December 28, 2025
Day 117 — Ban Boet to Ao Bo Mao Bay
We’ve been doing our best to plan rides with fairly modest mileage in order to not kill ourselves in the heat. That, coupled with the flat terrain and persistent tailwind meant we have had ample time structured in for breaks and early stops or late starts.
As Ban Boet seemed to have a couple of nice looking coffee places, we opted for a later start this morning so we could have iced coffees and a (very) early second breakfast. The surfers were up early this morning, so we got to enjoy our coffees and omelette while watching them carve up the waves. This bike touring life is rough, I tell ya.
Once we finally got going, it wasn’t long until our first sightseeing stop, which was The Grand Sand Dune. The name pretty much sums it up — it is an enormously long sand dune that parallels the coast, with all sorts of unique geological and ecological elements detailed on a sign that we paid fleeting and nominal attention to. It did have a boardwalk and staircase across the dune down to yet another gorgeous and absolutely deserted beach.
Our second sightseeing stop wasn’t really planned, but was a short break at a small fishing village. It was just a nice spot to look around and appreciate the scenery. Not much else to report, other than the general friendliness of the people there, many of whom waved and said hello as we poked around.
The third sightseeing spot was ….ah….. something else entirely.
It is identified on the map as Wat Kaew Prasert. As we approached it, we could see a tall white Buddha head poking up out of the trees, which was pretty cool looking. As we go closer, we could see the place had a variety of statues and structures, plus it was LOUD blaring poppy semi-devotional quasi funfair music (no idea how else to describe it), with an emcee manning a mike narrating what seemed like requests for donations. Clearly worth checking out.
We parked the bikes across from some sort of treehouse style cafe, which had dinosaur statues in front of it. We found our way up the hill to an odd mashup of concrete statuary and shrines. Our first stop was a lookout over the bay, which was pretty breathtaking.
Once done with the view (we didn’t linger, the viewpoint was south facing and covered in enamel tile, you could have grilled a steak out there), we started to explore the rest of the wat, which was instantly overwhelming. Just a jammed together hodgepodge of the sacred and the cheesy — shrines and altars with crazy gaily painted concrete statues, from demons to garden gnomes. As it was Sunday, worshipers/funseekers (?) were heading in, praying and plunking Baht into donation boxes. Below are a bunch of photos. After a while I kind of gave up with the photos, as the heat and the noise and the bizarreness gradually disconnected my brain stem.
After along sit in the treehouse cafe with lemon sodas, we oriented ourselves a bit more to the site, and discovered there was a “Hell Garden” on site that another traveller recommended, which was in the forest behind the big Buddha. Well, ok, we heaved ourselves up the hill, past the Buddha, to one of possibly most bizarre things I have seen. Down a small path in the forest was a very graphic and surreal display of the torments of hell. It consisted of life size statues of people undergoing amputations, being eaten by dogs, getting eviscerated.
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We left the forest a little shaken and resolving to be better people. We had a quick look at the big Buddha as a palate cleanser, then headed down to try to make our escape. At that point we were corralled by a staff member, who invited us up to meet the monk who was seated in one of the shrines and addressing worshipers, who wanted to meet us. So we chatted with him and shook hands, and bowed or waved or something, for which we were rewarded with a small amulet and a bottle of water. We plunked 50 Baht in a donation box and returned to the bikes.
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The rest of the day was less remarkable, thankfully. Given our late start and our stops, we ended up having to ride through the afternoon heat. We did stop at a 7-11 and pretend to shop just to enjoy some air conditioning. The last bit was a nice ride along a beach road with a few hotels on it. We had a small seaside bungalow beside a coffee shop reserved, and there is nothing like firing up the air conditioning and stepping into a cold shower at the end of the day. As it turned out, there was a restaurant next door with low tables on a lawn, and very delicious food. A post-sunset walk on the beach, and that’s the day.
Today's ride: 57 km (35 miles)
Total: 5,234 km (3,250 miles)
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