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TonyT's 7th Thailand blog:
A month in and around the country:
March - April 2024.
Page 5
Buriram and the road to Laemsok
SATURDAY 30th
Up a little later after last night's party. Temperature still in the high 30's.
A bit of a non-day really. Went into Phanom Dong Rak village centre to buy some additional patio chairs a few groceries and a new set of aluminium cooking pots & pans for Somjit, my mother-in-law. Her existing ones being worn out and dented.
Big thunderstorm late afternoon but it only lasted 20 minutes but long enough to create vast pools of standing water.
Good to have dinner with the whole Khongjaidee family; Aom, her two brothers, James & Joe along with parents. We'd only just sat down to eat when a few spots of rain appeared sending us to eat under the awning part of the house. What followed was a true tropicl thunderstorm with torrential rain. This lasted a good 45 minutes bringing out a host of loud croaking frogs out in the fields. There was mention of Chet (my father in-law) going out and collecting some for following day's breakfast... mmm, not for me. I have eaten bits of frog before but I'll pass on this one.
SUNDAY 31st.
This will be our last day on the farm for 10 days as tomorrow we'll be on the road to Trat on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand close to the Cambodia border. The aim is to sleep over at the Leamsok Pier to catch the 10:45 ferry to Ko Kood (Ko Kut). I've booked us into a five-star resort there for a 9-day stay.... a sort of Honeymoon, but of course we'll have our son Jack along with us.
PHOTOS ABOVE are all of the Prasad Phanom Rung, Khmer Temple, Buriram
MONDAY 1st APRIL.
Up and about at 6am finishing off our packing and getting some breakfast.
We were ready to roll around 08:15 saying our goodbyes to Chet & Somjit (Aom’s parents).
Distance to travel today is 450km (280 miles).
I’ve driven thousands of miles around Thailand and found generally it to be very straight forward. OK the “rules of the road’ differ from my home country UK, but the traffic is far lighter with mile after mile of fairly empty roads. Driving through towns (Thais call even a hamlet a city) present a bit more concentration.
For instance, many This drive in what we would call the overtaking lane in a dual carriageway and quite OK to undertake. I think this stems from the days when Thai country roads were so crap and full of potholes on the edges that they got into the habit of driving on the remaining ‘good’ bits. In those days head-on collisions were plentiful.
Stopped off to top with diesel and take a break at an Amazon coffee shop (no not that Amazon). Always good coffee at these service areas.
Further on after uneventful driving, we came across a superb temple we visited in 2022, the Wat Mae Ya Som temple situated near Sa Kaeo. Each statue features common physical attributes, poses, and postures that define its purpose and meaning. The hand gestures of the Buddha, called mudras, indicate teaching, meditation, enlightenment, and wisdom.
As the last time we we visited her in 2022, it was very hot but there’s lots of shade about this big site.
All the photos below are of the Wat Mae Ya Som temple.
On our way again and as we neared Trat the sky darkened and big dollops of rain began. My truck is a pick-up and our luggage was in the open back so I had to find a spot to pull over and retrieve the cases. By this time the roads were wet and in braking hard to pull into a scrub area off road the truck went into a skid. No real problem as I managed to control it, but it did remind me that some of these road surfaces are lethal when wet.
One final coffee break on the outskirts of Trat and we were through this big town and on towards Laemsok slightly ahead of schedule.
Located our stopover Homestay easily and checked in. This was the An-A-Lay “Check-in and Check-out”. For the price this place was excellent. We stayed in a raised wooden villa in woodland. Inside hard-wood structure was lovely and rustic with spacious sleeping and bathroom areas and a very comfy bed. There was also a small swimming pool on site. Only slight negative was the number of mosquitos about.
We walked the short distance down to the seafront where there were dozens of food stalls serving stuff from fried beetles to fried chicken with fries and, also, ice-cold bottles of Chang.
We decided to eat out here and sat at a concrete table and chairs; not at all bad. Called it a day around 9pm and tottered back to our cosy air-conned villa.
TUESDAY 2nd
Up early and had a sort of simple continental-style breakfast. It was then a case of packing and driving the 1km up the Boonsiri Ferry parking and reception area.
I have to say this was chaotic. I had paid extra for so-called VIP parking which meant you had a spot under shading but my truck is a bit on the large size and we only managed to find one last parking place and even that was a tight squeeze.
That done we trundled luggage over to the waiting area which was very busy and very hot a and uncomfortable. The problem was our trip coincided with the Thai summer school holidays so there were large numbers of families all geared up for their holiday to Ko Kood. It really was chaos.
At around 10:20 three trucks towing long trailers with rows of seats appeared and it turned into a free-for-all with people scrambling for a seat….. why? There was plenty of room in the long run as additional trucks were available.
These long trailers were towed down the 2km, Laemsok pier to the catamaran ferry boat. Boarding started immediately but, again, it was a chaotic scramble for seats. There was no way we were going ton sit on the open top deck as we’d get burned by the sun.
