Day #9 (28/6/2020)
Distance travelled: 236.8 km
Morning at Hat Yao Beach
A scientist gives a talk about sleep on TED with the title Sleep is your superpower… I couldn’t agree more. How much better I felt when I woke up this morning after some shut-eye. We headed straight for coffee at our usual speck, where the owner was eager to hear more about our kayaking trip as soon as we sat down. He was like a proud dad telling other guests all about it. They too were impressed but also jokingly said we could have just got the ferry over in half the time. With the help of Google Earth, Dimi managed to map our route and worked out that in the 9.5 hours we were out there, we covered approximately 33 km. Go, team! The owner was quite keen for us to send him a picture of this as well…. maybe to frame and hang on the wall?
We each spent a good while in the shower, enjoying the freshwater and scrubbing ourselves clean. After lunch, we said our goodbyes to the very generous owner and headed towards the car. In the car park, we passed a street vendor selling coconut ice-cream. A few customers waited in line. We also approached to have a nosey at what he was doing. He added several scoops of ice-cream into a coconut shell, followed by a spoonful of sticky rice, small chunks of jelly, ice cubes, finished with a sprinkle of coconut shavings and peanuts. All this for pennies! We bought two and sat on the beach to enjoy all the random flavours, which surprisingly complimented each other very well.
Young Star Cape
To break up the long drive, we stopped at a place called Young Star Cape for a coffee. It was also an ideal time to hang our wet clothes outside of the car to dry in the afternoon heat while the car was stationary. As it was a Sunday afternoon, every kiosk was occupied, with many families having a picnic. So we instead perched on a rock in the shade of a tree. We composed an e-mail addressed to my insurance company, to enquire if we have a valid claim for compensation with regard to our cancelled flight. Then we made the decision to extend our road trip by a couple of days, as we no longer needed to rush back to catch our flight in mid-July.
Mu Ko Phetra National Park
Back on the road to continue for another 2.5 hours towards Mu Ko Phetra National Park. I was more than happy to get behind the wheel of our little car. I find driving very relaxing and it gave Dimi a much-needed break as he chauffeured me around the entire time on the scooter. Once we turned off the motorway, we grabbed food from a 7/11 and made our way to the coast to settle for the night. It was a lovely treat to now drive along quiet, residential roads and marvel at the endless, green scenery all around us. We pulled up next to a grassy field with scattered palm trees and grazing cattle and a horse to take pictures. On the other side of the road, there was a rowdy goat farm with screaming kids.
Langu Beach
When we reached the place we initially planned to settle, we discovered it had a fishing pier with many docked, medium-sized, fishing boats and a group of children jumping in and out of the water. It was a little more built-up than Dimi had imagined so we left, to continue searching along the coast for a quieter camping place. After some driving around, just as the sun was setting, we managed to find a nice, quiet spot with flat ground at Langu Beach.
We sat under the trees, on a log, and had our tea; green curry and rice with a beer. As beautiful as the place was, the ground around us was full of rubbish and not a bin in sight… what a shame! We also noticed the wind is pretty strong and that we may need to sleep in the car if it doesn’t die down in the next couple of hours. While waiting, we made ourselves comfortable in the car by reclining the front seats and edit pictures from our trip. Soon enough, the heat built up, forcing us to open the window for a nice breeze to enter. However, we are immediately joined by a scourge of mozzies. For fuck sake! Dimi put it bluntly: we either endure the heat or drive further to find a better place to sleep. We went with the latter. We drove for some 40 km and ended up camping in some random forest by the road near Chalung town.
Accommodation and Activities in Thailand
Stay22 is a handy tool that lets you search for and compare stays and experiences across multiple platforms on the same neat, interactive map. Hover over the listings to see the details. Click on the top-right settings icon to adjust your preferences; switch between hotels, experiences, or restaurants; and activate clever map overlays displaying information like transit lines or concentrations of sights. Click on the Show List button for the listings to appear in a list format. Booking via this map, I will be earning a small cut of the platform's profit without you being charged any extra penny. You will be thus greatly helping me to maintain and keep enriching this website. Thanks!