Chumphon Boxing Day

Travelled down by train from Hua Hin on Boxing day after a strange Christmas Day which was quiet and uneventful.Perhaps you really need some cold weather and some alcohol to make it happen!

We discovered the best place to while away an hour is the Railway station coffee house the journey was about three hours through un-remarkable countryside, mainly consisting of a jungle of banana trees and other growth, quite relaxing nonetheless.

We stayed at the Chalica resort which consisted of a number of bungalows a bit like a motel but a bit more upmarket.Situated on the other side of the river from the station .Our room had a large bed and a huge bath with the shower outside surrounded by bamboo screen.

The next day we were picked up by a charming man called Lamphong who took us to the coast which was about 36km away from Chumphon.We agreed to hire him for the day to take us around the region.We first visited the Mu Ko Chumphon National park.The whole area is over 300 square kilometers of conservation area and the spot Lamphong took us to was a mangrove preservation area.

This was the first time I have used my seniority as a way of saving money! We got free entrance as pensioners.

We made our way along the walkways to discover we had chosen the same day as a school visit of around 60 kids aged 7-10 along with their teachers.We received stares, smiles and even a few hellos that got more frequent as we went around.Lovely.

I wonder what risk assessments that the teachers had to make which included how to deal with dropping off suspension bridges, walkways in to the swamp, how to deal with crab eating macaque monkeys and possibly a croc or two? By the way we discovered that the monkeys are carriers of Herpes B virus which doesn't cause them any problems but...don't get too friendly with them!!

We made our way back to the tuk tuk with the screeches of the monkeys or the kids, not too sure which.

Lamphong then took us to where the ferry for visiting the islands off the coast leave from.It was a first glimpse of a truly tropical beach scene but unfortunately the sea was too far in for us to enjoy it to its full.

We then moved on northwards and arrived at a rather sad looking location called Hat Sai Ri .The place could be a cross between Clacton and Morecambe on a bad day.Lamphong took us to a front line , I was going to write bar/restaurant but neither fit it.It was really no more than someones living space which spread out on to the pavement.It was suggested it was lunchtime and we might like to have some seafood.....well we're not that acclimatised to this type of living just yet so we settled on two beers. To our surprise the old man disappeared off on his bike and returned a couple of minutes later with......two beers of the large variety which he offered us but they were too much for us to drink. We ended up paying for the two but only having the one as we couldn't see him out of pocket.Felt a bit guilty not eating there but no way!

We then made our way to the shrine of the Prince of Chumphon, the son of King Rama V, known as the father of the Thai Navy, where we met up with the kids once again, this time they had firecrackers being set off along with a warship HMS Chumphon to run around on.