My favorite part of our second week of bicycle touring in Thailand was the food. It felt like it was one good meal after another. We spent two nights in Prachuap Khiri Khan. On our full day there we rode over to Ao Manao Beach.
Here’s the coconut milk soup and seaweed soup lunch that they served us at our small table on the beach under the shade of pine trees.
Back in the eponymous district capital that evening we ate dinner at a seaside restaurant — clams, snails, grilled grouper, and a plate of veggies. Really yummy.
We had time to visit two temples before leaving Prachuap Khiri Khan. One was the so-called “City Pillar Shrine”, a name I saw in other towns in Thailand. It looked Khmer/Angkor Wat style to me.
On the small hill at the north end of Prachuap Khiri Khan is Wat Khao Chong Krachok. We rented a stick to keep the monkeys at bay, but that turned out to not really be necessary. The most exciting thing was the view down to next door Wat Thammikaram Worawihan.
Leaving Prachuap Khiri Khan we rode south passing Ao Manao Beach again. I was surprised to see how different it looked at high tide.
It was a short ride that morning to Waghor Aquarium which was definitely better than I expected. We saw some rather colorful freshwater fish.
There were some tanks showcasing endangered freshwater species from Thailand. In other tanks I was impressed by the many seawater species including groupers, sharks (including a black-tipped reef shark), butterflyfish, anemonefish, squirrelfish, surgeonfish, soldierfish, tang, sea stars, sea urchin, blue spotted ray, spotted eagle rays, a guitarfish, lobster (including a painted spiny lobster), horseshoe crabs, cardinalfish, anthias, and at least one triggerfish.
I think what we’re seeing here (in addition to two stars) is a mangrove horseshoe crab (Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda).
And on we went continuing south — nice riding, good food, comfortable hotels. It might not be so exciting in Thailand, but it sure is easy.
We spent a night in Thap Sakae where we visited the temple and attached cemetery.
We enjoyed visiting the fairly new (1995?) five-story (?) hilltop temple, Wat Thang Sai.
With a couple flat tires, a lot of wind, and a fair bit of heat, that afternoon dragged on.
In Bang Saphan a friendly woman helped us get set up with a very welcome, late lunch of khao kha moo. We needed that rest and nourishment, and at the time I don’t think any of us realized quite how much we needed it.
That afternoon we found another comfortable seaside hotel which unusually included breakfast. Not looking very Asian we were automatically served rather scary hot dogs and cole slaw for breakfast while other (Thai?) guests ate tasty-looking soup. This happened to us at least twice. If your room does include breakfast, try to find out the evening before what your options are and make your preference known. Communication was difficult.
We’re still far north of the Muslim-majority provinces of southern Thailand, but we started to see mosques.
I mentioned the palm oil and rubber tree plantations in my previous post.
In addition to more mosques traveling south meant spicier food. This dinner at another comfortable seaside hotel was too spicy for Jack.
I thought lunch the next day at the buffet in Saphli was excellent, but again Jack said (Ferda too this time!) it was too spicy.
We spent two nights at nearby Cabana Beach (aka Hat Tung Wua Laen) — another nice hotel, more good food.
One night was this cook-it-yourself bbq that reminded the three of us of Korea.
We liked that restaurant so much that we went back again for dinner the following evening, and I had this excellent raw shrimp salad. Ferda and Jack questioned the wisdom of eating raw shrimp on a beach in Thailand. I didn’t get sick.
Just south of where we stayed in Cabana Beach was this oddly gold Wat Thung Sai Thong.
The following morning we pedaled into the next provincial capital and enjoyed an early lunch while a mechanic trued my wheels. I also had him put on new hoods and handlebar tape so it felt like I had a new bicycle!
Ready to keep rolling south…
Yum!!!