My husband and I had a chance to visit to Petchaburi Province where locates at southern of Thailand. Actually, I have ever visited here many times with my parents and outing trip with my previous office sometimes in the past.
When people head to Petchaburi, they will head to the famous beach namely “Cha Um”. Along the way to Cha Um, you can see many dessert stores and outlet factories where provide many cheap stuffs i.e. fashion clothes. The famous desserts of Petchaburi are “Mhor Khaeng”, which is the symbol of Petchaburi and it seems like custard and “Bah Bin”, which mad of coconut and rice flour. These famous desserts are contained into the square-aluminum tray and cost 100 baht per 3-4 trays.
The province’s motto is “Khao Wang a symbol of the province, sweet dessert, city of Buddha, magnificent in art, the land of religion, and beautiful sea.” Thus, there are many temples, many sweet shops in this province.
We stayed at “Suan Buak Haad Beach Resort” for one night. The resort adjoins to the beach so we can have a romantic walk on the beach. The important thing that travelers should know about Cha Um and HuaHin beaches, that is bewaring of jellyfish especially in raining season. You will be allergic when you accidentally touch the jellyfish. The basic treatment is using the smashed leave of “morning glory”, which you can find on the sand beach and then put the smashed leave on the burned skin in order to relieve the allergy from the jellyfish’s poison.
I would like to comment on the beach resort where I stayed for one night that it is poor and old resort. I do not appreciate the accommodation and breakfast. The room that I stayed looked dirty especially in the restroom where the tiles swelled from the floor and looked like a little hill. That was very terrible for me when I went to shower and stepped on the swelled tiles! I prefer Marriot, it is more beautiful but the price is much higher.
At our lunch time, we went to “Pla Too” restaurant where locates next to the beach. This restaurant is suitable for the seafood lovers especially fish lovers. For us, we are not seafood lovers so we often have some troubles with dining when we go to the beach. The most famous food of this restaurant is relating to its name, that is “Tom Yum Plato”. Pla means fish so Pla Too is a kind of mackerel fish and Thai people like to eat Pla Too with hot rice and shrimp paste or we call “Nam Prick Pla Too”.
At night, we drove to Hua Hin Night Bazaar where you can find many delicious food and souvenirs. The bazaar is very crowded and lively cause of many tourists who go there to shopping. We did not buy any souvenirs because the price is somewhat higher than actual cost. Perhaps you can find it cheaper in Bangkok!
Our departure from Cha Um to Bankok, we visited to Khao Wang where is the most significant interesting point of Petchaburi. The official name is Phra Nakorn Kiri, was build in King Rama IV era. People prefer to call it as “Khao Wang” because it has King Palace on Khao Samyod Mountain.
For better understanding, I will explain the meaning of each word; first “Khao” means mountain the latter word “Wang” means palace so the combination of these two nouns mean the mountain with palace.
Thai tourist pay only 50 baht and foreigner tourist pay 75 baht. We were taken to the peak of the mountain by cable train. Actually, there are many monkeys live here and often steal tourist’s food. So there is a warning in order to beware of monkey. We saw that a group of foreigner placed a can of beer on the wall but the monkey ignore it. It seems like the monkey does not want to get drunk. Suddenly we heard the laughter from the tourist group because the monkey stole a pack of his snack and climbed up the tree. Not only human can select what they want to eat but also the monkeys can choose what to have too.
We had a long walk and impressed with the beautiful sceneries and Thai architecture. In every step, we have to be careful and mind our steps owing to the slope and slippery ground that was covered by moss and dried fallen leaves. Sightseeing at Khao wang could be divided into three parts: first is the central of the mountain where you can find “Phra That Jom Petch” or “Jom Pecth Pagoda”.
Second is The Royal Palace namely “Pecth Phoom Phairoj Royal Palace” where locates in the west and it is the national museum of Phra Nakorn Kiri.
Third is “Wat Phra Keaw” and “The Red Jedi” where locate in the east.
We felt very exhaust because of our long walk around the mountain but it is worthy to have such a long walk so that we can see the valuable treasure of Thailand – the Ancient Palace on mountain where you can find only at Petchaburi Province. If you have a plan to visit Petchburi and Cha Um beach, do not forget to visit Khao Wang!
