absolutelyBangkok archive · Food & Drink
Originally published Sept. 16, 2008
Stuck in Bangkok, I know. Need a break? How about some beach. Some fresh air, great seafood and nice flow of beer. Nah, you don’t have to head all the way down to Pattaya or even Hua Hin. Remember, Bangkok has a long wild coastline hardly anybody knows. Bangkok’s basically a coastal city.
And what a coastline Bangkok has. Wild mangrove wood and fields upon fields as far as the eye can see. The proximity of the ocean is the lung of the metropolis. Which is why the mega city has relatively better air than smaller, sleepier, landlocked Chiang Mai surrounded by mountains and slashing and burning.
Don’t know Bangkok’s coastline? Log on to Google Earth or Microsoft’s Virtual Earth and fly over that desolate stretch of coast. But you’re longing for the Bangkok coastline AND some beach cum seafood. Freshest cheap seafood. Nothing easier than that.
You know about Bang Saen, Bangkokians’ favorite stretch of beach an hours drive from the capital; an endless array of beach chairs and umbrellas with an endless supply of freshest yummiest seafood. You’re among thousands upon thousands of Thais at Bang Saen. And not one farang.
A cozier affair is smaller, sleepier
Ang Sila, slightly north of Bang Saen. A fishing village with no sandy beach, but an endless stretch of seafood restaurants along route 3134. It’d be an impossible task to recommend one over the other. You’re even safe at the shack-like restaurants. My fav? Shack 52 — they’re numbered.
Even cozier:
Khao Sam Muk
– a small hill in between Ang Sila village and Bang Saen Beach, along the beachside road from Ang Sila that winds up the Sam Muk Hill. At the foot of the hill, right at the entrance to a beautifully cramped row of seafood restaurants with sea view, you’ll find a temple where time stands still.
To increase appetite and thirst, have a stroll through the temple grounds. Or climb the cliff with its wild monkeys and cactuses.
It’s an easy, most relaxing half-day trip from Bangkok. You’ll be back. Oh, and those little hills along the road are shells. Empty oyster shells. Hills of them.
[googleMap name=”Khao Sam Muk” width=”480” height=”480” z=”16” t=”k” directions_from=”true”]13°18’49.90″N 100°54’22.01″E[/googleMap]
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