Part 1
Background
I don’t have a bucket list as such, but if I did, this would most certainly be near the top of that list. I love boats, and most things to do with the sea, and whales have always fascinated me – although I know very little about them.
I knew they did trips from Petchaburi, but I’d never got around to doing one. Too lazy, too much trouble? I’m not sure what it was, but it had been in the back of my mind for many years to get off my backside and to do it. For some reason, adverts started appearing on my Facebook feed occasionally for whale trips. Of course, once I’d clicked an advert, my Facebook feed became inundated with adverts. I decided I’d do it.
A bit of research told me August to December as the best months. Of course. August to November are Monsoon season in the Gulf so that left December.
I decided Wild Encounters https://wildencounter.net/ seemed to be the best option. They sailed from several Northern Gulf ports. They used 3 sizes of craft, small, medium and large. The large boat also carried a professional photographer, so if my photos were useless, I’d get some nice photos regardless. Whales are wild creatures, so no guarantee of seeing one, but Wild Encounters are so confident they will find whales, they give a lifetime guarantee that if they fail, customers can do the trip again as many times as they wish for the rest of their lives – the Golden Ticket.
Now, I love boats but they don’t always love me – I did go about a year suffering sea sickness whilst deep sea fishing in my early 20s. I’ve not been sick since, but I’m always cautious. I decided the large boat would be the wise choice.
I eventually contacted them, and the only trips during December were departing from Samut Sakhon. A bit further than I was expecting, but not OTT. I booked for the week before Christmas – hoping the end of year winds would have died down a bit.
to be continued………………………….
Whale Watching in the Gulf of Thailand - Photo Trip
Whale Watching in the Gulf of Thailand - Photo Trip
Championship Plymouth Argyle 1 - 2 Leeds Utd 
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
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pharvey
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Re: Whale Watching in the Gulf of Thailand - Photo Trip
Looking forward to this one BB! 
"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things" - Yma o Hyd.
Re: Whale Watching in the Gulf of Thailand - Photo Trip
Day 1
Three of us, wife, daughter and I set off at about 9:30am for a leisurely drive. I decided to avoid a lot of the motorway. And drove the coastal road from Cha-Am, which made a pleasant change, and there was very little traffic. Very surprising was vast stretches of the road was flooded. Surprising because we’ve had no rain for at least 6 weeks. However, much of the coastal road is on very low-lying land. And I felt the flooding was caused more through high tides than rain (must get the car thoroughly cleaned when I get back).
The driver behind taking the coast road was to visit Wat Nok Pak Ta Le, a boat temple. I’d heard of a boat temple many years ago, and visited Wat Tanot Luang. However, Wat Nok Pak Ta Le was a much nicer example of a boat temple.
When I got there. I did the usual wander around taking photos.
I was very impressed at the propellers at the back of the temple, which were actually attached to small motors, indicating they worked.
There wasn’t an awful lot inside i.e. there was a ship’s wheel for steering,
but outside of that it was a large hall with Buddha images at one end.
There was a steel spiral staircase to the upper deck, but I didn’t fancy the climb in bare feet (essential in Buddhist temples).
Visit complete it was time to continue the journey. We were too early to check into our hotel, so I drove to the Wild Encounters Pier, which was in the middle of nowhere.
When we arrived at exactly 1pm, there was a nice seafood restaurant leading to the pier (we later found out it was part of the Wild Encounters setup).
Perfect, and we declared lunch. As we sat down, we spotted my boat for the next day moored on the other side of the estuary. It was about 4 times the size of what I’d been expecting. There shouldn’t be any need for sea sickness tablets on that baby. I was quite impressed.
The restaurant had a lovely setting, right at the mouth of the estuary.
I presume the tide was in. The sea was almost flat calm (fingers were crossed for the following day). The food was massive portions. So much, my wife and daughter had them make up a substantial doggy bag to eat later.
Fed and watered, we moved on to the hotel, The Grand Inter in Samut Sakhon. For less than 800฿ (£20)/night this hotel was excellent.
I think the price reflected the location rather than the quality. Samut Sakhon is more of an industrial/fishing town rather than a tourist trap.
