Diwali celebration

As per Saini's explanation Diwali is in celebration of homecoming of Ram after his exile. Those who want to know more may click this link

Anyway, I decided we'll celebrate the Diwali at Chao Mai beach doing some BBQ and relaxing in Trang province. We set off with me, Jira, Saini and Kalpu with Vivek and Rajaram to join us later.

17th we are busy chasing BBQ items for the Diwali celebration, we already got rockets in advance. Jira's brother N. Thuen ascertains we can fire rockets and do BBQ at Chao Wai Beach so we decide that there is where our celebration will take place. Rest of afternoon is spent guiding Vivek to Trang and he finally arrives shortly after dusk.

The beach itself is huge and very shallow. I waded out several hundred meters and was only ankle deep in the sea. It was low tide at the time so it was not surprising.

After dark we built up a fire from the drift wood on the beach so one could see what one was eating. The menu was squid, shrimp, fish and chicken with spicy Thai dipping sauce and beer of course. This time we had no Kingfisher as we had depleted our stock in the Lumut drydock.

Saini was busy guiding Vivek as he tended to get lost on the Thai highway, eventually he found the way and arrived after dark with Rajaram. They also brought the ghetto blaster so after that it was Indie pop time.

Everybody was enjoying until Saini fired off a volley of rockets. It did not take many minutes for the park wardens to come around and tell us to put out the fire and stop shooting rockets off. Oh well, we put on the car lights and slowly winded down the BBQ and headed for home.

Sunset at Chao Mai Beach On our way back to Khuan Kun we get permission from Jira's father to shoot off all rockets in front of his house the spirit returns to Saini, Raja Ram and Vivek. We arrive there shortly and park & start to offload rockets. Saini & Co start to shoot off a most incredible amount of incendiaries. At times it seems Vivek got an infinite supply in his car trunk but it also showed signs of coming to an end when he whipped out the "badawala" rocket battery. Finally after abt 30min of incessant firing of rockets and the neighborhood awakened we had finished all our stuff. I said I'm going to sleep but Raja Ram said he had not had enough to eat so he needed something to eat, same as Saini and Vivek. I sent N. Thuen to get the guys fed and headed myself for some shuteye...

Beach hopping in Trang

6th July I hopped on our motorbike and drove with Nong Thuen towards Sikao and ended up to Khlong Son beach and port. The beach was actally called Hua Hin. It was all deserted and had some evidence of the sand eroding as it had been preserved by metal netting and sand bags. The bay must be an enormous habitat for screw shells as I saw thousands of empty shells lying in droves on the beach. After wandering around for awhile we hopped on the motorbike and drove along the neach until we reached the port.

Hua Hin beach

It was a concrete affair about 70meters long with 2 fishing boats alongside. The pier was at the shore of a khlong or river heading inland and being flanked on both sides by mangroves. The port had a large parking lot that I can only relate to the founding fathers some grandiose ideas not being realized. Apart from the fishing boats there were 2 women having a makeshift shop selling cooked food and then there were a handful of men fishing. We asked if the fishing boat would have any fresh fish to sell but apparently they were only into squid fishing and was all out. Just behind the pier a bit upriver there were some fish farms and one man on the quay knew his number and called the Owner to sell some fish to us.

Entrance to Ton Son port

After ahile 2 guys arrived and we hopped into a longtail boat and pottered to the floating fish farm. It was complete with lodgings (bedroom, kitchenette and toilet) although there was no lodger there at that time. We heaved on the nets and one guy cought Pla Kapong that we wanted. We got one white and one red Pla Kapong (maybe snapper in English, but considered the best sea water fish in the south). Once we had our catch we paddled back to the quay and then the fishes were measured and price was set. Of course the price was high as I was a farang but I’ve gotten used to it. Then we drove back home and bragged to the womenfolk that we had caught fish unawares. It took them awhile to realize we’ve fished with my wallet.

The petrified horse at Thungtong beach

In the afternoon Jira’s stepfather took me to se Thungtong and Bo Tuat beaches. The first beach was a long flat sand beach with muddy water and some large rocks going under to sea. I walked along the beach and as it was low water I could see the exposed rocky bottom and there were a couple of Thai kids looking for crabs. I also ventured on the rock bottom and could hear clams spitting water and saw occasionally a crab scuttling for shelter. Eventually I managed to catch one on my camera.

Meanwhile Jira’s father had struck conversation with local Farmer’s and I went to see what he was going on about. They also framed rubber treees and had one huge old timer tree left standing in the middle of the plot amid 2-3 yr old saplings. We walked back and headed for Bo Tuat Beach.

The old timer rubber tree

At Bo Tuat one had to climb down a steep dirt path and in fact if one would not know there was a beach I think no-one would notice it. The Beach was rockier than Thungtong, much more so. It had caves grated out by the sea in time and huge “plates” of stone lining the beach. I guess this what they call the “Geopark” in Langkawi, because of the layers of stone that can be examined and spans through thousands of year. It was totally undisturbed like some beaches I had seen in the Maldives although civilization was here too in the form of discarded slippers, empty bottles and whatnot. This beach would be ideal to spend a day at doing a BBQ. I climbed back up and we heade back home. At the local village we stopped to buy some fresh squid for dinner.

Bo Tuat beach