January 7, 2026
Day 127 — Khao Lak to Khok Loi
Well, one more day in our push towards Phuket, and our upcoming vacation with the kids.
The day saw us continue down highway 4, though we did have the prospect of ending the day on a secondary road that hugged the coast.
Once again, the ride on the 4 was unremarkable — busy and warm, but not terrible, though we were definitely tired of being on the shoulder of a busy road.
After an hour or 2, we did turn off the 4 onto the anticipated side road towards the coast. The turnoff went through an interesting Chinese style gate, and quickly led us to a crossroads with Chinese style shrines and buildings as well as a pagoda.
After this Chinese crossroads, the road wound through the countryside, and we recalled how pleasant it was to be on these smaller roads. We cruised towards the coast, and shortly came to a series of seaside restaurants at Natai Beach, where we lingered over Pad Thai and papaya salad. Our guesthouse wasn’t far, so we had time to hang out.
Our guesthouse, the Lantala, was in a small collection of homes and shops between Narai Beach and a town called Khok Loi which stretched along highway 4. As it turned out, the bungalow we rented greatly exceeded expectations — it was quite new and fancy, with two levels, and had a deck area set out over a large pond. We were there very early, so had a good amount of time to relax and enjoy feeling like fancy tourists. We were provided with a tub of fish food for the Koi that lurked near the bungalow. At one point there was a crashing through the trees, which was a large monitor lizard making its way into the pond. No swimming then.
After a bit, I biked towards town in search of snacks while Marilee wrestled with the complete fraud that is booking.com’s customer service (trying to change flight times on our return from Bangkok with the kids, don’t get her started). Dinner was a short walk away through the nearby village to the Halal restaurant. This was another Muslim area, and we had been listening to the calls to prayer from the mosque from our deck.
Today's ride: 55 km (34 miles)
Total: 5,703 km (3,542 miles)
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