Thailand: Ban Krut & Chumphon

Monica and I left Bangkok in search of a smaller more rural Thai experience. We somehow found a small town called Ban Krut about 7 hours south, by train, along the cost of the Gulf of Thailand. I'd say we got just what we were looking for. Besides the partly cloudy weather and mosquitoes it was amazing. 

The town of Ban Krut seemed like maybe two thousand people AT MOST. I might be overstating, though. Monica was hard pressed to believe there was even one thousand. The place we stayed, NaNa Chart Hostel, was about a 10 minute taxi-cart ride out of town. We were greeted by a very friendly and attentive staff, an almost completely vacant hostel, and a sweet rustic bungalow.  

   

We stayed here for three days just relaxing after too much traveling. Together, we had a 15 hour bus ride to Auckland from Wellington, a 12 hour flight to Bangkok from Auckland, and a 7 hour train ride to Ban Krut in 4 days. 

To make it even more removed and secluded, their internet was down. Since neither of us have phones, we had no communication with the outside world. On our last day, the staff told us there was a woman down the road who had internet and she had given them the wi-fi password so we could sit on her porch and try to figure out where to next. 

The woman, so kind to lend us her internet, was Irma. A Swiss woman who had retired and was traveling around a bit. She introduced herself and invited us back over later on for dinner. Oddly enough her story was so similar to our mom's minus the traveling part. And, of course, it just happened to be Thanks Giving. 

The next day we left for Chumphon which was only a two hour train ride further south. We planned to stay just one night and then start island hoping our way down and eventually to Phucket. We met some other travelers who planned to go to the Full Moon Party on Koh Pha-ngan and decided to stay in Chumphon a few more nights (because it was so affordable) and then head out to the islands for the Full Moon Party. 

While in Chumphon, we got rain. Fuck-loads of rain. 

The food in Chumphon was authentic, amazing, and cheap. Every night, the main street lines the road with food carts where you can get amazing Pad Thai and Papaya Salads for $1 each. We also got some amazing all you can eat Thai-style Korean BBQ for $3.

Today we leave for Ko Tao by ferry and will hit the Full Moon Party on Koh Pha-ngan tomorrow night. I am excite.