A weekend trip to Prachuap Khiri Khan from Bangkok will give you the opportunity to travel down the beautiful Thai seaside, as yet untouched by major human development.
The train ride from Bangkok to Prachuap Khiri Khan takes about 5.5 hours, which may seem a long time, but watching the stunning scenery will easily make you forget about time. If you follow this guide, I guarantee you will have an amazing weekend trip to Prachuap Khiri Khan, starting out from Bangkok five hours north in Thailand.
This was my second journey on this route as once I backpacked from Singapore to Cambodia by train, taking the overnight train from Sungai Kolok to Bangkok then changing to Aranyprathet.
Weekend Trip To Prachuap Khiri Khan
Thailand has many natural wonders including its many huge rainforests but most tourists come here for the amazing beaches. While I was in Thailand I visited two stunning beaches, one of which was Prachuap Khiri Khan and in this video I will help you find out how to get there.
Once your flight landed at Bangkok Airport, take the train direct to Makkasan station where you need to change to the light blue line to Hua Lampong station. The train journey to the main railway station should take about 40 minutes at most.
Here at Hua Lampong you can catch a number of trains towards the direction of Sungai Kolok in the south of Thailand. Prachaup Khiri Khan is on the same train line, a little under six hours away from the capital city of Thailand. You can also take a mini bus which will take about four hours, but it’s far less scenic along the motorway.
You can purchase your train tickets to Prachuap Khiri Khan from Bangkok on the day unless you want to travel in the sleeper carriage in which case it is best if you book online in advance.
However, travelling to Prachuap Khiri Khan by train will not be long enough to justify a sleeper train, but if you want to travel in an air conditioned carriage you may still need an advance reservation.
The trains here are diesel and most carriages are ancient except for some special services which have been renovated so prepare for an enjoyable journey back in time!
On-Board Amenities To Prachuap Khiri Khan
Even so, there was a restaurant car, a sleeper, a postal carriage and the air conditioned compartments on the train to Prachuap Khiri Khan. I booked myself a standard third class ticket with the fans only and I was duly roasting all the way to Prachuap Khiri Khan.
My train departed at 305 PM and arrived in Prachuap Khiri Khan at 9PM, 20 minutes behind schedule. Never mind, I enjoyed every minute on the train which you can watch in the video above.
I loved how I could pull the window down all the way and let the wind in, caressing my face like in the movies! Also, it was amazing to lean out and watch the world go by, listening to the clickity clack of the train tracks.
As you are rolling out of Bangkok you will notice a huge construction site on the right: that is the new high speed train station which will one day connect Southern China to Singapore. As they prepare for its launch they will start constructing a new high speed line to replace this ancient remnant of colonial past.
As such, I would recommend booking yourself a trip before it is too late as those new trains will have sealed windows, depriving you of the opportunity to lean out and enjoy the sea breeze.
Scenery To Prachuap Khiri Khan
The scenery on the way to Prachuap Khiri Khan is very tropical with many palm trees and rice paddies on either side of the tracks. My favourite part was when the sun started to set, painting the surrounding scenery in a deep red hue, mesmerising any traveller on this route for the first time.
About two hours after leaving Bangkok you will start to see the rolling hills and another hour later the sea will appear on your left as you roll along towards Prachuap Khiri Khan.
Night Market In Prachuap Khiri Khan
On Friday and Saturday evenings the night market takes over the entire coast in Prachuap Khiri Khan where you can buy anything from Thai rock and roll music to fresh sea food.
I decided to get the mango rice with coconut sauce then got on a tuk tuk to my hotel for the night. I was staying at the @T Boutique Hotel, which is right on the beach, about 10-15 minutes drive away from downtown Prachuap Khiri Khan.
The @T Boutique Hotel In Prachuap Khiri Khan
The @T Boutique Hotel has a private swimming pool, access to the beach, a cafe, restaurant and a breakfast bar. All the rooms are air conditioned and mine had a private balcony with sea views.
The room itself had a double bed, a flat screen TV with local channels only and a couple of bedside cabinets. The shower was good and the water was hot straight away, which I really enjoyed after the long and sweaty train ride!
By this time I was so tired all I wanted to do was sleep, so after the shower I put myself away for the night and slept like a log!
The @T Boutique Hotel also offers free bicycles to guests and so I went cycling the next day to the local Air Force Base. The hotel itself was great with very friendly service and a good, value-for-money room with stunning views.
I will never forget the moment I opened the curtains and walked out to the balcony to be greeted by the deepest blue hues of the sea, the palm trees and blue sky. Although it was super hotel outside I decided to go down to the hotel’s private beach for a short walk before having breakfast in the restaurant downstairs.
The breakfast area was quite large with various Asian options for breakfast such as spicy food, deep fried chicken and so on. They also offered some freshly made omelette and cereals but instead i opted for the fried chicken wings and the guava juice. After breakfast it was time to head out to discover what Prachuap Khiri Khan had to offer for a weekend trip, so I hopped on the bike and got going!
Prachuap Khiri Khan WWII History
Prachuap Khiri Khan is a small town and is most famous for a battle that the Japanese fought against the Thai here during the Second World War. The battle took place in 1941 when the Japanese invaded the neutral Thailand and lasted for 33 hours.
The Battle of Prachuap Khiri Khan ended with Thai surrender but not before nearly 400 Japanese soldiers were killed by the heroic defence of the Thai soldiers, about 40 of whom lost their lives.
Nowadays, the base is still used by the air force but locals and tourists are allowed to use the beach free of charge. If you are a foreigner they will ask you to register on entrance and exit using your passport but otherwise it all seemed very lassaix fair.
Separate Bicycle Routes
The best is that there was a very good separate bike route for tourists so I did not need to worry about cars overtaking or a motorbike crashing into me.
After the beach it was time to cycle further on towards the monkey reservation where they look after several families of local animals. It was fascinating to see how the monkeys lived in the trees and accepted food from all the tourists. What was even more interested was the fact that the young monkeys were all yellowish-orange while their parents were greyish-black!
The Air Force Base museum was just down the road from the monkey reserve where they exhibited a number of WWII planes and explained the history of the battle that took place here in 1941.
It was fascinating to see that in this serene and beautiful scenery such terrible thing could take place – completely shattering the life of the local community.
Minibus Back To Bangkok
I spent the rest of the afternoon here and then got a minibus back to Bangkok as it was the last day of my week long stay in Thailand. The minibus took about 4 hours to Bangkok where I spent the night at the Mercure Hotel Bangkok Makkasan, then in the morning I made my way to the airport to fly back to London.
If you are interested in what I did during the other days, please subscribe to my channel and check out the other videos on my Youtube channel!
