August 28, 2017
Prachuap Khiri Khan to Sam Roi Yod: An easy ride up the coast
With an early start of six o'clock we missed out on breakfast at The MyHome. Probably quite fair on the proprietors because we did a good job at the trough yesterday morning. So we picked up some fried doughballs a few hundred meters down the road and scoffed them as we ride through Prachuap.
The route northwards to Sam Roi Yod would mean we could not avoid the route 4 completely but we managed to keep it down to a single stretch of about eleven kilometers. The weather was cool and cloudy and it kept trying to rain. We rode on through the drizzle but had to take shelter on two occasions. On the first one, outside some small industrial looking building, a young man suddenly appeared and gave us a bag containing a couple of energy drinks, a couple of cans of iced coffee and some fruit. There are few things as humbling as the unsolicited kindness of strangers. At the next stop, first under a tree and then under the verandah of a simple house whose mistress had invited us to shelter there, we were joined by two dodgy looking Burmese youths. When we started to cycle again we left the fruit behind to thank the lady of the house but we suspect the Burmese guys may have made off with it because they turned back to the house once we left. They probably needed it more.
Once off the route four we stopped for some chicken satays and sticky rice for second breakfast. Then it was in through Khao Sam Roi Yod National Park and the fish farms. There have been some negative comments on CGOAB about this section but we had a good time birding the drier parts which had a good sprinkling of waders, including a surprising number of Common Redshanks. Best of all was a small flock of Chestnut Munias, our first lifer in a while.
First business on our arrival in Sam Roi Yod was some lunch - very nice khao pad moo from a stall on the beachfront.
Our digs - Blue Beach Resort - isn't inspiring. We have been spoiled over the last two days at The MyHome, a stay bracketed by two resorts that charge the same amount but deliver far less. Sam Roi Yod seems to be a far more exclusive resort area to what we have encountered to far. There was even a resort with a big sign saying words to the effect that it was private property and not a hotel but it was obvious that it was a hotel but for Europeans only. It reminded me of Sihle Khumalo, a journalist from Durban, who, in his book "Darkest Africa, My Black Arse" based on his trip from Cape to Cairo by public transport, describes how he was refused entry into a hotel in Ethiopia because it was reserved for Chinese.
All the eateries along the strip seem to cater for falangs with inflated prices for dumbed-down Thai food so for supper we splashed out and paid the same price for some pasta and a couple of glasses of wine. Leigh even had a cocktail.
Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 4,954 km (3,076 miles)
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