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As we travel through Thai villages, lets talk a bit about Thai village life, and how it compares with what tourists see.

Its clearly different from life in the cities. The average Thai village has about 100 or so families, and less than a thousand people. Most people are involved in agriculture, often an acre or so of land attached to family homes that could be a fruit orchard or rice paddy. The average village might might have a few ourdoor cafes, a beauty salon, and some mom & pop convenience stores. There will usually be a school for grades 1 to 6, but higher schooling might require the kids to travel, and even board in a larger town. There are rarely banks, clinics, supermarkets, restaurants or department stores. Although if the town is on a major road, there might be a 7-Eleven, a petrol station, and maybe a mini shopping centre. Usually, there are few emergency services in the smaller villages.

Thailand is overwhelmingly Buddhist. The practicing of Buddhist beliefs are central to many Thai people, particularly the older ones. For example, a Thai villager might visit temple most mornings before 7am, which might require a walk from the village. He or she would bring an offering of food to a small group of monks that lead prayer and chants. On auspicious days, the monks might come into the village and lead prayers at a central village centre, which is where an elected village Head Man (a Puyaiban) might make announcements about village affairs, announce who has made sizeable donations to the village fund, distribute mail (which otherwise won’t be sent to villagers’ individual houses), and perhaps work to settle disagreements among villagers.

Thai villages usually come together for festivals. Religious festivals are many, and most have specific customs associated with them, such as releasing paper air balloons (Kornfai) into the air or decorated banana leaf boats onto ponds, which is usually accompanied with making a wish. Kids then play and adults are treated to performances. Some towns celebrate the harvests of fruits they’re famous for. Others celebrate local heroes that made it big.

Compared with other countries in the region, class lines are not so rigid. Although the village head man and the abbot of the village temple will be held in high esteem, there is less status anxiety, and individual prestige is attained more by his or her contributions to the temple, skills in farming, or other contribution to the community. Although family bonds are important, Thai social organisation does not revolve so tightly around an integrated extended family, and individuality is more accepted and celebrated. Friendships are very important, and a friend is either a dinner friend or a death friend – meaning you would die for them – and this is particularly the case for men. Although the father is usually the head of the family, thats not always the case, and the family head is less strict and authoritarian than in other Asian cultures. The women of the family usually sell at the markets, which usually means they hold the purse-strings – this usually means children are healthier and better educated.

Of course, Thailand is urbanising. Rapidly too. About 50% of Thais live in cities today, and that increases by 1% every year. Thailand’s cities are attracting the young and educated from rural populations into higher value sectors of the economy, especially nearby tourist centres such as those along this line. Rural village populations stagnate, then they age. Often, the elderly Thais are less able to look after farms, so when they retire they sell their land to bigger agribusiness, factories, or strip malls especially along major roads.

So change is afoot, but there is plenty of authentic Thai rural life to be seen, especially from the window seat of a train.

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Rajabhakti Park was built by the Royal Thai Army in honour of the past and current Kings of Thailand in 2015, but with some controversy.

From the Southern Line you should be able to see some 8 metre tall, dark bronze statues when you look inland toward the West. These are statues of notable Thai kings.

The park was named by King Rama IX as it means “the park that has been built with the people’s loyalty to the monarchs”. Indeed, the people of Thailand do seem to love their royal families past and present, and this is especially true for the Royal Thai Army – which ownes the land and built the park – having remained loyal to the monarchy throughout all of the turmult and coup d’etats of the last century.

So its amazing how much of a public relations disaster this park has been.

A month after the park’s opening in September 2015, a Colonel Boondee – second in command of the King’s Guard – jumps on a plane to Myanmar never to return. A week later, the trader who organised the construction of the bronze statues by local foundries also jumps on a plane to Hong Kong never to return. A month after this, an arrest warrant is issued for the commander of the King’s Guard – Major General Prommai – who up and vanishes. Around the same time, a senior police official commits suicide, and a prominent fortune teller is found dead of blood poisoning.

Officially, none of this has anything to do with this park because the park’s construction was declared corruption free by the Naitonal Anti-Corruption Commission’s investigation, only after it had already been declared corruption-free by the military-appointed Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission, only after the Defence Ministry investigation found the same conclusion, only after the Army’s own investigation found no irregularities.

