21 km

We ended up paying our camping fee with our breakfast at the park restaurant on the beach. Then we went for a swim since the tide was in. It was too shallow to do much, but it felt great and was a nice way to start the day.

The park name means Land of 300 Peaks, and there are many rocky peaks that jut out of the land, some of them with caves. We rode through the park to Sai Cave, near the water at the end of a tiny fishing village. We hiked up a steep 280 meters to the small cave. A man sitting just inside the entrance had flashlights to rent. We had our headlamps, so we went on in and the man went back to his nap. It took a long time to cool down, as it was a really hot day and that climb up got us sweating. But eventually we enjoyed the coolness of the cave.

Then we rode to Ban Bang Pu (or Poo, depending on the sign), a small fishing village with a wat. Behind the wat you’ll find several open air restaurants and longtail boats that can take you the 10-minute ride around the headland to the park’s northern beach, Laem Sala. There is also a trail that goes up and over the headland to the beach and we decided to walk it, as the longtail boats were running quite a racket. They charge 300 baht round trip for the same day, but if you return the next day it is 600 baht. That’s 50% more than our average hotel room cost. They seem to have all coordinated their prices, and even the restaurants were selling boat rides. We wanted to camp on Laem Sala, so when the woman at the restaurant nearest the trail offered to let us keep our bikes inside her building, we agreed. We packed what we needed into just a couple of panniers and left the rest on our bikes, then locked the bikes to a pole. We then got ready for the hike, which everyone–park staff and the locals here–said would be long, steep, and too hot.

It was a breeze! It was less of an effort than we did earlier today to get to the cave, plus once we got around the headland a bit we were in the shade and had a slight wind off the ocean. It took us about 15 minutes, including a couple short photo stops. We saved ourselves 600 baht and enjoyed the hike as well.

We signed in with the armed forest ranger (or guard, or military soldier, who knows) who wanted to get all our information, see our park entrance ticket, and check and double-check that we actually wanted to camp and that we had our own tent. I think he wanted to get us to spend more money for a bungalow, which they rent at all the park locations where you can camp. He noticed the ticket was from yesterday, so we explained that we camped in the park at the other beach last night, and we had been in the park visiting the cave today. Then he wanted our receipt for camping, but we hadn’t been given one. We now realize that if you don’t get a receipt for anything you pay for in a park, they probably pocket the money, as signs had warned us to get a receipt pretty much everywhere. He eventually just had us pay for camping for tonight (60 baht for two) and took our park entrance tickets. We did not get a receipt for camping, but we weren’t going to argue with a guy who had a gruff manner and a handgun on his hip.

We set up camp on the beach and set off to hike up to the biggest and most prized cave in the park: Phraya Nakhon Cave. It is not only a beautiful natural formation, but also a cherished and holy spot for the Thai people. King Rama V liked it so much he had his cipher inscribe his symbol on the wall, and later another king had a monument put up in the middle of the cave. Several of the kings have visited the cave as well, and it’s a popular trek for Thai people as well as foreign tourists. Since we started late in the day and most of the busloads of people had left via the longtail boats, we had the place to ourselves. The cave is huge, and the top of the largest part is partially collapsed, so there is light shining down into it, with the monument built up on a small hill in the middle. There are trees and bushes growing below the hole, on the mound created by the crumbled top, so it is a neat combination of dark stone walls and green foliage stretching up to the light.

Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park Info

Any signs we saw, both on Highway 4 and the smaller coastal road, indicated not the name of the park, but the beaches within the park: Sam Phraya Beach in the south, and Laem Sala Beach in the north. The only time we saw a sign for the park itself was right before the entrance.

The entrance fee is 200 baht per person. Camping is another 30 baht per person, per night, paid in the area you camp, which is on either beach. You can ride to Sam Phraya, but Laem Sala is only accessible by boat or a steep hike up and down stone stairs. You would have a hard time pushing your bike up, so see if you can stash it with a restaurant. There are bungalows and restaurants at each beach, as well as toilets and showers, though the showers on Laem Sala are the kind where you dip water out of a basin. We had a guy offer to rent us a tent at Sam Phraya, and you could probably track down a tent at Laem Sala as well if you’re not carrying one.

