Chumphon, Thailand

January 16, 2023 to February 17, 2023

To End on an Up Note

We had been in Chumphon once before in February, 2015. Besides finding the best tray food of our entire trip back then, our short time in Chumphon was very much colored by the horrible experience of staying at Suda Guest House. This time we were staying in arguably one of the best hotels in the city (A Té Hotel) and had more time to get a feel for Chumphon. We should all be so lucky as to be able to adjust some distasteful time in our lives.

Immediately upon seeking dinner we realized that the night market, a block from our hotel, was full of tray food vendors. It was Tray Food Heaven. And over the next 36 hours of exploring we started to think Chumphon was instead Tray Food Mecca, if I can say such a thing without being sacrilegious. Everywhere we looked there were trays of food. Normally tray food is much harder to find in Thailand. I'd like to know more about this Chumphon tray food phenomenon. It was a lot of fun, foodwise.

Not the central market but another huge market just a block from our hotel.

We accomplished a lot of our end-of-trip, last-minute shopping for things we had on our list. Mostly we found bags of old style Thai coffee. With our riding finished we didn't have to worry about the weight any longer and we figured it would be a lot easier to find some of the items on our list in Chumphon instead of traipsing all around busy and spread-out Bangkok. We were checking off things quickly and it felt good because that meant that we could do more sight seeing and/or lollygagging in Bangkok, a city we love.

At the enormous central market we set out to find some of the items, enlisting a young man to show us where to find the old style Thai coffee we have talked about so much, called cafe boulan. That accomplished, a nearby shop sold the elusive accouterments (a cloth "sock" which holds the coffee and a tin pot in which the "sock" is let to steep in boiling water) to make the coffee the "real" way when we get home. But we didn't see the little spoons anywhere. They are used to mix the thick layer of sweetened condensed milk at the bottom of the glass with the cafe boulan on top. They are beginning to be from a different era; tiny spoons crudely made of cast aluminum. They definitely possess a cuteness factor.

In the central market of Chumphon where we finally found accouterments for making café boulan when we get home.

The Chumphon central market is enormous.

In the central market. Obviously Chinese New Year is fast approaching.

Everyone at the market was so willing to help us. They are always curious as to what the farang wants to purchase. We each bought beautiful, handmade, super-sharp, butcher knives for next to nothing ($3). We went to 7-Eleven for electrolyte packets, much cheaper in Thailand than in the U.S. Andrea loves Sun Silk shampoo and conditioner which we also got at 7-Eleven. I like Darlie Toothpaste, also at 7-Eleven.

Then we walked to the train station to make sure we knew where to go to leave our bikes on the next night's train to Bangkok. Again we would have to leave our bikes in the baggage car but it is a procedure and we wanted to make sure we knew where and what time. The Chumphon train station is old and beautiful in a colonial way. All the train stations in Thailand have a 19th century architecture that certainly either the French or British had something to do with even though neither ever ruled Thailand. Possibly another example of the Thai bending with the wind: Please help us build our train stations and depots, we love your architecture, just leave us alone after that. A hundred years later everyone loves the stations even more. They are so prized all over Thailand that they are keeping them and even the new depots that are being built are exact replicas of the old. They, too, possess a solid cuteness factor. The Thais have a good sense for cuteness.

Next to the train station they were adding a couple of buildings and as you can see, they are building them in the same colonial style.

We sort of communicated with the man in charge of the baggage room. We came away knowing the time and place, which was all we really needed to be sure of. Then we walked the long boulevard which leads from the main roads to the train station. On either side of the boulevard are the original 100 year-old train station houses, many of them. I'm sure some were traveler's guest houses in the old days if a train broke down or the connecting train required a long layover. I encountered such guest houses in India in the '70's and felt as if I was traveling during the British era. Now, I'm not sure what these are used for other than maybe station personal living quarters. Thailand takes pride in its train system and at least some of the workers have such benefits. To walk the boulevard along all the station houses felt a bit like a stroll through history. Good that the houses have all survived and are now being restored.

The boulevard leading to the Chumphon Train Station

Chumphon Train Station buildings along the boulevard.

What I think were originally either houses for train station masters, engineers and other employees but possibly also for travelers stuck there overnight for some reason.

