Bright and early in the morning I went for a walk along the beach. It is a very nice beach, with a strand shaded by pine trees, seating for a very large crowd, and all sorts of amusement opportunities for tourists. As it happens this is not the tourist season, so the facilities seem oversized for the few of us walking the beach. Unfortunately I am not much of a beach comber so after going for a kilometer I headed back to my little car.
I drove parallel to the beach for a few kilometers, admiring some of the big resort hotels, but then was kicked by construction to the main highway, which I followed to the south until I reached the Rajabhakti Park, a monument to the seven very important kings of Thai history, who are represented with angry faces in seven enormous bronze statues. Nearby I walked along the shaded shore of a small reservoir that led me to a coastal monastery and a fishermen's cove. All very quaint.
From there I headed west into the hills, which are a much tamer version of their cousins in the north, but nonetheless very green and pretty. Eventually I made it to the Kaeng Krachan National Park, one of the jewels of the national park system, well known among birdwatchers and butterfly enthusiasts. The core of the 3,000 square kilometers park is a wildlife preserve where elephants, tigers, gibbons, bears, and all sorts of large birds can live protected lives (alas, I saw but a few butterflies during my visit, probably because I stuck to paved roads).
I took another stroll along the beach when I got back home, and had a delicious dinner of papaya salad with shrimp and a pan-fried fish with Thai spices. It was way too much for a single meal, so I will have the rest of the fish for lunch tomorrow.
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