I left Cha-Am early but didn't get very far because I got to the town of Hua Hin and stopped to look at their water front. There is a royal palace here (the royals have palaces distributed all over the country) and around it is a comfortable modern neighborhood with a pleasant coastal park. In the other direction there is a commercial area where one can buy all that is needed to have a good day at the beach.
I am trying not to hurry down the highway, even though today I have the plan of covering 400 km (in retrospect, it was too long a distance; 300 km would have been better), so as I drive I am keeping my eyes open for places to stop. One of them is a small massif of limestone by the coast, which has been designated as the Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park, whose main attraction are a number of caves. The main one is the Phraya Nakhon Cave, which is up on the cliff and offers inside views of a series of sinkholes formed when the roofs of very tall caverns collapsed in. To get there you either follow a mountain trail 800 m long, or you take a boat that ferries you around the massif and drops you off at the base of the cliff. From here you walk up a series of very steep stone steps for a distance of 400 m. There are all sorts of signs suggesting a careful evaluation of your physical condition, which I foolishly ignored.
It was a brutal hike. The temperature was balmy but I sweated like the proverbial pig and had to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other as I negotiated the 1,000 stone steps. I was not the only one huffing and puffing but that is a very weak consolation. Eventually I got to the rim of the first sinkhole and was really impressed by the scale and beauty of the steep-sided depression, whose flanks have been colonized by all sorts of bright green vegetation. The second sinkhole is just as impressive and an immense tree has grown within it and soars high toward the sun that pours in from the collapse opening at least 100 m above the level of the ground. The third sinkhole is smaller and darker, but one of the kings ordered a temple erected within it so it makes for a very interesting composition.
By the time I got back I was drenched ins sweat and thirsty for a cold beer. Rats! They don't sell alcohol inside the national parks :(
I promptly got on the boat, landed in the main portal, got in my car, and rushed out of the national park in time to stop at a store and buy a cold beer just before the 2 to 5 pm suspension of alcohol beverages.
My final stop was at the Khao Chong Krachok bay, which is a super cool bay with a great waterfront and a lively town supporting it with all sorts of shops and restaurants. Perhaps on the way back I will plan to spend a night here to enjoy the vibes.
By then I had been moving too slowly and figured I still had 200 km to go to get to my planned overnight at Chumphon so I better do some steady driving. I am still by the Gulf of Thailand, but tomorrow will cut to the west to get close to Myanmar and from there drop to the coast of the Andaman Sea, on the west side of the skinny tail of Thailand.
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