Cherating

Cherating was a beautiful beach area with some decent places to stay and pretty good food – the only down side was that other than the beach, there was not much to do. We stayed at a place called Cherating Cottage (where did they come up with those amazing names!) which was a great little place to stay, but the owner was an absolute asshole. He had the biggest fake smile, and was so untrusting and unfriendly, that Beth and I virtually boycotted eating or drinking anything at the attached restaurant.

One of the attractions at Cherating was to watch the green turtles spawning. Since turtles spawned at night, you could pay a fee for a guy to come wake you up if the turtles were spawning, but unfortunately it didn’t happen while we were there.

Cherating had what seemed to me to be the most gently sloping beach in the world. The water was so shallow due to the many sand bars, and I measured water at a boiling 32.6 degrees celsius with my scuba watch. There was absolutely no shock when you went in the water, to the point of being completely unrefreshing.

One night, Beth and I sat on our second story balcony gazing out at the biggest lightning storm we had ever seen. It was eerily calm outside, yet rain was hammering straight down and lightning flashes went off over the sea for what seemed like two or three hours. It was absolutely beautiful and something we remember to this day whenever lightning strikes.

For food, we ended up gravitating to Mimi’s for meals, as they did a great curry and naan. We found ourselves getting quickly bored – Cherating seemed like a place where people ended up if they had nowhere to do in a real hurry. My feelings were confirmed when we saw a couple of forty-something males “backpackers” doing a giant Batik painting of a mushroom.