Jomtien: Day trips into Thailand?

[henrik2000]

Hello, would you recommend any day trips from Jomtien into real, down to earth Thailand to places that local Thais or maybe Thai tourists frequent? I could go by my sturdy own bicycle, Bolt\Grab taxi or bus. Have no car. Speak enough Thai to get around halfway. Travel time one way should not be more than 1 hour or so.

 

I have looked at Chonburi town, but it seems too far from Jomtien, and attractions for me were not immediately obvious. Would love to go by bicycle and could start at 6:30 a.m., but no destination seems to offer a pleasant bicycle trip. 

 

Things I would enjoy: 

 

promenading in the park or on water’s edge 

casual dining (not upmarket) on water’s edge

specialty food or coffee

live music restaurants with lukthung\morlam or pleaua-chiwit (not rock) (transport back to Jomtien for instance by Bolt taxi must be guaranteed)

real markets with fun snacks (not walking street dinner markets)

maybe a nice beach, but no priority

nice agriculture, especially young rice fields (not super monotonous)

 

Not so interesting for me:

museum (except if in fine old building)

shopping malls, cute vintage stuff

typical Thai downtowns

highly industrialized

dams

girlie bars etc

Nong Nooch (been there, terrible); water parks 

 

Any idea comes to mind? Thank you!

 

Irrelevant background:

 

I just spent two delightful months in small town Thailand with rental car and bicycle. Back in Jomtien, everything comes as a shock and the traffic and the driving styles seem murderous. I do have to stick it out in Jomtien for a little more, but a day trip into small town Thailand would be nice.

 

[scubascuba3]

Cycle to Wat Yan, probably the best cycling roads there, coffee shops around the lake, a couple do food. About 20km there. https://maps.app.goo.gl/xZJhtTcM8KvQRE2u5

 

Cycle to Nang Ram beach, probably the best, popular with Thais, few farang. Good cycle so will take about 1.5 hours

 

https://goo.gl/maps/B4yEzHEdLScQ7JUx5

[bbko]

Bang Saray is not too far from Jomtien and it's a nice little beach area with restaurants, coffee shops.

Sattahip is further down the road, better looking beaches than Jomtien/Pattaya.

Edited February 1 by bbko

[henrik2000]

High Scuba and BBKo, thanks for really nice suggestions so far. I will look at them and maybe report back if\when I have been there.

 

Thanks again!

[beautifulthailand99]

Just past Sattahip is a fishing village which is quite a nice play to stay and from the national park near the natural history museum you can get a boat trip to the uninhabited navy controlled islands. Two of them that you need to book separately so that's 2 days sorted. The fishing village is like old Thailand not a girlie bar,massage place or ganja shop in site.Bolt goes there as well took 50 minutes and 450 baht to get there,if you are on a budget use a whit sonthaew on Sukhumvit Road to get to Saatahip and a Bolt for the last 15 minute trip around the headland.

 

Edited February 2 by beautifulthailand99

[brianthainess]

Why not plan a bit of a longer trip and stay overnight? I hear Ban Chang is quite nice some good restaurants too, quite a few ex-pats there.

[alex8912]

Nang rum beach first came to mind but that is one heck of a bike ride!  By bolt/grab would be fine. I guess they would let the taxi through checkpoint but there is a fee too. I fortunately Thais and Foreigners don't both pay 20 baht. Now Foreigners more thus year. 

[henrik2000]

On 2/2/2024 at 8:49 AM, beautifulthailand99 said:

Just past Sattahip is a fishing village which is quite a nice play to stay

Thanks, sounds very interesting.

[henrik2000]

17 hours ago, alex8912 said:

Nang rum beach first came to mind but that is one heck of a bike ride!  

Thanks, I just cycled there. Not sure how you mean it, but I found the distance easy to do, but the roads are perhaps not terribly dangerous, but utterly dull, noisy and ugly. It seems that for around 10 of 45 km you are forced to take the very big roads. More about it in my next post.

