Day 123 — Ranong to Bang Ben Beach - Tom and Marilee Retire to the Road

January 3, 2026

Day 123 — Ranong to Bang Ben Beach

We had come back a bit early from Ko Phayam so that we would be able to do the 55 km ride to Bang Ben Beach and have enough time to check the beach out there. So many beaches, so little time. It’s a busy life.

The ride was once again a straight shot down highway 4, except for the last 10 km which was the side road into Bang Ben Beach. BBB itself was in a national park, so we hoped it would be very chill, and we had booked ourselves a small bungalow just outside the park for the colossal sum of C$26, which made us think this was maybe not on the tourist trail. We hoped, anyway.

The morning escape from Ranong was kinda hectic but kinda fun too, seeing all the activity along the highway as we cruised along food stalls, past schools, and furniture shops, and tire shops, and coffee and bubble tea stands, and mopeds, mopeds, always more mopeds. We get “helloed” a lot here, often by kids on mopeds (both passengers and drivers). Adds to the fun.

A ways out of Ranong we realized we were paralleling a bike path of all things. We couldn’t believe it. But there it was, so we took advantage of it, and it went for a good 15 km out of Ranong. It was a nice bonus to be off the highway for a chunk of distance.

Not without the occasional impediment however

The bike lane did eventually give out and we continued down the highway. It was sweaty business. There was a kilometres long widening project underway, which made everything seem that much hotter — not a speck of shade to be had, with concrete and new asphalt soaking up the sun. I’ll never complain about a tailwind, but that added to the general swelteriness.

As we’ve proceeded south, we’ve been noting a general increase in the Muslim population. More women in hijabs, more men with skull caps and beards. This region seemed predominantly Muslim, and we were seeing many small mosques where we had been seeing wats previously. Occasionally the drone of a call to prayer would sound over a PA system.

More Muslim presence in this area, with many small mosques in evidence

Our one brief stop for a Coke at a roadside store

The last 10 km down the side road from the highway to Bang Ben Beach was a flat, tailwinded coast along long stretches of mangrove. Occasionally we would cross over a channel, usually with someone fishing from the middle of the bridge. At one point I startled a large lizard which scuttled off into the bush.

We found our lodging — the Wasana Resort, which was run by an older and very earnest Dutch fellow, who had run the place for decades. He got us settled in our nice little bungalow, oriented us towards a lunch spot, took our orders for dinner and breakfast, and told us the secret back entrance into the park so we could avoid the entry fee.

Great little bungalow at the Wasana Resort, Bang Ben Beach

This was in our room. I will think about it every day. Until I figure out what it might mean

After lunch at the sleepy little food stall across the road from the “resort”, we went in search of this back entrance to the beach. We walked towards the pier, as instructed, but could not figure out where to go. After a bit we realized we were trying to save, like, eight dollars, which we could more than afford to give to the Thai parks system, so we just circled back and entered in the normal way.

The park itself was really nice. Basically a few hundred metres of foreshore extending several kilometres, which kept the beach area undeveloped and very natural feeling. The area leading to the beach was pine forest, and we set up our little chairs in the shade of the pines. It felt a little like Texada Island back home. Except way hotter.

We lounged for a while, explored down the beach for a while, and had a swim in the warm, shallow water. There were a few Thai families swimming as well, but not too many other tourists. Further down the beach, and presumably outside the park boundaries, were shellfish gatherers.

Part of the trek to the undiscovered back way to the beach

In Japan, I couldn’t stop taking pictures of rice paddies. In Thailand, it’s boats

Shellfish gatherers in the shallow waters

This might have been part of the secret back way in

Boats. I can stop photographing them whenever I want, I just choose not to

Eventually we realized we needed to get back to our bungalow to get ready for the fish dinner our host was preparing. We showered and relaxed on our bungalow’s lanai with our evening Leo Beer, when our host came over and let us know that there was a flock of hornbills that would come through around sunset and briefly roost in the trees there before heading off to the mountains for the night. We were excited by this news — we had hoped to see hornbills on Ko Phayam, but no such luck. And sure enough at sundown a couple dozen hornbills swooped through the resort, looking for all the world like flying dinosaurs, alighting briefly in the trees before carrying on.

After that display, we had a lovely fish dinner, in the company of another resort guest, a woman from Germany (is there anyone actually in Germany?), who was splitting her time between here, Pattaya, and Bangkok. Sounds like the full spectrum of Thai experiences lol.

Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 5,481 km (3,404 miles)

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