So how do you explain this? On 7 December 2015, a group of political science students in Bangkok declared that they were taking the train to the park to throw light on government graft. That very same day, the park was closed for renovations, and the students’ train carriage was somehow disconnected from the rest of the train at Hua Hin station.

An odd park indeed.

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Hua Hin is a playground of Bangkok’s elite.

It was an uninhabited stretch of coastline until 1834 when a group of farmers in Phetchaburi province to the North were hit by a drought and found a small village here.

In 1921, when this train line was being built, a Railway Hotel was built close to the beach, and Prince Krom Phra Naresworarit build the first of a series of royal palaces built around here. Once the southern line was built, it became a popular beach resort for the upper crust of Bangkok seeking to escape the city.

Considering the town’s Royal Patronage, Hua Hin has avoided a lot of the grimier sides of Thai tourism, making it a great place to visit with families, and still a preferred respite for Bangkok’s upper class. There are is an annual jazz festival in June, a vintage car rally that ends here in December, and a kite-flying festival every when the monsoon comes. Its also a golfer’s paradise, with 7 courses within 30 minutes drive, including right next to the station.

If you want to stretch your legs and are happy to get the next train, take a walk from the station away from the coast up on the hill on the other side of the golf course. Khao Hin Lek Fai park offers nature, monkeys, and a good view of Hua Hin and the coastline.

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Although you won’t be able to see Klai Kangwon Palace from the Thai Southern Line, it is very nearby. It was the summer residence of a man who’s face you might recognise.

His Magesty King Bhumibhol Adulyadej (or the easier to pronounce Rama IX) used this palace as his full-time residence from 2004 until his health forced him to be in and around Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok leading up to his recent passing in 2016. At the time, King Bhumibhol was the world’s longest reigning monarch, and the longest reigning monarch to have ever reigned as an adult – a period of just over 70 years.

As a constitutional Monarchy, modern Thailand has probably not been quite so shaped by any other person. Although he was served by a total of 30 prime ministers in his time, all of which had more executive activity than the King, my reading of modern Thai history suggests that his influence and judgement quietly nudged the country at critical junctures, and he even more quietly toiled for Thailand’s development behind the scenes. And although it may be easy to find little wrong with a man who for 70 years it has been illegal to criticise, even when applying an apporpriate amount of skepticism, I’ve decided I’m a big fan of this guy.

By all accounts, he was an interesting man. He was given a camera at the age of 7, which ignited a lifelong passion for photography. During WWII, while living with his family in Switzerland, he picked up a saxophone at age 15 and got seriously into jazz – another lifelong passion.

At age of 17, as the war was coming to an end, he bagan studying science at the University of Lausanne, which became yet another lifelong passion. He launched his own scientific projects revolving around agricultural productivity: he holds patents for methods of making artificial rain, and aerating waste water. He turned his palace grounds into experimental farms, some of which produce products you can find in supermarkets today under the Royal Chitralada brand. He was also big into amateur radio, fire-arms, and sailboat design (he actually won a gold medal in the 1967 Southeast Asian Games for sailing).

But a year after commencing his studies, his elder brother – King Rama VIII – was killed under circumstances that remain unclear, which triggered his ascent to the throne. He appointed his uncle as Regent, and completed his studies with a new major of Political Science.

While visiting Paris during his studies, he fell in love with the daughter of the Thai Ambassador to France. They were married in what was described in the New York Times as the “shortest, simplest royal wedding ever held in the land of gilded elephants and white umbrellas”. Queen Sirikit would become the world’s longest-serving concort, and at the time of writing survives Rama IX.

After graduating, the 21 year old King was enjoying the final days of free life in Switzerland, driving himself along lake Geneva he collided with the rear end of a truck. His injuries left half of his face paralysed, and his facial lascerations cost him the sight in his right eye. If don’t know his face yet, with that in mind you may begin begin to recognise him in guilded posters placed all over Thailand.

