Two weeks ago, My Man and I headed south to Chumphon to check out a rumored paragliding spot on the central coast of Thailand. I am normally a manic trip planner, the kind of person who plans out each day with an hour by hour itinerary. We don't necessarily stick to the plan, but I feel comforted, when heading out to the Unknown, to at least have a plan to fall back on. Chumphon, however, did not cooperate. It is a quiet place, a beach destination for Thais but not Westerners (who generally opt to simply jump off from Chumphon to get to Koh Tao or Koh Samui, popular diving destinations). For maybe the first time in my life, we bought plane tickets and booked a rental car and headed off without a hotel reservation or any idea of what to expect. It was a true exercise in spontaneity. It was also a complete disaster. OK, that is an overstatement. Whenever you get a weekend away without the kids, it's a great time, and the weekend was full of surprises and wonderful moments, but almost nothing went as planned and it is telling that we ended up coming home a day early.
We flew from Chiang Mai down to Surat Thani, then took the scenic route north along the coast, stopping at a cute little Thai restaurant on the beach (cute if you didn't look at the piles of garbage and unfinished construction around the beach and instead fixed your gaze higher, to the palms, the blue sky with puffy white clouds, the ocean stretching blue green away into the distance.
With a bit of selective vision the whole thing was idyllic really. The drive was interesting too. We wound our way on tiny roads through rural Thailand, through plantations of rubber trees and palm groves, soaking in the sights and sounds of this new place. At one point we almost crashed when we noticed the coconut truck passing us had four large monkeys riding along.
Our attempts at locating the flying hill were unsuccessful (maybe we'd have to hike up to the launch?), but the drive was interesting. We enjoyed seeing the rural houses and farms, the exotic landscapes and people.
At sunset we finally pulled into the beach area to look for a place to call home for the next four nights. We chose
Nana Beach Hotel, situated across the road from Thung Wua Lean Beach. It was a nice resort with bungalos (all full) and rooms and a beautiful infinity pool overlooking the ocean. It was arguably the best place on the whole beach and for less the $45 a night with breakfast, it was perfect. We walked along the beach after settling in and were amazed by how quiet and empty the place was (actually, I was impressed, while My Man was dismayed). The sand was coarse but clean and the water was a bit murky (rainy season) but blue. It was hot, even at nine at night, and humid. There was absolutely no breeze at all (a definite mood killer for My Man since the whole point of the trip was paragliding).
The next morning, I headed out to try diving while My Man enjoyed a well-deserved morning of complete relaxation in bed (he'd been working extra hard while his boss was gone for more than 3 months and was enjoying the opportunity to decompress). Koh Tao, just about 40 minutes away by ferry, is famous for its diving. So famous that it is generally crowded with divers year-round. I thought it would be nice to try the diving around Chumphon instead since it is supposedly similar but cheaper and much less crowded. Although it looked like rain, I love diving and decided to go for it, even though the dive center (Chumphon Dive Cabana) warned me that visibility was not ideal. They were right. It was some of the worst visibility I have ever seen. Still, I imagine it would be fantastic diving between November and May, because even though visibility was only 2-5 meters, there was a lot to see. We dove a fascinating wreck, saw incredible soft and hard corals, lots and lots of fish and nudibranchs and shrimp and anemones. I loved it. As far as recommending the dive center? The equipment was good and our dive master was good. They didn't speak any English though and never asked to see my Padi certification card (actually they didn't ask anything about my experience at all!). There was no talk of safety procedures or buddies (a little disconcerting with the lack of visibility). So, if you are an experienced diver, I would recommend them; if not, however, maybe look for another place with a bit more support.
The wind was still uncooperative, so for dinner My Man and I headed into Chumphon city to try out a restaurant that had been recommended to us (
Yimphochana Seafood). It was absolutely phenomenal, the best Thai food I've ever had in Thailand (and that's saying a lot!) and incredible fresh seafood (I'm not generally a fan of seafood and I ate fish soup and horseshoe crab soup with relish. It was amazing!). If you ever find yourself in the area, it's worth checking out, in fact it was so good we went back again for lunch the next day!
Speaking of the next day, it dawned sunny and beautiful and hot and windless. In other words, miserably terrible paragliding weather. I headed out for a walk on the beach after breakfast while My Man grieved and consoled himself by watching paragliding videos on YouTube. About an hour into my walk (which was incredibly beautiful but already uncomfortably hot), I got a call from My Man: "Want to check out Rayong?" "Sure," I replied, happy for a new plan since My Man had been so disappointed by Chumphon. He packed up while I walked back, picked me up, and we headed back to the airport in Surat Thani to catch a short flight up to Bangkok. On the drive back, I searched on my phone for rental cars in Bangkok but kept coming up with nothing. We figured maybe it was because you can't rent online the same day and didn't fret too much. Turns out, however, there really weren't any cars available once we landed in Bangkok. So we caught a taxi for the one-hour trip to a hotel in Rayong, negotiated a ridiculously expensive last-minute rental the next morning, and lost no time heading to the first flying site in Rayong, a little hill right on the beach.
Unfortunately, the wind forecasts had been changing ever since we left Chumphon, and by the time we got to the flying site, it was all wrong. Still, My Man was able to kite for awhile and play with the wing on the hill, and that, it turns out, was enough. We headed to lunch at a fantastic little cafe (
Phala Pier Cafe), where we enjoyed the ocean breeze and beautiful views (not to mention delicious food).
Then we headed out to check out another alleged flying site nearby. Turns out the wind was not cooperating there either, but the views were wonderful and there were about 500 different kinds of butterflies.
We headed back down to check out the beach (Hat Mae). It was pretty, with pine trees almost to the water's edge to provide shade and lots of little hotels and bungalos.
The beach itself, however, leaves something to be desired, with lots of trash and garbage along the whole expanse. We had just found that roundtrip tickets to and from the airport in Rayong from Chiang Mai could be had for less than $50, so we were looking for a good family getaway. I wasn't entirely convinced, however.
As we had dinner in a beautiful restaurant overlooking the ocean, though, I stumbled across information about an island just a 40-minute ferry ride away (
Koh Samet). It looked perfect for a family getaway, with beautiful beaches, snorkeling, nice hotels for cheap, and easy to get to. Since the trip was all about spontaneity, we booked our trip home for early the next morning from this closer airport so we wouldn't have to drive back to Bangkok, then booked tickets and a rental car for the whole family for just two weeks later. We researched hotels and booked a place right on the beach (Samet Pavilion Resort), which was beautiful and had a nice pool but had rooms for under $40 on agoda.com including breakfast. And that was the end of our spontaneous getaway weekend.
Looking back on it, it was a strange kind of wonderful trip. So different from our regular relaxing getaways in Railay, but fun in a quirky sort of way. We saw new things, had lots of interesting driving, and discovered a new family destination (one that turned out to be one of our favorites). We made the best out of frustrating circumstances. We ate new foods, slept in three different hotels, explored lots of beaches and restaurants, and flew from three different airports, all in the space of four days. And we got home in time to celebrate the 4th of July with friends and family, complete with fireworks and a BBQ.
Just goes to show that you can't always plan ahead for everything.
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