The narrowest place in the country

January 13th to 17th: Prachuap Khiri Khan - we had difficulty remembering this place name... Here we were (almost) at the narrowest point in Thailand on the Gulf Coast (towards the east). Myanmar borders to the west. This place is not yet well known among foreign tourists; you will find more Thai vacationers here. However, it is a little bigger than I expected. Our hotel was a little outside the city center and you could have walked, but given the road conditions and the heat of up to 35 degrees, we decided to take a moped. On the first evening we explored the very large aftermarket (Saturday evening) that took place on the lake promenade. Here there was everything your heart could desire, packed as always in artfully inflated plastic bags... I had delicious chicken salad with rice - nice and spicy, Elmar had his beloved meat skewers and for dessert there were coconut cookies and mango sticky rice.

The town has a paved lake promenade with a pier (!) - this has just been repainted. There is one of the many wats (monasteries) on the mountain - but we weren't at the top because the gibbon monkeys rule there, guard the ascent and are very aggressive, as we also heard from other travelers.

The nearest beach can be reached by moped in 10 minutes; strangely enough, you drive into a military area and have to sign your name in a book. However, no one checks whether you go out again... At Ao Manao there is quite a beach infrastructure with loungers, food stalls, banana boats etc. But the sand is very fine and soft and the water is wonderful. There is also a monkey rock in the area, which is somewhat remote and not very frequented, with very nice and cute spectacled monkeys. We were lucky to be in the right place at the right time - they were being fed so we were able to take some nice photos and an even better video.

We explored for a bit and found a restaurant where Elmar could finally grill again - and even on the table! A nice fishing village was waiting for us and so we found a nice spot on a remote corner of a campground. In the Café Milano, which is only frequented by tourists, the best coffee specialties, avocado toast and a delicious fruit plate were available for breakfast.

After 5 days (3 would have been enough) we took the tuktuk to the minibus station early in the morning at 6.30 a.m. to take the bus to Ranong on the Andaman coast. From there we take the speed boat to the island of Koh Phayam, where we will spend the last 12 days of our trip on the beach again.