After his healing, he returned to Thailand for his long-overdue corronation. The next decades saw a procession of military coups where Thailand’s political form took shape, and in which questions of the role of monarchy in Thailand (that remained unanswered since the overthrow of absolute monarchy in the 30s) were answered. A full reading of modern Thai politics is not feasible in this humble format. But the way I see it, particularly when compared with its drifting and turbulent neighbours, Rama IX made the monarchy what Thailand needed – a rudder. As the 20th century national and geopolitics stormed overhead, the monarchy hid beneath it all and consistently pointed and corrected the country to a firm set of Thai values.

The name Klai Kang Won means “far from worries”. The palace was built in 1926 once the Thai southern line was officially linked. It comprises of 4 main buildings made in a stilted variation of a traditional spanish estate. Residences of other family members range in styles from modern Thai architecture to log cabins. Whenever the King or members of the royal family are in residence, the road running parallel to the tracks about 150 metres toward the coast will be decorated with royal flags corresponding to that particular member of the family. If not, then it might be open to public visits, but you may need to get a permit from the Royal Household Office.

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There are so many quality hospitals throughout Thailand. Aside from catering to the local population, the medical industry in Thailand has been riding a boom from medical tourism. High healthcare costs, long waiting lists, and an ageing population in developed countries have contributed to an explosion of medical tourism to lower-cost destinations like Thailand in the past decade.

But given Thailand’s reputation for friendly and attentive service, the number of international flights servicing Bangkok, relaxed visa policies, and reasonably priced resorts to rest and heal, it is easy to see why Bangkok is Asia’s medical tourism hub.

The better hospitals are on par with some of the best hospitals the world over. The most popular treatments include dental work, dermatology and cosmetic surgery. Or if for example you wanted to get a hip replaced, out-of-pocket expenses would be around half that of the US, and the savings would more than make up for the airfares, plus a bit more healing time laying by a pool.

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On the Thai Southern Line, you’ll take a tunnel under the northern edge of the landing strip in Hua Hin airport.

With Bangkok Airport just 2hours away by car, its not the most popular of airports. Actually, at the time of writing in early 2018, I tried searching for flights to HHQ but it nothing came up at all. Air Asia was rumoured to start direct flights there from Kuala Lumpur though, so if you were planning on taking this train all the way down there and are already hurting, perhaps here’s your shortcut.

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Unfortunately you can’t see Mrigadayavan Palace from the Thai Southern Line, but its worth a mention anyway.

There are about 50 palaces in Thailand. The Grand Palace is the main residence, and most of the other 19 palaces used by the king and other members of the royal family are in Bangkok. But this stretch of coast has been favoured by Thai kings for its beauty and proximity to Bangkok, particularly after this railway line opened.

King Rama VI – the son of Chulalongkorn – built the Mrigadyavan Palace in 1924 after his physician advised a sojourn to a warm and airy seaside climate to alleviate his rheumatoid arthritis.

He wanted it to be humble. 16 buildings are built entirely of teak on stilts in a single floor plantation style. It allows sea breezes in during the day, and mountain winds to waft through at night. He lived in it only 5 months before he died. His son built his own summertime residence, the Klai Kangwon Palace, just 12 kilometres to the south.

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Cha-Am is the most northerly of Thailand’s resort towns. This one is close enough for Bangkok residents to come down for a day-trip (maybe not so much by train).

The Thai resort town is a winning recipe. The main ingredient: a beach. Add banana boats, reclining chairs under umbrellas, restaurants with decent Thai food, and coconut and other fresh fruit vendors during the day. At night, add fresh seafood, beach parties with cheap drinks and fire twirlers.

For the billions of us that are working a 9 tot 5 in a colder climate, this annual vacation is both affordable and only a few clicks away. This has pushed Thailand into the top 10 most visited places on earth. Consider this: For every metre of coastline in Thailand, there are 10 visitors per year. 3 of them will be Chinese. 3 more will come from other ASEAN countries. 1 will be either Japanese or Korean. 1 will be European. And the remaining two will be divided between India, Russia, North America, Australasia, or the rest.

For better or worse, 1 in 7 people in Thailand are working either directly or indirectly in tourism, and it contributes around 20% of Thailand’s total economic output. Thats about twice as much as the average country, and its contribution to Thailand’s economy is expected to rise.

