Beautiful Cha Am & the Exotic Jurassic Mountain Resort

We have all heard of Hua Hin. Indeed, many of us will have been there. It has always been a major stronghold of Thai tourist destinations and very popular with Expats. And why not; lovely it certainly is. But what about Cha Am?

Found in Phetchaburi province, it is a little closer to Bangkok than Hua Hin, which is around 35 km further on south. Indeed, where we stayed at The Jurassic Mountain Resort. Google maps shows it as 167 km from the central marker of Bangkok (Democracy Monument), a driving time of around 2 hours and 8 minutes. Link to map here. https://goo.gl/maps/ht4wQm6XxoyUnbbU7

The resort had recently undergone a total refurb, in just about every way. The owners proudly gave us a small tour of work they had done, where, when and why and in fact it amounted to an almost total refit of every aspect; the rooms/villas, the grounds, the restaurant, the car parking area, signage, fishing lake and so on went the list.

The end result is superbly appointed, designed, laid out villa suites for guests, all of which were at least 50 square meters and offered tea & coffee making facilities (some even had full on kitchen facilities), super comfy queen beds, En-suite facilities, TV with Android box service and superb unbroken wi-fi.

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Outside the villa we had our own large terrace area with table and chairs for two. This terrace offered us beautiful views out across the well manicured resort grounds that feature a lagoon, bridges to help you walk over to the restaurant, swimming pool and an abundance of superb greenery, flora, fan palms and whatnot.

Once unpacked, we decided to check out the fishing lake we had heard so much about. The lake was a lot bigger than expected and is really very well thought out and set up with Sala’s every 50 meters or so for anglers to base themselves at what the resort calls ‘The Swim’. Each Angler gets a spot where they can put out their rods and a Sala in which to sit and chill out wating for the alarm rigged to the fishing line to alert them they have a bite. Of course, you can also order food and drinks and eat out at the Sala, which for comfort also had a ceiling mounted, osilating fan to keep you cool.

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Two of our group had a real good go at this and Max got himself a fair old catch within half an hour. Joy also managed to show this is very much a ladies activity as well. See the photo below of Joy with her impressive catch, being helped and instructed by the resorts expert Angler and tutor Tom.

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As the day drew to a close and arms became weary, we went back to our villas for a quick freshen up and then all met up at the Anglers Rest Clubhouse & Bar. It has been created in the style of an old world traditional English pub theme and sells food and drink to match any of those back in the UK. On offer here we found dishes like Shepherds Pie, Pie, peas and mash potato, real ciders and a great choice of Indian and Thai food also. The menu seemed to cater for all tastes and the lakeside setting really did top it off. All in all, the utterly perfect end to day one of our stay.

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If you would like to learn more about Jurassic Mountain Resort & Fishing Park, please see the links below we have collated for you. To keep up-to-date with news and offers, follow them on Facebook & Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/jurassicfishingpark/

https://www.facebook.com/JurassicMountainResortFishingPark

https://www.facebook.com/TheAnglersRestChaam

On our list of places to see was Hat Puek Tian, with the statue of the lady in the sea, the Wednesday market in Cha Am main town, a temple or three and of course the main beach of Cha Am. All of these were within 15-minutes’ drive of the resort. Where to first? We will write about that in part II.