P California Guest House

10 January 2011. The P California guest house is the second closest hotel to down town and the markets. Wicha Littidej (Wik) is the owner and speaks English very well. He has a sign out front that says “Eastern Thailand Volunteer Center”. Ask him about arranging a van to take you and friends to see Angkor Wat. You may see young back packers from Europe and an occasional farang staying there. I have run into several young Europeans doing "national service", in place of military service, for their countries. These were volunteer English teachers in the local public schools.

Rooms appear pleasant and clean. There is a small “restaurant” where either a continental (65 baht) or American (120 baht) breakfast is served. Rooms are 280 baht (fan), 400 baht with air con, and 700 baht for deluxe room with air con and free continental breakfast. All have TV, hot water, and free wi fi. The wi fi signal is pretty good in all but the lowest cost rooms, which are further from the router. There is also a computer hooked to the internet for 25 baht per hour.

A plus at P California is motorbike and car rentals. Car (with driver) rental is 1800 baht per day. Motorbike rental is 250 baht per day (24 hours). The "First Motor Bike Trip" volunteer report used one of these. Wear a helmet (Wik has them) if you don’t want trouble with the Nang Rong police (or possibly your head!). Bicycles available free. Tel.(66)44-622214, (66)81-8083347, E-mail: cal_nangrong@yahoo.com. Their website is www.pcalifornianangrong.webs.com/. There is a lot of interesting information about Nang Rong and vicinity at this website. You may want to check it out.

It is easy to see why Thailand has long been a major vacation place for the entire world. The people here are friendly in a way that is in marked contrast to other destinations in Asia, and it gets even better outside of Bangkok and the major tourist areas.