Leaving Prachuap Khiri Khan and following the small coastal road to the North, we arrived in Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park at noon. The park landscape is impressive. It is not by chance that its name means “three thousand mountains”.
We started to look for accommodation, trying to identify signs for hotels. But everything was written in Thai! By chance, Alex read “wifi” on a sign leading to a small road on our left and that’s how we ended up in a great Thai homestay. We were greeted by Annie who spoke perfect English. She was from Bangkok and helping her brother in law, Kat, to run the homestay that weekend. The place was lovely, with bamboo houses around a pond and bamboo kiosks linked by a small bamboo bridge.
In the afternoon, we went to Khao Daeng viewpoint, a few kilometers from the homestay. The climb was a bit tedious in the middle of rocks, but the view was amazing on the three hundred mountains around and the sea.
When going back from the viewpoint, we found this temple, Wat Hup Ta Khrot, surrounded by rocks.
The day after, we woke up early to walk a very special trail. From a beach, a 1 kilometer trail goes up and down a small mountain to another beach, and then at the end of this beach, another 500-meter trail goes up to another mountain and then down to a magnificent cave, Phraya Nakhon cave, where has been built a Royal traditional pavilion. Three kings have visited this cave since 1890. The beauty of the place is due to a hole on the roof of the cave which lets the sun light the pavilion in lovely colors.
After this visit, we left Khao Sam Roi Yot to the North. We went through Hua Hin and stopped in Cha-am for the night. These are two cities on the coast with big hotels, not as much charm as our beloved Prachuap Khiri Khan.
The next day, we left Cha-am early to head to our last destination 200 km away: Bangkok!!
Want to do the same?
The homestay we strongly recommend: https://www.facebook.com/Numpubaandin/ (they even posted a picture of us on their Facebook page!) – from 500 THB /night
Interesting things to do:
- Khao Daeng viewpoint (about 45 minutes climb) and it is free!
- Phraya Nakhon cave – 200 THB /pers. to enter the National Park. Go to Bang Po Beach and pay the entrance ticket to the ticket booth on the right. There, people will ask you to take a boat to Laem Sala Beach for an additional 300 THB, we recommend not doing it! Laem Sala Beach is reachable by climbing the stairs starting next to the ticket booth. It took us no more than 20 minutes up and down to Laem Sala Beach vs 10 minutes with the boat. Then, follow the beach, and the path to the cave starts behind the bathrooms. You have to climb 450 meters to reach the cave. We did it in less than an hour.