[henrik2000]

Hi all, thanks for some very good suggestions! From your suggestions, so far I did

Day 1: Wat Yan and nearby attractions

Day 2: Nang Ram Beach, Nang Rong Beach

Other suggestions are still on the TDL, even if at Nang Rong Beach my front disc brake fell apart.

 

Arriving at both destinations was very pleasant and I was quite stunned with the initial impressions, thankful for both suggestions, happy to be there and relax and just look and have a coffee with the scenery. Around Wat Yan it was nicely quaint and provincial as I like it, and the roads there indeed partly feel like a bicycle park. Other things there irked me to the bones, even if nothing new (see pic).

 

Going there wasn't half as fun, either through the wastelands or down highways. I use a very bicycle-friendly OSM-based GPS app that finds smallest roads and field tracks and I fine-tune the route suggestions and consult the satellite pic; still if you think, “the road is the destination”, I guess the Pattaya hinterland is not ideal, at least not to the South. But I knew that, from taxi trips, car trips etc, and it was still good to arrive at the destinations proper, and it was nice to bicycle in early morning with the sea breeze in my hair.

 

And at least, right next to the monstrous highway, the Kilometer 10 Market has khanom krok, a rarity in Chonburi (see pic;  also found on Buakhao market).

 

From Nang Ram Beach I also wanted to go to Hat Yao Beach and to Nam Sai beach:

 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/YLRC3rz5x534XHdm9

 

But military wouldn't let me. On the official turn off from rd 3126 to Nam Sai Beach, a soldier told me in no uncertain terms that foreigners aren't allowed (I speak enough Thai for that). So I had to cycle into Nang Ram Beach, Nang Rong Beach, where on the map there is a back road into Nam Sai Beach and another soldier there told me again I wasn't wanted. And I forgot to bring my Kalashnikov. 

 

On the other hand, where a poster told me that I as a foreigner had to pay 50 THB entry fee, I was waved in with a shrug and no demand. They had short a discussion among themselves first, obviously for them a bicyclist was a totally new and strange encounter (just as for street dogs).

 

Many foreigners review Hat Yao Beach and Nam Sai Beach on Google Maps. How did they get there? They don't even mention problems getting there. A general Google search didn't bring a solution.

 

Also going to the Nang Ram area by bicycle seems to involve a lot of completely unavoidable very big roads (unlike to Wat Yan). Those big roads were not totally terrible in my experience, and there were comfortable slow lanes well usable, still it's noisy and ugly.

 

I want to stress that I find most car drivers and even truck drivers quite considerate regarding bicyclists (ever tried India, Vietnam or Italy?). This is not true for downtown Pattaya and Jomtien, but for most other areas I cycled. 

 

Dangerous in my experience:

Motorcycles using the highway in the wrong direction

Young men and school kids on motorcycles

Foreigners on motorcycles in holiday party spots

Many motorcycles also have the indicator uselessly on, sometimes for kilometers and end.

[quake]

Oh well.

 

 

Edited February 3 by quake

[henrik2000]

3 minutes ago, quake said:

Don't go to any of the beaches suggested at weekends or Thai holidays.

Yes, but I like some people watching, have no parking problems with a bicycle and am not looking for deep relaxation necessarily.

Beach pics above were taken at Nang Rong Beach near Nang Ram Beach on Saturday noon.

Edited February 3 by henrik2000

[beautifulthailand99]

17 minutes ago, henrik2000 said:

Hi all, thanks for some very good suggestions! From your suggestions, so far I did

Day 1: Wat Yan and nearby attractions

Day 2: Nang Ram Beach, Nang Rong Beach

Other suggestions are still on the TDL, even if at Nang Rong Beach my front disc brake fell apart.

