Baan Krut, the coast the way it used to be
Last week I drove the coast south, past Prachuap Khiri Khan, and finally stopped at a village I had been meaning to see for years. Baan Krut. Some people write it Ban Krut, or Baan Grood, and the road signs say บ้านกรูด. The name comes from the kaffir lime trees that once grew all along this shore. I arrived with modest expectations and came back a little quieter than I left.
I have lived in Thailand since 2004, and Baan Krut gave me something I had almost stopped looking for: the feeling of the country as it was twenty-five years ago. This is not a resort. It is not Phuket, not Samui, not even Hua Hin. There is no strip of bars, no jet skis, no one selling you a boat tour every ten steps. There are a few cafes, a couple of massage place. A handful of good kitchens, and a very long, very empty beach. That is the whole offer. If you need things to do, you will be bored by lunchtime. If you need to slow down, you may not want to leave.
I am not the first to notice. Over the last two or three years Baan Krut has started turning up on YouTube, on expat travel channels like SideTripLife and a few others (Mickey Stotch), which is usually how a place like this begins to change. For now it has held on to itself. That is reason enough to go sooner rather than later.
The beach runs for kilometres, wide and clean, the sand raked in front of the small resorts each morning. The coastal road that traces it is the real pleasure. You can walk it in the late afternoon with almost no one around, coconut palms on one side and the Gulf on the other, the light going gold over the water. The bay faces the right way for a sunset over the sea, which is rarer on this coast than you would think. On weekends and Thai holidays the buses come down from Bangkok and the beach fills with families eating and singing, and then by Monday it empties again.
Maybe 900 baht, in low season.
Fishing is still probably the spine of the place. In the early morning the small boats come back in and you can watch the catch land. It is not arranged for anyone. It is simply what the village does, and has always done, and it is the reason the seafood here is as fresh and as cheap as it is.
On the headland at the northern end, Thong Chai mountain rises up with Wat Thang Sai on top. I climbed up one morning before the heat. The temple was built in the 1990s, with nine pagodas and a large golden Buddha, Phra Phutthakiti Sirichai, looking out over the whole bay. It is a short walk up from the car park. Go to the second level for the view, where the coast opens all the way south, the beach a long pale line under the palms. Arrive early, while it is still silent.
For coffee, my favourite was Café Bankrut, a tiny place near the station run by a couple, Jean and Oliver, who bake their own bread and cakes and change the menu by the day. It keeps short hours and closes Monday and Tuesday, so time it. On the beach road, several cafés sit right on the sand with a short menu of Thai and Western dishes. Near the estuary below the temple, the Waterfront Cafe is the stylish one, good for a long coffee with the Buddha in view.
For dinner, the local kitchens along the beach do seafood best. Krua Nha Baan does a beautiful steamed seabass and the freshness speaks for itself. Platoo Seafood is the long-standing name in town, right on the beach. And in the evening, Wangphu Country, just outside the centre, does honest home cooking with someone on a guitar most nights, the kind of unhurried evening the place is made for. I personally loved “ครัวการัณย์สุข” or Karansuk restaurant with tables on the beach.
One thing worth timing your visit around: on Sundays the beach road turns into a walking market. Stalls open around three, when the heat lets up, and by five it is busy with people from across the province. It is mostly about the food, which is reason enough.
Getting there is half the pleasure if you take the train. Baan Krut sits on the Southern Line, about 370 km from Bangkok and roughly 160 km south of Hua Hin, one bay north of Bang Saphan. The station is small and right in the village, close enough to walk to the sand if you travel light, or a five-minute ride otherwise. Long-distance trains leave Bangkok from the new Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal at Bang Sue, and several Special Express and Rapid services stop at Baan Krut each day. From Bangkok the ride is roughly five to seven hours depending on the train, and from Hua Hin about two to three. The State Railway timetable shifts every few months, so check the exact departures for your date on the SRT D-Ticket app or a booking site like 12Go, and reserve a first or second class seat ahead in high season, when the trains fill with people heading to and from the southern islands. If you would rather drive, it is about four hours from Bangkok down Highway 4, then the 3459 into the village.
If you break the trip in Hua Hin on the way down, that stretch of coast is a different world, more ramen counters and creative kitchens than fishing boats. And Cha-Am, just up the road, is its own thing again, whatever the guides that lump it in with Hua Hin will tell you.
I came for one night and stayed longer. There is nothing to see in Baan Krut, in the way a guidebook means it, and that is exactly what makes it worth the trip. A long beach, a good coffee, fish that was in the sea an hour ago, and a road you can walk at dusk without meeting anyone. Baan Krut still has time on its side. Use it.