A Different View

Day 4, 5,6 – Beach Trip!

            When I first saw Bangkok all lit up at night and how far the buildings went, I always said I didn’t believe the city ended. Today we drove about 3 hours from Bangkok to a place called Pranburi beach. The drive in itself was very scenic and almost reminded me a bit like Texas, except there was no English.

            Outside of the city, the rest of Thailand is a bunch of rural area with a bunch of small towns. The only thing that I recognized was the car dealerships. Lots of Nissan and Honda: shocking.  There was also a lot of wildlife. It was cool to see a different side of Thailand rather than the big city feels that we had been experiencing.

            Since we arrived in the afternoon, we decided to rent ATV’s and go on a tour of the beach and the surrounding areas. It was absolutely marvelous. We started out by going through the mountains and getting to see a whole new part of Thailand. In the mountains, there were small villages, many of them being farming villages. There were also a lot of cows that we thought were water buffaloes (stupid Americans). 

            One of the overlooks we stopped at was filled with a sight of mountains that didn’t end. Our tour guide told us that it was Myanmar. That was pretty cool. One of the things I loved most was how nice the farming people were. The kids would come to the side of the road and wave at us and some even were holding water in case we wanted some. It was adorable.

            We ended the ride by getting to see the sunset by the beach, which was beautiful. One thing we thought was cool was that a lot of tourist were in the area so a lot more people speak English here than in Bangkok.

            The beach life is a lot different than city life. There are hardly any cars here and a lot more little villages rather than larger buildings. The area has managed to stay away from extreme tourism, which is nice. Most of the place is secluded.

            The seafood here is absolutely fresh.  We had squid that they had caught that day & lots of other different kinds of seafood. My favorite is the crab curry. 

            I’ve been joking that life here at the beach poses more life threatening opportunities than I’ve ever had in my whole life. So far while here I’ve rode on ATVs, rented and drove my own motorcycle on the opposite side of the road, climbed up a waterfall, rode on an elephant and did some cliff climbing.

            Those last three all happened on the last day. We set out early for our elephant ride. This was the one thing I had said I wanted to do upon coming here. The ride itself took about an hour and it amazed me how majestic and fearless these creatures were although I was a tad fearful. We rode through lakes, forests and some countryside. It was like riding a horse but much higher up.

            After the elephant we left to hike up one of the famous waterfalls here. It took us about 2 hours but the view was worth it. My favorite thing from this experience was not only being in the forest but being able to see the wildlife. We had to stop our cars for about 100 monkeys that were on & in the road. At the waterfall itself, the fish were going crazy. We were given food to feed them and it was like a free-for-all when you threw it in there.

            I think my last afternoon at the beach was the most enjoyable. I set out with a motorcycle l that I had rented for the afternoon and decided to go down to a secluded beach. The area was beautiful. I was one of the only people there and there was a clear view of the mountains and the whole body of water. There was one famous cliff that had a spectacular view so my cousin and I had decided to climb up that after I got back from the beach. We made it to the top before realizing how scary the climb up was. Climbs up are always easier. At the top we met 4 Thai kids. They spoke no English but knew we needed help to get down. They helped us down the entire cliff and even said thank you at the end. We laughed knowing how silly it must have looked.

            It’s amazing what beautiful things were put on the earth and how God put them there. Just 3 days ago I was in the huge city of Bangkok and these last 3 days, I have spent on the beach in the same country. The countryside, the city & the beach are all different views but absolutely beautiful. I can’t believe that there are 2 days left in this trip. Back to Bangkok for now! 

ATV ride with my cousins

View from the mountains 

Elephant! 

Waterfall

My secluded beach I found. So peaceful