You get a brochure with pictures and a map, which explains what our guidebook did not: that there are a couple of villages within the national park. It was originally a marine park, but the boundary was expanded in 1982 to encompass the wetlands and other areas more inland. There are checkpoints at the southern and northern ends which locals travel freely in and out of. You can find restaurants and mini-markets at each town.

73 km

Today we tried again to follow the beach as closely as possible, trying to avoid Highway 4 because it’s a freeway in this area. We did pretty well starting out, but soon, somewhere before Bo Nok on our map, the road turned to packed dirt and gravel. It looked well made and well used so we continued. The stretch of riding on this road was some of our favorite along this coast: it was beautiful, quiet, with a good wind off the sea, and interestingly dry with several kinds of cacti and succulents.

It did not, however, take us where we wanted to go. After a relaxing twenty minutes, the road ended in a huge dead zone of abandoned shrimp farms. Shrimp farms are everywhere in this area. The dirt is dug out in large rectangles, with the dirt being built up into berms on all sides. Sometimes they’re lined with black plastic, but often not. The working ones have loud engines hooked to paddles that churn up the water, probably to oxygenate and circulate it. We imagine the shrimp farms must be abandoned when they build up too much salt and minerals from evaporation, leaving an ugly scarred area of land upon which hardly anything grows.

We turned around and headed back, riding through a spontaneous brush fire near a pineapple field that left us with ash stuck to our sweaty, sun-screened skin. We took a turn away from the ocean to find a road that would continue north. This road took us right to highway 4, but we only had to deal with the noise and busyness of 4 for a few kilometers before we took a road (unmarked on our map) back to follow the coast.

We entered Khao Sam Roi Yot (or Yod, depending on the sign) National Park on the southern end, ate an early dinner at the restaurant near the park checkpoint and headed straight for Sam Phraya Beach to set up camp. It was a quiet place with only a handful of other people. We set up the tent right on the edge of the trees next to the water, then headed out to explore the rocky headland and stranded fishing boats. The tide was out so far we could hardly see the water. It was a really shallow bay. We showered and got in the tent early since the mosquitos were vicious. A great breeze off the ocean made for great sleeping.

We took a rest day today so Dave could finish the engineering project he’s been working on the last couple of weeks. While Dave was in the a/c room hogging the laptop I have been at the internet cafe writing and, you know, stuff.

We also found some of the best food we’ve had so far in Thailand. This woman cooks all the specialties: spicy seafood, fried vegetables, curry, pad thai , som tam (papaya salad, my new favorite), and even tom yam (spicy seafood soup). The food is all incredibly fresh and each dish has distinct and complicated flavors. We ate here last night and at lunch and dinner today. We enjoy the woman’s quick smile and nod of approval at our use of spicy peppers. I love to watch her cook each dish separately and carefully, starting with fresh vegetables and mixing spices and sauces as she goes. If you’re coming to Prachuap and want to find her, here’s how: from the beach road near the main part of town, turn west onto the road on the south side of the bright green and orange-trimmed apartment building. Go a couple of blocks and the open-air restaurant is on your left. Not the one on the corner, but right before that. These are terrible directions, I’m realizing. But if you see this woman, please stop for some great food:

MONKEYS

Dave and I rode to the north end of town to climb the 417 steps up to Khao Chong Krajok, a Buddhist chedi built on top of a rocky headland. The Rough Guide called it “monkey infested”, and that it was. Before we even found the stairs, we saw dozens of monkeys sitting around and playing on the grounds of the surrounding park. People approached with food to sell us to feed the monkeys, but we declined. Feeding wildlife rarely ends well for the wildlife or the people.

We parked our bikes across the road from the stairs so we could lock them to a post. A man selling peanuts for the monkeys pointed to the mirrors and said, “monkeys,” while shaking his head and motioning that they would mess with them. Then he said, “I watch for you.” I thought maybe we should have walked, it didn’t turn out to be that far. Oh well. At least the panniers were back in the guest house.

