Day 23 (21st Feb 2013)

Day 23 / 21st Feb

Khao Phnom to Pak Meng

Our plan today was to reach Trang so as to keep on schedule. We decided to keep away from the highways as much as possible. We had purchased a road map for south Thailand which was coming really handy. We had breakfast at Krabi, which was really good with variety of fried and steamed dishes, we selected about 6 different varieties. All were served in cane baskets, and the baskets were colour coded for billing. It was good stuff. Then we headed off towards Trang. 
At 12.30 we took a smaller road and as it was blazing hot now, started looking for a place to rest. Dipankar found one where there was a cluster of  2 or 3 houses and a shop, and a platform covered with thatched roof. We found such platforms at many places in Thailand and people use them to sit and relax. We asked the lady at the shop about resting there for a while. She happily said yes and brought a mat and cold water for us. The men and women of the house who knew 'English' came by and chatted with us, or at least tried their best. The people are generally very friendly and even though there is a big language barrier want to communicate, know about us, and so far we also have been able to communicate by acting out, by sign language, by writing, by drawing etc.etc.

After siesta we started towards Trang. At about 4.30 we were 15 kms short of Trang. There one road was leading towards Pak Meng beach. We thought instead of staying in a city why not stay at a beach. There was a road on a map which showed that by taking that we could avoid Trang and go further down south to a place called Kantang. The only hitch was the map showed river in between and no trace of bridge. We tried to ask people about the road but no one could tell us for sure. So we decided to take a chance and go to Pak Mang. It turned out to be a very beautiful place with lots of resorts and restaurants on the beach. We checked two, three places and finally stayed at Saneha Homestay. The owner Mr.Sawan and his wife were very friendly and they had kept the place immaculately clean and it turned out to be one of the most cozy stays of our trip. Mr. Sawan confirmed about the road for the next day and drew a detailed map for us. As we had thought there was a river without a bridge, but there was ferry to cross :-)