Our first stop on our two-week vacation is Chumphon, 485 KM from my apartment in Bangkok. We had a very relaxed drive down, leaving around 10 AM and arriving around 6 PM.
For the most part we drove straight through, but we did take a 2 hour break in Petchaburi to visit one of the palaces of King Rama V. The palace itself is a 2-story Chinese style building built on top of a tall, steep hill. The building was not impressive in itself, but the views were quite nice. In addition, the King had built a large chedi, a Khmer-Thai mix temple, and a replica of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok on the hill as well. So we had a good time exploring the interesting mix of architectures and enjoying the good views of the surrounding countryside.
Once we arrived in Chumphon, we checked into a hotel and had a delicious dinner of pad thai (fried noodles) hoy tod (fried oyster omlete) and beer sing kuat yai (a big bottle of Singha Beer) on the street. Tomorrow we will take the express boat 60+ KM to Ko Tao (Turtle Island) where we will stay for a few days.
One day down, thirteen to go. So far, so good!