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The most northerly karst mountain alongside the Thai Southern Line has an interesting story hidden inside. Here goes…

Once there was a king with two wives. His ‘senior’ wife gave birth to a son – Prince Sang – that was born in a conch shell. But the ‘junior’ wife was jealous and successfully schemed to have the new mother and Prince banished from the Kingdom.

Eventually, the Prince was separated from his mother, and found refuge in the home of a giant lady who live in a mountain. And this mountain to the West is the mountain the Giant lady was said to have lived.

The lady giant accepted Prince Sang but had one rule: don’t jump in the golden well that was hidden within the mountain. So, of course, the Prince jumped in the golden well, and he emerged all golden, shiny, and beautiful.

To escape the giant’s wrath, he put on a mask that made himself look ugly, and changed his name to Chao Ngo. He slipped away and found himself in the nearby Kingdom of Samon, where the King had 7 unmarried daughters, and was at the time ordering all surrounding kingdoms to dispatch their sons so that the daughters could choose their husbands.

The last daughter to choose a husband, the youngest, was the only one who had seen his beautiful golden body beneath his ugly mask, so she of course chose Prince Sang as her husband. The King of Saman got really miffed at this, and banished Prince Sang out of his kingdom.

This time, he took his new wife and they hid away in a rice field. They then heard that the King had ordered all his new sons in law – except Prince Sang, who he wanted dead – to bring him a bounty of 100 fish and 100 deer. So Prince Sang conjured up the fish and deer with magic – oh, you didn’t know he could do magic, well he can – and when he presented them in front of the King he took off his mask and revealed his golden body and the King decided he was alright after all.

The end.

Now, I’m not sure what you think of the story, but if I were to try to summarise Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter, or Dracula, the Bible for that matter, in just one minute, it is likely to sound equally convoluted.

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In the Southern stretches of the Thai Southern Line, you will see many specimens of Arecaceae – the botanical family of perennial climbers we know as “palm trees” – and we think they’re fascinating.

They are about 2,600 species in the family. Almost all of the restricted to tropical climes. The one you are most likely to see is the Cocos genus. The coconut is actually not a nut, its a drupe, or stone fruit – which is the same thing that a peach is. A drupe is defined by a fruit in which an outer fleshy part surrounds a single shell of hardened endocarp with a seed inside. So you can think of a coconut as kind of like a peach but with a dry, fibrous, and inedible husk where the sweet flesh otherwise should be.

The coconut has been a staple in this region for millions of years, but its name speaks to the age when Europeans first came south to the tropics. In Portuguese folklore, coco or coca is a term for a ghost or witch. When the early Portuguese seafarers in the 16th century first came across coconut shells, they thought it resembled the head of a ghost. In Arabic however, its called “Jawz hindi”, meaning “Indian nut”, which is the same name – nux indica – collected by Marco Polo during his voyages in 1280 while in Sumatra, in modern day Indonesia. Given the distance, it is curious that the polynesian and melanesian words for it are almost identical to the Malay word – “nyiur”.

In good tropical soils like what we find around here, a coconut palm can grow from a single coconut and within 6 to 10 years can bare fruit, and within 15 to 20 years can yield up to 75 coconuts per year.

With that math, and given that the palms grow on beaches and the nuts (or rather fruit) floats, it is one of our most global trees. It is often stated that a cocount can travel for 110 days and still be able to germinate, and that favourable ocean currents can take a nut up to 3,000km in such a period of time. Yet, Captain Cook found no coconuts on the coast of Eastern Australia, Vasco de Gama found none on coastal Africa, and Columbus found none in Caribbean. So there is much academic debate about from where the coconut originates, and how it became so global.

Interestingly, the further inland you go in the tropics, the less the local coconut varieties float. It is thought that this is because people brought them inland, and they selected the coconuts with the thinner husk and the thicker meat.

Regardless, between 26 degrees north and 26 degrees south, the coconut is ubiquitous. You are now at around 13 degrees north. The determining factor for their success in the south of Thailand is the higher rainfall, humidity, and sunlight when compared with inland Thailand.

That is why coconut milk is an important feature of southern Thai cuisine. It is made when you grate the flesh of the coconut and squeeze out the juices. Generally, coconut cream is the first press – the extra virgin, if you will – and coconut milk is the later presses, perhaps with added water.

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