Prachuap to Ban Krut

January 7, 2023

Our guest house owner was so sweet I seriously think he was sad to see us go. He was very good at using his translate app on his phone when he wanted to tell us something. Using our translate app we told him that the renovations he did to the rooms were really great. I know he was proud of the improvements he made so it was nice to let him know we appreciated them. We ought to know since we were in the same room eight years ago but to tell you the truth, we don't remember much about what it was like before. I remember the terrazzo floor and that the bed was in a different direction but neither of those things were renovated.

The owner of Shea-Va Cafe and Homestay. Sweetest man around! Always smiling.

We rode south along the coast but first we had to pass through the Thai Air Force's Wing 5 Base again. It's an odd arrangement where a guard waves at you and then you ride across the landing and take-off strip, if no planes are coming or going. If there is an imminent landing or take off, a uniformed man goes out to stop traffic. You can't take any photos so I can't show you this unique place. If after you cross the first landing strip and you round the bend to the left you can ride along the most beautiful beach in the entire area but you can't take photos of it either. And, worse than that, you can't swim there! It's a super sensitive place because that's where the Japanese first landed in Thailand when they invaded during WWII. The beach is kept immaculately clean by the soldiers every morning. If you keep riding along that beach and want to go to where all the cute langurs live then you will have to leave your passport at a guard station. Then there is another landing strip that you have to cross where you may or may not be delayed by planes.

Today, we were fully loaded and would have aroused suspicion if we went to see the langurs. (That sounded like a strange and funny sentence.) Plus, we were on our way south and didn't have time for cute langurs. We took the right turn and passed along Ao Manao beach which is also owned by the Thai Air Force - Wing 5, but people are allowed to swim there. As we rode near the beach we saw two different beach clean-up brigades returning to their base. They were in formation, one guy carrying a big black plastic bag of the refuse they cleaned from the beach. After they passed, Andrea asked me, "Did you see those guns they had? They were really long!" I told her that I didn't look at them very long but I thought they were rake handles! We'll never know but I wonder what they would be doing with long rifles while cleaning up the beach.

Just after Ao Manao Beach we rode through the small town of Klang Wan which is not as touristy as Ao Manao Beach. In fact, it was simply a bustling little Thai town that looked pretty fun to me. We were riding through fairly early and there was food everywhere and in every form on the street, at the market, everywhere. It was a buzzing little town. There are a few resorts too, mostly out near the sea. It looked like a great little area. I wanted to stop and find a place to stay but since we hadn't ridden more than four miles my request was rejected. Maybe someday.

Just beyond Klang Wan a couple of miles is Waghor Aquarium which we went to eight years ago while on our first cycle trip. Today it was quite desolate there with not one person in sight anywhere. Maybe it was too early in the morning but it seemed like it had been vacant of people for quite some time. It's not just the aquarium building but lots of other science related buildings all spaced far apart in a row along the sea.

Along the strip of science and industry buildings and Waghor Aquarium.

I never dreamed I'd see dinosaurs on this trip, but, there they were.

I was most interested in taking a photo of what I called "The Dome of Silence" which is a cement dome over a picnic table overlooking the beach where, eight years ago, I took a photo of Andrea. It was not only still there but it had recently been jazzed up with fresh paint. Andrea wouldn't pose again but I did. The Dome of Silence was on the silly TV series Get Smart when I was a kid. If you had something top secret you needed to tell another person you said it in the Dome of Silence that dropped down from the ceiling. It never worked however, just looked silly. While inside this Dome of Silence I said a few sentences and asked Andrea if she could hear me. She mouthed that she couldn't hear a thing. And neither did I.

The Dome of Silence. I could talk, talk, talk and no one would hear me. But, actually, that isn't very different from normal life for me.

She probably couldn't hear a thing because the wind was really picking up and the waves were crashing. wildly. The entire time we have been down here on the coast the wind has been quite strong coming from the north - northeast. It's been helping us a lot but today the wind is stronger and I've never seen waves so large in the Gulf of Thailand. From people we've talked with who live in Prachuap, apparently the wind is always from the north in January and maybe not quite as strong in February. Then, in the summer the wind comes from the south.

There were no roads along the beach as we wanted, which meant that we had to go inland a bit and actually get on the dreaded Highway 4 for 11 miles. We were not looking forward to that but, the wind really came in handy to get that portion of our ride over as quickly as possible. It's a big highway with lots of trucks and fast cars and lots of noise. With a 16 mph wind at our backs we made short order of it and were back heading towards the beach.

Our entire trip we have been shocked how much garbage there is everywhere. Some places have garbage bags full just dumped by the side of the road.

We couldn't always ride within sight of the water but the beauty of all the coconut palms was tropical and exotic as well.