I was well impressed with the hotel. Initially, it’s only failing was there was no desk chair for computer work. It even had an amazing hook – something I would not normally have mentioned, but decided it was report worthy after reading a recent report about Laos railway travel.
Evening
There was another failing with the hotel – they advertised a restaurant, so we thought we’d take advantage after our day of travel – what a mistake!
First thing, the restaurant didn’t serve alcohol. They said if we wanted alcohol, we were welcome to wander to the nearest 7-11 (about 800 yards away), buy some and bring it back with us to drink with our meals. That seemed a ludicrous idea at the time. I don’t drink a lot these days, but my orange soda did not hit the mark. The menu itself looked OK, but we had to wait just under an hour for it to be served. When it came, it was wrapped in cling film. It was pretty obvious they had ordered from Grab (Uber Food in the UK). It was cold, and my veg was not cooked. If they don’t have kitchen staff, they’d be better announcing the restaurant had closed. It was a very high rating hotel until then.
After food, my daughter and I wandered down to the 7-11, and we bought a couple of beers for a night cap. I had an early start the next morning, so an early night was in order.
to be continued………………………….
Three of us, wife, daughter and I set off at about 9:30am for a leisurely drive. I decided to avoid a lot of the motorway. And drove the coastal road from Cha-Am, which made a pleasant change, and there was very little traffic. Very surprising was vast stretches of the road was flooded. Surprising because we’ve had no rain for at least 6 weeks. However, much of the coastal road is on very low-lying land. And I felt the flooding was caused more through high tides than rain (must get the car thoroughly cleaned when I get back).
The driver behind taking the coast road was to visit Wat Nok Pak Ta Le, a boat temple. I’d heard of a boat temple many years ago, and visited Wat Tanot Luang. However, Wat Nok Pak Ta Le was a much nicer example of a boat temple.
When I got there. I did the usual wander around taking photos.
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I was very impressed at the propellers at the back of the temple, which were actually attached to small motors, indicating they worked.
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There wasn’t an awful lot inside i.e. there was a ship’s wheel for steering,
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but outside of that it was a large hall with Buddha images at one end.
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There was a steel spiral staircase to the upper deck, but I didn’t fancy the climb in bare feet (essential in Buddhist temples).
Visit complete it was time to continue the journey. We were too early to check into our hotel, so I drove to the Wild Encounters Pier, which was in the middle of nowhere.
When we arrived at exactly 1pm, there was a nice seafood restaurant leading to the pier (we later found out it was part of the Wild Encounters setup).
- IMG_6033.JPG (75.67 KiB) Viewed 3074 times
Perfect, and we declared lunch. As we sat down, we spotted my boat for the next day moored on the other side of the estuary. It was about 4 times the size of what I’d been expecting. There shouldn’t be any need for sea sickness tablets on that baby. I was quite impressed.
- IMG_6021.JPG (76.36 KiB) Viewed 3074 times
The restaurant had a lovely setting, right at the mouth of the estuary.
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I presume the tide was in. The sea was almost flat calm (fingers were crossed for the following day). The food was massive portions. So much, my wife and daughter had them make up a substantial doggy bag to eat later.
Fed and watered, we moved on to the hotel, The Grand Inter in Samut Sakhon. For less than 800฿ (£20)/night this hotel was excellent.
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I think the price reflected the location rather than the quality. Samut Sakhon is more of an industrial/fishing town rather than a tourist trap.
I was well impressed with the hotel. Initially, it’s only failing was there was no desk chair for computer work. It even had an amazing hook – something I would not normally have mentioned, but decided it was report worthy after reading a recent report about Laos railway travel.
- Hook.jpg (29.78 KiB) Viewed 3074 times
Evening
There was another failing with the hotel – they advertised a restaurant, so we thought we’d take advantage after our day of travel – what a mistake!
First thing, the restaurant didn’t serve alcohol. They said if we wanted alcohol, we were welcome to wander to the nearest 7-11 (about 800 yards away), buy some and bring it back with us to drink with our meals. That seemed a ludicrous idea at the time. I don’t drink a lot these days, but my orange soda did not hit the mark. The menu itself looked OK, but we had to wait just under an hour for it to be served. When it came, it was wrapped in cling film. It was pretty obvious they had ordered from Grab (Uber Food in the UK). It was cold, and my veg was not cooked. If they don’t have kitchen staff, they’d be better announcing the restaurant had closed. It was a very high rating hotel until then.
