Day 197: Prachuap Kiri Khan to Hat Wanakon National Park Beach (21 miles)
It’s February 1! Which means we’re going home THIS month! Which means we have only twelve more days of riding. Which means our two-week beach vacation with no riding is soon. I’m ecstatic!
In the show, The Office, Michael Scott and Dwight Shrute try to prove that technology is stupid and Michael drives the car into the lake because the GPS told him to turn. I felt like that today. Googlemaps has been a great tool for us on this trip; however, sometimes it leads us astray. Today was one of those days. We ended up pushing the bikes through sand, under a wire fence and through a muddy field before giving up on the Googlemaps route. It was a frustrating hour. It’s difficult to turn around after putting forth so much effort in hopes that the route will just get better in a little bit. That hope makes you do stupid things like trust an app made by a company in California, half a world away from here. Eventually, we lost that hope and turned around. It was for the better- even if we slipped around in the mud a bit before getting back on track.
Not exactly a path.
We stayed at the Wanakon National Park right on the beach. AND… we got to camp for the first time in Asia. Biking and camping (especially camping on the beach) is such a neat adventure. I love the simplicity of it. I love “getting away from it all.” Biking and camping allows my soul to recharge. I also got to lay out on the beach to solar charge my own self. The waves were incredibly loud. It was magical.
Camping in Hat Wanakon National Park.
Day 198: Wanakon Beach to Bang Saphan Noi (50 miles)
Last night, I woke up a few times. Because of the heat, we had the fly of the tent rolled back about half way. When I woke, it was really surreal to lay in the tent while peeking through the mesh tent to view the stars above. Instead of feeling annoyed that I couldn’t fall back asleep, I relished in the beauty of the sky and cherished the crashing waves of the ocean so close to me. Waking up later to the sunrise made it easy to get up because the blues and purples were simply majestic. You can’t have a bad day when you get to wake up this way.
Great view from the tent.
This part of Thailand is very narrow. Parts of it are only ten miles across. The nearby mountains create the natural border with Burma. Even though we’re also by the coast, the foothills left us climbing rolling hills all day. We haven’t used our climbing muscles lately because it’s been so flat. The heat, though, left my stomach grumbling all day. I call it Heat Exhaustion Stomach. If you don’t know what I mean, see the blogs from Portugal. No bueno.
The cheap resort we stayed at was right on the water- not as close as camping on the water, but pretty close. After lunch, we tried to hang out on the beach under the umbrellas, but were too tired. Back at the room, we accidentally took a 2 ½ hour nap. Since we ate lunch so late at 3:00 pm, when we woke, it was almost time to eat again! Ride, eat, sleep, eat again. I like that pattern. The evening air at dinner was humid! The lights strung up outside looked like a wedding reception, perfect for dining outside. I think Thailand is spoiling us.
Hat Wanakon beach.
Day 199: Bang Saphan Noi to Chumphon (57 miles)
The humidity was the most intense I’ve ever had to endure – and I spent most of the summers of my life in Houston, Texas! The heat index was well over 100 degrees even in the morning. The air had no breathing components as it had turned to pure water. It was heavy on my chest to take a breath. We weren’t really cycling anymore; our movement had turned to swimming. When I would wipe the sweat from my face, I only, in fact, added more moisture that was spewing from every pore. I felt like a cartoon who’d filled up with water and it was bursting from every orifice.
Gum trees before the down pour.
The distant black clouds eventually caught up to us. It thundered a few warning signals before a few droplets sprinkled down. That was our cue to put the camera bag and our fanny packs in the waterproof panniers. Mere seconds after closing up the bags, rain burst from those angry clouds. Within moments, we were soaking wet. Soon, we were pedaling in an inch of flowing water that covered the street. Thunder banged around us. It’s one thing to be watching this type of rain from the dry comfort of your living room, but it’s wild to actually be in it on a bike. I let out a “Woohooo!” as loud as I could because the pounding rain on my skin was exhilarating. The mountain trees on either side of us allowed the water to make an awesome musical symphony. It was like a billion rain sticks were turning upside down at once. A man called out to us and offered his awning for a reprieve from the rain, but it was too late for that; it already looked like we jumped in a pool with all our clothes on. Plus, I didn’t want to miss out on the excitement. The rain lasted thirty minutes. It was the coolest part of the day.
Day 200: Chumphon to Kra Buri (42 miles)
I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t hot today. The miles climbed over the foothills as we peered over into Myanmar. Even though we climbed, our pace was swifter than usual. I think incentive to get out of the sun helped our legs pedal quickly.
It was a relief to get to the guesthouse. The owner spoke a little bit of conversational English, so we sat on her porch with her and shared traveling stories. Not too long into the conversation, I realized that her English wasn’t THAT great and I ended up really confused with what actually was being communicated. English was spoken, but not much was comprehended. Either way, it was pleasant to sit in the shade and eat bananas and talk.
Lunch was not very pleasant for how starving we were. The neighbors had a little shop that served soup. Rice noodles and onion broth doesn’t fill a cyclist’s stomach very full. There were pieces of mystery meat in the soup, but guessing it was liver, kidney or brain, I chose to push it aside – I wasn’t THAT hungry.
