Travelogue 2019/2, Beaches and Lakes in South Thailand

We went further down south. We visted two beaches and two large lakes. We seldom go to beach destinations, now twice, on the northern part of the Gulf of Thailand.

In the central part of the long stretch that forms Southern Thailand, we visited a large reservoir in the mountains and a large natural lake near the sea.

Beach town Hua Hin

In Hue Hin we had a nice hotel in a rather Thai neighborhood. Thai people lived and worked in the alleys around us, and the local market was nearby. But other parts of the city were completely taken over by mainly Scandinavian tourists. Many families with children, many elderly couples, and older men with their Thai wife. Mostly people come to stay over for the winter or come for the beach. There must be literally tens of thousands of Scandinavians living here. And there were quite some Asian tourists around too.

This time of year it is normal for the water to be high in the Gulf of Thailand, but these days it was extra high. There was hardly any beach for much of the day. One morning none at all. We stood at a beach entrance watching people carrying their mats and towels, looking a bit alarmed, and turning away again. But in between we could swim and paddle in the surf and enjoy the sun.

Hat Thung Wua Lean (Chumphon)

With an express train and a songthaew (a pick-up truck with benches in the hold) we moved 260km further south. There is a small beach, one kilometer long, with one road alongside, where it is busy with Thai during the weekend. During the week it is very quiet, the few hotels and restaurants that are open hardly have any guests. Here too the beach is narrow because of the high tide, but you share it with just a handful of others. We had two quiet days.

Single track trains

We did all our longer transfers by train. Often there were just one or two trains a day that were useful to us (there are also many night trains). These are old tracks and diesel trains, with antique signaling systems that work with hoops, tokens and flags.

To prevent two trains running into each other on a single track, each track section has one token (a metal disc) that a driver múst have to be able to drive on that section. At stations where opposite trains pass each other, the token is given to a station employee. To make the transfer easier from a moving train, the token is clamped in a large hoop. The station employee brings the hoop with token to the other train. Sometimes the employee pulls a long sprint for that, once we saw him driving down the platform with a moped!

The express trains reached up to 120 km / h. And even the wooden (!) local train that we had, reached almost 90 km / h. After 4½ hours, wooden benches are very hard indeed…

Ratchaprapha Dam / Khao Sok NP

From the town of Phun Phin (Surat Thani) we made a day trip to the Ratchaprapha Dam, the largest reservoir in South Thailand. It is a popular destination for boat trips, both by backpackers and in the weekend also by Thai. Almost everyone comes with an organized tour, so it took some time to find our bearings in the chaos. But in the end we sailed on our own little boat inbetween the rock formations, mountain peaks and jungle. Magnificent!

(Find the details how to organise a day trip from Surat Thani to Khao Sok National Park here.)

Phatthalung & Thale Noi NP

We stayed in the small provincial capital of Phatthalung for a few days. It is situated pretty much in the middle of nowhere and there are hardly any tourists. Yet there are some beautiful limestone mountains with caves and it is located near the largest lake in Thailand: Lake Songkhla.

A remote corner of the lake, still 5x5km, is a bird sanctuary, Thale Noi. We could make a boat trip. We got in with a somewhat older man who turned out to be a fine boatman. The trip was fantastic. We passed a variety of "land" scapes, vegetation and animals. Large parts of the lake were covered with water plants, but the water was crystal clear.

The first part was the water lily zone. Up close there was plenty of space between the flowers, but if you looked into the distance, there was a purple-pink glow over the water. We saw moorhens, gulls, herons, storks, cormorants and many more birds, of which I do not know the name. Part of the trip went through reeds, and we saw a large herd of water buffalo. The shepherds sailed in two small boats to keep them together. A baby buffalo stayed behind. Every now and then we cut through pieces of water plants, which separated underneath us. But once in a while, our boatman had to turn around. 

Next we passed large moving fishing nets (Kochi type) that were strung along a kind of canal in the middle of the lake... 

Hidden in the reeds we saw three more water buffalo. We saw the huge animals swimming and clambering lazily. Finally we sailed along a long row of trees, where each tree root formed its own small island.

Further south, the Thai seem even more friendly. There is not only the proverbial “Thai smile”, but also radiant faces, happy eyes, helpful interventions, greetings and an overall feeling of being welcome. Unfortunately, hardly anyone speaks English, so we had no deep and meaningful conversations.