After food, my daughter and I wandered down to the 7-11, and we bought a couple of beers for a night cap. I had an early start the next morning, so an early night was in order.
to be continued………………………….
Championship Plymouth Argyle 1 - 2 Leeds Utd
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Re: Whale Watching in the Gulf of Thailand - Photo Trip
Part 3
Day 2 – Whale Watching – The Main Event
I was up at 5am to prepare for the day’s adventure. My wife and daughter had bottled it, and decided to spend the day enjoying the delights of Samut Sakhon (that must have taken all 5 minutes).
It was a cold morning, with the car thermometer showing just 20C on the drive to the boat.
A lovely drive between the many man-made lakes (previously Mangrove Forest) en-route. I arrived at 7:05, and sat at the table where I’d eaten food the previous day. Other adventurers were already there – some wrapped in blankets to protect them from the biting cold weather.
Our group leader, Ghan came up to me, introduced himself, and gave me the good news – the weather would be almost perfect for the trip, and we’d board the boat at 8am.
I just sat there people watching, watching the activity on the river (aren’t those long tailed boats noisy?), and watched the crew provisioning up, ready to store the boat for the trip.
I was very surprised to see the medium sized whale watching boat come down the river, and moor alongside our boat across the river where our boat was still moored. So, there would be 2 boat loads of adventurers on the mission today.
We were all made to put on life jackets (I was very surprised to find it fitted me), and board our boats. The medium boat (still quite large) was a lot more luxurious than our boat, but both boats were well designed for the job.
We were all squeezed into the large, but inadequate air-conditioned briefing room. There Ghan split us into 2 groups. Farangs were told to stay in the briefing room, while Thais were sent to the upper deck – this proved to be a sly move, but more about that soon.
We were given our brief, which wasn’t very informative. I think if you’d planned this trip properly, you’d have learnt everything they were briefing us already. Today’s search area would be along the red double headed arrow.
Two reassuring questions were asked of the deputy leader:
• How many times have you made this trip before? – 20
• How many times have you found whales? – 19
So, we had a 95% chance of seeing a whale.
By this time, we were already underway, and told life-jackets were now optional. Everybody took their life-jackets off, with the exception of a few kiddies and were able to enjoy their new-found freedom. We were invited to take breakfast – an option of:
• Croissant with chicken sausage in the middle
• Rice soup with pork balls
• Chocolate brownies
• Fruit
I didn’t bother with the soup.
Breakfast eaten, it was time to go on to the upper deck. It was at this point the Farangs realised they’d been shafted at briefing time. The upper deck seating was restricted to 9 deck chairs and 3 bean bags. Not that I do deck chairs or bean bags, but all of the proper deck seating had been taken. I think they were lucky there wasn’t a mutiny.
Everybody improvised. My perch for the day was in the shade of the wheelhouse. Depending on the boats heading, I sat left or right side (or should I be saying port or starboard?).
Soon after leaving harbour, we headed East, and the other boat headed West. The crew were on a constant lookout for whales and dolphins through their binoculars, visibility was not the best, but they were finding nothing. I was fascinated by a couple of flying fish, but that was it. We just steamed on and on. Many of the adventurers were occupying their time photographing the multiple types of sea birds flying around us.
The next highlight was when they declared lunch. There were a few options I’m not so keen on, so I avoided them. The centre piece was a huge tray of giant prawns – I’m not really a fishy sort of person.
I settled for boiled rice, a stir-fried pork dish, and a few slices of omelet. Not gourmet cooking, but it did a job.
Meanwhile, the boat kept steaming on. There were mutterings amongst the crew that the lifetime golden ticket, which is awarded in the event of no whale sightings might have to happen. What the hell, it was a lovely day for a cruise around the Gulf of Thailand.
Then it happened, the skipper received a radio message. He gently swung the boat around, and we were on our way. The medium sized boat soon appeared on our horizon. That had been the message, they had found a whale. As we got closer, we could see the whale swimming around their boat.
