Southern Thailand

Sawat dii khrap (greetings),

First swim in Thailand

Good to retreat from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. We found ourselves on a 16 hour sleeper train headed for the beautiful Andaman coast, with our first destination being the tiny island of Koh Ngai. This was intended to be the relaxation phase of our journey, so don't expect too much adventure at this point. With a very laid-back atmosphere, swimming and snorkelling was as wild as it came here. Even something so simple has it's hazards though. Lina stepped on local sea urchin (spiky round thing that stings) and Damien sliced his foot open on a coral reef (am walking ok now).

It is disturbing to see the degree of exploitation endured by the beaches here at the hands of both tourists and locals. Evidently, many of the 'crystal sands' are increasingly becoming ash trays and landfills. Our quest over the next 1-2 weeks is to find the most natural beach along this coast, enjoy it, then leave it as we saw it.

Hornbill

We have seen little wildlife to this point, though we expect this to change as we journey north. Did see the most amazing bird though. Known to the locals as Noknia?, it resembled a Tucan in many ways.

The food here is fab. Local cuisine is delicious, inexpensive and filling. Touch wood, no diahorrea, giardia or any other parasites to talk about yet (hopefully never).

This system does not have the correct drive to allow us to upload photos. Hopefully we do not continue to encounter this problem. Will hopefully have some picies for you all soon.

Take care,

Lina and Dame

Lina cracking a coconut

Long boat

Rail