Mooching on Mook
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2006
1
100
179
Trip End
Oct 31, 2007
Koh Mook (Koh Muk), Thailand
Saturday, April 28, 2007
We spent our time on Koh Mook reading on the porch of our simple wooden beach bungalow, swimming in the sea and playing Russian roulette with the choice of restaurant. The mozzies were a bit of a nightmare though; they are just so persistent. Even burning mosquito coils almost constantly and prodigiously spraying ourselves (well, Rachel at least)with repellent did not save us
01 On the way to paradise
. Moreover there always seemed to be at least one crafty little devil who managed to find his way inside the mosquito net just before bed time and then tormented us all night long (and not by singing Lionel Richie songs in our ears).On the second full day on the island we took a longtail boat trip to the Emerald Cave. The cave reputedly forms part of Alex Garner's inspiration for The Beach. (It's well known that Koh Phi Phi - also on the Andaman side of the double-coast stretch of Thailand - was used as the beach setting for the film version of The Beach and also that the waterfall sequence in the movie was filmed in Khao Yai National Park - even though in the book Garner places the location of the eponymous beach on the Gulf side. It's less well known that the hidden in-land beach on Koh Mook, which can only be reached by swimming through a sea-facing cave, was the inspiration for The Beach's alternative access point. But I digress; now that the non film-buffs are fast asleep, I'll continue). I have to admit that even I was a little frightened swimming through the cave to get to the secret beach. The swim-through is about 100m and at one point you have to swim around a corner, at which point you lose the light coming from the entrance behind you. It's only after you get further round the corner - about another 10m or so - that you can faintly make out the light coming from the exit point. For that 10m or so you're swimming in total darkness and it's pretty unnerving. Rach had sensibly elected to wear a life-jacket while I went buoyancy-free. Of course the guide (i.e. our boatman) was meant to be lighting our way with his underwater torch at this crucial point. However, just as we were entering the cave another guided group who were all holding on to the same rope, conga style, and therefore moving forward quickly and confidently managed to swim in front of us - separating us from our guide
02 We have arrived!
. Our chap somehow contrived not to realise this and carried on without us, leaving us in pitch darkness... Rachel quickly realised this was the moment to start shouting "wait for us!!" as loudly as possible. (I employed the slightly less effective: "Could the guide for the Charlie Beach Resort tour please wait a moment?"). Between us we managed to inject the requisite sense of panic in our voices and the end person in the line of interloping conga swimmers kindly took hold of Rach's hand and lead her through. I swam behind, following the sounds of splashing, and a minute or two later a glimpse of light from the exit told us that everything was going to be fine.The in-land beach was pretty stunning and worth the few worried moments we'd experienced to get there. A chimney of lush forested rock walls about 200 meters high lead straight up to the sky above. Beneath it the cave exit opened onto a small sandy beach on which the sea water gently lapped. We enjoyed the tranquility for a quarter of an hour or so and then our guide got ready to lead us back out. We made sure we stuck close to him this time and even when it was clear he couldn't get his torch to work after all we kept our heads, joining hands with the two Thai tourists in front until we could see the cave entrance ahead. Even so, our guide somehow managed to lose his own boat assistant (a young lad who was in charge of weighing anchor etc) and had to go back into the cave to rescue him! We went on to another site, the so-called "Big Cave", which is really just a section of the karst coastline where the cliff overhangs the water for a spot of snorkeling (a few fish but nothing to shout about) before heading back to Hat Farang. An enjoyable morning with a few exciting moments - we were quite happy to spend the rest of that day reading safely outside our room. Incidentally, the couple in the bungalow next to ours told us that the previous day a couple of tourists had canoed into the Emerald Cave and managed to lose their way. It was only when their wives reported them missing in the early evening that a longtail boat was sent out to look for them and they were discovered just floating in the dark cave with no idea how to get out (I'm not sure but it seems maybe the cave system is more elaborate than just the main section we swam through). Chilling stuff... Rach said that if we'd heard that story earlier she'd have given the whole thing a miss. We're back to the mainland tomorrow - lots of lovely, safe dry land, please. (T)
