Khanom district office

As almost every time we go to Surat Thani, one day at the beach is part of the itinerary as well. However the coast of the province mostly consists of mud flats, the only sandy beach is either on the islands, or already in Nakhon Si Thammarat province. But going to Ko Samui would include a ferry trip and thus takes longer and is more expensive, so our usual place is the beach in Khanom district, which also has the advantage of being much less crowded with tourists. For more on that beach see the posting in my Travel blog.



But even though we went there several times already, only in our latest trip I managed to get the chance to take a photo of the district office of Khanom. Normally we pass the town Khanom and go to the beach directly, this district office is about 2 km north of the main intersection. I also wanted to take a photo of the municipality (thesaban) office, but unlike the district office there are no signs to that one usually. But luckily we found a helpful guy, if I understand correctly from the police station right next to the district office. He described the way to that office, and also to another municipality a bit farther away.



The municipality office of Khanom subdistrict municipality (เทศบาลตำบลขนอม) is located near the district office, turning to the right at the intersection with the dolphin statue. Apparently that office was just constructed recently, Google Earth right now still only shows trees at that location, not even a trace of construction. That satellite photo tile dates from February 21 2004 (since Google Earth 4.3 the date of the data is displayed), which give the lower bound for the opening date of the office.



That second municipality mentioned before was Thong Nian (เทศบาลตำบลท้องเนียน), covering the northern subdistrict of the district. I wasn't aware that there was a second municipality within the district, which is no wonder as the TAO Thong Nian was just upgraded to a subdistrict municipality last year, effective August 30 2007. However we did not go there, as it would have meant a larger detour - well, actually, could have gone there and continue on highway 4044, but instead we drove another way.



We passed a TAO office on the way to Don Sak on highway 4142, but all I could see while passing it was the fact it is a TAO office. That part of the district is the subdistrict Khuan Thong (ตำบลควนทอง), so even though I could not read the name fast enough I am quite sure it was the office of TAO Khuan Thong. Sadly I wasn't able to find that office on Google Earth either, but chances are high it's because of the age of the satellite photo again, as the building looked quite new as well. Stupidly I did not click on my new GPS tracker to record the location, which would have made it easier to find it or verify it was built recently. Next time...



There's another TAO within the district, but I have no idea where that office is located - TAO Khanom covering the area of subdistrict Khanom not covered by the subdistrict municipality Khanom. The website of this TAO only lists the address of the office, but sadly no map. I cannot find the street name mentioned on that site - ถนนสายสี่แยก-ในเพลา, Sai Si Yaek-Nai Plao road - on a map yet, but it should be one of the two roads going towards Nai Plao beach. But we drove both already, so the office must be within a side street.