 

Arriving at both destinations was very pleasant and I was quite stunned with the initial impressions, thankful for both suggestions, happy to be there and relax and just look and have a coffee with the scenery. Around Wat Yan it was nicely quaint and provincial as I like it, and the roads there indeed partly feel like a bicycle park. Other things there irked me to the bones, even if nothing new (see pic).

 

Going there wasn't half as fun, either through the wastelands or down highways. I use a very bicycle-friendly OSM-based GPS app that finds smallest roads and field tracks and I fine-tune the route suggestions and consult the satellite pic; still if you think, “the road is the destination”, I guess the Pattaya hinterland is not ideal, at least not to the South. But I knew that, from taxi trips, car trips etc, and it was still good to arrive at the destinations proper, and it was nice to bicycle in early morning with the sea breeze in my hair.

 

And at least, right next to the monstrous highway, the Kilometer 10 Market has khanom krok, a rarity in Chonburi (see pic;  also found on Buakhao market).

 

From Nang Ram Beach I also wanted to go to Hat Yao Beach and to Nam Sai beach:

 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/YLRC3rz5x534XHdm9

 

But military wouldn't let me. On the official turn off from rd 3126 to Nam Sai Beach, a soldier told me in no uncertain terms that foreigners aren't allowed (I speak enough Thai for that). So I had to cycle into Nang Ram Beach, Nang Rong Beach, where on the map there is a back road into Nam Sai Beach and another soldier there told me again I wasn't wanted. And I forgot to bring my Kalashnikov. 

 

On the other hand, where a poster told me that I as a foreigner had to pay 50 THB entry fee, I was waved in with a shrug and no demand. They had short a discussion among themselves first, obviously for them a bicyclist was a totally new and strange encounter (just as for street dogs).

 

Many foreigners review Hat Yao Beach and Nam Sai Beach on Google Maps. How did they get there? They don't even mention problems getting there. A general Google search didn't bring a solution.

 

Also going to the Nang Ram area by bicycle seems to involve a lot of completely unavoidable very big roads (unlike to Wat Yan). Those big roads were not totally terrible in my experience, and there were comfortable slow lanes well usable, still it's noisy and ugly.

 

I want to stress that I find most car drivers and even truck drivers quite considerate regarding bicyclists (ever tried India, Vietnam or Italy?). This is not true for downtown Pattaya and Jomtien, but for most other areas I cycled. 

 

Dangerous in my experience:

Motorcycles using the highway in the wrong direction

Young men and school kids on motorcycles

Foreigners on motorcycles in holiday party spots

Many motorcycles also have the indicator uselessly on, sometimes for kilometers and end.

Great stuff keep it coming. In the Chinese temple near that Wat Yan is a terracotta warrior the only one outside of China and given by the Chinese government years ago yo the big shot who built this. Very interesting to go and look at all the artefacts and temple complex. There is a small fee to enter.

[scubascuba3]

57 minutes ago, henrik2000 said:

Hi all, thanks for some very good suggestions! From your suggestions, so far I did

Day 1: Wat Yan and nearby attractions

Day 2: Nang Ram Beach, Nang Rong Beach

Other suggestions are still on the TDL, even if at Nang Rong Beach my front disc brake fell apart.

 

Arriving at both destinations was very pleasant and I was quite stunned with the initial impressions, thankful for both suggestions, happy to be there and relax and just look and have a coffee with the scenery. Around Wat Yan it was nicely quaint and provincial as I like it, and the roads there indeed partly feel like a bicycle park. Other things there irked me to the bones, even if nothing new (see pic).

 

Going there wasn't half as fun, either through the wastelands or down highways. I use a very bicycle-friendly OSM-based GPS app that finds smallest roads and field tracks and I fine-tune the route suggestions and consult the satellite pic; still if you think, “the road is the destination”, I guess the Pattaya hinterland is not ideal, at least not to the South. But I knew that, from taxi trips, car trips etc, and it was still good to arrive at the destinations proper, and it was nice to bicycle in early morning with the sea breeze in my hair.

