Orange Train

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A trip to Thailand not always starts with a flight. Sometimes, it begins on a train.

In February 2017, I got another 3-month Thai visa in Laos and was heading back to Bangkok to continue my adventure in the Kingdom of the White Elephant.

We were crossing the hilly landscape of Saraburi Province when the sun painted the train and the whole world orange.

It was a cheap sitting car with few passengers in it and the windows opened, I was jumping from the left side to the right one with my photo camera, absolutely happy.

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This is an orange story about my trip to Prachuap Khiri Khan, Thailand, written specially for the Color Palette Contest by @olesia and @dmitrik in Steem-BRU Community. Not a repost, never published before, all photos were taken by me.

Orange Cat

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In the very centre of Bangkok's downtown, there is a Buddhist temple, called Wat Pathum Wanaram Rachaworawihan (on the map).

Surprisingly, a tranquil place although it is located right in between the third and the tenth world largest shopping malls (CentralWorld and Siam Paragon).

Among stupas and Buddha statues, a cat tribe lives. Clean, well-fed, affectionate. One of these cute four-legged "Buddhist monks" is in the photo.

It is never crowded. Thousands of vacationers, who rushing between shopping malls, have no time to have a look at another Thai wat and another cat tribe. Nothing special is there, just calmness and cuteness, an island of serenity for people who have time.

Orange God

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Ayutthaya, near Bangkok

Let's have seat on an imaginary orange cannonball and fly South for 250 kilometres into Prachuap City.

(I did the same by a minibus, around 4 hours).

This is Ao Noi Cave with a reclining Buddha.

Buddha is not a god, yes, and some say Buddhism is not even quite religion but spiritual guidance, lifestyle, philosophy - check discussions on google.

So what is Buddhist faith as a feeling, then?

I asked some Thais: "Do you believe in samsara, karma?", they answered: "I don't know" and then they went to a temple and burned incenses.

Doubts don't make you less a Buddhist.

Orange Living in Prachuap

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In Prachuap, I stayed at an old wooden guesthouse as they probably were 20 or 30 years ago in the time of the Beach story. It had tiny single rooms that resembled more closets in a shabby damp thin-walled barn, abundant with woodlice. There were a lot of mosquitoes as well.

Sunrise on the Gulf of Thailand, 50 meters from the guesthouse

But the price was just 6 USD per night so it was what I exactly needed. They also had an outdoor kitchen with a gas stove so travellers could cook by themselves. This way, you could cook some dishes you missed during a long trip in Asia and, of course, a kitchen makes expenses even lower.

Low prices, the kitchen (rare for budget accommodation in South-East Asia), and a tranquil, non-touristy atmosphere of Prachuap attracted many experienced travellers from all around the world who lived at this guesthouse for weeks as I did.

A cashew tree with cashew apples and cashew nuts

The yard was occupied by a garden full of centipedes. A couple of times, snakes crawled into the common lounge, and one traveller was bitten. Cats, Mimi and Lucky, ran everywhere in search of baby birds, fallen from the nests, and tropical lizards... Neighbour male cats, two red brothers, walked around looking in the direction of our lady cats.

It was cosy there. I made a great friendship with Mimi. And it was just 50 meters from the sea embankment.

What else you need?

Orange Fruits

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Time for cooking!

Prices for mango are less than 1 USD for 1 kg in April-May. So why not trying cooking mango jam?

Just mix mango and sugar and boil for around 30 minutes.

Delicious dessert, and sharing jam with other travellers can make you popular. :)

Orange Seafood

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Prachuap has a fishery industry as well as many shrimps farms so seafood is the freshest and inexpensive there.

A meal with large shrimps will cost 40-60 baht (1.3-2 USD) at the seaside market. Lobsters, octopus, horseshoe crabs are also available.

Another orange seafood beauty but from a tourist area in Bangkok so price tags show dramatic numbers:

By the way, be careful with eating octopuses. There are poisonous ones and not every Thai seller knows it.

Orange Kid

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Spectacled langurs (Trachypithecus obscurus) is a reason why I especially like Prachuap.

This monkey tribe is a wild one, this is not a zoo, they just visit a military base for having extra food. At night, they go back to jungles situated in a seaside rocky mountain near Prachuap City.

Three of them, sitting on the roof of a shed:

A family... Mother, father, and a child.

The beauty of family connection...

What can be better?

-- Thank you for sitting with my orange kid, dear neighbours!

:)

Kind and delicate monkeys... Once, two of them climbed down branches and asked me (with their eyes) if they could ride me. :) I consented. :) When I felt tired of them, I squatted down and langurs immediately got off me, like well-mannered children leave an attraction.

I miss those good monkeys...

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Thank you for reading my orange story!

Happy travels!