January 22, 2026
Day 141 — Khok Kloi to Phang Nga
We’re back, baby!
Well we had a great couple of weeks with the kids being tourists in Bangkok again and in and around Phuket. We did an awful lot, and are looking forward to the more straightforward itinerary of: get up, get on bike, sweat your ass off, find air conditioned lodging, eat meal.
It was great to see the kids again, and really fun to connect with them in this weird chapter of our lives. They are in their mid 20s and both experienced travellers, so it was fun to combine all of our different experiences, perspectives and memories into this new one.
We returned to Bangkok for a few days — and we all stayed at that same guesthouse the two of us stayed at in 1995! We then returned to Phuket, and stayed initially in Ko Ya Noi, where we did some kayaking and an island boat trip (super touristy as everything is, but still spectacular). We then stayed outside of Ao Nang and booted around on scooters, and did a (again super touristy but fun) kayak trip through a mangrove lined Khlong. Final days were in a boutique hotel in old town Phuket which was astonishingly really nice — not what we expected at all!
Sadly, like all good things, this too came to an end. We dropped the kids at the Phuket airport, then got ourselves a Grab back up to the bike store up in Khok Kloi. We were reunited with the bikes, and got the shop owner to install a new drivetrain on mine. Another night at the Lantala, where we stayed 2 weeks ago, and we were ready to get back in the saddle.
We had a relatively short day planned, so it was a late start. It was a very nice bungalow we were in, and they brought us breakfast on our balcony overlooking the koi (and monitor lizard) filled pond, so we felt like lingering before getting back to reality.
The day’s ride wasn’t much to write home about. Forty-odd kilometres along the highway to Phangnga. Both of us were getting over colds — first illnesses of the trip, too much time around people lol — so we were more than content to start late and finish early.
Phang Nga was one of those towns that at first first it seemed like a generic town stretched along the highway, but improved over the hours we stayed there.
We had a nice little guesthouse up a quiet side street, which, given that there were mountain views of the Karst landscape, and the street was freshly paved with no traffic on it, made us think we were back in Japan.
The guesthouse was also just behind a very large school, so we got to hear all the comings and goings there, and we always feel heartened by these trappings of everyday life. I went out on a snack run just as school was getting out, and hoo boy, Phang Nga has a lot of kids! They all had different school uniforms — some in basic black, which looked unbearably hot, some in little navy-like outfits, other looked just like Boy Scouts, down to the gartered socks. Many of them ended up in the mall attached to the grocery store I went to for snacks. Dozens of preteens hanging out at the mall, lining up for dipped cones at the Dairy Queen. At the mall I also got to see several orange robed monks at the Samsung store trying out new phones. It’s a funny world.
Anyway, dinner also proved a success. We ventured a few blocks down the highway and found ourselves in a little cul de sac that had an all you can eat grilling place like we had back in Khura Buri. You get a pot of coals with a grill overtop, and around the grill is a water reservoir that gradually turns into a broth from the meat juices to stew your veggies in. And you get endless trips to the fridge for various bits of meat, mushrooms, tofu, veggies. It was actually quite a bit better than the one on Khura Buri — this is a bit more affluent of an area here, so the cuts of meat were quite a bit better. The table across from us consisted of a dozen or so preteens just out from school celebrating someone’s birthday. Anyway we ate until we could eat no longer. The damage for this feast? 546 Baht, or 22 Canadian dollars.
We rolled our bellies up the hill to guesthouse, and hit the hay. A bigger day was planned for tomorrow.
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Today's ride: 44 km (27 miles)
Total: 5,747 km (3,569 miles)
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