A holiday from our holiday!

Trip Start Sep 19, 2002
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Trip End Sep 22, 2003


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Thursday, July 24, 2003

Yet another minibus journey, this one for about 4 hours down to the south coast so that we could catch a boat at the pier. In usual travelling style we had to leap across the gap to get on and the boat didn't leave on time continuing to pack in the tourists and their luggage. The result was that the tide had changed and the boat was really heavy and we got stuck in the mud and had to be towed out. About 30 mins later we arrived on the beautful island of Ko Samet and were greeted by abandoned huts right on the beach. This beach was yukky, hence the abandoned bungalows, and we jumped in a truck to go around to Ao Hin Khok beach instead. There is only one road on the island and it is a one lane sand track so you can't really go far. Also the island is mostly forest so the buildings are all around the very edge meaning that any guest house is just off the beach. We chose one that had it's own bathroom as we didn't fancy stumbling around in the trees trying to find the loo. The twee bungalows were quite nice and had a little veranda and were spread out amongst the trees gradually sloping away from the beach. There are now very few places with bungalows directly on the beach and they are very basic but expensive and the beach is public so you don't have a lot of privacy. Our bungalow cost 300 baht (about four pound fifty) and was screened from the mozzies and very clean etc although it was a bit of a hike up the slope and there was a rat in the roof each night.

Ao Hin Khok beach, and those nearby, have the squeakiest, whitest sand in all of Thailand and the water was so warm that there was no shock value to the nether regions of the body going in. The water was so clear that you could always see the bottom and it was very clean for a touristy area. The only problem was the sheer amount of semi-stray dogs that roam around. They sometimes have a bit of a scuffle which causes alarm to the people sunbathing when they run across them or fight right by your towel. When you jump out of the way, they consider your towel to be fair game and plonk themselves down on it refusing to move. One restaurant owner has the right idea. He produced a gun which caused some panic among the toursits and the dogs ran a mile but it was only a BB gun. The other problem is the sea lice (which give you a minor sting but you cant see them) and the jelly fish. I saw two (huge) dead on the beach and a small child ran screaming like a banshee from the sea one afternoon so we assume she was stung by something other than sea lice.

We spent the days lazing on the sand trying to top up our tans and not get burnt. We noticed that almost every other traveller was reading the new Harry Potter book and were tempted to borrow a copy while the owners were in the sea - we're desperate! We also had a lovely Thai massage which more than made up for my disaster in Vietnam although the sand did chaff our sunburn a little. We ate each meal on the beach as the guest houses front straight onto the sand. At night we went for drinks at the Naga bar who set up each evening on the sand. They put down mats and light fires and have fairy lights etc and you drink the local rum and whisky out of plastic buckets and it's a really cool place. The best thing is the free cocktails vouchers and the 2 hour session of "you win the toss, your drinks are free!" We won this several times so had a few cheap nights out. So all in all we had a great time on Ko Samet but there was a problem that we were glad to get away from - the mozzies. They are the biggest we have seen and VERY aggressive and Pip got bitten a lot (we never seem to get bitten together). The area used to be highly malarial but it's not so bad now and we're still taking the prophylactics so we should be fine.

And so it was back to Bangkok for our last couple of days in Thailand. We spent the whole of yesterday shopping and had to call a halt before we spent our India budget too. Some things are soooo much cheaper than home and we stocked up on things to send back and things ready for India. We also made our regular trip to the cinema where we watched a very bad film called Basic. And so today we have to send yet another parcel home and tonight we are going to watch the muay Thai boxing. Then tomorrow it's off to Calcutta for the last thrilling installment of our round the word trip!
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