Sea breeze over the Gulf of Thailand

On the day I returned from Thailand I sent a Short Message Service (SMS) to my friend Ong Peng San which read:

After tasted the Siamese village chicks for days, I’m now back to Bukit Mertajam.

He replied:

But I didn’t see any of your photos taken with the Siamese village girls on your blog.

My dear friend could have misconstrued my message. He thought I was just another faithful contributor to the booming sex industry in Thailand. However, if he had known that in this trip I was with my wife, her cousin sister and her cousin brother in law, I believed he would not have jumped to that conclusion.

In this trip there were two families traveling in a four wheeler; my wife and I as a family unit, my wife’s cousin sister and her husband plus their grandson as the other. It was agreed upon that all the expenditures on food and petrol during the trip would be shared out between the two families.

Friends who knew of our intended trip to Thailand were concerned of our safety. They hoped we would ‘jump ship’. This was because at the time of our travel, demonstrators were occupying the Bangkok International Airport demanding for a change of the government. Nevertheless we were not worried at all. As in the past, the demonstration was confined and contained within a specific area and it was unlikely for it to spread to other parts of the country. Since we did not intend to go near Bangkok, we presumed we would be safe as life would be going on as usual in other parts of the nation.

Moreover, I had full confidence in our driver, Mr. Ng Keng Heong, the husband of my wife’s cousin sister. In the past two years he has journeyed four times through the countries in Indochina with his Toyota Land Cruiser II. He even reached a border town at Yunnan of China. For him every trip was just another adventure as he would explore new routes and venture into new towns. There was no exception this time. I had the opportunity to be his ‘co-pilot’, to help him to check the route maps to find a shorter route to Krabi, a coastal town to the west of Southern Thailand. On that very day itself we had covered more than 600 kilometers to reach our destination.

Driving at the expressways in Thailand, according to Mr. Ng, was rather relaxing and less strenuous as compared to that of Malaysia. He explained:

“All the expressways in Thailand are well maintained and upgraded from time to time. It is toll free at all the expressways except one stretch of the road at Bangkok where a car needs to pay 4 dollars our Malaysian money. Sign boards are written in 2 languages, Thai and English. There is no speed limit sign board and no speed trap. Nevertheless, the drivers are cautious and courteous; they drive at moderate speeds. They always keep to the left lane except during overtaking of vehicles in front.”

Travelling in Thailand with a four wheeler was to him as easy as reciting ABC, and it should not be like learning Latin for others as he pointed out:

“As long as you have a sense of direction and have a detailed route map with you, you can travel from North to South in the country following the expressway No.4 or No. 41. Make sure you have abundant cash in your pocket and petrol in your tank. Any other problem shouldn’t be a problem at all.”


On the second day we turned eastward to move on to other seaside towns along the Gulf of Thailand. In fact we did not have a specific plan as to how many places we wanted to visit and how many days we wanted to stay in Thailand. We were flexible in our itinerary. We allowed the Thai bahts we carried to pave our journey along the coastal line of the Gulf of Thailand until our Thai money ran dry; then it was time for us to be back to Malaysia.

For the first two days, whenever I asked our driver where we wanted to put up for the night, he would say:

“Not certain yet, have to see first.”

From the third day onwards, I stopped asking him the same question as I would expect him to give me back the same answer.
For eleven days in Thailand we had stayed in five places namely, Krabi, Chumphon , Ban Krut, Prachuabkhirikhan and Hua Hin. During this trip we had adopted a guideline that which ever hotel at any one place can offer us a good bargain, we shall stay there for two nights. In this trip we stayed one night each at Krabi and Prachuabkhirikhan, two nights at Chumphon and Hua Hin and four nights at Ban Krut. For the whole trip my family used roughly RM 2000, out of which RM 250 was used solely for the petrol. The rest was for food and accommodation.

Obviously, among the hotels we stayed, the best one was the Baan Grood Arcadia Resort at Ban Krut. It was a five star hotel newly operated in the year 2008.
(http://www.brochures-on-line.com/Baangrood-Arcadia.htm
http://www.bgaresort.com/index.html )

No one among us would dispute that we liked to stay in this hotel. I would say it is an ideal place for those holiday seekers who like to escape from the hectic life outside, to reside for a few days in solitude in this luxury hotel at a remote town unknown to many. One can go cycling for hours around the town, or along the road adjacent to the beach; or to swim in the pool of the resort. Or he can watch the sun rise over the horizon early in the morning and leave his footprints on the beaches before night falls.
Besides, there is a very distinctive landmark at Ban Krut; a brand new yellowy painted Buddhist temple, Phra Phut Kiti Sirichai Pagoda, located on top of a hill by the seaside. It can be seen from a distance a few kilometers away, shining in golden light under the blazing sunshine. The doors leading to the main shrine hall of the temple are not rectangular in shape, but in a form of trapezium. The artistic wall paintings are very unique and unconventional. They are supposed to illustrate a pictorial Buddhist history or story.

From Ban Krut we travelled north to stay at Prachuap Khiri Khan and Hua Hin.

Prachuap Khiri Khan is a pleasant, friendly town. Fishing is the town’s main industry. Seafood here is cheap and superb. I am sure those who are supposed to be on diet would also be tempted ‘to eat their words for a day or two’ so as to enjoy the delicious seafood here.

Hua Hin is ninety-three km north of Prachuap Khiri Khan. Once it was just a small fishing village, now it has developed into a tourist town full of hotels, seafood restaurants, bars and travel agencies. It is now a popular destination for foreign travelers. It is famous for its seafood, but the best seafood is now often found outside the town.

Our trip had to be cut short abruptly by two days as our driver suddenly fell ill at Hua Hin. He was vomiting and having diarrhea. We suspected he could have suffered from food poisoning due to consuming of seafood for the past few days. The following day he rested in the hotel while we went for window shopping at the Market Village (Tesco Lotus) at the town proper. Although he felt better the next day, he was too weak to proceed further north to Phetchaburi. So we decided to turn back to Ban Krut to rest for two more days before we returned to Malaysia on December 22, 2008.

This Thailand trip is an eye opener for me after my last visit twenty five years ago. Thailand seems to be a Promised Land. It has long stretches of beautiful beaches and vast areas of virgin jungles. It has a great potential for the development of its tourist and agricultural industries. Further more, it has adopted a free market mechanism whereby the petrol price and foreign currency exchange rate are left to be floating at competitive rates among the operators. To my mind, Thailand is set to be better prepared to face the inescapable forces of globalization and economic liberalization.