The morning loudspeakers crackled into life before 5.30 again, getting Day 3 of our southern Thailand road trip off to another early start. The recompense was another Thale Noi sunrise...



Before leaving we bought fishcakes. On Day 2, one of the ladies who occupy the row of simple shops facing the lake popped out to feed me a fishcake. Not quite forcibly, but it would have been churlish to say no. She pointed to the fish drying outside in a "that's the good stuff that went into it" kind of way.

"It's good," I said. And it was. "But I've only just had lunch. I'll come back tomorrow." (Actually, given the state of my Thai, it was more like: "Eat already. Full. Tomorrow come.")

By the time we'd had Day 3's breakfast, and post-breakfast coffee (back at Le Noi Berry, where for 40 baht you get a cup of coffee, a cup of jasmine tea, and a biscuit, which is something of a coffee bargain, I feel), the fishcake lady had opened her shop up. Seeing me coming, she attached another cake to a stick and handed it over. I bought a bag of eight cakes on a stick (costing 20 baht). And she added an extra one... Which meant I had received a total of eleven fishcakes for 20 baht... Really touching.

A few kilometres out of town, we stopped and ate them, still warm, for second breakfast. Delicious. Really.


So, when you go to Thale Noi, be sure to visit the fishcake lady (right next to Le Noi Berry). She makes not only excellent fishcakes but also excellent memories.

If you motor a bit further down the side of Thale Sap than we went on Day 2, you come to a little sticky-out peninsula. Almost at the tip of this thumb of land is The Cape, a restaurant with a lovely view over the green water of the lake, and a nice way of preparing seafood.



Phattalung next. This is a low-key town. But the topography -- it is flanked by an array of limestone crags -- cannot fail to impress. In addition, Phattalung boasts a surprising number of those dark-plank traditional houses that I find so attractive, a lively night market, and Wat Khuha Sawan, an amazing composite of temples, caves, forest, and rock.









We reckon The Centris is a pretty good-value place to stay, offering a decent room and friendly staff.


Day 4 began at the market, with the Wrong Breakfast. I thought it was going to be curry and rice; it turned out to be khanom jeen (rice noodles with green curry). This is what happens when you don't have enough Thai to have long conversations about what's in the various pots. Obviously, the market does not see many foreigners having breakfast, wrong or otherwise, as we had our photos taken while eating. (We were also charged the celebrity price, I'm pretty sure...)

Next up was the BIG up. Khao Ok Thalu, to be precise (it's pictured above). There are reputedly 1,500 steps. They felt like 15,000...


It's a very, very sweaty walk, even early in the morning. But -- as always -- it was worth it, for the views, and the butterflies, and the serene gaze of the Buddha at the top. (Note that what you climb up to is not the "top". To get to the actual top of the rock you'd need climbing equipment and the skill to use it. But you still get to be a long way UP.)






At a point when you're nearly all the way down again, there's a second trail, which winds up past a number of Buddhas and other religious figures. We went as far as the purple Ganesh, but there's more beyond.



After all that exertion, we needed a calmer set of afternoon pursuits. Lam Pam Resort has a restaurant right by the river, and the dishes are tasty and generously proportioned (the salad with four-angled beans and seafood was particularly good).

Then you can go back up the river a little way to the Phatthalung Governor's Residence. There are old and new versions of this. Both are exquisite. We poked round the various ingeniously designed spaces, and then sat for quite a while in the pavilion by the river, listening to the birdsong, and catching the breezes.








Finally, a little further up the river still, is Wat Wang. There's some restoration happening at the moment, which shrouds the exterior of the ordination hall, but you can still enjoy the gallery of Buddhas and the superb interior.






Travelfish has the lowdown on all these places and more.

I regret not budgeting more days for Phattalung. I feel I've not really had time to walk it sufficiently to know it. Next time... Meanwhile, tomorrow we head back to Trang, and thence to Satun.