 

And at least, right next to the monstrous highway, the Kilometer 10 Market has khanom krok, a rarity in Chonburi (see pic;  also found on Buakhao market).

 

From Nang Ram Beach I also wanted to go to Hat Yao Beach and to Nam Sai beach:

 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/YLRC3rz5x534XHdm9

 

But military wouldn't let me. On the official turn off from rd 3126 to Nam Sai Beach, a soldier told me in no uncertain terms that foreigners aren't allowed (I speak enough Thai for that). So I had to cycle into Nang Ram Beach, Nang Rong Beach, where on the map there is a back road into Nam Sai Beach and another soldier there told me again I wasn't wanted. And I forgot to bring my Kalashnikov. 

 

On the other hand, where a poster told me that I as a foreigner had to pay 50 THB entry fee, I was waved in with a shrug and no demand. They had short a discussion among themselves first, obviously for them a bicyclist was a totally new and strange encounter (just as for street dogs).

 

Many foreigners review Hat Yao Beach and Nam Sai Beach on Google Maps. How did they get there? They don't even mention problems getting there. A general Google search didn't bring a solution.

 

Also going to the Nang Ram area by bicycle seems to involve a lot of completely unavoidable very big roads (unlike to Wat Yan). Those big roads were not totally terrible in my experience, and there were comfortable slow lanes well usable, still it's noisy and ugly.

 

I want to stress that I find most car drivers and even truck drivers quite considerate regarding bicyclists (ever tried India, Vietnam or Italy?). This is not true for downtown Pattaya and Jomtien, but for most other areas I cycled. 

 

Dangerous in my experience:

Motorcycles using the highway in the wrong direction

Young men and school kids on motorcycles

Foreigners on motorcycles in holiday party spots

Many motorcycles also have the indicator uselessly on, sometimes for kilometers and end.

Nice photos. To make the Nang Ram beach ride more interesting we go via Silverlake to 332 then plutaluang golf course road to 3 then onwards to Nang Ram or Samaesan fishing village

[alex8912]

On 2/3/2024 at 1:41 PM, henrik2000 said:

Thanks, I just cycled there. Not sure how you mean it, but I found the distance easy to do, but the roads are perhaps not terribly dangerous, but utterly dull, noisy and ugly. It seems that for around 10 of 45 km you are forced to take the very big roads. More about it in my next post.

I did mean the distance. I guess I need to get my bike game on! Nice pics too and you're totally right about Sat at Nang Rum. If you have a bike no problem parking anywhere! 

[GypsyT]

Route 332 has couple of cool places if you're on area;

Fantastic cakes; http://www.sweetinfinityresort.com/index.php/fruit-cake.html

 

Vintage spirit motel close to it; https://www.apinyaresortbangsaray.com/

 

 

 

[Bobthegimp]

On 2/3/2024 at 1:58 PM, henrik2000 said:

Yes, but I like some people watching, have no parking problems with a bicycle and am not looking for deep relaxation necessarily.

Beach pics above were taken at Nang Rong Beach near Nang Ram Beach on Saturday noon.

 

I see you use Schwalbe Marathon Mondial tires, did you buy them in Thailand?  Very nice pictures. 

[henrik2000]

50 minutes ago, Bobthegimp said:

I see you use Schwalbe Marathon Mondial tires, did you buy them in Thailand?

Oh cool question. No, I brought them from Europe as well as the Schwalbe AirPlus inner tubes and more. Compared to the original Asian tires I had one year ago, the Schwalbes saved me from about 95% of the punctures which is very well worth the effort. I used Schwalbe Mondial, and not the even more protective SmartGuard, because the Mondial can be folded very small.

And now that I want to sell the bicycle, nobody considers the Mondial tires a great thing to have. Also my bicycle dealer confirmed that nobody is interested in single parts and their usefulness, but only in the overall look, so people don't think the Schwalbes are any better than any Asian tires. (While in Europe every single screw is discussed at infinitum.)

