Day 30 - The Gold Leaf Tea-Leaf

Again slept like babies until the alarm at 8am. We got ready & had our complimentary breakfast at the coffee shop next door. A bit of a weird American breakfast, scrambled egg & toast with cold spam, chicken sausages & sweet corn salad caked in thousand island dressing.

We then packed our bags, left them in reception & took a 40 Baht taxi to Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawih, which is the main Buddhist temple (wat) of Nakhon Si Thammarat Province in southern Thailand. The main stupa of the temple, Phra Borommathat Chedi ('great noble relics stupa'), was built by King Sri Dhammasokaraja in the early-13th century CE to establish a symbol for the Theravada Buddhism sect in the province. The temple is believed to house a tooth of Gautama Buddha. (Enough of cutting & pasting from Wikipedia).

Upon our arrival, we were harassed by an elderly, but very pushy & persistent Thai equivalent of a ‘lucky heather’ seller. Instead she was trying to flog us lucky yellow poses to give to Buddha.

We eventually shook her off & headed into the wat. As one of the more important temples in Thailand, there was some serious praying going on. I tried to surreptitiously take photos among the praying congregation & the chanting of the orange swathed monks which was slightly awkward.

We went around the museum which Jackie described as ‘just a load of old pots’, then located more golden Buddhas in an indoor building surrounding the great Chedi.

Upon entering we discovered that the Thai worshippers were meticulously putting gold leaf on to the Buddhas. Jackie in her wisdom, saw a piece of gold leaf hanging precariously from one Buddha & decided to press it back on. What actually happened was that the gold leaf clung to Jackie’s finger & she had to roll it up like a bogie & flick it away. She will definitely not be going to heaven!

After an hour or so we had seen everything we needed to see (and before we got thrown out), so we walked back to our hotel in the blistering heat again. We arrived back at the hotel sweating profusely & I begged the receptionist to ‘get me out’ of this place. In fact I actually asked for a taxi to take us to the minibus station to head further north up the coast to Khanom, the home of the pink dolphins.

Yet again we had a smooth transition from taxi to minibus. The taxi dropped us off directly behind our minibus. The minibus, which cost just 80 Baht each, only had a couple of other passengers, but lots of cargo & we set off at 12.30pm. It was supposed to be a 2 hour journey, but our driver, a Thai Nigel Mansell, got us there at 2.10pm despite having at least 8 parcel drops along the way.

At Khanom minibus station, we waited for our new hotel owner, Sylvian, to pick us up free of charge. It was at this point that Jackie informed me that she had been sending messages to Sylvian, but signing off as Simon & he will probably think I’m gay. Fabulous!

Sylvian arrived in a beat up car & we loaded our luggage in. I was relieved to learn that he was French but had a Thai wife. Sylvian pointed out all his recommended restaurants as we drove to Leeloo Paradise at the southern end of Khanom.

Sylvian introduced us to his wife, Aiye, who checked us in to what was for us the best accommodation we have stayed at so far on this trip. The decor was too our taste. It just felt classy but understated.

After dumping our luggage, Sylvian sorted out 2 complimentary pedal cycles for us & we set off to explore & most importantly get a cold beer down our necks. We pedal-cycled to CC Beach Bar & Restaurant for 3 quick Leos.

Suitably refreshed, we cycled for a couple of miles up the road in search of an Indian restaurant that Sylvian had recommended. Apparently the owner was a 4* chef from Bangkok. It was not a traditional restaurant as we know it, but a Homestay. Two miles up the road we realised that we had missed it, so turned around & cycled back.

We eventually found it much closer to home than we thought & told the owner we would be back later. We got back to our room before an almighty thunderstorm passed through. Sylvian came out to make sure we didn’t get caught in the storm & offered us free use of his scooter for the evening.

After a couple of Hong Thongs we scooted out to the Indian Homestay. We ordered a chicken tikka masala, a chicken biryani, 2 naans, rice & a couple of Changs. Our table was under an awning in the owner’s back garden & we were unsurprisingly the only diners. It was a slightly surreal experience made all the more so when just after our food arrived another violent downpour sent us running for refuge into the owners kitchen. We ate our dinner side by side facing a brick wall in his kitchen.

The food was very good & reasonable, but as we mounted our scooter to ride home the engine wouldn’t turn over. The battery was flat. The 4* chef gave us a two’s up on the back of his scooter back to Leeloo, where Sylvian admitted his scooter hadn’t been used for the last 2 years.

Song of the Day: Thieves in the Temple by Prince.
She Bangs The Drum by The Stone Roses.
Get Me Out by New Model.Read more