We dropped our speed, and inched closer to this monster of the deep, who didn’t seem at all bothered by our presence.
The cameras that people had taken on board were phenomenal. Made my little point and shoot look quite pathetic. How they could stand on a moving deck, holding their monstrous lenses defied gravity. Some others were using their phones. I don’t know if anybody has tried photographing a whale as it swims about, but it is bloody hard. I snapped just under 800 photos on the day. Well under half of those snaps featured our whale (don’t worry, I won’t post them all, in fact I’ve limited my whale photos to just 11 snaps). My little point and shoot has a fantastic zoom, but there was never time to see the whale, zoom in and click – all made even harder by a shooting point that is constantly moving up and down, side to side with the sea and trying to keep your balance. In the end, I had to reduce the zoom, and do what it says on the camera’s box – point in the general direction and shoot. I honestly didn’t know what I was taking, just literally pointing and hoping. I do have some nice(ish) photos, but they could have been better, if only the damned whale would have stopped and posed for a minute. I am glad we had a professional photographer on board to take some proper photos, which I will post when they become available. My photos aren’t good, but the experience was fantastic. Such a huge monster, swimming around for my pleasure. I would not have missed it. Obviously, I haven’t seen the professional’s photos yet, but I’ve seen his work from previous trips. That guy certainly knows what he’s doing, and full credit to him.
The photos taken by the professional photographer were immediately sent back to Wild Encounters Admin, who was able to identify the whale’s given name, Mae SodSai. I have been on to the Wild Encounters web page, and this graphic shows how they identified her i.e. the small nick behind her dorsal fin. They do also have pictures of her swimming with her daughter, who has now grown up, and moved away.
Then the journey home. It was just over 2 hours back to the pier. A bit monotonous, but time to just sit back and enjoy the journey, often with eyes closed.
At the entrance to estuary is the Phra Klang Nam, a temple located at sea, which I first spotted when walking The Red Bridge last year. It was good to see it up close.
It had been a lovely day at sea, but it was lovely to see the estuary and Wild Encounters Pier getting closer.
A fantastic experience that I most definitely would not have missed. In the briefing they told us to expect to see several types of dolphin, as well as whales, so from that point of view the trip did not live up to expectations, but I’d seen a whale, which was my prime objective. Anything else would have been a bonus. Would I do it again? Probably not (never say never), but I found my sea legs are not as steady as they used to be – I was struggling to move around the boat in a virtual flat calm. I was actually pleased they didn’t have to issue the golden ticket. Basically, we were steaming for about 9 hours, and spent maybe an hour of that time playing with the whale. Most definitely a very worthwhile experience.
to be continued………………………….
Day 2 – Whale Watching – The Main Event
I was up at 5am to prepare for the day’s adventure. My wife and daughter had bottled it, and decided to spend the day enjoying the delights of Samut Sakhon (that must have taken all 5 minutes).
It was a cold morning, with the car thermometer showing just 20C on the drive to the boat.
A lovely drive between the many man-made lakes (previously Mangrove Forest) en-route. I arrived at 7:05, and sat at the table where I’d eaten food the previous day. Other adventurers were already there – some wrapped in blankets to protect them from the biting cold weather.
Our group leader, Ghan came up to me, introduced himself, and gave me the good news – the weather would be almost perfect for the trip, and we’d board the boat at 8am.
I just sat there people watching, watching the activity on the river (aren’t those long tailed boats noisy?), and watched the crew provisioning up, ready to store the boat for the trip.
I was very surprised to see the medium sized whale watching boat come down the river, and moor alongside our boat across the river where our boat was still moored. So, there would be 2 boat loads of adventurers on the mission today.
- 1.JPG (77.7 KiB) Viewed 2944 times
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We were all made to put on life jackets (I was very surprised to find it fitted me), and board our boats. The medium boat (still quite large) was a lot more luxurious than our boat, but both boats were well designed for the job.
We were all squeezed into the large, but inadequate air-conditioned briefing room. There Ghan split us into 2 groups. Farangs were told to stay in the briefing room, while Thais were sent to the upper deck – this proved to be a sly move, but more about that soon.
