Trekking and caving at Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park

The trip to Pranburi took slightly longer than expected as we made a few detours along the way. On the way towards Pranburi we passed Ratchaburi where we stumbled upon a Chinese ancestral home. We only found it as we noticed some signs in Chinese as we were driving, out of curiosity we drove up to the place and found a large ancestral home/ shrine (?). It looked totally like the ones we will see in movies, we didn't take any pictures as we felt it would be disrespectful. There appeared to be a large cemetery behind the shrine and I imagined it would be really crowded during Qing Ming when Chinese visit graves of their ancestors to pray and pay respects. 

Ratchaburi actually looked like a rather picturesque town, however we already had plans to go Pranburi to visit the Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park so we gave it a miss. We would definitely be back though.

We had chosen to stay at Evason Hua Hin as it was quite near to the national park and the hotel looked really good on the website. It was our first time there and overall I would say it was a rather pleasant experience, other than the receptionist who unwillingly tried to help us book a massage. The hotel grounds are huge, with tennis courts, a kids area, and there are also various activities such as yoga, cooking classes such that you can choose to just stay in the hotel and never leave until you check out. It is a little inaccessible without a car though and of course the restaurants in the hotel are a little expensive.

 lush grounds of Evason Hua Hin

When we were planning the trip, I was intrigued by Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park as it is the first marine national park of Thailand. We have already been to Khao Yai National Park before and while it is lovely, we wanted to explore a new place. The caves in Khao Sam Roi Yot sounded fascinating so we chose this place instead. After a good breakfast at the hotel, we set off for the park and went to the visitor centre. You can pay for your park entrance fee at the centre, or if you made your way directly to the caves, you can also pay at the entrances to the caves. We decided that we would check out Khao Daeng View Point first as it was quite near to the visitor centre. We left the car at the visitor centre and walked over, however you can also easily drive your car to the foot of the hill and park it there. Supposedly it takes about 30 minutes to climb to the top, however as we are relatively unfit and the trail is quite steep, it took us about an hour to get up there. There are signs indicating which way to go but you need to keep your eyes peeled for them. By the time we got up, we were all sweaty and tired but the view was totally worth it. As space at the top was a premium and there were other tourists who also wanted to enjoy the view, we descended after resting for a while and taking a few photos. 

panoramic view from the viewpoint

We then drove to Sam Phraya beach for lunch and to rest after the tiring hike. There is a restaurant there as well as a relatively clean toilet. We ran into some bikers who were doing a charity biking thing who stopped there for lunch, so it was relatively crowded. Luckily for us, we had ordered our food before they arrived so we didn't have to wait a long time. The staff could speak some simple English and with our knowledge of basic Thai, we managed to order our food and had a good rest. 

lovely quiet beach

Originally we had planned to visit the Phraya Nakhon Cave after lunch, but as we were tired and the soles of our shoes had fallen off, we decided to give it a miss and instead head to Hua Hin town for a massage and perhaps explore the night market instead. As that was the highlight of the trip, we were a little disappointed that we couldn't make it. I was actually pretty hyped up over the cave but we didn't have proper shoes to trek. We did drive to Sai Cave to take a look but the trail looked impossible with our broken shoes. Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park is definitely a place I would like to go back, it is less crowded than Khao Yai and the presence of both the mountain and the sea appeals to me.