[henrik2000]

Hello, thanks also for the suggestion to bicycle to Bang Saray, which I did today, in spite of unavoidably using the super highway most of the time. I quite enjoyed loitering on the fishing piers, but I'd say it's being gentrified and might be the next Jomtien or Na Jomtien.  

I cycled on to Sattahip town, which to me seemed quirky and lively, with a well visited temple too. And there I didn't notice condominium high-rises (Del Mare, in Bang Saray….), massage shop clusters, hotels on piers, rude foreigners in muscle shirts or girlie bars (which Bang Saray all has).  

To my big surprise I found Sattahip quite sympathetic and after staying 4+ nights in backwaters like Taphan Hin, Khun Han, villages in Uttaradit and Nakhon Si Thammarat provinces, I could now well imagine a spell in Sattahip too, still have to research the live music scene there. 

 

Some stations today: 

 

Khanom Krok stall on hwy 3 next to Ban Amphoer school 

beach Bang Saray 

fishing and hotel piers Bang Saray  

Che Junction Market (lots of street food stalls, clean toilet and ample seating) 

Wat Khao Khanthamat nearby (pretty but empty) 

Wat Sattahip (less pretty, but busy) 

Puean Talay Restaurant (nice rambling wooden affair over the water, seafood and sailom in Sattahip 😋) 

 

And long planned as the final stop in the area was post-prandially a coffee shop out on the pier not far from, but outside Sattahip’s military zone, according to Open Street Map. And within eyesight of that coffee shop the army stopped me again (see my posts about not reaching Hat Nam Sai); after some moaning another uniformed guy pedalled along on a bicycle wreck and declared between chews on his gum that indeed I couldn't proceed the 100 m or so to that interesting coffee shop out on the pier. Well other rim talay coffee shops aren't in short supply there. 

 

I couldn't see myself bicycling back the direct route on the monster highway, so composed a route back to Jomtien on a lot of back roads which lengthened this one way trip to 45 km or so, but it was nice and peaceful. In Jomtien itself from the south to the center this time I used Second Road, not Beach Road, which is much faster at sunset, if not more scenic. 

 

Thanks again for another great suggestion which, combined with some subsequent research, made for a great day trip!

 

Edited February 5 by henrik2000

[henrik2000]

Hi all, I want to stress that I think the Pattaya area is very bad for bicycling. Still I am interested in that bicycling because of a sudden change of preferences and because the bicycle is unexpectedly still with me while in Jomtien after a long provincial sojourn.

 

Around Pattaya, one cycles through a lot of wastelands and faceless urban sprawl, I didn't see one rice field and only one small sunflower field, and a lot of boring cassava. Then unavoidably one has to use the monster highway or other big highways. One is hemmed in by the sea, the monster highway and military areas where sometimes you don't know if they let you through or not. More than elsewhere, small roads are not connected but just exist as dead end stubs, so you're forced back onto big roads.

 

Several times where the GPS app and the satellite pictures show ground floor crossings of the monster highway, those crossings were obviously very recently also blocked with new walls (steel, not concrete). So you have to bicycle a long way (perhaps in an unwanted direction) to find a crossing; you may have to bicycle the monster highway’s slow lane in the wrong direction (like many motorcycles);  and in one case I felt forced to carry the bicycle up and down a high pedestrian bridge, to the entertainment of a gaggle of street sweepers.

 

Then again, the dogs are especially chilled around Pattaya (exceptions apply).

 

If you just want to move your legs for exercise, the Pattaya area has several smooth parcours mentioned by others in this thread, and maybe those are even better or more plentiful than elsewhere.

 

But if you bicycle out to have some good view, funny encounters, backwaters experience, small town Thailand and reach some interesting destination, to lurk here and there, many other provinces are better.

 

[scubascuba3]

It takes time, months, years to find the best routes, maybe look at Strava to see where others go, 100s of routes