{"id":153,"date":"2010-01-23T00:39:55","date_gmt":"2010-01-23T00:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brucebramson.com\/2010\/01\/23\/south-thailand-ii-at-m-y-o-b-3\/"},"modified":"2010-01-23T00:39:55","modified_gmt":"2010-01-23T00:39:55","slug":"south-thailand-ii-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/?p=153","title":{"rendered":"SOUTH THAILAND-II"},"content":{"rendered":"

HUA HIN TO CHUMPHON<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

Map of Thailand<\/p>\n

Wednesday,\u00a09 October 1968<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following an early breakfast (there is one restaurant in Hua Hin that specializes\u2014if you can call it that\u2014in European food) I got on the road about 7:30. The day was spectacular\u2014but of course in the tropics a beautiful day can degenerate quickly into a dreadful one; even the smallest cloud can suddenly drop prodigious quantities of water, and if one happens to be in the way, one gets wet. Today however it rained only once, & I had no more stopped & put on my rain coat than I drove out of it & had to stop again and shed. Had I known, I wouldn\u2019t have bothered with the coat at all. From Hua Hin the road moves inland, through a series of large fertile valleys. Pineapples, bananas & coconuts appear to be the principal crops. The road has some ups and downs, but not much, as the hills are all low, but craggy and very pretty.<\/em><\/p>\n

South Thailand Countryside, 1968<\/p>\n

Driving along, I noticed a hill with a radio transmitting tower on top. As the road up there was not gated, I drove up for a wonderful view. The composite view above gives a good idea of how the lush Thai countryside looked. Another view is below:<\/p>\n

Road to Chumphon, South Thailand, 1968<\/p>\n

There being little to delay me (except one very large lizard\u2014nearly two feet long\u2014that was crossing the road, and which I coasted quite close to before it saw me and disappeared into the bushes) I made unusually good time, arriving at Chumphon just before 1 PM!! Now, Chumphon is a division-point on the RSR [Royal Siam Railroad], so most of my afternoon was spent in the rail yards\u2014and much of this evening as well. I shot up most of a roll of film, losing (for sure) only one or two, I hope, when the camera jammed a bit. It rained around 4, so I took the opportunity to wash up and take the camera apart. These Kodak gadgets are as much glued together as held any other way; although I began the trip with a tube of glue, it long since sprang a leak & had to be discarded. So I had to scout around here and find some glue, which I managed alright, and the camera is now back together, its critical part cleaned of dirt & lubricated.<\/em><\/p>\n

NOTE TO READERS<\/strong>: Like any other railroad division point, Chumphon was a busy place. The station and yards were then out of town a ways, up a gently sloping divided road. In the median-strip there were several preserved locomotives on permanent display: their running-lights were wired for electricity and lit up at night. It was a lovely scene, but wouldn\u2019t you know: the two photos I took were ruined when the camera jammed. I doubt if there is any trace of those locomotives left now.<\/p>\n

Locomotives in the wood-pile! Chumphon, 1968<\/p>\n

Strange things happen to luggage on a motorbike. Everything packs down into remarkably little space in the course of a day, but once disturbed it can\u2019t be put back again. Pills disintegrate unless packed very tightly with cotton. Some toilet-paper I used to pad my shaving gear in its little plastic box is now a mass of shredded paper. Plastic bottles can chafe on something & wear right through, and tooth-paste tubes will do the same. It can all get pretty messy!<\/em><\/p>\n

Already a change in plans is contemplated, I can no longer resist and if all goes well, I shall take the 7 am train to Phunphin, hopefully returning the same day. Phunphin is a town I do not otherwise expect to reach, but of course that is not the real reason for going there! Since I don\u2019t want to miss what looks like a lovely (perhaps wet, but lovely) mountainous crossing to Ranong\u00a0 by moto, the train trip will be a round-trip side-trip. We\u2019ll see how it goes. Unless I get to bed soon, I\u2019ll never wake up in time, so\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

More tomorrow,<\/em><\/p>\n

Bruce<\/em><\/p>\n

NOTE TO READERS<\/strong>: I am having some problems with the software, so will break this post now and continue on the next page. Please bear with me: I\u2019m not much of a computer whiz at all. By the way: the big lizard was a harmless Monitor Lizard, and the only one I saw!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HUA HIN TO CHUMPHON Map of Thailand Wednesday,\u00a09 October 1968 Following an early breakfast (there is one restaurant in Hua Hin that specializes\u2014if you can call it that\u2014in European food) I got on the road about 7:30. The day was spectacular\u2014but of course in the tropics a beautiful day can degenerate quickly into a dreadful […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brucebramson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}