Cha-am, Thailand

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. 

We found a guesthouse 5 minutes away from the beach for $10 per night with private bathroom and air-conditioning.  Dangis actually walked half way downstairs, before he remembered that we actually have a bathroom in our room (not used to such comforts anymore).  The air-conditioning in the room was also nice: we set the temperature for 26°C.  We spent a lot of time in the room.  It was too hot to be outside during the day.

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.