Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand

The Train

We took the 2nd class train from the central Bangkok station ambling along making several stops and arrived about 7 hours later in Prachuap Khiri Khan. Prachuap is a beach town which we picked because it’s relatively quiet but known to be popular for locals; just south of Hua Hin a much bigger and pricier tourist destination.

Prachuap Town

The town has a long stretch of beach along a wide bay between two rocky promontories. The beach at Prachuap is basically unswimmable. The swimming beach is in the next bay to the south, Ao Manao, but it’s located within a Thai air force base. It’s accessible to locals and foreigners but you have to do a quick passport check before entering.

Islands in Prachuap Bay

I think we were there right before high season. It was quiet. Guesthouses looked mostly empty. Tourists could be spotted only here and there.

Our first guesthouse was a simple bed and breakfast just down the street from the train station, and the central night market was just a couple blocks away. On weekends there’s a long night market that takes over the main beachfront street. Then, there’s another market on the other side of the train station that’s open a few days a week.

Night market

Night markets are a Thai necessity. In Indonesia most “wet markets” we saw (selling fresh meat and produce) open very early and close mid-morning. In Thailand it’s more often to find them open in the afternoon and by late afternoon they turn into night markets selling prepared foods, fresh fruit, desserts and drinks. Thai people regularly eat dinner at these vendor stalls or takeaway to eat at home. So it makes it easier to find food as a foreigner — while menus are rarely in English, they often have pictures showing familiar dishes.

Ao Noi

Prachuap has a small mountain near the beach with temple at its peak, it’s a regular attraction but has become overtaken by groups of monkeys. We were told they can be aggressive and so we skipped it.

Instead we went north to the forked promontory where there is a small cove, Ao Noi. At one end there is a temple and nearby a well-known cave with large reclining Buddha statues. The temple has a nice setting and nearby to the south-facing beach is a set of monks’ quarters.

Wat Ao Noi

The southern fork of the promontory is Khao Ta Mong Lai, a forest park with a (retired?) scout camp. We did the short shoreline hike and skipped stones over the gentle waves. On both sides of the promontory you can see the fishing boats parked along the beach front, I suppose they must fish a lot at night and early morning. On our way back to Prachuap town we stopped for lunch at a small restaurant and enjoyed the best seafood salad we’ve had with some very tender squid and octopus — spicy!

Ao Noi Bay

Children’s Day

Posing on the artillery jeep

The second Saturday of January is Children’s Day in Thailand. Though we had no idea about it beforehand, it turned out to be a great thing. Our hosts had told us to go to the air force base because there would be a lot of events for kids. So we filed on to the long line of cars and motorbikes to parade into the base to find thousands of people near the runway watching some of the base’s planes, fighter jets, artillery-packed jeeps and other vehicles. Asa was excited to see the plane’s up close got to sit on a forklift.

Peacemaker

Being on sunny military base surrounded by families — it reminded us of being in Hawaii.

Elephants!

Our second guesthouse was far from the coast and run by a very friendly Vietnamese American man. He designed the place mostly by himself, and built (with some help), about six very nice guesthouses on his property. He also loves food and cooking and built a little brick pizza oven. Delicious!

One afternoon he offered to bring us along with his family to Kui Buri National Park, a wildlife sanctuary known for its elephants. We hopped on one of the pickup trucks that guide visitors around the park to spot the herds. We stopped at a few different view points and then finally got to a promising spot. Slowly, carefully a group of 30-40 came out of a little gully and onto a little plain. They seemed to be of different ages and one of the guides said the youngest was about a year old. These were wild elephants, as wild as they get these days. In Phuket we saw elephants along the road that were being ridden, hosed down or going through some kind of training for shows. This was something else.

Chang (elephants)

Though they could see us they showed little curiosity — at the closest they came to about 50 meters from where we stood snapping pictures. In another spot we saw a smaller group and were quickly ushered back in the truck because according to the guide the alpha bull was in heat.

On the way to Kui Buri we passed by the rolling hills of pineapple — the region is known to produce some of the best in the country. We bought some before boarding the long train ride back to Bangkok the next day.