The train tracks run amazingly close to the beach in places and we were forced to cross them several times, which used to be no problem, but now the Thais have been busy building lots and lots of bridges over the tracks wherever there is a road going across. They are preparing for the high speed rail line that will run from China to Singapore. Everything is still under construction so we did not have to ride all of the high bridges today and still could cross some of the rails. It won't be long before that will be a thing of the past though. I wonder how the Thais feel about their old roads becoming blocked off. At least there are some underpasses which are easier than the big bridges.

Another brand new bridge over the tracks.

We saw dozens of bridges like this one recently built between here and Bangkok.

Soon no one will be able to drive over the tracks themselves, nowhere in Thailand. You simply can't risk an accident with a high speed train.

As we ride south there are more and more coconut palms. They are way up north in Thailand as well but down here there are loads of them. I love the look of graceful coconut palms. They represented something truly exotic when I was a kid and my family made pilgrimages to Florida from Minnesota for three weeks every winter. That excitement is still in me, I guess, because whenever I enter the land of lots of palms I know I am somewhere really different. And most of these stands of palms have cows underneath keeping the grasses down.

It's a little bit odd to see cows with palms, for some reason. I had no idea there were so many cows in southern Thailand. From the looks of how not wealthy the people are getting from fishing they have found other ways to supplement their income. Most cows are now shipped to China because demand for them is so high. That, in turn, has driven up the price of beef in Thailand. But, apparently, it has also increased the number of cows being raised in Thailand.

As we were riding right along the coast buffeted by the winds we met a cyclist from Germany. For being so young he had been all over the world cycling and was planning on being in Portland sometime this year. Of course we invited him to come see us. His mother had come to spend some time with him in Phuket and now he was continuing his trip north. We wished him well since he was heading straight into some strong headwinds. He didn't seem to care and accepted that it was part of cycling - a good attitude that will serve him well.

Max was heading into the wind, north, up the coast. We think he was from Germany.

A pretty wild sea and a pier that doesn't look like it can take too many more wild seas.

There were big storms that occurred in this area a couple of months before and this river got blocked by sand. It's the rainy season now so the river isn't flowing to unblock its mouth.

Once in Ban Krut we headed for a place called Coconut Garden Resort not so much because we had stayed there eight years ago but because eight years ago we had priced all the other places and chose the cheapest by far, which was still kind of expensive. Coconut Garden Resort looked like it had had a hard eight years and that Covid maybe nearly did it in. Nothing seemed to be kept up and the bungalows were slowly rotting into the earth. It seemed nearly deserted which is not something a guest actually should desire even if it means peace and quiet.

We were shown a bungalow, probably one of the best the woman had to offer but probably one of the worst of our trip. We squeezed into it and felt like we were camping. But it was for only a night and we could deal with anything it had to throw at us. We got settled and then remembering there was a back gate to a road parallel to the beach road we rode our bikes through the coconut grove to the back gate where we found a man peeing. We had to stop and wait for him to finish! It kind of went with the whole feeling we had for the place. I guess one should never return to a place one remembers from the past unless you have a mind that can be agile enough to forget about the past and go with what's at hand. Anyway, man done peeing, we went in search of dinner.

Andrea, not looking very enthused about this bungalow.

Our humble little bungalow at Coconut Garden Resort.

The little town was full of people shopping at Lotus's and crossing the street to finish their shopping at 7-Eleven (the stores are nearly identical). Those were basically the only two stores in the town. Clustered around them were a few basic open-air restaurants. We chose one that somehow looked like the best one and had a nice meal. It will be known in our memory as the restaurant with the bratty kid.

He was related to the owner somehow and he was continually getting into trouble. He came over close to us and was suspiciously eyeing my daypack. He had such an obvious look on his face, that of a kid who is waiting for the moment my attention was elsewhere so he could then open a zipper and take something. But he didn't know who he was dealing with; a photographer - the man with amazing peripheral vision. Every time he got closer to the pack I'd give him the evil eye. Eventually he decided he wasn't going to get away with anything (at least he knows when he won't succeed) and went back to beating on things with a rock: things such as wood tables, terrazzo benches, flower pots.....he was a terror. I should have taken a photo of him with his look of planning his crime. Criminals don't like to be photographed.

We finished our day by buying something at Lotus's but finding the ice cream selection disappointing. So we crossed the street to 7-Eleven where we found just what we were looking for; ice cream on sticks called Top Ten. We only reward ourselves with ice cream on the days we ride more than 35 miles, which for this trip have been rare for some reason. That's in stark contrast to just about every day of our trip being a Top Ten Day, at least in my estimation. I mean, there are coconut palms!

lovebruce

Today's ride: 43 miles (69 km)
Total: 914 miles (1,471 km)

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Ron Suchanek"Today, we were fully loaded and would have aroused suspicion if we went to see the langurs."

That's a brilliant sentence that I could imagine hearing in a David Attenborough nature show. And I wouldn't be surprised to see it in my Great Divide journal this summer.
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