January 19, 2026
Koel Update
Pran Buri to Sam Roi Yod Beach
Dear little friends,
While 80% of the first thousand miles of this trip have been in places new to us, as we scuttle down the eastern coast of Thailand we definitely will be revisiting places we’ve enjoyed in the past. It might not be the same as discovering brand new territory but it also reflects the honing of our past, we certainly know places we’ve stayed at or been before that we WON’T be returning to on this route.
And there are spots worth seeing along this coast that we have missed in the past. Sam Roi Yod Beach is a lovely beach and we’re headed there today, but it’s also part of a plan to visit a cave temple that we’ve wanted to see for a long time. So today, an easy 12 mile ride to the aforementioned beach town, and then use it as a jumping off spot for further adventures.
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Keep it up! Who knows, maybe one will have enough relevant details remaining to dig out an ID.
3 days ago
Sam Roi Yod National Park is huge and rugged and we certainly haven’t seen anything of it except what is seen from the highway. Maybe another time we’ll go on over to the western side of it.
Temperatures are heating up as we head south, getting an early start is helpful, and we try to do that. It’s such a treat to ride along the beach in the early morning and get a good look at all the various resorts along the way. Some look amazing! Some are failed, abandoned wrecks. Some have wacky themes.
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One of them we always find memorable in a bizarre way is the Villa Maroc Pranburi. It’s a Moroccan-styled building, very luxurious, $150/night which won’t get you a room at the Hampton Inn in Bozeman but is very posh pricing in Thailand. We don’t get to see what riches lie within but we know this: the bellhops wear fezzes. I’ve never been to Morocco, my direct experience with fez-wearing is seeing Shriners in tiny cars riding down Mineral Avenue in the annual Logger Days Parade. Seeing them on young Thai fellas at the gate of a faux Arabian Nights place is pretty amusing.
The next beach also has a lot of resorts but they’re on the opposite side of the road from the beach, which is composed of huge flat rocks and here and there on the rocks are little kiosks and tables and such. A walking/bike path wends its way through all this, and it’s shady and cool from the Australian pines. There’s a spot where a clutch of stray dogs lives, completely mellow and presumably fed by the neighbors, each pup having dug a little resting hole in the sand. No problems with these complacent dogs.
Rolling along I saw a promising looking coffee place, and we left the pine needled path and crossed over to park. This place was hopping! People were eating breakfast, drinking coffee, arriving on bicycles, leaving on bicycles. After we got the bikes parked against a tree a couple came out on their way out and we had a fun conversation with them, and then a pair of Canadian bike tourists arrived and we went inside and yakked over our coffees with THEM.
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You see, in our tour of the northern and central hinterlands we had seen exactly two bike tourists and now we are on the bike touring super highway. We’ve seen several supported tour groups with their sag wagons at the rear. We have waved at lots of northbounders in the past few days. It’s kind of crazy. We certainly are no novelty whatsoever in these parts.
After our lovely coffee we proceeded to Sam Roi Yod Beach where we snagged the last room at the Blue Beach Resort, which is far more lush and the pool far more upgraded since we stayed there three years ago. All the straggly plants are now gigantic and almost a little claustrophobic.
Our plan to use the Blue Beach to get to Phraya Nakhon Cave and back came to nothing though, because the next night was fully booked. We sat at a beach restaurant with sand between our toes, eating seafood dishes and gazing out to sea and came up with a new plan. We would bounce tomorrow and try to find accommodation near the cave and then go to the cave the day after that. We are in no hurry, we can spare a day.
A walk on the beach picking up shells brought us to our Canadian pals sitting on the sand with a couple of other folks and we sat with them for a while telling and listening to stories and relaxing. We’re definitely a little starved for socializing and it was good for us. Back to the Blue Beach and a dip in the pool and suddenly it was almost 7pm and if we were going to eat anything it had to be now. It’s a little odd that so many of these beach towns roll up the sidewalks even during high season at an hour that many would consider quite uncivilized. By 7:30 our (overpriced) restaurant was turning away hungry customers. It didn’t make sense to us but we’re not them.
It’s just as well that we only had one night there, though. Our room felt dark and dank, nothing seemed to dry, I really dislike that feeling because a wet swimsuit is not going to be pack-ready in the morning and I have a fear of moldy laundry in this climate. This is where air conditioning comes in for the final drying.
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3 days ago
I haven’t talked much about this journal’s spirit animal lately, but just an update for you all, the koels have been our constant companions. Early morning, check. Late at night, check. Middle of the night, oh, yes. And all day long we ride our bikes and they seem to follow us, encourage us, remind us that they are with us. I love them so much.
Today's ride: 12 miles (19 km)
Total: 1,167 miles (1,878 km)
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