Day #15 (4/7/20)
Distance travelled: 302.9 km
I had the best night’s sleep through the entire road trip last night. We got to enjoy the calm water during our brief, early morning swim. As we slowly started to load the boot with all our stuff, the pack of dogs from last night joined us on the beach. One was cheeky enough to pick up one of Dimi’s sandals and walk off with it. I was quick to act and he dropped it but then he bounded over to mine and hurried off up the beach with the stolen goods! Thankfully he got bored with the chase and let it go after a couple of minutes.
Today would be the longest distance travelling to another province, so we wasted no time in getting active. There were no cafes close by, so we decided to drive an hour away to a coffee place called Bing Thong. It was a lovely place, full of beautiful plants and cute decorations. Their coffee was the prettiest I’ve had during my entire stay in Thailand.
After a big portion of rice for lunch, we began driving the many kilometres straight to Hat Khanom National Park. Once we had arrived, we noticed a roti place down a small road leading to the coast, so pulled over and ordered two with chocolate and banana fillings. At around 5pm, we settled on the grass to eat our rotis, whilst looking out at the sea. It was nice to fully stretch out after that long drive. There were many groups of people dotted about on the grass and sand, sat on blankets having picnics.
Back on the main road, heading towards another part of the coast, I noticed many fruit vendors selling the same large, orange fruit on the side of the road. Knowing how beautiful these Asian fruits are and us potentially coming towards the end of our Asian trip, I grabbed every opportunity to eat these wonderful fruits. This particular fruit, pomelo, was much more expensive than other fruits we had previously bought and the portion was tiny, so we went with the cheaper of two options for ฿50.
We passed through a small lively village named Tha Chan, packed with shops and restaurants, as well as a small outdoor market as we searched for a 7/11 to buy tea and beer. Buying alcohol in Thailand is prohibited between 2pm and 5pm, and all shops roll down shutters on the alcohol sections of their fridges, accompanied by a sign to explain this. Today, however, it was past 5pm and the rollers were still down for some reason. So we cheekily pulled them up and helped ourselves to two beers. That’s when I noticed the sign stating it was a holy day and the ban was for a full 24 hours. We returned the beers, replaced the shutter, and slowly backed away.
To get to our sleeping place, on the coast, we had to cross a small bridge. We ended up pulling over and walking along it to get a closer look and take some pictures. As usual, a community of wooden houses on stilts and fishermen boats were present there. The air was so fishy! Several cats were patiently hanging around a shop selling fresh fish.
After leaving the bridge, we continued down a quiet road until we reached the coast. At a crossroad, we turned left and ran into a few bars, packed with people and not much room to pitch a tent. We did a quick U-turn and headed up a narrow dirt track to a secret beach, Ao Thong Ching according to Dimi’s map. All seemed quiet as the road brought us down, in view of the beach. We got out immediately and walked onto the pebbles, thrilled at finding this location. Warm fairy lights could be seen further along the beach but no noise could be heard. We made a unanimous decision to camp here for the night and went about sorting ourselves out under the nearly-full moon’s light. The sky was completely lit up and we used a star-gazing app to check out constellations, including Lyra with bright Vega that was visible right above us. We also notice a satellite swiftly gliding across the sky. Before calling it a night, we headed into the water for a dip and enjoyed the stillness all around us.
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