We walked around the central streets of Chumphon and realized a mid-sized town with a bustling and vibrant business section. It is purely a Thai town with very few tourists, a working town, full of just the right amount of energy to not feel too congested or rushed. Also what struck me was that there were wide sidewalks. Usually in Thai towns it is hard to walk because the skimpy sidewalks are covered up by any number of things but these were fairly free to actually walk on! I liked Chumphon a lot! The central market was one of the most vast market spaces I've ever seen. I liked Chumphon a lot!

Chumphon felt like a small town but then there were buildings like this.

Chumphon is a bustling town but not overly so.

Our hotel, the A Té Hotel, was right in the middle of town so it couldn't have been more centrally located. We liked our hotel a lot too. The buffet breakfast was possibly overall the best ever and the setting of where you could eat breakfast was beautiful as well since we could sit outside near the pool if we wanted. Our room was also one of the most beautiful we have ever had, the bathroom being absolutely the best ever. There was an entire wall of windows that opened! They looked out on the back part of the hotel with a perfect combination of vegetation and commerce on quiet sois.

From our windows I could even see a back alley tray food operation that catered exclusively, it seemed, to Grab type motorbike delivery guys. A steady stream of motorbikes pulled up in front of the trays and sped away with food in minutes. Quite an efficient system. There are four or five different companies besides Grab in Thailand. I think those delivery systems accelerated exponentially during Covid in Thailand and they are there to stay - a thriving system which links perfectly with the already thriving food stall industry in Thailand. Most Thais do not cook at home but instead simply go get dinner on the street. Now, with the burgeoning middle class, who wants to go get the food themselves anymore?! Just call Grab or Line or Minuteman, or Panda or others and you have your food in front of you faster than if you had jumped on your own motorbike to get it. It's a perfect wedding of industries that will only encourage the already huge array of Thai foods available, to grow. The sky's the limit in Thailand, when it comes to food.

From our hotel windows we could watch the continuous activity of motorbike delivery guys coming and going from this tray food restaurant. It's not really a restaurant but only take away.

So, we had a wonderful time in Chumphon. To end a bike trip we have always splurged to stay at a nice hotel. It allows me to float in the pool and reflect on where I've been, how far we have come, how diverse the trip was and to thank whomever I want to thank (my lucky stars!) for having delivered us to that swank hotel from where we had started 10 weeks earlier, without any injury or illness. We are so lucky.

The buffet breakfast at A Té Hotel. Each coffee was individually made for each person's liking.

Our hotel's buffet breakfast had a lot of Thai selections, which I like. Although they had any western breakfast food one could want as well.

Our hotel's pool was lovely and a koel sang all the time from nearby trees.

When we pull up to a fancy hotel we are probably looking rather hot, tired and possibly dirty. I always wonder what the front desk staff thinks but in Thailand the people are so incredibly kind that they overlook all the bad and welcome us the same as if we had stepped out of a limo wearing designer duds. They always let us check in early without even mentioning the normal check-in time. They tell us when breakfast is served and they bring all of our dirty panniers to our room for us and leave quickly so the mere thought of a tip doesn't come up. Thais are wonderful people and our experiences all across the country have been about the same wherever we have gone or wherever we have stayed. But it's always a treat to splash out, as Andrea says, on a fancy place at the end of a long hot trip on bikes. The oddly named A Té Hotel as well as all of Chumphon made a couple of our last days quite wonderful.

Now, a night train back to Bangkok and a couple of fun days exploring and packing...and trying to find those little spoons.

lovebruce

Today's ride: 5 miles (8 km)
Total: 1,024 miles (1,648 km)

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Rachael AndersonWhat a great stay!
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1 year ago

Jen RahnI'm hanging on to this thought for future reference:

"We should all be so lucky as to be able to adjust some distasteful time in our lives."

What a great opportunity this was to shift perspective!
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1 year ago

Bruce LellmanTo Jen RahnYes, I'm glad we spent more time in Chumphon and especially at a very different hotel than the one we were at eight years ago. If you need to refresh your memory of my account of that time you can read it here: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/chindwin1415/a-night-in-chumphon-thailand/
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1 year ago