Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand

In Chiang Mai one of the people from Washington DC that I met lives in the small town of Prachuap Khiri Khan and convinced me to go there while working my way south. I thought it would be a good idea to stop in a town that most tourists and backpackers skip over; a good opportunity to get a better feel for a "real" Thai town as opposed to one that so heavily caters to and depends on tourism. Well, am not sure Prachuap Khiri Khan does exactly that but it is probably the closest I am going to find so I will have to take what I can get.

The town is pleasant but small. There is not much to do. Renting a motorbike is the way to go, according to the guy, but I was not feeling up to that for no particular reason. So, my friend and I just walked around and absorbing.

We did make an effort to ascend what is called Monkey Hill. The 396 stairs on the way up and at the foot of the hill there are monkeys everywhere. We were warned not to bring any food because they will go after it and while it is very unlikely they will harm you it would be an intimidating experience still. Best to just avoid it all together. So we made sure not to have any food. Given that we were going up 396 stairs in heat of the day I brought a bottle of water; odorless, sealed water. I figured this would be OK. While going up a monkey looked at me, then at the water, then approached. I knew what was happening but kind of did not believe it. The monkey did not smell the water and we had already passed about 100 monkeys that had no interested in my water bottle so how could this one be any different? Well, it was. It reached for the bottle while in my hands, I let go, laughing because there is no way this monkey can drink the water because it is closed with a screw cap. We went a few steps up and then watched the monkey struggle with the cap. It knocked the bottle against the stairs. Then, by magic of some sort, it figured it out; the monkey unscrewed the cap. However, the act of pouring the water into its own monkey mouth was beyond the primate and it just dumped the water on the stairs and drank from there. I guess the monkey won but I sure got a good show.

From the top of Monkey Hill, where there are actually no monkeys for some reason, the view of the town is nice. Prachuap Khiri Khan sits on shore there is no beaches but looking out onto the water from there provided some nice photos.

I could not imagine living in Prachuap Khiri Khan as this guy is but it was a nice place to spend a night. However, I think that if I were to live there I would enjoy my time and discover more about the town to enjoy than I had a chance to during my brief stay.