Doing As The Locals Do In Chonburi And Si Racha

June 26, 2016 Not Your Typical Tourist

Enjoy a city like a local, is a money can’t buy experience. And this, I have bf’s uncle and aunt to thank, ขอบคุณมากค่ะ, thank you very much.

Chonburi (ชลบุรี) and Si Racha (ศรีราชา) are located in the Chonburi Province, in the Eastern of Thailand. It takes approximately 100 kilometers, 1 hour and 30 minutes drive from where we stay in Bangkok.

Chonburi is the name of a Province, a District, and also a City. Confusing? I still remember when I first heard about this, working on a Out Of Home proposal for a client. Si Racha is a District in the Chonburi Province, and is also the Capital of Si Racha district.

Bf’s uncle and his wife stay Chonburi city, and Aunt’s family live in Si Racha city. They have been asking us to visit them for a while, and we finally made it last weekend.

The lure of bbq at bf’s uncle home makes me all excited like a child.. only to be asked, “Do you prefer bbq by the beach, or with mountain view?” Wow, that’s the life of people living in seaside town! His uncle told us that they have picnic by the beach every weekend, what a life!

Upon arrival in the late aftermoon, we immediately drove to Bangsaen beach. We were still undecided on our picnic location. The quiet day at the beach and a perfect windy-but-not-too-windy day, and that did the trick for us. Of course, it goes without saying that no wind = hot, too windy = sands in our food.

We picked our picnic spot and proceeded to unpack our picnic essentials. I wasn’t surprised that Uncle and Aunt have got everything covered: picnic mat, portable folding table, small charcoal stove and metal grill plate, charcoal, homemade dipping sauce, etc, etc.

We stuffed ourselves silly with fresh gigantic prawns , 400 baht for one kilo, which they bought directly from local fisherman.

Bf's special recipe — Bf’s special recipe

From our side, bf prepared marinated pork loins and butts, and it was so yummy. A recipe that I am so going to steal from him.

Let's the grilling begin — Let’s the grilling begin

The food was superb, so much better than dining out at restaurant.

Fret’ not if you are not prepared, there are many food stalls, and also endless (persistent) hawkers selling this and that by the beach.

Two thumbs up to multi-talendted Uncle Chai

His uncle is also an avid guitarist; he strummed his guitar for post-dinner entertainment.

Post-dinner, we were asked if we would like to walk around the Bangsaen Walking Street. Since I’ve been there before, we decided to give it a miss.

We then went back to their house, and bf and his uncle continued chatting late into the night. As for me, it was an early night sleep.

The next morning, it was an early start, as we wanted to head back to Bangkok early.

We had breakfast at a ‘rice with curry‘ (khao gaeng ข้าวแกง) stall by Bangsaen beach. Thought a bit too heavy for breakfast, but well, you do what locals do.

A popular stall with many locals, and bf’s uncle said he has his breakfast here every weekend.

Good simple food indeed, but too much carbs early in the morning.

If you want to try the food here, look for a small street stall ข้าวแกง เมืองเพชรบุรี (khao gaeng meang petburi) opposite The Tide Resort.

After breakfast, we drove to Si Racha, around 20-30 minutes away to aunt’s family home, where we were shown many local homegrown produces: cucumber, kale, etc, right at their backyard. These are also being sold at a local marlet nearby.

We were also given homegrown chemical-free fruits to bring back to Bangkok.

These Kathon กระท้อน fruits (also known as Santol) were picked fresh from trees in Si Racha, at aunt’s relatives home!

So fresh and sweet, although it is not ready to be eaten yet.

We brought home loads of kathon fruits for bf’s mom.

Looking for good coffee, aunt took us to เรือนิไม้ กๅแฟสค (ruean mai gafe sod) and we ordered their gafe boran กาแฟโบราณ, aka Thai traditional coffee (30 baht). Too sweet for me, but much better after the ice melted.

Only Thai menu here.

And we went to Bang Pra Reservoir, the one and only reservoir in Chonburi. It was quiet and peaceful, a popular spot for photography and also cycling.

A sumptuous lunch was our last stop. Uncle gave us a lunch treat at Restaurant Pa (Aunty) ร้านอาหาร ป้า. Bi-lingual menu in Eng and Thai is available at this restaurant.

First time trying nam prik khai pbu น้ําพริกไขปู, crab egg dipping served with raw vegetables, it was yumz! I finished this all by myself, long after everyone has stopped eating.