Thung Wua Laen Beach

We are now safely in Nakon Nayok. We took five days driving up here making stop offs on the way to make the trip as leisurely as possible. The first stop was Thung Wua Laen Beach in Chumpon. That was about five hours drive from Phuket.

It is a nice enough beach. The good thing is there are a lot of little bungalow operations there so you can find a decent bungalow for well under 1000 baht a night. Our whole family of six is travelling so we need two bungalows a night and we found a decent deal for 1400 baht.

The beach is long and straight and slopes gentle into the sea. When the tide is out it leaves a few pools that are good for the little-uns to play. There are plenty of restaurants along the beach and a few bars.

You get a lot of Thai visitors here which I always think is a good thing because they set everything up so much more competitively than when they are aiming at the foreign tourist market. There's one big resort at the north end of the beach called the Cabana. There is meant to be good diving here so you get a fair few divers and dive instructors around.

I thought I would be able to find a bar with live football but at night the place is incredibly quiet with just a few bars and none of them have the full UBC package. I went out with Pon and after we had given up on finding the football we settled on a bar with a live blues band. It is amazing how good some of these little bands are in Thailand. They were playing in the open air in front of a handful of guests for 1000 baht a night between them. Yet still they knocked out three hours of good entertainment.

The bar was run by a young British guy and his wife (he was slaughtered but happy). They had a handful of expat locals and just a few tourists guests. Still it was a cool night out. And the beer was 45 baht a bottle - that is what I mean when I say these resorts are so much more competitive.