We reached for our dog sticks and the peanut man said “no, no, no,” we wouldn’t need them. In his limited English he basically said the monkeys were harmless. Dave and I looked at each other, shrugged, and put them back. Then we headed up the stairs built into the hillside, winding around trees and big rocks. The monkeys were everywhere–on the steps, in the trees–making a huge racket. They were small, but they were many.

About halfway up I stopped to look at the view and one monkey grabbed my Nalgene water bottle and started screaming and pulling. I yelled, “No!” but he only hissed back at me and kept his hands firmly on the bottle. I pulled it back and held it close to me, realizing these monkeys were used to having things held out for them. The monkey was MAD that I took back my gift, and we had to swing wide around him to move up the stairs.

As we approached the chedi at the top Dave wanted to zip on his pant legs so he would be respectful of this Buddhist place. The gate was up ahead, and as a man walked down and passed us, he said, “Grab a few of these, those guys get a little aggressive at the gate!” and he held out a handful of broken tiles and rocks. Oh my goodness.

But we got through the gate just fine, and soon saw why this spot was chosen. To the west was the calm teal ocean, to the south was Prachuap and the sandy beach to the next headland. To the north was another beach with smaller towns to the next headland and our route for tomorrow. To the west we could see jungle-forested mountains marking the Burmese border about 12 kilometers away. A wonderful breeze cooled us off, and we wandered around the small chedi.

We found out the source for all the broken tiles near the top of the stairs: the monkeys were slowly stripping them off the rooftops and crashing them down below. The monkeys swung up, around, over, and through every inch of this place. There were hundreds of them on this small hill. They probably couldn’t survive at this point without being fed, because no place this size could support a population this big. There were mothers with babies all over, ensuring the population would grow and continue. There was a monk sitting on a bench, feeding and trying to slowly win the trust of some of the monkeys so he could pet them. They never quite let him get that close.

We continued enjoying the view for quite a while, watching the sun sink down low. We watched the monkeys groom and play and fight. When we decided to leave, there were several monkeys guarding the gate. Dave went first and tried to shoo them away, but they wouldn’t move. He clapped. Nothing. Then finally he lurched forward and stomped his feet and they scattered. We ducked through and made our way down, moving wide around particularly grumpy monkeys, until we made it down and back to our bikes.

The mirrors were wrenched in hard angles and smudged with prints, but the peanut guy was nowhere to be seen.

84 km

We continued north, choosing our way among the small roads closest to the sea. When faced with an option, we just turned right. Mostly it worked. Until we ended up on a dirt road. Which turned onto another dirt road. Which became smaller and smaller and we’d gone in each direction possible only to find dead ends (a house, property on the coastline that was paved for a development but then abandoned, a railroad access trail that ends at a bridge, a yard full of dogs barking and charging on all sides) so that we finally pick our way back to the main highway (4/A1). We decided there must be no other way but highway through this area.

We are glad we chose to ride small roads up to this point, because the 4-lane divided highway was loud and hot and busy. We got off after several fast kilometers heading toward the coast again, and eventually slipped into Prachuap Kiri Khan from a quiet road on the south side. Today felt like our hottest yet, and was our longest after being sick. We felt like melting banana ice cream by the end of the day.

We found a clean and functional old hotel room for 350 baht with a/c and right off the bat took a cold shower. Can I now announce my new favorite product ever? Ok, yes, I will then. Powder. Yes, the product our grandmothers used to keep in the bathroom in pink canisters with silky puffs to apply it is actually the most useful product in existence today in the sauna we are traveling in. However, ours is no grandma powder. It is Snake Co. Prickly Heat Powder, special lavendar scent (though it doesn’t actually smell like lavendar, just less kapow! than the regular kind). It has all kinds of essential oils and herbs that make you feel cool like IcyHot or Tiger Balm but also smelling nice. It keeps us from stinking out our neighbors at the table next to us at the restaurant when we head out for dinner. It is pure magical bliss, and I don’t go out in the evening without it. We were recommended it back in Singapore in one of the we-sell-everything markets in Little India by the guy who told Dave that, yes, this would surely beat the foot odor in his shoes. Too much information, you say? Well, if and when you come to Southeast Asia, you will thank me for this recommendation. Buy a nice big can.