- 5.JPG (53.15 KiB) Viewed 2944 times
- 6.JPG (41.66 KiB) Viewed 2944 times
We were given our brief, which wasn’t very informative. I think if you’d planned this trip properly, you’d have learnt everything they were briefing us already. Today’s search area would be along the red double headed arrow.
- 7.JPG (43.66 KiB) Viewed 2944 times
Two reassuring questions were asked of the deputy leader:
• How many times have you made this trip before? – 20
• How many times have you found whales? – 19
So, we had a 95% chance of seeing a whale.
By this time, we were already underway, and told life-jackets were now optional. Everybody took their life-jackets off, with the exception of a few kiddies and were able to enjoy their new-found freedom. We were invited to take breakfast – an option of:
• Croissant with chicken sausage in the middle
• Rice soup with pork balls
• Chocolate brownies
• Fruit
I didn’t bother with the soup.
Breakfast eaten, it was time to go on to the upper deck. It was at this point the Farangs realised they’d been shafted at briefing time. The upper deck seating was restricted to 9 deck chairs and 3 bean bags. Not that I do deck chairs or bean bags, but all of the proper deck seating had been taken. I think they were lucky there wasn’t a mutiny.
Everybody improvised. My perch for the day was in the shade of the wheelhouse. Depending on the boats heading, I sat left or right side (or should I be saying port or starboard?).
Soon after leaving harbour, we headed East, and the other boat headed West. The crew were on a constant lookout for whales and dolphins through their binoculars, visibility was not the best, but they were finding nothing. I was fascinated by a couple of flying fish, but that was it. We just steamed on and on. Many of the adventurers were occupying their time photographing the multiple types of sea birds flying around us.
The next highlight was when they declared lunch. There were a few options I’m not so keen on, so I avoided them. The centre piece was a huge tray of giant prawns – I’m not really a fishy sort of person.
I settled for boiled rice, a stir-fried pork dish, and a few slices of omelet. Not gourmet cooking, but it did a job.
Meanwhile, the boat kept steaming on. There were mutterings amongst the crew that the lifetime golden ticket, which is awarded in the event of no whale sightings might have to happen. What the hell, it was a lovely day for a cruise around the Gulf of Thailand.
Then it happened, the skipper received a radio message. He gently swung the boat around, and we were on our way. The medium sized boat soon appeared on our horizon. That had been the message, they had found a whale. As we got closer, we could see the whale swimming around their boat.
We dropped our speed, and inched closer to this monster of the deep, who didn’t seem at all bothered by our presence.
The cameras that people had taken on board were phenomenal. Made my little point and shoot look quite pathetic. How they could stand on a moving deck, holding their monstrous lenses defied gravity. Some others were using their phones. I don’t know if anybody has tried photographing a whale as it swims about, but it is bloody hard. I snapped just under 800 photos on the day. Well under half of those snaps featured our whale (don’t worry, I won’t post them all, in fact I’ve limited my whale photos to just 11 snaps). My little point and shoot has a fantastic zoom, but there was never time to see the whale, zoom in and click – all made even harder by a shooting point that is constantly moving up and down, side to side with the sea and trying to keep your balance. In the end, I had to reduce the zoom, and do what it says on the camera’s box – point in the general direction and shoot. I honestly didn’t know what I was taking, just literally pointing and hoping. I do have some nice(ish) photos, but they could have been better, if only the damned whale would have stopped and posed for a minute. I am glad we had a professional photographer on board to take some proper photos, which I will post when they become available. My photos aren’t good, but the experience was fantastic. Such a huge monster, swimming around for my pleasure. I would not have missed it. Obviously, I haven’t seen the professional’s photos yet, but I’ve seen his work from previous trips. That guy certainly knows what he’s doing, and full credit to him.
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The photos taken by the professional photographer were immediately sent back to Wild Encounters Admin, who was able to identify the whale’s given name, Mae SodSai. I have been on to the Wild Encounters web page, and this graphic shows how they identified her i.e. the small nick behind her dorsal fin. They do also have pictures of her swimming with her daughter, who has now grown up, and moved away.
- 19.jpg (67.87 KiB) Viewed 2944 times
Then the journey home. It was just over 2 hours back to the pier. A bit monotonous, but time to just sit back and enjoy the journey, often with eyes closed.
