holiday travels part one: Chumpon

The past four weeks have gone by in such a blur, that always tends to happen when you're on vacation doesn't it?

It was a great four weeks though and I did a lot of bouncing around to visit different friends and join up with different friends.  I've been lucky to make friends through work and travel, and that allows me to plan future trips to meet up with them.

For this holiday- March 12-April 6 I decided to head south for some good beach and island hopping.  I started out by traveling up around the Gulf of Thailand and then south along the coast toward Chumpon which is located on the Isthmus of Thailand.  If you look on a map of Thailand, Rayong is northeast of Chumpon across the Gulf of Thailand.  Too bad there isn't a boat for that trip...

I was headed to Chumpon via bus from Rayong to visit my friend Jess.  I am really grateful to my Thai gal pal Nick for helping me arrange a bus journey from my town of Rayong instead of having to go through Bangkok.  It can be tough to book buses in my town when I don't speak enough Thai and tehy might not speak enough English.  Nick took care of phone calls and even spoke to the driver so he knew where to stop for me because the bus was bound for Koh Samui- the southernmost island in the chain of island in the southwestern part of the Gulf of Thailand.  I didn't need to go that far, she helped me out a lot with clarifying that.  The trip was about 11 hours- I departed at around 6:30pm and arrived at 5:30am.  Not much to write home about for the journey itself- except that while trying to sleep, I felt little things crawling on me, and saw little things scurrying on the walls of the bus, only to realize they were baby cockroaches.  Yes!  I could really sleep well after that.

I was dropped at a major intersection about 8k from the town of Chumpon.  Were this 7 months ago I would have been mildly freaking out at the thought of being dumped at the side of the road not really knowing where I was.  Now, I just grateful that the Thai bus attendants wake up you in when you've reached your destination.  I know in some other places you might not be so lucky.  At that point I waited with the taxi guys for my friend Jess's Thai family to pick me up. 

I arrived at her house and immediately crashed on the little bed she made for me.  Jess and I know each other from AYC- we met at the seminar I attended before starting work.  We were placed together as roommates at the hotel.  She's originally from Green Bay, Wisconsin.  Go halfway around the world and meet someone that lives within a 5 hour drive of your hometown.

We spent the next four days cooking tacos, (they were delicious and I was excited to have western food after a good while without any) riding bicycles to the beach, swimming in the ocean, and visiting a really cool temple in a cave.  It was a very relaxing and enjoyable mini-vacation.  It was so great to be back on a bike again, and the conversations Jess and I had while riding I will definitely cherish.  Since then, I have promised myself to buy a bike in Rayong.  I don't know why I didn't right away.  I guess I thought I should have a really good purpose, or reason.  But I think the reason to have a bike is so simple I just overlooked it.  You don't really need one specific purpose to have a bike, it will create its own purposes and adventures.

The town of Chumpon is a very livable town and I think Jess really enjoyed it there.  She rides her motorbike to school, but otherwise she rides a bicycle around town and gets to ride through jungle for most rides.  The town is quite large and a bit spread out, but people are just as friendly and the beach is so quiet and amazingly underdeveloped.  This is seriously shocking.  It is a beautiful stretch of sand with only a few guesthouses and one small hotel.  On clear days you can see Koh Tao- the island that's about 3 hours by boat.  The town sees some traffic from tourists on their way to and from the islands and to get across the isthmus of Thailand to the Andaman Sea side, but not too much in the town itself.  On Sunday and Tuesday there's a great market on the main road, selling great food and of course the standard market items- clothes, jewelry, bags, sarongs, wood carvings, etc.  It's a nice atmosphere though. 

It was a really nice trip and I felt so happy there- it was great to be with a friend- especially a midwesterner!  I was a little sad to go, but I knew the next adventure would bring more good times.  Here are some photos from Chumpon.  Enjoy!

Chumpon beach- not much build up!  There's a road behind those trees, and some restaurants.

Being led into the cave by our monk friend. I think his name was Siripim.

 

so happy to ring the bells!

"This Buddha, new Buddha.  200 years old.  That Buddha, old Buddha.  2,000 years old." General time frame for old or young a Buddha in the caves are.  Thank you, Monk Siripim.  Most informative.  But when every Buddha in the cave is 2,000 years old you start to wonder about that time frame...

 

Monk Sirilak was always willing to take photos of us.  On the right is Jess.  Left is Jess's friend and I'm a terrible person because I cannot remember her name at this moment!  Kate, I think.  But photos inside caves are pretty silly since it's so dark, but Siripim would often pause and just say, "Ok, I take photo" and gesture for us to get together.  So, what the heck.

Your turn for a photo Siripim!  

aaand then we got look at the porcupines battle it out for a papaya!  yes!  There's a little 'zoo' at the temple.  There were about 15 porcupines in this cage.  Other animals included brightly colored birds, an ostrich, and lots of turtles.

ahhh. doesn't this one just make you take a deep breath?  to me this is an image of relaxation and jubilation.