On Friday morning, I finished a job that had been going on for many days, so out of sudden excitement, I decided not to wait until Saturday and go for a walk in the area.
My original plan was to go to a place called Private Park And Trail, about a kilometer away, and take a good look at nature there.
The park is nice, although it didn’t really look big at first glance. It’s actually a park along a concrete road. There’s a forest on the right side of the road. It was inviting and I almost gave in to the temptation. The only reason I didn’t go down one of the comfortable paths was because I was wearing shorts. What else? I would go into Hungarian forests in shorts without question. However, this is just a slice of a tropical forest. Who knows what’s lurking below the knees. Next time I’ll take the zip-up bottom of my shorts and explore a bit of the jungle.
On the left side of the road is a field with fewer trees. I saw two buffaloes and two birds, representing the animal kingdom.
After climbing to the top of a fairly steep hill, another, even steeper hill awaited me. I climbed to the top of this one, then turned back here. Now – while writing – looking at the map, I see that if I had included a big down and up again section in this walk, I would have reached a place called – Bangrak Viewpoint – which is very suggestive based on its name and Google photos. Since this whole fun round trip is about four kilometers, I will definitely go back.
Walking on the beach
Since this walk was not enough for me, I decided to turn right instead of left at the park entrance – which was already functioning as an exit at that point. Since the sea is really only twenty meters from the road, I went down to the beach. There I decided to hang out by the water. I marked where I ended up going in the first picture of the gallery.
I saw all kinds of good and not so good things on the beach. It was nice to see Thai families swimming peacefully. Less so the Europeans who seemed to be driven by ego. This part of the beach was mainly full of hotels and private houses (they do not fail to emphasize this with signs placed on the fences). Accordingly, it is the territory of tourists with a larger budget. I felt like a stranger here, but this has not been a problem for me in such places for a long time: based on what I see and imagine about such places, I would not want to feel at home here.
I saw animals thrown out of the sea. And even more trash thrown away. I could see quite worn-out fishing boats and luxury ships. All kinds of fancy places to sit and lie down, where a ticket can cost a fortune, and the dad who was playing with coconuts in the sand with his sons, I guess to make an income from it for everyday life.
As I continued to walk further east, I began to notice a huge gilded statue. Now I know that it is Wat Phra Yai, or the Big Buddha Temple in English. I logically decided that if it turned out like this, I would go there. I measured the distance and thought that I would reach it before sunset. In such cases, I always think that I will set off and if I don’t make it, no problem, because there will be another chance.
I finally got there before sunset, but the traffic conditions were not so favorable. The bottleneck was not this, but the fact that 10 minutes before I arrived, the part of the city – or garden – where the statue was – was closed.
So it can be stated that I did not manage to visit any of the selected and accidentally visited attractions with complete satisfaction. However, that would be a mistake! I was completely satisfied with today’s walk. Next time I’ll leave earlier, and after I’ve seen Bangrak Viewpoint, I’ll take a closer look at the Big Buddha Temple.
I came with lightning
Since I was here at this time, I thought I’d watch the sunset. As I dangled my feet on one of the rocks on the beach and admired the colors and the beauty of the evening, I noticed that lightning was flashing both to the north and south. So far away that its sound didn’t reach me. I made many small videos of the events. By the way, where I was sitting was exactly under the air corridor leading to the island’s airport. So when I filmed the first plane – flying towards the lightning – without pressing the record button, I was a little disappointed. But then I managed to make a video like this.
Shopping and dinner
In my hurry towards the church, I passed by a market. After I finished sitting on the beach, I went back there. I saw interesting things in the offer of goods. This is especially true for food. There was a smell of fish here, the aroma of gutted chicken and the fear of what would become of me if I bought something here. It probably takes some experience to buy and eat things that are not sold in this form in Europe. Chicken mince spread out on a cloth on a counter. Duck and chicken, on a little ice, or simply hung somewhere. Egg yolks taken from chickens in handfuls on the table under the fresh air (yes, not fresh). I think a lot about how – maybe not so – everything could be sold like this in the past, since there were no refrigerators, no regulations, and no rubber gloves…
In any case, if you can’t stand the smell of animal body parts, you shouldn’t go into such a market. Let’s keep it on the vegetable side.
Let’s say it’s strange there too that the cat is sitting on the vegetables that you can buy, but then even a dedicated cat owner wouldn’t disturb the animal from the living room. Here I finally found garlic, and all sorts of things that I know, but haven’t seen in a store since I’ve been here: potatoes, onions, garlic, etc. And of course there are a bunch of things that I haven’t seen before, so I can’t even imagine what they could be. Let’s say I eat these things on a daily basis.
My favorites were the frogs. I suspected that I wasn’t seeing the aquarium of the pet store that we are used to, but one of the items in the food market. I looked at them, but I didn’t have an appetite. For them!
However, since I had been on the road for hours, I was hungry. So I turned back from the market in the direction of the church, until I finally sat down to have dinner opposite the gate leading to the church.
I really enjoy that the fruit drinks are actually made from fruit. Watermelon drinks are now my favorite. It was hard to choose from the menu because everything I’ve had so far has been delicious, but I managed. The fact that they even put a special treat in front of me at the end…
Kindness!
It’s one thing that everyone is extremely kind, whether it’s when you greet them, when you leave, or when you order. To feel the concern they ask me while I’m eating if everything is okay with the food. But… Somehow here in Asia it’s hard to open the bagged things I received at the end of dinner. I wanted to open them because I was curious about what I got. As I was using my teeth to help me, one of the waiters suddenly walked up and asked if he could open it. He almost took the package out of my mouth, but in the end he just opened the other one. And I’m almost sure he wasn’t thinking about how lame I was.
I think the respect – which also surrounds the food here – makes the flavors much more delicious.
Even Ronald says wai here. Maybe the McDonald’s food tastes different too. I’m still waiting to try it.
