We’re at the train station waiting to leave Prachuap Khiri Khan, which kind of sucks, because I finally learned the name of the town. Yes, it’s taken this long for me to learn it. My parents always said I was special. We’re going to Chumphon for the night, then taking a ferry to Koh Tao.
Prachuap Khiri Khan is a small seaside town that has few tourists and seems to be pretty relaxed. The people seem very nice, especially the owner of the hotel we stayed at, De Boutique (stay there if you find yourself in this town!), even though it seems like some of the locals laugh at us for being Farangs (foreigner, but may have a slight disparaging term for it). For example, the day after we went to the beach, we climbed the equivalent of 34 flights of stairs (thanks Fitbit!) to a temple sanctuary or something like that. We went to a restaurant after and I feel the locals there were laughing because of how red and sweaty we were. Since I don’t understand Thai, I refuse to be insulted.
Also, Jay is awesome!
It’s very beautiful here. we rented bikes for pretty cheap and rode them to Ao Manao, the local beach. On our way, we passed through the Thai Air Force base; the beach being part of the base. We rode across a runway, which was really rad. Never thought I would ride a bike that’s rocking a front basket across a runway! Bucket list: check.
The beach was beautiful to say the least. There were mountains surrounding us in the distance, and the water was warmer than the air itself; dare I say warmer than an old mans bath water? That’s definitely saying a lot considering the heat here.
After a frolic in the ocean, Jay and I chilled out on the beach, partaking in an activity that is still one of my favorites; just talking to each other.
Oh yeah, side-note: we’re really paranoid. We had about a 45 minute debate on what to do with our stuff. I wanted to chain the Burger backpack (yes, we have a backpack that looks like a delicious cheeseburger) to our bikes which were laying in front of our beach chairs. Jay thought someone could walk by and still ransack us. Jay wanted to ask someone to watch our stuff, but my thinking was that they were still strangers, despite asking for a favor, who could also ransack us. Eventually, we compromised and asked some French people to watch our stuff while still being chained to our bikes. They didn’t mind, they were just sitting there being French.
Like I said, the day after, we climbed up 34 flights of stairs to some kind of Monk thing. It’s very high and taxing, but the view of the ocean and town make it worthwhile.
And the best part? It’s over-run with monkeys! Yes, everyone has seen monkeys before, but it’s quite a different experience seeing hundreds of monkeys without a cage dividing you.
Jay is very afraid of them, but to her credit, she swallowed her fear and made the trek anyway. I’m very proud of her. Besides, monkeys are pretty rad.
Our trip to Prachuap Khiri Khan wasn’t without its downfalls though. The train coming in was about two to three hours late. We walked the pier looking for a hotel, but everything was full. Jay says it’s because it’s high season here, and also maybe because it’s Friday. We eventually luck out and get a really cute hotel (De Boutique) which was only a short two block walk to the pier.
Upon being here, we discovered that my hard drive no longer worked. I loaded up a terrabyte hard drive with movies and TV shows so we wouldn’t be incredibly homesick. That means no more Parks and Rec, which gave us a sense of home, as well as movies, and other shows. We have other things on USB drives to watch, but still….
Yesterday, Jays laptop stopped working, because… that’s what it wanted to do. It just wouldn’t power on. It makes planning destinations and emails very difficult. After researching on our phones for a solution, we discover we need a special screwdriver (pentalobe, thank you proprietary Apple products), so off to a computer place we go!
The people continue to not disappoint. At the computer store, they bend over backwards to try to get the bottom off the Mac Book Air. It eventually happens, but the computer won’t be repaired today. After about an hour and a half of them helping us, to no avail, they refuse to take any money for their efforts. I wish I could find a McDonald’s employee to act the same way when I’m not quite full after eating there.
Today, the laptop booted up, but would shut down shortly after. The computer people are guessing it’s the motherboard; so we might have to take a special trip to Phuket (poo-ket, I know, I was very disappointed too), where there’s a few authorized Apple dealers. I don’t mind much at all, it’s not like we’re on a time crunch, and it’s another adventure, which is what we’re here for after all.