Cha'am and Bangkok (8-19)

Since I had to remain in Bangkok for several more days, I decided to go to the nearby beach at Cha’am for the weekend. Friday I took a shared van. I found it fairly easily. After taking the BTS to Victory Monument, I asked at the first vans I saw and the woman pointed to where I should go. The second person I asked took me to the place to purchase a ticket and wait for a van. When I was dropped off in Cha’am, there was a taxi—unmetered—waiting. Although he reduced his fee a little, I knew he was charging too much (120 bahts/$4 for six minutes) for the short trip, but there were no other choices. Sometimes you have to pay even when you know it’s too much. So four hours after leaving my room in Bangkok I was in my room in Cha’am.

I remember coming to this beach for a Peace Corps conference. It’s not one of Thailand’s famous beautiful beaches, but it’s a good one. Long and clean. I chose a hotel across the street from the beach for easy access. After settling into my room, I went for a late afternoon 1.5 hour walk on the beach. It was overcast and windy; so it wasn’t hot and there were lots of waves. I was surprised that there were very few people on the beach. 

After walking, I sat in a beach chair and bought fried shrimp, squid, and crab from a vendor for dinner.

Saturday morning I walked the other direction for my 1.5 hour walk. No one was on the beach near the hotel, but down the beach a bit there were more people. It was the same when I returned at about noon. I bought somtom/papaya salad and grilled chicken, a typical Thai lunch, and took it to a chair facing the water. The man told me that chairs in that front group facing the water are for families or groups and single people have to sit in the back group of chairs that face across the beach. Since no one was in any of the front group chairs, I pushed a bit and he agreed that I could sit there. I told him I’d move when the chairs were needed for a group. That didn’t happen until 4:00. Then he took one of the chairs and put it farther up on the beach under an umbrella for me, which was quite nice of him.

So, I spent the whole afternoon relaxing and reading on the beach. The weather was cloudy and not hot; so it was comfortable to be outside all afternoon. I had bought a shirt to wear in the water. So I went into the water Thai style in my light-weight pants and the shirt.

Between 3:00 and 4:00 more people came to the beach. Since it wasn’t a hot, sunny day, I found it interesting that they arrived so late.

Sunday I rented a bicycle because I wanted to ride. I rode down the beach road until the end where I found a practically empty beach. Only a fisherman and a few people digging for clams were there. Two foreign men also walked past me. 

The sky was blue with brilliant white clouds. So it was lovely to walk on this quiet beach.

Next I rode on another street and came to a small wat. It was also beautiful against the blue sky. 

Returning to the beach road I came across a special shrine, maybe the city shrine. 

On the beach road, I rode to the other end of the beach where I found the draw bridge for pulling blue crabs. It’s a narrow—barely wide enough for one motorcycle—draw bridge across the jetty. The fishing boats are all blue. Vendors sell fresh and dried seafood. 

I had a late lunch at a restaurant along the shore—horse crab, which may have meant horseshoe crab. Delicious.

After returning the bicycle, I had a Thai massage. I realized how much I miss those. Chinese body massages don’t include the feet or head. As always, there were painful spots but I left feeling much better.

There were more people on the beach Sunday morning and there were more in the evening than there had been Friday evening, which I found interesting. Maybe local people.

Monday morning I took my final walk on the beach. Then I ordered lunch at the hotel and continued to enjoy the beach atmosphere while I relaxed and ate. I was in no rush to return to the city. The woman at the hotel called a motorcycle taxi to take me to the van to Bangkok: 40 bahts/$1.30, much less than the taxi I took to the hotel. This was my first post-Peace Corps motorcycle ride.

When I arrived at the hotel, I thought about how it was like returning home, since it was the same one I’d stayed the week before. One of the young women I’d been friendly with was working and heartily welcomed me back. I was upgraded to a larger room with a window. I was surprised how much I enjoyed the window and the view. What a treat!

Tuesday morning I headed back to the China embassy. I paid for the visa and collected my passport with the visa for 30 days. Twenty minutes after arriving I left.

A comment on security at the China embassy: At the American embassy, they x-ray bags and you have to check anything electronic. At the China embassy, you walk in. The second time I entered, I had purchased a drink in a cup. The woman told me “No water.” Since I had a bottle of water in my bag, I thought this meant no visible water. I drank the tea and left the cup on the ledge with other cups and bottles of water. The third time I went, the man checked my bag. When he saw the water bottle, he told me not to drink the water, which I thought was interesting. No one in the room had said anything when I drank water on my first two visits.

Since I then had several hours until my flight to Ubon, I decided to go to Lumphini Park to hang out and enjoy being outdoors. 

The park has a China-Thailand pavilion that was sent from China and reassembled.

In Bangkok I enjoyed the Indian and Arabian food in the neighborhood of the hotel. I always enjoyed staying in that area to have the opportunity to eat food that is not Thai just for a change. Now it was a pleasure to have food that is not readily available in China and is not available in Wenjiang. I figured I would enjoy that in Bangkok since I’d soon be eating delicious Thai food with my friends.

Language: After the first week, I used more Thai than Chinese. As I heard words, I remembered them. The sad thing is that I will have to reverse this process when I return to China—replacing the Thai that will be on top with the Chinese that is being suppressed.