58 km

We started the day with body surfing, then ate a big Thai lunch and got on the bikes. Early on we are faced with dogs that set our nerves on edge, so right away we decide we need sticks. YES! Beware, dogs, we shall defend ourselves, and you will run in fear before you even get close enough! We each find good sticks that are just the right size, about 3 feet long and an inch around, and secure them under the bungee cords that hold our camelbacks on the rear rack. They are ready to draw when needed. We set off with new confidence.

We get to practice our stick weilding several times throughout the day, and sometimes even ride side by side, with Dave on the left and me on the right, each using our dominant hands to whack our way through when there are several dogs at once. It sounds worse than it is, but it still gets our adrenaline up. However, we have found a new way to pacify some of the dogs that are on the fence about being vicious: we make fake motorcycle noise as we ride by, sounding like a space car on the Jetsons. That seems to make some of them assured that we are not alien life forms, just another couple on scooters. Honestly, I think it works for all but the meanest.

Having passed up a great beach camp spot yesterday, we planned to be prepared today. We decided the best possibility is just south of Hat Ban Krud on the same long beach. We passed a big port with a steel mill nearby and a village, then the huts and houses thinned out to nothing. We were again on a quiet road with little traffic and an empty beach to our right just on the other side of a line of feathery pines. We choose a spot with a big shady tree and take our bikes down the hill to the beach. We have just enough beach to camp on above the high tide line, right under that shady tree. It’s perfect! We set up camp and go swimming. No body surfing today, as the ocean was too calm. But it was a long, refreshing swim after a very hot day. We didn’t have much of a sea breeze so it was fairly warm, but our tent was comfy and the rhythm of the waves was soothing.

64 km

We started the day with dragon fruit. That makes all the difference!

We stayed close to the coast again today and enjoyed a breeze off the sea whenever we were near it. We followed quiet roads that wound up and around rocky headlands with gold-topped Buddhist wats, then opened to views of turquois water and clean white sandy beaches and limestone cliff islands.

We saw a quiet fishing village that probably rarely sees tourists and the province of Chumphon’s “Most Distinct Sand Dune”, which was, well, a nice sand dune anyway. The beach around the sand dune was so beautiful, clean, and completely deserted that we were sad we didn’t have enough water and food with us to camp. For those planning a trip through this area: please plan to camp here!

The smaller villages are so fun and interesting to ride through; we get to see people about the business of regular life, like spreading squid on screens to dry or collecting fat grass to make into thatched roof panels. People in smaller villages spread great smiles across their faces and shout hellos to us, taking their toddler’s arms and waving them at us. These are warm and welcoming people, always a nice change from larger, tourist-oriented places.

The one concession we make by enjoying smaller back roads is a great increase in the number of dogs we have jetting out to chase us. Some of them give a half-hearted attempt, but many others are a real menace. Dave has a handy pocket in his shirt where he started keeping rocks to throw at them. This works pretty well, but I still get nervous every time we see a dog.

We stop at Hat Bang Boet. It’s a very small, sort of scruffy looking beach town in a quiet little bay, so we are surprised that almost all rooms and bungalows are air condition only, starting at 800 baht. We are used to paying an average of 3-400 baht for a nice but basic room, often including the a/c. So. We hunt around a bit more, and as we pass a restaurant (Krua Khantong) a man calls out, asking if we are looking for a room. He tells us he has a couple of the only non-a/c rooms in town, for 400 baht. He shows us a clean, fairly new room behind the restaurant. We take it. We quickly change and head to the beach for a swim.

Then I did something I’ve never done before but instantly loved: body surfing! I hadn’t understood Dave’s giddy excitement at seeing the waves crashing out there. I thought it looked too rough for swimming. But after we got out there and Dave explained the technique, we waited for the waves, and, ta-da! It worked! Riding the waves like a surf board is hilariously fun, and we were laughing and anxiously waiting for the next wave and the next and the next. It’s awesome, and I completely tired myself out. After a late dinner, I headed straight back to bed while Dave worked on some engineering work on the computer.