The guesthouse owner recommended the outdoor restaurant across from the post office for dinner. Since there was hardly anything else in town, we took her recommendation. We met other cyclists there, too. Just before we got up to pay, the cook handed the phone to Sean. It was the guesthouse owner. She ordered fried rice and wanted us to pay for it and take it back to her (of course, she’d pay us back). How funny! No wonder she wanted us to go there.
Day 201: Kra Buri to Koh Phayam
I already wrote about this day in my journal, but it’s been about 3 weeks so I don’t remember everything. My other journal about this day is on the other side of the island in a hostel’s luggage storage closet. So I’ll just have to paraphrase. Read my book in a few years to find out what happened with more detail on day 201. Here’s the short version: we rode our bike; we got on a ferry to go to Koh Phayam; we’re basically in Paradise.
Day 202: Koh Phayam (rest day)
Perhaps we were tired. After twelve hours of sleep, we both finally awoke from our coma. Not sure why we’re tired. It’s not like over 9,000 km of cycling makes you tired or anything. In all seriousness, I think it’s the heat. It just zaps all the energy from you. We probably could have slept more, but the fan turned off, which made the room turn quickly into a stifling box of humidity. I sleepily tried to turn the fan back on. When nothing happened, I was quickly reminded that these small islands rarely have power 24/7. It was the same thing when we went to Palawan, Philippines, a few years back. You have to make sure you time your showers and potty breaks or get really good at figuring things out in the dark. No power means no electricity for the routers which means no internet for periods of the day. Also, this island has no hot water. I learned that one the hard way; on the plus side, it’ll wake you right up when your only choice is to rinse off with practically ice cubes coming from the shower head. All of this sounds a bit archaic, but, truly, it sets the scene up perfectly for a wonderfully, lazy beach day.
Hanging out on Koh Phayam.
When we arrived last night, there was only one room available for only one night. Already after breakfast, we knew we wanted more than just one day on this island. We double checked again for any cancellations and the ability to stay another night. We lucked out! We were able to stay! Yay!
We stayed on the southwest part of the island correctly named Long Beach. After breakfast, it took nearly two hours to stroll down and back along the beach. From the booked hotels, you would think that the beach would be packed. It wasn’t. Hardly anyone was out.
After almost two hours of exercising on our rest day, it was imperative to do everything we could to move as little as possible the remainder of the day. All our meals and snacks were at the thatch-roofed Lazy Hut restaurant. I found a book to my liking on the used book shelf. We lounged. We laid. We sunbathed. When we got too warm, we walked across the sand to take a dip in the calm, neutral waters of the Andaman Sea. The most movement we did was moving our lounge chairs into the shade as the sun moved overhead. Simplicity is blissful!
Sunset over Koh Phayam.
Day 203: Koh Phayam (rest day)
We have a day to spare before getting to Phuket; we needed to find a way to stay just one more night in this wonderful place. There were absolutely no more rooms available, but we convinced the owner to let us set up our tent on the property for only $5. Perfect! We wished we asked to camp earlier instead of staying in the bungalow – practically camping. Later on, we realized that camping on sand allows for that powdery white stuff to get EVERYWHERE, even when you’re super careful to not get it inside the tent. Later when we found piles of sand in the sleeping bags and panniers (what the heck!), we were thankful for out two nights in a place with real(ish) walls and a floor.
I love that sand and water permits people to walk around in nearly bras and undies. I didn’t even put on clothes today. I went from pajamas straight to a bathing suit. We did more of our favorite activities from yesterday: lay, read, eat. Such a fabulous life: life on the beach. It’s so easy to order a coconut banana smoothie or a Chang beer and say, “Please, put it on the tab.” It sounds so posh and fancy. In reality, we ate and drank and roomed for less than $30 each day on this island. That’s it!
Beach on Koh Phayam.
One of the other guests at Lazy Hut told us about a bar on the island with Open Mic Night. Although I was perfectly content with not leaving this area of happiness, Sean suggested we go. At night, the tide comes in so high up the beach and it creates a river up the island. We hiked up our pants and waded through the water, walked along the shore for a few kilometers under a moon so bright, you could see our shadows in the sand. We knew when to turn inland when we heard music. We landed ourselves at this all-foreigner, total hippie, dreadlock wearing, pot smoking, cocktail serving, outside lounge bar. It was fantastic. The band members were smoking. The lead singer was bra-less and barefoot. Alcohol was flowing. It felt like we stepped right into the 1970s. I think the middle-aged men with dreads wearing the hippie Asian skirt-like pants are the same men who bear sons who grow up to wear man-buns. Apparently, that was the uniform at his bar for both generations. We totally fit in with our grunge bike tour garb. I even didn’t put on deodorant today, so I smelled like everyone else, too. My favorite was when the singers switched up and this old Irishman who has spent the last 40 years traveling around India, Nepal and Thailand took the stage. He totally rocked! It was Thailand met Bob Dylan. What a concert!