January 16, 2026
River of Lost Souls
Cha-Am to Pranburi
Dear little friends,
The plans we had to visit a bike repair shop in Phetchaburi had gone by the wayside so we marked a couple of them in Hua Hin to visit as we went through. It’s a definite no on staying in Hua Hin, not if we can help it anyway.
After our khao thom breakfast, with extra toast today as a special treat, we packed up to leave our nice beachfront accommodation. I have a fruity seatpost that is duct-taped in place, Bruce is missing gears he would really like to have the use of. We were determined to get things taken care of.
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Right before Cha-Am, Highway 4 splits off from the main freeway and goes inland until after Hua Hin. Also known as Phetkasem Road, it’s the main artery of the south, and while we’ve ridden it here and there, it’s not pleasant at all. But for now it is a smaller version of itself and there’s no avoiding it once you reach the southern part of Cha-Am beach.
Bruce was still in recovery, although the nighttime coughing had ceased once he unearthed a 30-year-old Tylenol with codeine in his stash of meds. It’s a wonder what a night’s sleep can do. But a ride along a highway is still a ride along a highway. It’s not far to Hua Hin, but not that fun either. Especially worrying is a tunnel that goes UNDER the Hua Hin airport runway. There’s really no viable way around it as far as we could see.
Fortunately the gears he does have are low gears and the roads here are flat so far, so it’s just a matter of grinding along the shoulder, which is plenty wide. The north wind that we count on this time of year was in hiding so it was just pretty much work.
The dreaded tunnel was kind of scary. Okay, it was really scary. Because of construction in the area there were no turn-offs where we could put lights on our bikes, not that it’s a long tunnel but I think it would have been a bit safer to have them on us. Anyway, I wobbled with nerves through the tunnel and then we were on the outskirts of HH, a largish city with a million fancy hotels along the beach, a wad of cheap hotels in the center downtown, and a huge population of Westerners that either live there year-round or seasonally.
The first bike shop did not have a seat post the size I needed, admittedly an uncommon size because of the folding frame of a Bike Friday. He wasn’t able to work on Bruce’s bike because he had other stuff he was doing. He sent us down the street to a hokey looking bike shop where they were unpacking and assembling a ton of cheap-ass kid’s bikes, but as it turned out they DID have a seatpost, they just needed to cut it down a bit.
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Once that was done, we were on to the third bike place, which is all repair. That wasn’t very fun what with the city traffic and me realizing that my saddle placement was going to kill me. The saddle was too low and tilted forward. You dial in your saddle and god help you if you try to change things up mid-stream.
Mo had a ton of bikes in his shop but dropped everything to help us. He put Bruce’s bike on the stand and fiddled with something that we didn’t see and went through all the gears, tra la la, a-ok. Then he contemplated my seat post and dug around in a drawer but was only able to raise it and tension my saddle until I could actually bear to ride it. I still need to move it back on the rails a bit and I think it’s survivable. While at Mo’s two young Mormons arrived with a flat tire. I was kind of surprised. Even I know how to fix a flat tire, c’mon, show us your Utah credibility, boys.
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Out the door we went, and immediately Bruce knew that the tra la la was over, he had even fewer gears than before! I knew I would have to put some padding on my saddle or things would get ugly very quickly. But the main thing we knew was that we had to get out of Hua Hin, and fast.
I’ve ridden 8500 miles in SE Asian countries and never have I had somebody honk at me and tell me to get out of the way. Motorbikes and cars either A) slow down or B) go around me. I take the lane in traffic, especially when I’m about to enter an uncontrolled roundabout intersection, I learned how to do that in Hanoi. So what happened? I hear some pipsqueak honking behind me and then a young bearded American or Canadian is yelling at me to GET OUT OF THE WAY. I yelled back GROW UP, and he rode off into the traffic. No doubt he will get right on that.
It’s pretty much against the bloodstream management of Asian driving to yell at people and of course it was not a Thai person. Plunging down into the tourist ghetto we both were in foul moods, and Hua Hin did nothing to soothe that, in fact it was so awful I hope we never have to be there again. Riding down a scummy lane lined with midday scuzzy bar drinkers and their too-young Thai girls watching the scene like they do all day every day, well, it was quiet enough that I’m sure they heard me holler to Bruce, “It’s like the river of lost souls around here.”
Once you finally get out to the highway again there is a pretty nice bike path running alongside so that wasn’t the problem, the problem is that Bruce was furious about his bike situation, it was now hot afternoon, my butt hurt, and we had a strong and getting stronger headwind from the south. Oh, things were going great.
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https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/165686-Neptunia-plena
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We stopped for cha yens and to have a bite to eat, and grab a Lactasoy from a 7-Eleven because after ages with no papayas anywhere they are finally showing up again and we had one safely stashed in Bruce’s pannier. We finally got to Pranburi Beach in mid-afternoon, but the cheapo place we stayed at last time was full. That’s what Friday night does.
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It had been a tough day. I wanted to stay somewhere close by but nicer, you know, a place on the beach with nice rooms and a pool. I’ve always wanted to do that and we never have except in Prachuap Khiri Khan. Today was the day. After a bit of faffing around with booking sites (which is not smart policy for any hotel to make the booking site room price much cheaper than the walk-in price but oh well) we were on the fifth floor, looking out at the pool, the palm trees, the ocean, like people of means.
We really didn’t need to go eat dinner, but we did need a turn in the pool, which was chillier than expected but still refreshing after the day’s heat. The hotel is enormous and I would say at 10% occupancy, which is kind of disturbing given it is Friday night in high season in a town easily reachable from Bangkok. This whole area seemed dead, honestly. We like quiet beach towns but had seen several abandoned giant hotels today, and it’s depressing to see those rundown concrete hulks messing up the coastline. This hotel we’re in is super nice but we see the signs of deferred maintenance that are going to bring it down before too many more years go by. It’s kinda sad.
But for 36 bucks we got a nice hotel room, no breakfast included because we already have a papaya and muesli and milk and bowls. There’s a balcony for us to eat on in the morning, and tomorrow’s another day. The squid boats are out on the horizon with their green lights shining, two planets are up in the sky, there are little kids splashing and screaming in the pool, always such a happy sound. Things are all right right now.
Today's ride: 36 miles (58 km)
Total: 1,146 miles (1,844 km)
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