(cont. from Page 11) Pak Nam Chumphon……..Situated at the mouth of a larger river outlet and since converted to a sea port Pak Nam Chumphon now handles boats travelling to Ko Tao off the 4001 Highway. The fishing boats are moored nearer to the river mouth and best viewed from the tourist pier accessed through Pak Nam town. Here there is a reminder too that this is part of Mu Ko Chumphon National Park. Pak Nam is found in many coastal names and means place (near) water.
Prince of Chumphon Shrine……..Continuing on the 4001 in the direction of Sai Ri beach, my final destination today, is a memorial to Prince Chumphon Khet Udom Sak. Little known in the West but much revered all over Thailand the Prince, a son of King Rama V is remembered for his deeds in modernizing the Royal Thai Navy as well as his wisdom at a time of cordial relations particularly with England where he studied as a naval cadet. Sadly his life was cut short when he died after high fever in the village of Sai Ri where his shrine is located today. To further meet the Prince click here. The shrine also contains a small museum dedicated to his life and appropriately a decommissioned torpedo boat 'Royal Chumphon' is situated nearby.
Opposite is an OTOP minimart. This is an outlet for fair trade local produce. I take this opportunity to purchase something for home.
Haad Sai Ri (Sai Ri Beach)……..Immediately after the Prince of Chumphon Shrine is Sai Ri beach a relatively small beach with a few resorts interspersed with the normal retail activities. As with Haad Thung Whua Laen it has suffered from recent storms with a substantial amount of debris still on the beaches. However its location on the edge of Mu Ko Chumphon National Park with its numerous off-shore islands gives it a character all of its own.
Charging Bull Beach……..I have travelled nearly 50 kilometres between two more well-known beaches of Chumphon. However I head back a different way reducing this to around 40. This takes me back on the 4001 then bypassing Chumphon to the east and out again the 16 kilometres to Haad Thung Whua Laen. I generally have few problems with the motorbikes I rent but this smaller automatic does not run smoothly. Whether it’s suffering from fuel pick-up or poor ignition I don’t know but its sluggish performance reminds me to translate into English the location to which I’m heading. Haad is beach, whua is a cow, laen is a local expression for running while thung is an open space possibly a field. Putting this together in a meaningful way is helped by the fact that on the beach road is a statue of a bull looking rather fearsome........ (cont. on Page 13)