41 km

We started off today with me feeling better after more rest. We’ve heard from friends at home that this virus is going around there as well, and it just takes some time. Patience is all I needed!

We decided to keep to the small roads hugging the coast today even though it meant slower going and no guarantees–our map doesn’t have great detail and often doesn’t show smaller roads. We made the right choice. It was a quiet and beautiful ride, sometimes swinging close to the coast, and other times through tree-lined country roads. Dave and I are able to ride alongside each other and chat, something we don’t usually get to do on the busier roads.

I’m feeling better today, but still tired, so we make it a short day. We get back to the coast and stop at the first bungalows we see: Coffee Beach. They are very nice and new and cost 450 baht with a/c. The two women who show us around don’t speak a single word of English, but they have constant smiles and are patient with us as we try to communicate. It looks like we’re the only customers here, and we confirm that they are serving dinner at the open-air restaurant where we pay for the room. Yes! So, we head to the bungalows and immediately change to go swim. The water is ours, the beach is empty except the dogs who reside here at the bungalows, and they happily splash in after us. Dave and I enjoy cooling down in the water, and feel instantly refreshed. It’s just amazing how that works.

We shower and change back at the bungalow, and as we are ready to head out, the power goes out. No backup generator kicks in, as we have seen happen in other places, so we head to the restaurant with our headlamps to order dinner. There are candles lit, both at the restaurant counter and next door where the family lives. We get a couple of candles for our table and we anxiously await dinner.

We are so happy that Chris Wee sent us the link for Chanchao’s Thai Menu Helper, which has helped us so much when ordering in places with no menu or when we need to make sure we get vegetarian versions of what’s in the kitchen. It works well for us tonight, and we enjoy green curry with vegetables and tofu, and pad thai. As we are finishing up dinner the power comes back on, so we get to make use of our air conditioner to sleep by. We had been worried we’d have to open the windows (with no screens) and then figure out how to put up our mosquito net without a hook overhead. That was the reason we didn’t take the fan room in the first place, because there were no screens or bed net. We each got about fifteen mosquito bites at dinner and are glad we won’t have to get any more.

After two good days of riding, I woke up this morning feeling SICKER AGAIN. Since I got sick at least a couple of days after Dave, he’s not surprised I’m still messing around with it. I’ve got the sore throat and swollen glands that he started out with. So, here we are, resting in one spot again.

We had already decided yesterday that we would hold off on diving on Koh Tao until the end of our trip here in SE Asia. Neither of us felt 100% healthy, and we didn’t want to get out to Koh Tao and not be able to dive as much as we planned. So, we can end our biking back in Bangkok (probably take the train or fly down from somewhere in Laos or northern Thailand) and leave our bikes in storage. Then come down to Koh Tao for the last week and dive.

For now, I’ve got some resting to do.

66 km

Today’s ride was full of gently rolling hills, with nothing too steep. In the mid-afternoon it started to lightly sprinkle on us, and then it turned to an all-out rain.

We are seeing more and more dogs the farther north we head. In Malaysia, we hardly saw any dogs, and there were cats everywhere. Now it’s the opposite. But as we keep going, the dogs are less shy and more interested in raising our heart rates. We’re being at least half-heartedly chased a couple of times a day now, and once today I really thought the dog meant business. It might be my imagination, but they do seem to give pause to my “psht” sound, learned from my hero Cesar Milan, the Dog Whisperer. If you haven’t seen that show, you gotta. You just gotta. Anyway, Dave said that we can keep rocks handy in our handlebar bags and they will respond to that. He had plenty of practice while riding across China and Tibet.

We cycled in the rain for the rest of the day, finally rolling into Chumphon to a lighter sprinkle. The last 8-10 kilometers were grey and depressing, not because of the dark skies and rain, but because it is one long, straight stretch of highway filled with tired old shops and car dealorships, growing to a 4-lane ruckus closer to town. But still, it was plenty safe and smooth riding.

