4th Island

After we got to Pakbara pier a competition started over the price of our longtail boat out to the Island of Ko Bulon Lay. We just sat back and watched the locals take our original quote of 1500 baht downt to 150 for 1 person. We were the only people in this tiny village. We had no idea what to expect as the guide books had said the Island was closed for monsoon season and if we went we should take our own food, but the locals had assured us it would be open and so would restaurants. Our ride was 1 1/2 hours and we were warned that boat drivers could take us to a closer Island and then charge us more to make it to our actual destination. We did make a stop on a closer Island, but it was to drop off bags of ice to village of sea gypsies/pirates. I felt like we were on a real adventure. Once we reached Ko Bulon Lay we jumped off the boat onto the sand of this deserted place and the sights that surrounded us were beautiful: the Island, the ocean, the fishing boats and the clouds. We were dropped at a beach resort that was closed but they allowed us to look in all the beach bungalows till we found the one we wanted. They then cleaned it and set up mosquito nets. The guide book listed 3 places to reside here, but in acuality there were around 10. No restaurants were really open, but many of the places were willing to cook noodles and chicken for us or whatever the catch of the day had been. This act is discouraged simply because they don't have much food on the Island and relying on the locals will encourage development and more tourism. As we were pretty much the only 'farangs' we thought it a good way to chat to the locals who's English was really amazing.

a) Chelise on our own personal beach

The boys bought over a kilo of fresh squid for just over $2!!! At night we would sit around with the family that owned the place and talk about the Island. We found out it was predominantly Muslim, that there were massive pythons that ate chickens and kittens, the Tsunami had only damaged boats but not too many came for tourist season this year, we learnt of a leaf you could chew that made you strong and gave you energy - called bae tom and that they'd had trouble with some of the sea gypsies. Each night Dave made a roaring fire and we would sit by the ocean and just relax. We did a lot of relaxing here as the weather was only good sometimes and others the wind would whip up and threaten to blow the entire place away. It was on those nights I realised how far away from anything we really were. One night rats got into a bag of noodles we'd forgotton to tie up and had us all running around the bungalow in the dark. We were never sure what day we'd be able to leave as the weather was so unpredictable. We even tried snorkelling one day although the visibility was terrible we saw a fair bit. I am sure the men on the fishing boats that surrounded the Island thought we were crazy.

b) Beach Fire

c) Storm rolling in