Chumphon, Thailand

We decided to go south from Bangkok, to the famous Phuket in the very south of Thailand. Home of Koh Phi Phi Island featured in Leonardo DiCaprio’s movie “The Beach”. It was to be a long train, or bus ride, “15 hrs” by bus, or “12 hrs” by train (although the train didn’t go all the way there, we would have to take a bus after the train from about “2 hrs” away). I use “quotation marks” surrounding the time of travel, because in South East Asia, its just an estimate. None of the above sounded like fun, so we decided to take a bus half way… I pulled up Goggle Maps, and fingered CHUMPHON. Looked to be about a “6 hr” bus ride.
While in Bangkok, we went to the national bus station the day before departure, bought 3 seats to Chumphon for only about 525B ($15 USD), I was thrilled, but a part of me thought “this is too good to be true”…Turns out I should have listened to that part of me! It’s been fairly difficult to find anyone that speaks English, the bus guy in Bangkok didn’t speak a word. So I can’t say for sure that he was dishonest, or if we should just chalk it up to a mis-communication. The next day we boarded a mini-van at 7am, but at noon we were dropped off in Hua Hin, about half way to Chumphon. The bus station there said our “tickets” to Chumphon were invalid, and the next bus didn’t leave for 7hrs…we were stranded! We had already booked our room in Chumphon for the night, so just settling in Hua Hin was not an acceptable solution I started on a mission…Our secret weapon, as always, Isabel and Ellie. I paraded them around with a concerned look on my face, and as usual, the locals came to our rescue. They directed us towards a public bus stop, where a mini-van picks people up and takes them from stop to stop down the (Gulf of Thailand) coast. By about 5PM, we were in Chumphon 🙂

Our reservation was for a place called “The Albatross Guesthouse”, it was a few hundred meters from the beach, and 15KM’s from Chumphon. Although we decided this would only be a pitstop on the way to Phuket, we thought we might as well stay the night near the beach. We took a local bus, which was a small truck that they cram as many people as possible into the back. 20mins later we were there. At this point it was such a long day, we thought we might avoid travelling the next day…
“The beach” in question, is Thungwualaen Beach. When we woke, we walked (2 mins) to check it out… Amazing! Something occurred to Lisa and I simultaneously… Where is everybody??? It was an absolutely beautiful beach, the white sands went on for miles. In the distance, were little limestone islands that shot up from the sea. We looked left…right…nobody! Turns out this is an important beach for the Thai people, this is where they vacation. Thai’s travel from Phuket, just to stay here for the weekend! Maybe this wouldn’t be a pit stop.

The next few days saw us totally fall in love with Chumphon, and Thungwualaen. One day I took the girls while Lisa worked. We went (by the same local “bus/truck”) about 30km’s away where they were having a marine festival. We saw amazing sand sculptures, beach volleyball, did some home-schooling, and needless to say in Thailand, had some good eats.

I wanted to take 30mins to write this post today, because it was a very special day. We booked a Snorkelling day trip, and I’m still glowing from how special it was.
…At times on this trip, travelling 24/7 with our 3 and 5 yr olds, I wonder why we are doing this… It would be much easier just to go to work, pay the mortgage, and take as much “me” time as I need each day. Today was a reminder of why I wanted to do this. The water was as clear as any ocean (or fresh) water I’ve ever seen, and the opportunity to snorkel, amazing! So at first, when the girls were hesitant to partake, I was annoyed. I decided to go slow. Although we have practiced countless times in pools, and snorkelled in Cambodia, they were still quite timid. “Okay, lets practice by the ladder on the boat”, they went for it. Once they got the hang of looking below while breathing, we ventured out… We saw the most beautiful reefs, with thousands of fish. Bright blue, yellow, orange, it was spectacular. Ellie and I floated hand in hand over sting rays, barracuda, and coral life, then I looked over and saw Lisa hand in hand with Isabel doing the same. I felt so fortunate to be a world away, with my wife and kids, experiencing such a spectacle… My faith in our decision, further validated.