South Thailand

  Hat Yai, Thailand
Monday, July 7, 2008

I left Mum on the 2nd of July and took a bus to Krabi where I was to meet with an english friend of a friend. I actually hooked up with some really cool scottish guys while in the bus. Well I did not understand everything they were saying but most of it...sometimes. We actually stayed in Ao Nang, the beach 30 km from Krabi and had a great time. We rented motorbikes and drove around most of the day, mainly through huge rocks and cliffs as Krabi is the paradise for rock climbing.

Krabi

I have told the guys that they needed to wear a helmet while riding in Thailand, but as most men, they did not believe me and before they know it, they got pulled over by the cops. I had my helmet, so no problems for me, but the guys had to pay the fine !

We spent the next day on Ralay island, 20 minutes off the coast from Ao Nang.

Railay

To get there, you have to take a longtail boat that only leaves when full. The next day, we decided to get further south to Ko Lanta. That would normally be a good idea when it is high season but not really when it is low season. Indeed, every guest house is shut and there is basically no means of transportation to get there. Well that made the whole trip really interesting. It took us forever to get to ...not even the correct island. It was dark by the time the ferry landed so we started to walk with our backpacks, thinking we were on Ko Lanta Lai, but realised quite quickly that we were actually on Ko Lanta Noi, 10 km away from the ferry to Ko Lanta Lai. So we knocked on doors, well the couple of houses we could find, until we found somebody that was willing to give us a ride to the next ferry.

Ko Lanta pickup truck ride

After a ride in the back of a pickup truck, the shortest ferry in the world (if they would have put 3 ferry nose to tail next to each other, it would actullay have created a bridge !) and another pickup truck ride and we were walking up and down the beach, trying to find a place to crash for the night. As you can imagine, it all ended well and we made it. As all activities were closed, we decided to rent motorcycles in order to check out the entire island. It allowed us to swim on nice beaches, stroll in sleepy villages, hiked in the jungle, discover beautiful places, all with absolutely no tourists.

Ko Lanta

As there was no boat during the low season, we had to take the bus all the way to the main town on the mainland and then went all the way back down to another little island. The boat harbour is nothing like what you can imagine, it is simply a little passageway in between the only two houses of the "village" that at low tide allows you to jump on a boat that only leaves when full. You can put everything on that little boat, including scooters.

Boat ride

Why not ? This is the only way to get to the island. Once on the island, we decided to walk cause it looked really small on the map. But in fact, it is not small at all. There was only one place open to stay overnight on the island but after 30 minutes on a long dusty but very friendly walk ( all the kids were waving hello, all the people were smiling to welcome us, or to laugh at us cause we were walking), when it became dark, we called it a quit and begged some people to take us there with their motorbikes.

The road was actually not a road, it was a very narrow, full of huge puddles, extremely bumpy path cutting across the island through the hills. I have to say I really did not think we would make it without crashing at least once or twice. My driver was a 40 years old very pregnant lady, she had my small bag in between her legs and I was carrying my big backpack. None of us were wearing helmets and we were not dressed as I would normally dress to ride my bike in the UK, so basically, all the ingredients for a crash were here. Surprisingly no, we did not fall, instead... we ran out of petrol ! How convenient when you are in the middle of the jungle on a dirt road in the dark with a pregnant woman and a heavy backpack. Especially when you think about the reasons why you took that bike : no walking anymore ! I pushed the bike for a bit in order to get up the hill, and then we cruised downhill for a good 600 metres until it came to a complete stop. Needless to say all of this is in the complete dark as no petrol, no light. We only had to wait 5 minutes before a moped passed by and stopped to go and get petrol for us. Glad we finally made it to that little hut on the beach with bathroom on the balcony, cockroaches, bats, geikos in the room and no electricity. In a way, yes I was glad.

The next day the hotel called some friends to take us back to the boat , so that makes things easier. Unfortunately, we had to wait for a long time for the boat to be full and after about an hour and a half, we called it a quit as one woman who spoke a bit of english offerred us to pay a bit more each so that the boat can leave with only 4 people. We thought we would make it to the other side faster, but no, cause the boat broke down. The motor simply stopped once in the middle of the ocean. Luckily, the english speaking woman had a cell phone, so we could call for some help and another boat came to pick us up. Hum...what's next ? Well what is next is getting from that tiny little beach/pier that is used as an harbour for boats in between the two houses all the way to...anywhere else really. We asked the three locals that are hanging out at the pier but nobody spoke anything that we could understood nor make ourselves understood. They did not seem to have any means of transportation either, bearing in mind that the next "big" town was at least an hour away by car. We had no other choice than starting to walk and hitch hike...hopefully. It did not take us long before a car stopped and who was driving ? the woman that was with us on the boat. How cool, she was going to a different place, but did not matter, we were happy to be able to make it somewhere and so relieved.

I guess, we did not have enough of those little adventures and decided to get to one more island so we picked the island of Ko Mook. You may have never heard of it, it is normal, it is one of the smallest, most remote island in Thailand. Crazy choice you would think, but not really because Ko Mook being so small and not touristy, there is always a boat getting there and out of there for the locals, so it makes it easier to get to Ko Mook than to get to another touristy island during low season. Unfortunately, we missed the taxi boat, so we had to charter a whole boat for ourselves in order to make it to the island. Once there, we made sure the island was small in reality and not just on the map before we started to walk to the other side where one hotel was supposedly open. On the way, we met with some locals that asked us if we were going to Brian's, the Australian guy ? Why not, change of plans and we ended up in a tent in Brian's backyard. I had bangers and mash for dinner, even better ones than the ones you can get at the Shakespeare's head in Brighton.

The emerald cave

Brian had a kayak and snorkeling gear, so we borrowed them to get in the water. There was this fantastic cave he told us about, the emerald cave in which you just kayak in, do not see anything for about 10 metres and end up on a paradise beach. We had to wait a bit until the tide went down so that there was enough space for us to get in and also because the waves were quite big at the time, which made tremendous, scary noise while in the cave in the dark. It was absolutely breathtaking. Just kayaking inside that small dark hole, seeing the emerald green water, and then paddle in the dark until you reach a fantastic white sand beach borded by tall rocks and nothing else that jungle....well and a couple of huge monitor lizards.

Entering the emerald cave

The taxi boat out of the island was at 7:30 am the next day, so an early start to make it all the way back to Trang. Because we had the taxi boat with locals, we also could catch the bus with them, well the big tuk tuk truck to the town.