I reserved a day for a motorbike trip to Bang Saray fishing village last week, about 20 mins drive south of Tesco Lotus Sukhumvit. In theory it was a good idea but after an hour I was bored and headed back. The fishing pier was deserted, so was the beach. I wanted to explore the peninsula/mountain just south of the village (an enormous version of Pattaya's Buddah hill), but it seems the navy controls the whole thing, I could not find any authorized access to it from Bang Saray. In maybe 10 years this place will be a destination.

I reserved a day for a motorbike trip to Bang Saray fishing village last week, about 20 mins drive south of Tesco Lotus Sukhumvit. In theory it was a good idea but after an hour I was bored and headed back. The fishing pier was deserted, so was the beach. I wanted to explore the peninsula/mountain just south of the village (an enormous version of Pattaya's Buddah hill), but it seems the navy controls the whole thing, I could not find any authorized access to it from Bang Saray. In maybe 10 years this place will be a destination.

Bang Saray is pretty deserted when the sun is out...except for the weekends when it is quite busy. But it is a nice beach. If you continued down Suk, you can access the navy beaches...bit of a long ride on a bike?

Back towards Pattaya is Sunset Village. Expensive for food, but a great view for the sunset. Further North is Baan Amphur (at the light). Lots of seafood restaurants on the beach (Precha's is great), a nice temple, an old Thai house that is a museum (sometimes open, sometimes not), and a nice market in the evenings. The View restaurant is pretty nice, near the Ambassador. You can windsurf there, and nearby rent a jet ski without having to worry about getting ripped off. Just North of The View are a few restaurants on the beach. One does an OK pizza, but the atmosphere is pretty cool. Ton Hard is our favorite there.

Of course you could bungy jump or drive those "race" cars at the track just off Thepprasit.

Silver Lake Winery is a nice place for pizza. They have an outdoor terrace. Buddha mountain is right there, and there's great bike riding all around there and up to 36. Plus a large temple complex that you could spend hours walking around.

We did some exploring of the Dark Side a few months ago. Lots of interesting places back there, and once off the main drags, little traffic. The lake out there has some nice restaurants around it also and it is a nice place for a walk.

I reserved a day for a motorbike trip to Bang Saray fishing village last week, about 20 mins drive south of Tesco Lotus Sukhumvit. In theory it was a good idea but after an hour I was bored and headed back. The fishing pier was deserted, so was the beach. I wanted to explore the peninsula/mountain just south of the village (an enormous version of Pattaya's Buddah hill), but it seems the navy controls the whole thing, I could not find any authorized access to it from Bang Saray. In maybe 10 years this place will be a destination.

Bang Saray is pretty deserted when the sun is out...except for the weekends when it is quite busy. But it is a nice beach. If you continued down Suk, you can access the navy beaches...bit of a long ride on a bike?

Back towards Pattaya is Sunset Village. Expensive for food, but a great view for the sunset. Further North is Baan Amphur (at the light). Lots of seafood restaurants on the beach (Precha's is great), a nice temple, an old Thai house that is a museum (sometimes open, sometimes not), and a nice market in the evenings. The View restaurant is pretty nice, near the Ambassador. You can windsurf there, and nearby rent a jet ski without having to worry about getting ripped off. Just North of The View are a few restaurants on the beach. One does an OK pizza, but the atmosphere is pretty cool. Ton Hard is our favorite there.

Of course you could bungy jump or drive those "race" cars at the track just off Thepprasit.

Silver Lake Winery is a nice place for pizza. They have an outdoor terrace. Buddha mountain is right there, and there's great bike riding all around there and up to 36. Plus a large temple complex that you could spend hours walking around.

We did some exploring of the Dark Side a few months ago. Lots of interesting places back there, and once off the main drags, little traffic. The lake out there has some nice restaurants around it also and it is a nice place for a walk.

I wanted to check out Baan Amphur, but on the way back there was no signage for it so I passed it by (gotta love Thais, will put signage on the southbound lanes but nothing on the northbound lanes)

For those Newbies... the 'darkside' refers to the area east of Sukhumvit, kinda like going for a drive in the country if you venture far enough (if you reach Cambodia you've gone a bit too far!)