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.