January 4, 2026
Day 124 — Bang Ben Beach to Kura Buri
Marilee here.
We left the Wasana Resort with lots of good advice about where on the road ahead we could expect to find 7-11s and lunch spots, and with persistent ear worms to accompany us thanks to the proprietor’s love of classic rock.
We returned to the highway the way we’d come the day before - 10km down a pleasant, quiet, winding side road through mangroves and palm plantations. We passed a big monkey sitting on a telephone pole, who solemnly watched us bike by. Then, too soon, we were back on the highway.
I have to be honest, highway 4 is really beginning to pall for us. I know I said a few days ago that I felt it got a bad rap in some other cycling blogs, for being busy and monotonous and loud and dangerous. And I still think that, as highways go, it’s definitely not the worst, and it is doing an efficient job of getting us closer to Phuket to meet our kids. But geez, day after day of highway riding is not the experience of Thailand we were really hoping for. And it seems that there is no other option in this area — there are side roads that run from the highway to the coast, but they don’t run along the coast. So for the time being at least, we’re stuck with the 4 to get anywhere.
Today the anywhere we were trying to get to was Kura Buri, 80 kilometers to the south, where we hoped to make arrangements to go to the Surin Islands for a day of snorkeling. Cycling 80 kilometers in 32 degree heat is a sweaty undertaking — so I paid attention to the advice about where along the route to expect 7-11s, and I think we must have stopped at every one we passed, to grab a few minutes of delicious air conditioning, a cold drink, and a cup of ice to pour it over. I’ve decided that working at a 7-11 must be a highly coveted job because of the opportunity to spend all day in the air conditioning. Tom doesn’t agree, and I have to admit that the clerks don’t necessarily radiate enormous job satisfaction (although they’re very polite).
I feel a little bad about shopping at 7-11s when there are so many Mom and Pop roadside groceries and restaurants, all selling cold drinks. But it’s the air conditioning! Oh the delicious air conditioning. In Japan, where combinis were a dependable roadside bathroom stop, we developed a Pavlovian response to a 7-11 sign spotted on the highway: instant desperate need to pee. Here, where we’re sweating so much that expelling liquids from our bodies in any other way than through our pores is no longer an issue, my reaction to the 7-11 sign has changed: now I see the familiar green and orange stripes and decide that I am on the point of heatstroke and must get inside the store IMMEDIATELY. And those few minutes in the cool air are actually very reviving (also the iced drinks!).
We also stopped in the morning at a temple for a look around. Several dogs hanging around outside thought that bikes weren’t allowed and tried to dissuade us but we told the dogs to mind their own business, and they eventually did. Inside, the temple was slightly less remarkable than the enormous bougainvillea that was clambering all over some very tall trees in the courtyard.
After the temple stop, our old friend Highway 4 went through a very scenic phase, winding around and going up and down hills, and even granting us some shade once in a while, just to make us feel guilty for thinking bad thoughts about it. For most of the morning, it was really more like a two-lane country road than a major highway.
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The pleasant, scenic morning ride ended when we came to a section of the highway that was being widened into multiple lanes. For many kilometers the land on both sides of the highway had been cleared for a hundred meters or more, there was no shade and it was suddenly mid-day. As we battled our way through this sun-blasted no-mans-land on multiple sandy detours around construction areas, we were grateful that at least the traffic seemed to have virtually disappeared for the time being.
We rolled into our guesthouse in Kura Buri in the mid-afternoon. Besides operating a small, basic hotel, the owners run a tour company, arranging snorkeling trips to the Surin Islands, and they cheerfully signed us up for the following day’s expedition. The Surin Islands are a small group of islands, part of a National Park, that are reputed to have the best snorkeling in Thailand, along a shallow, vibrant coral reef. You can also do longer expeditions, camping on the islands, but we were happy to settle for a day trip. After getting this set up, we settled down on deck chairs outside our room and watched as a big, multi-generational family of German tourists moved into all of the other rooms, lugging enormous backpacks and many babies. We speculated as to what they might be up to in Kura Buri - and our speculations were answered the next day when they all showed up on our boat to the Surins, with their big backpacks — they were going to camp. Tom and I vividly remember the work involved in taking young kids camping and we’re pretty staggered by the thought of combining that with international travel, a hot climate, unfamiliar food, and the challenges of communicating in another language — and keeping two kids under 3 happy and healthy. But we’ve seen many families traveling with babies here, and apparently coping with these challenges just fine.
Kura Buri offered two possible restaurants, both perched on the banks of the river at the edge of town. Tonight we chose the one on the nearest side of the river, which turned out to be a Thai BBQ restaurant, and all you can eat! We loaded up plates with raw meat and veggies, and took it to a table where we were set up with a little charcoal brazier. Meat grilled on the top of a little dome, the juices ran down into a water-filled reservoir creating a tasty broth where we braised the veggies and noodles. It was a lovely way to spend the evening.
Today's ride: 81 km (50 miles)
Total: 5,562 km (3,454 miles)
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