At the entrance to estuary is the Phra Klang Nam, a temple located at sea, which I first spotted when walking The Red Bridge last year. It was good to see it up close.
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It had been a lovely day at sea, but it was lovely to see the estuary and Wild Encounters Pier getting closer.
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A fantastic experience that I most definitely would not have missed. In the briefing they told us to expect to see several types of dolphin, as well as whales, so from that point of view the trip did not live up to expectations, but I’d seen a whale, which was my prime objective. Anything else would have been a bonus. Would I do it again? Probably not (never say never), but I found my sea legs are not as steady as they used to be – I was struggling to move around the boat in a virtual flat calm. I was actually pleased they didn’t have to issue the golden ticket. Basically, we were steaming for about 9 hours, and spent maybe an hour of that time playing with the whale. Most definitely a very worthwhile experience.
to be continued………………………….
Championship Plymouth Argyle 1 - 2 Leeds Utd
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Re: Whale Watching in the Gulf of Thailand - Photo Trip
Fascinating trip, may do it myself one day. What was the cost (farang price or all the same?)
What species were the whales? It looks like a Bryde's whale which does frequent the Gulf.
What species were the whales? It looks like a Bryde's whale which does frequent the Gulf.
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
Re: Whale Watching in the Gulf of Thailand - Photo Trip
Even though we only saw one whale, it was a fantastic trip, and I've really enjoyed re-living it whilst writing this report.
As I said in the OP, they run 3 boats - no dual pricing:
Talk to Admin. They are very approachable/helpful, and write excellent English.
The whales in the Gulf, which they look for are Bryde's Whales. The crew were actually pronouncing it Buddha's Whales. If you look at their web page, and drill down, I think they know every whale personally.
As I said in the OP, they run 3 boats - no dual pricing:
- Small boat is faster and costs 1,800฿ per head
- Medium boat (most luxurious) costs 2,000฿ per head
- Large boat costs 2,300฿ per head
Talk to Admin. They are very approachable/helpful, and write excellent English.
The whales in the Gulf, which they look for are Bryde's Whales. The crew were actually pronouncing it Buddha's Whales. If you look at their web page, and drill down, I think they know every whale personally.
Championship Plymouth Argyle 1 - 2 Leeds Utd
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Re: Whale Watching in the Gulf of Thailand - Photo Trip
- 440928657_424066496912263_282573572173602240_n.jpg (112.39 KiB) Viewed 2920 times
Championship Plymouth Argyle 1 - 2 Leeds Utd
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
-
Bamboo Grove
- Moderator
- Posts: 5546
- Joined: Mon Jan 13, 2003 12:59 pm
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Re: Whale Watching in the Gulf of Thailand - Photo Trip
Nice report, thanks BB. It really looks and sounds like a nice experience. I had no idea that this kind of trip was available. Do you have any idea how long it has been around?
Back in Bamboo Grove
http://bamboogrovestories.blogspot.com/
http://bamboogrovestories.blogspot.com/
Re: Whale Watching in the Gulf of Thailand - Photo Trip
Yes, I'm really pleased I did it. I don't know how long, but the graphic above your post says since 2013.
Championship Plymouth Argyle 1 - 2 Leeds Utd
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Re: Whale Watching in the Gulf of Thailand - Photo Trip
I once saw a pink dolphin at Had Sai Noi but it was a long time ago, probably around 2005, I've never seen one since.One of the highlights out of Chumphon is also the Pink Dolphin
Re: Whale Watching in the Gulf of Thailand - Photo Trip
According to the briefing we received, you were very lucky to have seen a Pink Dolphin this far North. They said it is normally the Irrawaddy Dolphin in this area. Personally, I've never seen any wild dolphin.
Championship Plymouth Argyle 1 - 2 Leeds Utd
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Re: Whale Watching in the Gulf of Thailand - Photo Trip
We did a boat trip off the north coast of Nakhon Si Thammarat a few years ago to see them where they are quite common.
Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed? - Hunter S Thompson
Re: Whale Watching in the Gulf of Thailand - Photo Trip
I think it was very unusual because all the locals working on the beach were getting excited by the sight of it.
