Phetchaburi and Cha-Am

At the start of October my friend Jonathon came to Thailand so I had the chance to be tour guide and visit a few interesting places..

First stop was Cha-Am a coastal resort town a few hours South West of Bangkok on the Gulf coast. We arrived in a thunderstorm but we stayed in a very posh hotel (with bell boys and everything).

The resort had a rather plush (completely empty) karaoke room where we "entertained" the staff with a unique version of "The Final Countdown".

We were keen to get away from the coast and do some trekking in the jungle, and in Cha-am there were a range of tours available to.

We plumbed for a trip to Pala-U waterfall, close to the Burmese border. We stopped off on route to see Wat Huay Mongkhon, the largest statue of Luang Poh Tuad in the world.

For the uneducated, Poh Tuad was a Buddhist monk who lived around 500 years ago and became famous for a miracle in which he turned salt water fresh by soaking his legs in the sea.

The waterfall is made up of 15 tiers and reaching the top involves a fairly arduous walk up over slippery rocks and rickety bridges.

The main falls are impressive but probably the most entertaining feature of the falls is the abundance of catfish.

Bags of fish food are available in the car park, which when thrown in the pools cause a commotion, with fish scrambling over each other and throwing themselves out of the water to get a piece of the action.

You can walk and swim in the pools but after the violence with which the fish attacked the food pellets I was somewhat apprehensive.

In reality the fish were more scared of me than I was of them so after wading into the water I found myself surrounded by circling fish, sniffing and checking me out but not daring to touch me.

Curiously every tour offered a visit to a pineapple plantation and the opportunity to "meet the planation owner and talk to him about his work".

Sadly when we arrived at the pineapple plantation the owner wasn't there, so my burning pineapple questions remain unanswered.

As our tour guide rather quaintly pointed out, the pineapples "no have babies".



On the way back to Bangkok we stopped off for the night in Phetchaburi, a sleepy town packed full of wats.

Much to my excitement the place was full of monkeys - they were sitting on the power lines, hanging off the roof of our hotel and casually swinging on the trees in the park.

My initial enthusiasm was soon tempered though - the monkeys are to Phetchaburi what seagulls are to Brighton - a pest and a thorough nuisance. And with teeth like that you don't want to mess with them.




On our way up Khao Wang mountain the next day, Jonathon failed to heed the warning that "the monkeys might do harm if they are hungry, agitated or disturbed".

As Jonathon chewed on his chocolate bar, a particularly ugly looking macaque strolled over to him holding out his hands for a snack.

He wasn't requesting so much as demanding and within seconds he was upon Jonathon, clawing at his shirt and baring his teeth. I think you can guess who ended up eating that chocolate bar.

At the top of the mountain were a number of wats, a museum and the royal observatory, together with some spectacular views of the surrounding area.




The final item on our agenda was a visit to the Khao Luang cave, a short songthaew ride from the city. Accompanied but a guide who fended off the monkeys in the car park, we descended a steep staircase until we reached the first chamber of the cave. The scene inside was truly beautiful with giant Buddha statues illuminated by shards of light from a hole in the roof of the chamber.