to be making last minute decisions decided it was worth it to get on if we were going to have to wait another 8 hours to get on a bus. It was not worth it especially knowing now that we very well could, and should have walked right past her and gotten on to a real bus for an extra hundred baht that would have left no more than a half hour after we bought tickets.
The bus ride started out alright, other than there being no air conditioning just a couple of fans that barely worked, and for the first hour or so we were ignorantly happy to be on our way to the beach. Then came the stops, like I said any person on the side of the road with money we stopped and picked up. That means we never really got on the actual highway, but instead stayed on the much slower road next to the highway in order to pick people up. Again like I said earlier I was sitting in the back of the bus where there were four seats across. I had a friend to my left and right and on the other side of my friend to the right was a young boy and his mother. The trip was dragging along and I being very bored started to play high five games with the boy to my right, teaching him the high five, the pound and a handshake in about 5 minutes, I am a teacher after all. Then I brought out the camera and took some pictures and videos of him, Thai kids are absolutely blown away by digital cameras and video. I was having fun the kid was having fun the trip though very slow wasn’t too bad, until, the boy started throwing up due to car sickness. For the following 2 hours I had a nine year old boy about 3 feet away from me puking his brains out. I wasn’t mad at the kid I honestly felt really bad for him, that being said it was a less than ideal situation to be in while stuck on a bus. Luckily he got off the bus 2 hours later and I had the rest of the ride to just be really hot, swaet and very much squished. The 4.5 hour ride took us in the end almost 8, but we finally got to the beach and were more than happy to be there.
Super crowded bus yeah? This picture, looking at it now, does not even do the situation justuce. Probably because you can not feel how hot and sweaty it is...or smell the throw up.
The little boy on the bus that provided me with an hour of high fives and two hours of puke.
Prachuap Khiri Khan is a beautiful little beach town located about 10 kilometers from the Thailand-Myanmar border. It is much more a Thai tourist destination than a farang one and it was nice to be able to be on the beach without the craziness that can be accompanied by a western tourist spot. We rented motor bikes, which is when I fell in love with them and why I have one now, went swimming in the ocean, and checked out the Sunday market at the Myanmar border. To be honest not much happened once we got there, a lot of relaxing, and beach hopping followed by a drink or two before bed. The few days at the beach did not quite compare the the craziness of the bus ride that had gotten us there.
One thing that I have learned about this place is that no matter how easy you think your trip should be something will come up in order to throw things around a bit. At that point you have two options become upset and let it ruin your weekend or roll with the punches and take it in as a part of the experience. Mai pen rai is what the Thai people say when something doesn’t go their way it is a kind of, eh oh well can’t do anything about it so I am just going to keep going and not worry about it, type of mindset. That trip was the first one I took inside of Thailand and honestly it has helped my experience here so much. There are so many things about living and working in another country that can be frustrating and even angering sometimes. There is a language barrier, a cultural barrier, a weather barrier, pretty much any sort of barrier that can make things a bit uncomfortable at times. That is unless you learn quickly to embrace those things as the very reasons that you went to a foreign country in the first place. They make up the parts of the trip that will be unforgettable and serve to teach life lessons that will be carried for a very long time. The bus ride was not so great, mai pen rai, it taught me quick and early and my experience here has been all the better for it.
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View of Prachuap Khiri Khan. The islands and beaches in the distance are where I spent most of my time.
Beach in front of the gueshouse we stayed at.
Sign at the top of the 396 steps leading to the local Wat.
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View of Khiri Khan from the top of the steps.
Myanmar border in the distance. Outdoor market at the bottomofthe hill.