An extremely hot and uncomfortable sweaty wait for the boat to finish boarding before, finally, setting off on the hour-long trip to the island.
Page 5
Buriram and the road to Laemsok
SATURDAY 30th
Up a little later after last night's party. Temperature still in the high 30's.
A bit of a non-day really. Went into Phanom Dong Rak village centre to buy some additional patio chairs a few groceries and a new set of aluminium cooking pots & pans for Somjit, my mother-in-law. Her existing ones being worn out and dented.
Big thunderstorm late afternoon but it only lasted 20 minutes but long enough to create vast pools of standing water.
Good to have dinner with the whole Khongjaidee family; Aom, her two brothers, James & Joe along with parents. We'd only just sat down to eat when a few spots of rain appeared sending us to eat under the awning part of the house. What followed was a true tropicl thunderstorm with torrential rain. This lasted a good 45 minutes bringing out a host of loud croaking frogs out in the fields. There was mention of Chet (my father in-law) going out and collecting some for following day's breakfast... mmm, not for me. I have eaten bits of frog before but I'll pass on this one.
SUNDAY 31st.
This will be our last day on the farm for 10 days as tomorrow we'll be on the road to Trat on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand close to the Cambodia border. The aim is to sleep over at the Leamsok Pier to catch the 10:45 ferry to Ko Kood (Ko Kut). I've booked us into a five-star resort there for a 9-day stay.... a sort of Honeymoon, but of course we'll have our son Jack along with us.
MONDAY 1st APRIL. All the photos below are of the Wat Mae Ya Som temple.
On our way again and as we neared Trat the sky darkened and big dollops of rain began. My truck is a pick-up and our luggage was in the open back so I had to find a spot to pull over and retrieve the cases. By this time the roads were wet and in braking hard to pull into a scrub area off road the truck went into a skid. No real problem as I managed to control it, but it did remind me that some of these road surfaces are lethal when wet.
Up and about at 6am finishing off our packing and getting some breakfast.
We were ready to roll around 08:15 saying our goodbyes to Chet & Somjit (Aom’s parents).
Distance to travel today is 450km (280 miles).
I’ve driven thousands of miles around Thailand and found generally it to be very straight forward. OK the “rules of the road’ differ from my home country UK, but the traffic is far lighter with mile after mile of fairly empty roads. Driving through towns (Thais call even a hamlet a city) present a bit more concentration.
For instance, many This drive in what we would call the overtaking lane in a dual carriageway and quite OK to undertake. I think this stems from the days when Thai country roads were so crap and full of potholes on the edges that they got into the habit of driving on the remaining ‘good’ bits. In those days head-on collisions were plentiful.
Stopped off to top with diesel and take a break at an Amazon coffee shop (no not that Amazon). Always good coffee at these service areas.
Further on after uneventful driving, we came across a superb temple we visited in 2022, the Wat Mae Ya Som temple situated near Sa Kaeo. Each statue features common physical attributes, poses, and postures that define its purpose and meaning. The hand gestures of the Buddha, called mudras, indicate teaching, meditation, enlightenment, and wisdom.
As the last time we we visited her in 2022, it was very hot but there’s lots of shade about this big site.
One final coffee break on the outskirts of Trat and we were through this big town and on towards Laemsok slightly ahead of schedule.
Located our stopover Homestay easily and checked in. This was the An-A-Lay “Check-in and Check-out”. For the price this place was excellent. We stayed in a raised wooden villa in woodland. Inside hard-wood structure was lovely and rustic with spacious sleeping and bathroom areas and a very comfy bed. There was also a small swimming pool on site. Only slight negative was the number of mosquitos about.
We walked the short distance down to the seafront where there were dozens of food stalls serving stuff from fried beetles to fried chicken with fries and, also, ice-cold bottles of Chang.
We decided to eat out here and sat at a concrete table and chairs; not at all bad. Called it a day around 9pm and tottered back to our cosy air-conned villa.
TUESDAY 2nd
Up early and had a sort of simple continental-style breakfast. It was then a case of packing and driving the 1km up the Boonsiri Ferry parking and reception area.
I have to say this was chaotic. I had paid extra for so-called VIP parking which meant you had a spot under shading but my truck is a bit on the large size and we only managed to find one last parking place and even that was a tight squeeze.
That done we trundled luggage over to the waiting area which was very busy and very hot a and uncomfortable. The problem was our trip coincided with the Thai summer school holidays so there were large numbers of families all geared up for their holiday to Ko Kood. It really was chaos.
At around 10:20 three trucks towing long trailers with rows of seats appeared and it turned into a free-for-all with people scrambling for a seat….. why? There was plenty of room in the long run as additional trucks were available.
These long trailers were towed down the 2km, Laemsok pier to the catamaran ferry boat. Boarding started immediately but, again, it was a chaotic scramble for seats. There was no way we were going ton sit on the open top deck as we’d get burned by the sun.
An extremely hot and uncomfortable sweaty wait for the boat to finish boarding before, finally, setting off on the hour-long trip to the island.