Day 20 Sat 17/07 - Rest Day in Prachuap Khiri Khan

Today Spending :300 baht      Total: 6596 baht

A day to explore and sightseeing around the town.Both of us love this town when we first rode in yesterday,probably the very real reason for a rest day here.We tracked up the Khao Chong Krajok,a temple located on a small hill,there are 396 steps up to the top, where you will see a splendid panorama view of the 3 bays ( Ao Noi,Ao Prachuap and Ao Manao). Plenty of monkeys jumping up and down and waiting for visitors to offer foods. Another attraction is the City Pillar, claimed to be the biggest and most beautiful in Thailand according to the broaches.The rest of the day was spent updating the blog in the Internet which has really Hi speed and big LG monitor.

                                  City of the Pillar of Prachuap Khiri Khan

                                                 One of the 4 sides pillars

A closer look at the sculpture design

                     Khao Chong Krajok temple on the hill view from the beach

Monkeys dominated all over the hill

                                      Starting of the 396 steps up.....

                                      Monkey's view from the top

                          Bird 's eye view of Prachuap Khiri Khan

                                           Bird's eye view of the Prachuap Bay

                                         Another view on the Noi Bay

                                                    On the way down

                                  Ning's Guesthoust - we stay the top floor

                           Some kind of celebration going on....

And then the big dinner with more than 100 tables like wedding dinner back home. but on the road?

Beautiful stage singers and dancers specially for TTK

Day 19 Fri 16/07 - Bang Saphan to Prachuap Khiri Khan

Today Distance: 94.2 km                Total: 1385.5 km
Today Temp : 26 - 35c
Time on Bike : 4hr 50 min
Ave Speed : 19.5 kmh                   Max: 40.5 kmh
Ave Climb : 1%                             Max: 4%
Altitude: 178m                               Max: 117m
Today spending : 401 baht             Total: 6296baht

From Bang Saphan,there is no obvious road on our map along the coast,except for a railway track running parallel.The Highway 4 which we wanted so much to avoid,is on our left,and the sea on the right.Brent using his IPhone GPS for the 1st time,helps to navigate thru' the villages on small cemented roads,with rubber and coconuts trees everywhere,eventually the GPS leads us to the next town of Ban Krut which is on our map.There is no rolling hills but very flat land,with plenty of coconuts piling up like mountain.We reached another bigger town of Thap Sakae where we stop for lunch.Brent discovered that his bike's bottom bracket constantly developing an irritating "tak...tak..tak" sound,suspecting from the bearing or the pedals.He will need to live with that until he can find a decent bike shop able to solve the problem.From Thap Sakae,we had no choice but to ride on the Highway 4, and competing with speeding trucks, We passed the narrowest part of Thailand-10.965km between Myanmar on the west and the sea on the right.A quick downpour lasted about 20 min where we took shelter in a car workshop.Prachuap Khiri Khan our town to stay was 5km off the Highway,lots of accommodations along the beach, We finally settled on Ning's Guesthouse for 300 baht ,which has only 2 rooms managed by Ning and Gary,an Austrian. Again lots of good food here, Tonight's dinner : Deep fried siakap thai style,Fried bitter cock, omelets soup and a bottle of "Chang Beer"

             Brent with the help of GPS,navigate thru' the small road out of Bang Saphan

                          Very nice coastal road not even shown on the map

            From Thap Sakae back on the Highway 4 , double lane on both side with wide shouder

                         Lunch stop at Thap Sakae before the Highway 4

                                  Welcome to the narrowest of Thailand!!

  Just arrived  in Ning's Guesthoust in Prachuap Khiri Khan.Look like I still have plenty of fats to burn

From the 3rd floor balcony view of Prachuap bay to the right

And this view to the left

Day 18 Thu 15/07 - Tungsang Beach Camp to Bang Saphan

Today Distance: 64.5 km             Total: 1291.3 km
Today Temp : 26 - 32c
Time on Bike : 3 hr 40 min
Ave Speed : 17.5 kmh                 Max: 55.0 kmh
Ave Climb : 2%                           Max: 6%
Altitude: 375 m                            Max: 162m
Today spending : 336 baht          Total: 5895 baht

Last night rain caused us a late start for today ride.As we were camping on the beach,the rain causes the sands all over the tent inside out ,we spent some time to clean and luckily the morning sun helps to dry the tent faster.Finally when everything were done,we rode out at almost 10.40am under very hot sun.We stop by at the shop to say thank you and goodbye to the couple. The ride today was tough with many rolling hills.Brent was in top form and always far ahead of me.I was slowing down under pressure to keep up with him. Taking the Highway 4 should me easier but the amount of traffic especially those heavily loaded trucks were really speeding like hell .A very short ride overall but tough and challenging till the end. When we were in town of Bang Saphan,Brent prefer to ride 4 km to the beach. Most of the hotels and restaurants seems struggling to stay in business.Vannena Hotel which is under renovation,but still open to business.350 baht for an aircond room,cheap!

                                                  Dragon fruits by the road side.

Transportation of coconuts.Beware if you are following behind!

Downhill into a split open intersection

Our Bang Saphan stay in Vannena Hotel for 350 baht aircond

Empty beaches in Bang Saphan