It has been great fun in the capital of old siam and with one last wave of goodbye to the girls at 'the tranny van' Hazel and I head south on the over night train to some of the finest beaches in Asia. We really like Thai trains, with their friendly staff and spotless capsule like bunks. With a supper of steaming hot noodles we slip into slumber and awake refreshed in Surat Thani ready for our ferry connection to Ko Pha-Ngan.
The morning sun rises as our ferry leaves the dock, its heat already making us dive for the shade of the covered deck. Ferry travel is easily the best and most definately our favourite method of travel. Using our rucksacks as a pillow, we dig out a good book and kick back as our boat drifts across gem coloured waters to our island paradise in The Gulf Of thailand.
Did I mention paradise?, because these islands encapsulate the term in its classic form. We travel through vistas of coconut groves and rubber plantations as hills peak like dragons teeth, creating a geographical landscape timeless in its form. Quite magickal, we can asure you.
As our destination of Ko Pha-Ngan approaches, we organise onward transport to the far flung Bottle Beach, accessable only by longtail boat. We feel adventure in our souls again as our packs are slung onboard and the boatman hotwires the engine. We take quite a liking to him as he handles his craft, constantly swearing in Thai, with a cracked smile, missing teeth and the never ending cigarette hanging from his mouth.
We are now in deep water in a very small boat as our captain changes course and takes us close to the cliff face, cackling from the back of his vessel. Not that we were worried ! but I could see very jagged rocks over the edge very close to the hull, and about 10m away was the cliff face. Like all true sea dogs, our captain swings us safely round the headland to the full breath taking view of our destination. As it happens, one of the Thai guys on the island informed us that our captain was the only one who takes that approach through the maze of underlying coral, all the others take to open water. Hazel and I smile at each other, then pop open a cool beer.
For the next week living is easy, and i mean very easy. The indigo waters and surrounding mountains created a unique space where time was irrelevant and a complete back-to-nature environment. Our Jungle lodges were nested in a tropical coconut grove and created a unique serenity, which was miles away from other parts of the island.
As the full moon rises, so the island becomes charged with drug-induced euphoria. Luckily we timed our visit according to the lunar cycle to avoid this mass migration, infact, we never even got round to visiting the filth of Hat Rin. Its not that we don't want to party, but its difficult to remove yourself from a 'Garden of Eden' location, to mingle with other 5000 ravers, oot their heads on pills listening to crap techno, all releasing excess bodily fluids into the gulf.
We have covered a lot of ground in the last few weeks but done very little, so its difficult to give a full update this time. We have read a lot of books and listened to a lot music, all accommpanied with wonderful views, terrific thai food and the best chilled beers on offer. Sometimes, I look in the mirror and have a big cheery grin to myself and I think just how lucky Hazel and I are !
Anyway! if anyone wishes to join in the fun just dig out some of your old Dead Kennedys vinyl, as we will be going for 'A Holiday in Cambodia' tomorrow. We have the music queued, infact it will be played on our headphones as we leave immigration. If you do play it, you can think of our pain, as we take a 9 hr ride into Siam Reap on some of the worst unsealed roads on offer...I think I may need a sedative, oh well thats travel for yeah.. we will keep you updated....
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