After a complete day yesterday to walk the pleasantly empty streets and attractive sea-front
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| Tuk-tuk man's assistant works with him..... |
promenade of Prachuap Khiri Khan, I coop mini-bused approx. 190 kms due south to Chumphon (pop. 58,500). I am staying at the Euro Boutique Hotel---found it on Booking .com, & is located in the centre of town. Mark it down as an exceptionally well run and attractive establishment, very reasonable at $15 US for a single room---- highly recommended should you ever find yourself in Chumphon. Not much to see of touristic note in the town itself ---main street, bustling and well served by a shopping plaza and many restaurants, street markets etc. The town is located about 13 kms from the sea and is not much influenced by its proximity. The local tourist office promotes trips out to nearby islands, rafting & scuba diving. During my walk about in Chumphon this afternoon, I only spied a couple of other western tourist/backpackers.
The southern peninsula of Thailand extends southwards down to Malaysia with Myannmar/Burma along the western border. Approx. 330kms south of Bangkok, at Prachuap Khiri Khan, the actual width of Thailand from the Gulf of Thailand to Burma is just about 8 kilometres. Despite the proximity of
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| Monkeying about in the internet cables.... |
Burma, until recently a very closed and isolated nation, there is very little influence in this area of Thailand of its very large neighbour. The reason for this is that the two (one to the south, the other to the north) nearest international border crossing points are 250 kms away in opposite directions.
Language. English is spoken semi-fluently by very few Thais, even those employed at the reception desks of hotels. Many may have a very elementary knowledge of the international tourist language---- I am told that it is now offered to all in the Thai public school system. English is, or some form of it (in China they call it Chinglish, in Japan, Jinglish) is widely used in Thailand, on advertising displays, on major
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| Any colour dress you want as long as it's black (mourning for king).... |
buildings, airports & bus stations etc. While not wishing to appear a language fascist, it does seem to me that Thais, especially the young & educated, could be making a more aggressive effort to speak better English given the massive importance to the country of the tourism sector and international business sectors. I cannot help recalling the intensity of desire of young people in Vietnam to make contact with westerners on the street, almost to the point of pestering, to talk/chat/banter so that they could, individually or in a group, sharpen their English conversational skills.
Tone & texture. Except for the preponderance of wooden houses in the jungle clad northern hill areas of Vietnam and Laos, the rest of south east Asia, or at
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| Very beautiful street lights in Chumphon..... |
least the part I have travelled through these past nine weeks, is a desert of featureless concrete buildings. Once a region of dense forests, these seem to have virtually 98% disappeared. I suppose that it is a combination of the increase in living standards, especially in China and the desire for wooden floors and furniture in western nations. The other key aspect of the deforestation issue I understand, is that with the increase of prosperity & incomes in this region, dietary improvements for the masses has resulted in protein intake levels to increase rapidly, creating strong demand for meat and milk based products all of require forests to be cleared for cattle ranching.
Even small provincial towns in SE Asia seem very large and densely populated compared to regional small towns in the West. I suppose that increasing farm mechanization in rural areas is driving people to the towns for employment opportunities. These folk have to be housed and (ugly) durable concrete structures, thrown up quickly, are the affordable and practical solution.
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