If it had been nicer and earlier in the day we would probably have continued north about 12 kilometers to the beach and found a rustic bungalow. But instead, we find the Suriwong Chumphon hotel listed in our guidebook because we know it will be clean and easy. They let us park our bikes in the front lobby out of the way, and we do get shown a clean and tidy room with a fan. Usually in cities, where it can be noisy and hotter, we opt for air-con rooms, leaving fans for the country bungalows where we also have a breeze at night. But the evening remained cool and it continued to rain or sprinkle, making the cheaper fan room quite bearable.

64 km

We rode over gentle rolling hills all day today, with just a couple of short, steeper climbs. At around 15 km we stopped at a lookout, and ended up chatting with a guy from Malaysia who drove up in his Lotus. He had a huge bunch of small, local bananas that he shared with us and a guy who was traveling on a scooter with his small boy. After we talked for a while, he left the rest of the bananas with us, “You guys need them more than I do!” and then vroomed off in his little car. Less than a kilometer down the hill we came to a waterfall that would probably be spectacular in the rainy season, but which was pretty and sounded cool and refreshing (though we didn’t take a dip).

About a kilometer before Kraburi on the right side of the road we saw a couple of places to check out, one signed as “Bungalows” and another resort, though I can’t remember the name. We checked out the resort first, and saw very cute bungalows with fans for 350 baht. They were built and decorated in all kinds of materials like broken tiles of different colors, bottles, rocks. These were really cute. But, as is our habit, we had to check out at least the other place we’d seen, just about 50 meters back. This place also had nice little bungalows, though not as cute and not quite as new, but for only 250 baht. For us, they were really the same functionally, and because we’re trying to travel at least another year without going back to work full time, we take the cheaper one.

We rode into town, just over a kilometer, and found a great dinner of pad thai and some yummy desserts on a corner with several food stalls. Cheap and yummy!

OK, this slimy dessert was maybe not so yummy. It was sweet and very salty, and reminded me too much of something one generally expels rather than ingests.

We got back to the bungalow ready to shower and relax for the evening. I was getting in the shower when we heard girls outside, giggling, saying, “Hello, excuse me!” We didn’t know who they were talking to, but they sounded like they were outside our door. Finally, they knocked. Dave answered, wearing only his bike shorts as he was soon headed to the shower himself, and they asked him if we were going to have breakfast. He said, “Well, what do you have?” and they giggled and ran off. Dave decided he better put a shirt on. A minute later a woman comes up to the door and asked him if he remembered her. He knew he recognized her, but couldn’t place her right away. She said, “You don’t remember me. I remember you but you don’t remember me. I saw you in Ranong a few days ago on your bikes.” And then he remembered.

Just as we were heading into Ranong we took a wrong turn and were stopped at a light trying to figure out which way to go. This woman pulls up and starts talking excitedly to us from a pickup truck, saying something about wanting to tell us all about her resort somewhere else and some other things, but we couldn’t really understand or hear her well, with all the trucks and everything, and we really just wanted to get oriented so we could find our way downtown. So finally we asked her where a certain bank was which was on our little guidebook map, and she pointed straight ahead and then the light turned green and the driver went on. That turned out to be completely wrong. We did get ourselves oriented without too much trouble, but that didn’t help any.

So here this woman is, speaking to Dave in a deep, agitated voice, and she asks Dave why we didn’t stay at the other bungalow. Dave said, “Well, it was 350 baht and this was 250 so we chose this one,” and the woman says something about how “No, you didn’t understand. She said it was discounted to 250. Ours are nicer and newer than these.” But Dave and I both know the woman who showed us the other bungalows clearly said 350 for fan, 500 for air-con.

The woman at the door then wants to know if we want breakfast in the morning. Dave said, “Where? Here or over there?” and she said she’d deliver. Then he asked what she had, and she said coffee, toast and fried egg for 90 baht each. Western style breakfasts are typically overpriced and too small for our cycling appetites. But it’s not just that, this woman is weirding us out and we have no desire to spend any more time with her. Dave pokes his head in and asks if we want breakfast delivered, and I said, (just loud enough for her to overhear through the window) “No, we have plenty of food right here, we don’t need breakfast.” And Dave let her know we were not interested. She left in a huff.