Re: Whale Watching in the Gulf of Thailand - Photo Trip
It's Christmas Day, so just a short update today................
Part 4
Evening
We definitely weren’t going to eat in the hotel again, but where to go? I put the hotel on Google Maps, and searched for restaurants. Quite a few appeared, but when I drilled down, they were only food carts, and most definitely didn’t serve beer. I kept coming back to the same restaurant, Ton Toey Kitchen Restaurant. It was only 800 mtrs away, but my wife’s leg, although fixed would still be a bit fragile through the heavy traffic/0 pavements.
Booking a Grab taxi proved to be a challenge. We were in a non-Grab taxi operating area. After about 20 minutes, we had somebody accept the ride – we were on our way. The driver explained that we were staying in an industrial area, and it was only because it was New Years Party night for the factories before everybody returned to their villages that he was in the area at all. He said there was no call for Grab in this area.
The restaurant was fantastic. It was a huge, 2 storied building, situated on the side of a lake and was bursting at the seams with party goers. There were hundreds of people. We were very lucky to get a table – somebody was going home as we arrived. A really beautiful setting. The lake must have been quite clean because there was both a large slide and a trampoline by which customers could enter the lake. I only had the 2 beers, so was able to resist the temptation. It was Thai prices as well. We ordered loads of food, and 5 drinks – the bill was 990฿ (under £23). Food was delicious and plentiful.
Day 3
We decided to try the hotel’s breakfast before setting out for home quite early. The breakfast food made the hotel’s evening meal offering 2 days previous look quite good. It was a buffet, but the cooking was very poor. I had the usual plastic sausages and ham with chilled eggs, but it was somehow worse than normal. A cook (probably calls herself chef) who couldn’t fully cook a fried egg, or warm through plastic sausages should not be preparing food. I looked at the cooking facilities, and they were very poor – they could not have prepared what we ordered 2 days previously from the restaurant, so I think my assumption that it was Grab food was most likely correct.
The drive home was fairly uneventful, and we arrived back in Hua Hin just before 11:30am.
to be continued………………………….
Part 4
Evening
We definitely weren’t going to eat in the hotel again, but where to go? I put the hotel on Google Maps, and searched for restaurants. Quite a few appeared, but when I drilled down, they were only food carts, and most definitely didn’t serve beer. I kept coming back to the same restaurant, Ton Toey Kitchen Restaurant. It was only 800 mtrs away, but my wife’s leg, although fixed would still be a bit fragile through the heavy traffic/0 pavements.
Booking a Grab taxi proved to be a challenge. We were in a non-Grab taxi operating area. After about 20 minutes, we had somebody accept the ride – we were on our way. The driver explained that we were staying in an industrial area, and it was only because it was New Years Party night for the factories before everybody returned to their villages that he was in the area at all. He said there was no call for Grab in this area.
The restaurant was fantastic. It was a huge, 2 storied building, situated on the side of a lake and was bursting at the seams with party goers. There were hundreds of people. We were very lucky to get a table – somebody was going home as we arrived. A really beautiful setting. The lake must have been quite clean because there was both a large slide and a trampoline by which customers could enter the lake. I only had the 2 beers, so was able to resist the temptation. It was Thai prices as well. We ordered loads of food, and 5 drinks – the bill was 990฿ (under £23). Food was delicious and plentiful.
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Day 3
We decided to try the hotel’s breakfast before setting out for home quite early. The breakfast food made the hotel’s evening meal offering 2 days previous look quite good. It was a buffet, but the cooking was very poor. I had the usual plastic sausages and ham with chilled eggs, but it was somehow worse than normal. A cook (probably calls herself chef) who couldn’t fully cook a fried egg, or warm through plastic sausages should not be preparing food. I looked at the cooking facilities, and they were very poor – they could not have prepared what we ordered 2 days previously from the restaurant, so I think my assumption that it was Grab food was most likely correct.
The drive home was fairly uneventful, and we arrived back in Hua Hin just before 11:30am.
to be continued………………………….
Championship Plymouth Argyle 1 - 2 Leeds Utd
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Re: Whale Watching in the Gulf of Thailand - Photo Trip
Part 5
Conclusion
This has been one of my shorter trips, but has had a lot of content for me. It really has been a once in a lifetime experience.
