I find myself unexpectedly staying in Chumphon for the next 8 days. My days are busy but most nights free.

For anybody familiar the area, are there any particularly good restaurants or comfortable bars good for an inexpensive meal and a casual beer or 3?

Staying in downtown area close to the tower with the dome on top.

All comments welcome.

Have a wander,last time I was there I found a few decent bars and eateries,and a steady amount of tourists to natter to who were en route to the islands.

It's like many of the smaller Thai towns,a few banks,gold shops and what not.

Get amongst it man.

Be careful of sand flies on some of the beaches in that area.

I got bitten to death once, had to go to hospital

You can't see the little buggers till it's too late

Thanks for the replies. I was working on a movie being shot there and ended-up having very little time to explore. The set was built on a small cove about 25km north of the city and we were doing a lot of night time shooting.

Unfortunately, when that cold front blew through Thailand Sunday night, the storm that came along with it wiped out the entire set and it took a couple of days to rebuild so ended up staying there 12 days.

What I saw, I liked and hope to go back there sometime on my own. Decent hotels in the city for B600