south to the isthmus of kra and beyond

My Thailand destinations

 If Thailand is a sleeping flamingo, Khao Lak is the knee.  This was our destination for the last leg of the trip, driving down from Bangkok, with a couple of stops on the way. There is this long trailing slice of the country that slides past Burma then emerges onto the Andaman Sea, with the foot resting on Malaysia.

After negotiating Bangkok’s urban expressways with only one misrouting, we continue through the capital’s hinterland.  One of the ugliest things about Thailand is the way its cities sprawl out along the highways for mile after mile, endless factories and shophouses and mean looking road towns with vast advertising hoardings signaling the next fuel station or hyperstore: seemingly no planning restrictions at all and the architecture uniformly grim.  This stretches almost all the way to Hua Hin, so it was a relief to check into the Dusit Thani there after the first day’s drive: nostalgia for me as it was only the second grand hotel I ever stayed in, twenty years ago (the first being its sister hotel in Bangkok, a few days earlier). 

Though now perhaps showing its age a little – but in the way of a grand duchess, still magnificent and stylish and unconcerned by modern trends – its huge public spaces, all marble and vast chandeliers, embrace us.   It also has extremely good restaurants – we ate Thai and Italian very profitably.

Route 4, squeezed between the Gulf of Thailand and the Burmese border, continues down to Chumphon, our next stop.  We arrived at a strangely deserted Novotel in a gale, that continued throughout our two night stay.  Apparently this goes on here from November to February every year.  The endless wind agitates the sea so that the white-topped waves are brownish with churned up sand.  In the open lobby for dinner we seem to be the only guests; huge canvas wind breaks flap and crack: it’s like being on the Marie Celeste at full sail.  On the beach there are a few fishermen in their makeshift huts, but they seem to be staying put on dry land as the waves crash ashore.  Otherwise the shore is deserted: then we see a quick flash as a huge lizard over a metre long makes straight for the water.  In it goes, swimming very effectively, head up, and seems to surf the crashing waves, then dives under the water again. 

We continue on, and Route 4 now crosses the Isthmus of Kra (which sounds like something out of Frank Herbert) to the Andaman coast, through beautiful mountainous countryside, lush and green, with many waterfalls, towards Khao Lak.  A much more pleasant coast: gentle sea breezes at most, soft sands and a blue calm sea.

We’re hearing the sad stories of the riots in Bangkok, as two oligarchies slug it out once again, using the poor duped people as pawns.  We were intending to spend our last few days there, but may have to divert if this continues.