On the beachfront in Rayong

The first major beach in Rayong is 11 kilometres after the city. It is called Hat Mae Ramphung. This is my favourite beach and if you are coming here, then try to visit during the week. The place fills up at the weekend. We arrived here exactly two hours and ten minutes after leaving home. The beach is 12 kilometres long and so it is quite easy to find a deserted stretch like you can see in the above picture. The top of the beach is fringed with sea oaks which gives you some good shade. In many places you can park your car under the trees and have a picnic. But, you don’t have to bring your own food because there are many makeshift kitchens set up at the top of the beach. Each of these kitchens have deckchairs, beach umbrellas and low tables. You just sit down on one of these chairs and someone will come with a menu. This will be in Thai so you will need to know what you want to eat. The prices are reasonable. Fried rice with chicken is 30 baht and tom yum goong is 180 baht. They will also charge you 20 baht each for the deckchairs but you can stay there all day.

I was telling you yesterday about our stay on Koh Chang. The next morning we checked out and caught the car ferry back to the mainland. I unfortunately hadn’t brought my maps of Rayong nor any of my multitude of guidebooks. I did remember some things about the area but I couldn’t remember any specifics. As I mentioned before, my map book of Thailand was pretty pathetic. From the car ferry we were soon back on highway 3 which is more commonly known as Sukhumwit Road. This took us through Chantaburi which is famous for its fruit. They were selling so much fruit alongside the road that we just had to stop. The rambutans were really delicious and so cheap. Only 10 baht a kilo compared to 19 baht here in Samut Prakan. I bought three kilos. From here we kept driving along highway 3 and past the intersection at Klaeng. This is the shortcut back to Bangkok on highway 344. Remember I told you that we were “robbed” by the highway police along this road? So, instead we kept driving along Sukhumwit Road towards Rayong.