Pig skin in Trang

Today I was in a survey group with 5 of my Thai student colleagues on a visit to the city of Trang, which competes for tourism with the city we are doing this sustainable tourism project for. Our city, Krabi, is about 1.5 hours north of Trang by car. We drove there to do what I thought would be surveying, site visitation, some eating, talking to locals and tourists. Most of those activities, however, did not occur.

We drove there for one reason which was to sample Trang's famous local product - their barbequed pork. Actually, it was more like bbq'd crispy pig skin. Very healthy. I had a few pieces. It tasted like bacon on steriods. Not for vegetarians. Thailand is not a good place for them, not at all. Our team ate three heaping platefuls of it.

On the way home, we stopped off at something called the Amari Trang Beach Resort, the leading and most upscale resort complex in Trang. Nice place, but it was empty. I saw exactly one guest the whole time and we were there for close to an hour. The resort sits on prime beach real estate right next to a national park in Trang. You can stay there now for about $131 a night, but it's the off (rainy) season right now. The high season (November - April) would command prices at least double that.

Signing off...