February 14th - Day 8 - Phuket to Chumphon, Gulf of Thailand

The stay at the Marriott, Phuket was far too short. We could easily have stayed there another night, but with over 400kms to drive across the peninsular to Chumphon on the Gulf of Thailand, we had to leave by 9am.

A couple of photos of the Marriott's reflecting pool at sunset and the extraordinary beach, which stretches for miles.



Today was without doubt the best day of driving. We drove through one wonderful area of the Thai countryside after another. We initially drove up the west coast passing many areas that were devastated by the tsunami of three years ago. There were many memorials to the victims.

We passed several of these local versions of Wickes DIY by the side of the road.



We then drove on to the town of Ranong, which is very close to the border with Myanmar, formerly Burma. We had to pass through several police checks where the Thais are attempting to stop refugees fleeing Myanmar, from entering Thailand. As we drove into the outskirts of Ranong we saw posters campaigning against the setting up of a refugee camp in Ranong.


Just north of Ranong we stopped to take some pictures of Myanmar across an inlet of the Andaman Sea. Myanmar in the distance.

All along this stretch of road, outside the houses, there were palm nuts being dried on large sheets of plastic. We stopped to look at them and saw that the nuts had been cracked open and were being dried in the sun. I’m not sure what they do with them when they have finished drying. Any suggestions?



Further on we drove past a series of shrimp farms. We have seen these on several occasions, with their turning wheels aerating the water, but had thought they were sewage farms! We were enlightened by John Brown, in the route road book.

A shot of Jim Carr's G4 Global Challenge Range Rover, which we followed for a few miles before we turned off on a different route.

We saw this local man with his cart, which we think was full of shrimp paste. Believe me it didn’t smell too good! He stood and posed for the picture.


Typical Thai village with houses on stilts over the water.



The drive then took us east across a hilly region where we passed many small farming villages with houses on stilts. We saw, what we at first though were white underclothes hanging out to dry, but then we realised it was rubber! These were sheets of rubber being dried by rubber farmers. We stopped at one small holding to look at the farmer’s small plantation of rubber trees and the rubber being dried outside his house on stilts.


For some time we had been leapfrogging Paul & Jayne Wignall. They were doing the same as us, stopping to take photos as well as having a bite to eat. I drove round a corner and there they were parked on the side of the road. We stopped and Paul offered us some of the Christmas cake he had brought out from England! I cannot believe many people have eaten English Christmas cake on a back road in Thailand before! Thank you Paul and Jayne.

We arrived at our destination, the Novotel Hotel, a short distance outside the town of Chumphon, which is on the shore of the Gulf of Thailand.

We took a paddle in the wonderful warm waters, where we saw these children playing in the water with a small boat.

In the evening we went to a briefing organised by HERO to tell us about Bangkok. We arrive there tomorrow evening.