10 years ago solo backpacking through South East Asia, the town of Prachuap Khiri Khan, in the state of the same name, was one of my favourite towns that I visited. The town is on a beach flanked by green hills, beautiful beaches and at the weekend, has the most amazing authentic night market.
There is also a small troop of spectacled langurs which live on the airbase just outside the town. Last time I visited, I took a bicycle out to the area with a punnet of grapes and hand fed the monkeys. I was excited to come back and see if they were still there and as cute as before.
We got the train from Hua Hin to Prachuap, but this time we tried to take the faster train with 2nd class AC, mostly because we wanted to go in the morning, and the only morning train was this one. We got to the station at Hua Hin and found out that this train cost 278 Baht each (the 3rd class ordinary train would probably have been less than 20 Baht)… We couldn’t believe it!! But we were at the station, ready to go, and decided that we didn’t fancy waiting the several hours for the ordinary train, so we did it. The train was full of Westerners, and we suddenly realised that actually, yes, we hadn’t seen a single other westerner on any of the ordinary trains we’d taken so far. Maybe people don’t know about the ordinary trains? Or maybe they just prefer the AC. Tbh it was nice, but the price difference is too much to justify doing it again…
We arrived at the station in Prachuap and walked to our guesthouse, which had a balcony and sea view in a perfect location in the centre of Ao Prachuap.
We got a motorbike for the day and headed towards the langurs, not before stopping off to grab some monkey nuts (raw peanuts in shells) – which Dave had read online was their favourite and a bit better nutrition for them.
We drove out of Prachuap and into the airbase, we had to cross a couple of security check points, but as soon as we said the reason for driving through was to see the monkeys, it was fine. At one point we even had to drive across the runway haha, which was pretty cool. I’m sure I didn’t come this way last time!
At the final check point we had to hand in our passport, as insurance we would leave the same way. We pulled up to the area where the monkeys are and they descended from the trees and came over.
They were definitely more confident this time than last time. If I remember, 10 years ago, they didn’t come out of the trees. They stayed one hand on a branch and just reached out for the grapes very gently and carefully. Now, they are running on the ground and standing up holding your legs or arm waiting patiently for a peanut. And one isn’t enough. They will wait until you give them 2 or 3, and then move away to eat them haha.
But they were still very gentle, waiting patiently, not snatching them, taking them from your hand carefully, and never trying to steal the bag. And when the bags were done, we showed our empty hands and they left us alone, and got back on with their business.
Very lovely monkeys ☺️
From here we headed back out and towards Ao Manao, a nice beach just south of Prachuap. It wasn’t as busy as last time I was here, it was full of Thai holiday-makers, and there wasn’t many people in the sea, but for good reason… After about 10 mins at the beach the heavens opened and it rained for a bit. Luckily, not for long, we just hid inside a food court and waited for it to pass before heading back.
We headed back to Prachuap beach and had a quick shower and change before heading to the night market.
Prachuap night market has to be one of the best I’ve seen, but compared to last time I was here, it’s nearly doubled in size!! It now has more than just food, but clothes, shoes and toys too, and even the food section expanded. Unfortunately, we didn’t find much which was vegetarian, in fact, the only thing we could really eat were these little fried sweet potato balls, we had 3 bags between us haha
Unfortunately, I started to feel a little ill, so we called it a night and headed back. It’s something that is a regular occurrence when travelling actually, despite not many people talking about it openly. I know because of all the people I met during my travels previously, not a single person was immune! Seemingly, no matter how careful you are, every few days or weeks you will probably get an upset tummy and not even know why or what caused it. It’s a part of travel which you just have to learn to accept for the most part, as shitty as it is (no pun intended!), and usually it tends to resolve quickly.
In the morning the next day I still didn’t feel great, but was perking up by the afternoon, which was good timing. One of the main things I wanted to do whilst in Prachuap was visit Kui Buri National Park, which is famous for being one of the best places to see Asian elephants in the wild.
It’s about 1 hours drive from Prachuap, and is best done in the afternoon, so much so, the park doesn’t even open until 2pm. We decided to take the motorbike again to save some money, so we set off about 1pm from Prachuap.
Bike journeys tend to be a little slower than a car, mostly because it can get too uncomfortable driving too fast because of the wind. Even with a jumper, cap, snood and sunglasses, going over 65kmph made my eyes water! So in the end, it took us about 1 hour 20 min to get there.
When we arrived, we were told to just go buy our tickets and jump in a jeep. The park is really well set up for tourism, despite not being that busy. The entrance fee was 200 Baht per person, and the cost of a jeep (with a driver and a guide) was 850 Baht. You’re not allowed in the park in any private vehicles at all, so these jeeps are the only way in. We thought it was quite good value for money in all.
We headed out on the jeep and pretty much straight away we saw one lone male through the trees, well spotted by our guide, but he moved off quickly…. We hoped that wasn’t our one and only…
But gladly it wasn’t and further into the park we came across a large family and sat and watched them for a while.
We continued driving to a view point which was cool, and then a storm rolled in. There was a clap of thunder which caused a few screams haha, (including one by me) because it was literally RIGHT above our heads.
We ran back to the jeep (which was open top, might I add… Basically just the back of a pick up truck with benches in…), but it was already too late, we were too deep inside the park! Fortunately, the jeep did have umbrellas, and just in time, as the rain was POURING! It filled the back of the jeep!!
We did find the elephants again, I think it was the same family, and they were waiting to cross the road this time, so we sat under our umbrellas and watched them again.
It was amazing to finally be able to see elephants in Thailand. Thailand is synonymous with elephants, but for the wrong reasons really. When I was here 10 years ago, tourists riding elephants was still quite widely accepted, and I saw many people doing it up and down the country, and even considered doing it myself, if I’m totally honest. But for ethical reasons I didn’t, as it was just starting to emerge about the poor treatment of the animals in the tourism industry, although it wasn’t common knowledge yet. Even the lonely planet that was out back then offered tips on where to ride them.
Today, riding elephants in Thailand is generally frowned upon, and there is a lot more awareness about the treatment of the animals. There have been a lot of “rescue centres” and “sanctuaries” pop up all across Thailand for the retired working elephants, which apparently allow tourists a more ethical way to interact with them. But I never felt entirely comfortable with visiting these places either, as many still seem to profit from the animals. So seeing them in the wild was the only option, and it was definitely worth it.
Right at the end of the trip we also saw 3 more hornbills, this time the pied hornbill, not quite as big as the great ones we saw in Khao Yai, but still amazing!
Then we had the tricky task of driving back to Prachuap on a motorbike, in the rain, with no wet weather clothes… Eek! But we managed it safely, just took our time (we took about 2 hours on the way back, getting hit in the face with mega rain drops at 60 kmph definitely hurts haha), and had a half way pit stop at a 7-eleven to rest our bums haha
We visited the night market again that night, but made sure we ate somewhere else veggie first 😋 and then we found a great little bar just up from our guesthouse which had probably the best pool table we’d seen so far. Dave actually beat me! Haha and then the owner challenged us to doubles, we won of course 😉
Then we sat and watched another storm out at sea.
I do love Prachuap, and I always said that if I was going to live in Thailand, I would consider here, not only because of it’s beauty, wildlife, authentic culture and friendly locals, but also because of it’s location. It’s still easy to get back to Bangkok, but also easy to go further South and out to islands. And I think after our trip here, Dave also loves Prachuap now. But, it’s still missing one thing… And that’s crystal clear turquoise water… So onwards we go, making our way to Koh Tao…
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