December 30, 2025
Day 119 — Chumphon to Kra Buri
The Hotel One Chumphon, down by the river, down a sidesteeet past a bunch of auto body shops, must have been owned by the Japanese. Each bungalow was a pristine new tiny home, and lodging came with breakfast in the main building in the morning. Though it was not even close to Japanese hotel breakfast standards, it was actually pretty good. And we weren’t complaining, as it can be tough to source a decent breakfast here.
In any event, the day’s plan was simple. Cross Thailand from east to west. No joke, we really were going from the Gulf of Thailand to the Andaman Coast, more or less. “Gee, you crossed Thailand by bike! How long did it take?”, I anticipate people asking. “Oh, 3, maybe 4 hours” I will answer nonchalantly.
The best part was, once we emerged from the sidestreet behind the auto body shops the hotel was on, it didn’t even involve any turns. Left at the big road, stop when you find lodging for the night. It was as uncomplicated an itinerary as you can get.
Except for the fact that we weren’t 100% certain our intended lodging really existed. We were headed to Kra Buri. We could find nothing on booking sites in the vicinity, but did know of a “resort” (the term is used loosely here) with guest cabins sometimes used by cyclists doing the same crossing we were doing. There was no way to book it, it seemed. There was a moribund feeling website, and attempts to email were fruitless. Google street view at the address didn’t seem to reveal anything. There was a Google review only 3 months old, which was a good sign. Anyway, off we went nonetheless. Plan B would be to sort out something on the ground. Not everything is on Agoda or Google Maps after all.
The ride across on Highway 4, once we were clear of the last of Chumphon, was actually not bad. Highway 4 was a four lane divided highway, so we were ready for a busy thoroughfare and all that entails, but the traffic was actually fairly moderate, and there was a massive shoulder to ride on. The only thing about the shoulder, is that it also served as a kind of counterflow lane for traffic that wasn’t going to go all the way to the next U-turn lane in the divided highway, which was often several kilometres distant. It wasn’t bad, but it was occasionally unnerving to look up and see a moped barrelling toward you head-on.
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As I say, the ride itself wasn’t bad. It was a bit more back to normal in that it wasn’t completely pancake flat, which also added some interest. Not much to really report. We did stop for some delicious Kra Pao at a roadside stall. These places don’t look like much but they usually have some tasty food.
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We got to Kra Buri and started dialing in towards our intended lodging, the Pannika Guesthouse. Closer… closer… and then, there it was! A sign on the highway! We veered off and it did seem to have guest cabins. It took a good while to roust the owner, a very outgoing late middle aged woman who spoke pretty good English. We got cabin #1, as the only guests, which was a tad rustic for the price, but it did seem to have working a/c more or less.
After showers and some time to cool down, we ventured on foot back up the highway towards town in search of a meal. The owner had let us know about pre-New Years celebrations in town. Glad she did, otherwise there’s no way we would have gone all the way into central Kra Buri to see what was going on. Turns out it was a big night market with a concert going on, plus a big bouncy castle for the kids. We had a bunch of food from the carts — sweet garlic bread on a stick, a big pancake full of seafood, ice cream scooped into a mochi-like dough shell. It was all good fun, with people shyly practicing their English with us. We took in the band, which was pretty solid, though they could have used more up-tempo numbers and fewer mournful power ballads.
Once we had had enough fun, we sauntered nervously (nothing like being a pedestrian on the side of a highway at night) back along the highway to the Pannika resort, to hit the hay and get ready for another day.
Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 5,337 km (3,314 miles)
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