Travels around the South of Thailand #1

First destination: Phetchaburi

If I had to describe Phetchaburi in two words, I would pick ‘scenery’ and ‘dogs’.

After approximately a 5 hour drive and a late night motel stay (many of those upcoming), we stocked up on food for the night and arrived at our selected campground at Kaeng Krachan National Park. The national park area itself is enormous, and gorgeous natural views began before the main entrance.

A brief chat with the campground staff and we were setting up the tent. Now, it was my first time camping with this particular friend (and his first time seeing our tent), so a bit of effort and a watch through a YouTube video was required before we were sure we’d set up our home for the night correctly. Snapped a few photos of our great success immediately.

The ‘dogs’ part starts here. Being the ultimate Russians, we decided to make ‘ukha’ (Russian fish soup) for dinner, and in the process of preparing our dish, caught the attention of the majority of the local campground dogs. Thankfully, they acted friendly while visibly praying that we’d toss them some leftovers. Going to the bathroom through their swarm at 2am and trying not to have them wake up the other campers with thier incessant barking was a slightly different story. ‘Ukha’ came out magnificent.

During our clean up process, we were approached by fellow campers and had a lengthy chat using our borderlne sufficient Thai. After discussing the starting points, destinations and potential stops of our various trips, we soon called it a night, and were followed back to our tent by a dog who took a particular liking to us (likely because we fed it). The rest of the night, this dog selpt pressed against the corner of our tent from the outside, guarding us in the darkness.

The next morning started in a thorough drowse. An average temperature of slightly below 30 celcius, combined with the body heat produced by two people inside a small tent, produced very sweaty and limited sleep. The temperatures did drop during the early morning, which is when most of our sleep was likely obtained. Still, I’d do it again to unzip the tent in the early morning and stare agape at the lakeside view.

My friend proposed an idea of a run to get a broader glimpse at our surroundings, as so we set off. Part of this adventurous run consisted of running over a hanging brinde to a small island on the lake. Of course we made a stop for a few pictures :).

Lunch came as a series of spontaneous ideas. For instance, the spot for it was picked out as a random guess at an offroad opportunity. After the event we could not conclude whether sweltering under the midday sun while perparing pasta and painstakingly setting up a cover by the car was a good idea. Came out unintentionally picturesque, though, I think. You be the judge:

Dogs were involved here too, as canned mackerel was sniffed out and approached ardently. T aking turns, they even laid in the shadowy spot under the rear of our car. We didn't mind of course, as it was only fair that they got a bit of shade too, on such a blazing sunny day.

One last drive through the national park and we finally embarked from the beautiful destination. Without a clear stop for the night in mind, and with over 300 songs in my carefully crafted roadtrip playlist, we let the highway take us further south.