The first highlight of the weekend was going by the coastal route. I’ve travelled most of this route before, but the entire route made quite a change. The amount of flooding was both surprising and amazing.
Samut Sakhon – I doubt many choose this as a holiday location. It’s just a town, permanently beset by horrendous roadworks, with cranes falling on to cars, situated on the main road between Hua Hin and Bangkok. Nobody stops there. I think its only claim to fame was that it was the location of the first major Covid outbreak in Thailand. It is an industrial area, and we soon learnt that our hotel was located in factory central. The traffic where we were staying was horrendous, but drive East for one minute, and the mayhem was left behind. I don’t think I saw another white man in Samut Sakhon whilst there. I make the distinction between white man and foreign persons because many of the factory workers are foreigners, being employed as cheap labour – there were a lot of them. It is always interesting to stop in these real Thai towns and observe how the other half really live. I think we were lucky to be there on New Years Party day for the factories – we certainly saw them letting their hair down.
Much of the area around Samut Sakhon was previously Mangrove Swamp, but had been cultivated leaving mile upon mile of small lakes used for fish farming and shrimp farming everywhere. Quite attractive to drive through, especially early morning, and the perfect appetizer for a day at sea.
Whale Watching – the organization I chose are very professional, and has a lot of international locations. They don’t only care for whales, but they also run elephant and many other wild animal sanctuaries as well it is interesting to look through their Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/wildencounterthailand . The boats were much larger than I expected, were adequately crewed with very knowledgeable staff and very well equipped. It was amazing how they could tell us the given name of our whale, and do so very quickly. However, this was a sign of a professional organization and its ‘on the ball’ Admin Staff at HQ. Captains on both boats were clearly very skilled in maneuvering around whales without causing them distress. Our whale was not bothered by our presence at all. The whale maneuvered very close to both boats while they were stationary.
to be continued (The Tour Guide/Professional Photographer’s Report/Photos Tomorrow)…………………….
Conclusion
This has been one of my shorter trips, but has had a lot of content for me. It really has been a once in a lifetime experience.
The first highlight of the weekend was going by the coastal route. I’ve travelled most of this route before, but the entire route made quite a change. The amount of flooding was both surprising and amazing.
Samut Sakhon – I doubt many choose this as a holiday location. It’s just a town, permanently beset by horrendous roadworks, with cranes falling on to cars, situated on the main road between Hua Hin and Bangkok. Nobody stops there. I think its only claim to fame was that it was the location of the first major Covid outbreak in Thailand. It is an industrial area, and we soon learnt that our hotel was located in factory central. The traffic where we were staying was horrendous, but drive East for one minute, and the mayhem was left behind. I don’t think I saw another white man in Samut Sakhon whilst there. I make the distinction between white man and foreign persons because many of the factory workers are foreigners, being employed as cheap labour – there were a lot of them. It is always interesting to stop in these real Thai towns and observe how the other half really live. I think we were lucky to be there on New Years Party day for the factories – we certainly saw them letting their hair down.
Much of the area around Samut Sakhon was previously Mangrove Swamp, but had been cultivated leaving mile upon mile of small lakes used for fish farming and shrimp farming everywhere. Quite attractive to drive through, especially early morning, and the perfect appetizer for a day at sea.
Whale Watching – the organization I chose are very professional, and has a lot of international locations. They don’t only care for whales, but they also run elephant and many other wild animal sanctuaries as well it is interesting to look through their Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/wildencounterthailand . The boats were much larger than I expected, were adequately crewed with very knowledgeable staff and very well equipped. It was amazing how they could tell us the given name of our whale, and do so very quickly. However, this was a sign of a professional organization and its ‘on the ball’ Admin Staff at HQ. Captains on both boats were clearly very skilled in maneuvering around whales without causing them distress. Our whale was not bothered by our presence at all. The whale maneuvered very close to both boats while they were stationary.
to be continued (The Tour Guide/Professional Photographer’s Report/Photos Tomorrow)…………………….
Championship Plymouth Argyle 1 - 2 Leeds Utd
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED
Points 46; Position 23 RELEGATED