Prachuap Kirikan Archives • Folksy Travel (in my Borsalino) by Bill Smale

August 29, 2026August 29, 2026

Enjoying Prachuap Thailand

Prachuap is a cute little city with a few good restaurants and nice hills and beaches to view. The beaches are not really the cleanest in Thailand so swimming should be done in another area of Thailand but the town is fun for a few days and not overcrowded and developed like Hua Hin which has really been over populated and cementified. So try Enjoying Prachuap Thailand. I have friends who live here, having worked in the Scuba Diving business in Phuket for 8 years long ago. That’s why I come back to Prachuap.

Sunan Enjoying Prachuap Thailand — Sunan is contemplating the universe.

Tapestry up Enjoying Prachuap Thailand — They got their Pakistan wall covering up in the bungalow.

crabs on the beach Enjoying Prachuap Thailand — A girl taking a video of the hundreds of crabs running around on the former mangrove forest

main house Bill Smale — The house. In Thailand, because it rains so much, it’s a good idea to have your house elevated. Look at the nice garden Sunan created from nothing.

tangmoo Bill Smale — Tangmoo (watermelon) wants a tummy rub

electric Motorcycle Bill Smale — Alain preparing the new electric motorcycle. It works well except for a few overly cheapened items.

coffee shop Bill Smale — Coffee at a nice coffee shop that will last a few months or a year and close due to lack of customers. That’s a typical business deficit in Thailand, good ideas in the wrong place and for a much too small population.

cute sign — The sign is very cute, i like it.

When your ordered item is prepared this beeper will let you know. Going around to various restaurants in Thailand this trip I found these devices had exactly the same wording on the back….interesting.

yamazaki — I didn’t expect Yamazaki (famous Japanese bread company) to be here in Thailand, much less in Hua Hin, but here it is. The company used to make only Japanese style bread, soft and squishy, but now makes very good quality French style products. I was pleasantly surprised.

Waghor Aquarium

Talking to me fish — They were trying to communicate with me.

stonefish — Stonefish. Do not touch, you will suffer horribly and may not make it to your next meal.

I didn’t figure out what this stringy blob was. Do you know what it is?

Popular murmaid — This was the most popular attraction in the whole aquarium.

students galore — The place was overrun with students. We had to avoid them rushing past us here and there.

beautiful bird — A visitor to the house every morning. This young bird is quite beautiful.

earth moon — I was surprised the moon looks so much like Earth.,

Anyone want to take part in renaming the moon? For now it has no name.

tangmoo — Tangmoo, my new darling buddy.

August 18, 2025August 18, 2025

Thailand 2025

On my last jaunt through Thailand I stopped in Prachuap Kirikan to visit my good friends Alain and Sunan. They now have full solar power in the main house. The guest bungaloo is not yet a priority for solar adaptation. They have a new dog, a stray that stays due to the abundance of food from her generous hosts.

Laos store — Stopped for a few days in Vientiane, Laos to visit with Pasan. I love the store sinage.

no smoking temple — Good thing it doesn’t start smoking.

food salls — Food stalls where you can also find sushi sitting out in the hot sun

train photographers — Kids waiting to get a good photo of the arriving train

Planning lunch — Sunan getting ready to conquer the lunch menu

The garden Sunan created out of a vacant piece of land

At the Bangkok hotel looking at aquaman prepared to put out an underwater fire

emerald buddha proof of theft — In Vientiane, proof the Emerald Buddha at Wat Phra Keow was stolen from the main temple in Laos. Thai people are fed a false truth about this Buddhist figure.

December 22, 2020November 22, 2024

Day 4 – Prachuap Monkey Magic

Day 4 – 31 km

There is nothing magic about monkeys. I just wanted to pull you in.

Our goal was to go to the train station and see if we could put our motorcycles on the train for Suratthani. When we got to the window we were told the 19:30 cargo car might have space for 880 Baht (30 Baht=US$1) but we would have to wait till 18:30 for more definitive information.

At Sunan’s (and Alain’s) house where we stayed the night

Sunan took us to her friend’s coffee house. After coffee i saw a motorcycle shop across the street. I asked if he could put the back luggage rack on top of the grab bar the installers took off when putting in the rack. What I didn’t know is the rack was not made, like others i saw for sale, to fit together with the grab bar.

Sunan’s friend’s coffee house and the “inventive “ motorcycle shop

kids from the local technical college stop by the shop for cake

After hearing some grinding and pounding i got concerned so went to see what was up. He was cutting off parts of the rack and trying to pound it into a different shape. OOPS. The short story is, an hour later he had something that would not work as intended as a replacement for the grab bar but the jury rigged contraption was all usable. Oh well, it is a lesson in knowing first what the request might possibly entail. The fellow should have told me that rack was made to be a replacement for the grab bar.

At 18:45 we went to the train station to be told there was no space in the cargo area. Soooooo. Do we wait for the disfunctional state railway system to give us another answer on cargo space at 21:30 concerning space on the 22:30 train (arriving at 4 am in Suratthani) or do we do something else? We decded to have some beers and stay the night in Pachuap.

December 18, 2020November 22, 2024

Day 3 – Electrocuted Monkey

Day 3 269 km

We went through Cha Am to Prachuap to visit with Sunan. We passed all the shrimp farms and when we stopped in Prachuap for gas and to call Sunan (Bubbles fame) we heard a very close explosion. There were many monkeys on the power lines. One had shorted the transformer box and exploded himself. The sound was something like a car exploding but with a sharper clap. Electrocuted Monkey! He fell dead to the ground. I don’t want to show that photo. The kind young people at the gas station spent 15 minutes doing compressions to revive the monkey but he would not make it back to the living. Everyone felt so bad for the monkey.

We met up with Sunan, stayed at her and Alain’s new house and woke to fresh coffee. Stay tuned!

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