Cha-am is a beach town, 30 km southeast of Phetchaburi. The local bus, full of schoolchildren, took
us there for $1. The bus ride was very
pleasant, feeling the breeze through the open windows, while listening to a
soothing voice of a women singing in foreign language. It was much nicer experience than riding in
those minibuses with people sitting practically on top of each other. The minibuses go faster, but they also cost
more. We have time.
Even the market only opened for dinner. It was too hot for the locals to be cooking
outside. So, we ate lunch in the
restaurants, and we ate dinner in the street.
We ate fried rice for lunch, but we tried different spicy meals for dinner,
like fish wrapped in some leaf, chicken with ginger, and pork with vegetables. The owner even brought us to try a piece of slowcooked
pig in sweet sauce for free. He wanted
to see if we liked it. Everything was
delicious. His family and him had a lot
of different foods and were very popular with the locals for carryout. The food was conveniently packed in plastic
bags for them.
The owner of P.S. guesthouse Dee Dee was a very nice woman,
too. She gave us the electric pot that
we could make coffee in our room. Also,
she did our laundry for free (the machine was not automatic). She said she liked it better. The clothes come out cleaner, and she saves
energy and water. We talked a little
bit. She was interested in where we have
been and where we were going. She said
that she has visited 4 countries herself: Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Figuring out how to get from Cha-am to Ko Samui Island was a
challenge again. Our guidebook and internet
seemed to have more reliable information than information, provided by locals. Everyone offers ether a taxi or a
minibus. Even standing in a bus stop,
everybody said that there were no big buses going to there we needed to go. The day before our trip, we went to Cha-am
train station. There was only one train
in the evening to Surat Thani (the town a ferry ride away from Ko Samui Island)
that stopped in Cha-am. If we wanted to
go earlier, we would have to go from Hua Hin (25 km south of Cha-am). The buses also only went from Hua Hin (not
Cha-am, but they went directly to the island (ferry ride included). The bus ride was cheaper that a train ride,
too. The only problem I had on the bus
was that the driver refused to stop and let me use the bathroom. I had to wait for 40 minutes until we reached
the station (he said we would reach the station in 20 minutes). The bus ride itself from Hua Hin to Ko Samui
was 10 hours.
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