Thipburee Resort

….DOESN’T GO OUT OF ITS WAY TO PLEASE WESTERN TRAVELERS. Here’s the thing – the 70 km of coast south of DON SAC (the mainland pier location for the very popular SOUTHERN GULF ISLANDS) has some great beaches, but you see very few western travelers – this is the preserve of Thai holiday makers and local beach users. SICHON is typical. Hell, very few people understand English in town or the general area. Refreshing - I’ve always found few problems communicating wishes in such places. “Refreshing” because you instantly understand you are not in SAMUI/PHANGAN/YADA where everything is tilted towards westerners’ ideas of beach holidays. Thais’ wants are different – so when you go down to the beach very few people are swimming and sunning: Thais prefer to sit in beachside bars/restaurants downing lotsa food and drink, fossicking in the sand and rock pools and maybe paddling in the water. Most don’t worry about swim-suits – they just roll the jeans up and go for it. The whole thing is perfectly relaxed – I particularly like the “sitting in beach restaurants/bars” thing. Not crazy. Ir was similar with my resort, THIPBUREE. This very good value lower mid-range place is a Thai version of a MOTOR INN/MOTEL They don’t care about western wants – for instance the joint has NO POO L (what was the last western motel you saw minus a pool?) No-one understood English well – okay, they dragged the teen-aged relative out who had a VERY basic high school knowledge, but otherwise I got on okay with sign language. THE JOINT – as said a kinda motor-inn/motel – looks recently built: several 2 storey blocks, a few villa type places, mine a single storey room which had a very motel-like presentation – sliding doors, rendered cement + tile. Space for 3+gear. Well equipped but you stock minibar. I couldn’t change TV channels. Big bed firm but comfy. Lights dim but bathroom brilliant for readers. Aircon sinfully quiet (noisy aircon the main reason I prefer fan rooms). Nice outside balcony. Only 50m to the southern half of the beach. Great value for money. Seemed popular with traveling Thais – parking lots 70% full late on a Monday morning. My motorcycle taxi guy from town knew where HIN NGAM was but didn’t have a clue about THIPBUREE’s location (understandable: nearly all guests are middle-class Thais with their own vehicles/Tom Tom likedevices – don’t need motorcycle taxis). I gave him 70 baht for the 4km trip + 20b tip for the confusion. Latter is what he'd get for a short trip in town. THE PRECINCT - The HIN NGAM RESORT PRECINCT lies behind the beach and across the narrow isthmus to the south.This 700x160m area is all resorts/hotels, some looking about 20 years old, others like THIPBUREE quite recent. There are about half a dozen places, almost exclusively Thai style and ranging in standard from lower-mid-range to true mid-range, maybe better. The latter may be a bit exxy by Thai standards but pretty good value in western terms. There are several beachside restaurant/bars along here, most attached to resorts but a few’re independent. I used ISSARA BEACH RESORT’s restaurant next to THIPBUREE (which hasn’t a restaurant). Great sand-side position, very comprehensive Thai menu (not big on western stuff), popular with local walk-ins, and the cheapest beer all 3 weeks of my mulit-stop Thai trip. The efficient waitresses didn’t understand English but they still knew what “beer” meant. THE BEACH – this gets confusing. The main beach our front is called SICHON BEACH despite the HIN NGAM area directly behind. Many people think it’s called HIN NAM BEACH, but that is directly south and is a boulder beach, nowhere near as attractive. TRIPADVISOR has dedicated pages on both. SICHON BEACH - is pretty nice. It’s about 750m long, not too narrow at full tide, the water is fairly clean and shelves normally offshore. I saw some reviewers’ pix showing beach erosion and litter – these are probably from a WET SEASON VISIT when strong prevailing onshore winds wash a lot of flotsam and jetsam onto the sand and can cut the beach pretty badly. From early experience, I avoid the southern Gulf including the trendy islands in wet season (usually late Sept into early Jan). Good value is spending time exploring the tracks on the headland just south. DID I MENTION FEW WESTERNERS? -in my 3 days there I saw no other westerners on the beach or in the busy town. I did notice a few older farang couples in SICHON CABANA’s (maybe the most western orientated of the resorts) restaurant when I checked the menu. SUM UP –this beach is the perfect place for travelers wanting to see how Thais do coastal visits. And THIPBUREE RESORT is just the place if you want a good value lower midrange Thai oriented place.