Ko Lanta

Boat Access Only

Another beautiful day by the looks of it. We got an early breakfast, and then I packed. ,I’d finished my book, so I swapped it with Paul Auster’s “New York Trilogy”, which thus far I am not enjoying as much as I’d hoped. The Swede’s will be spending a couple more days on the island, and I hope I haven’t been too much of a third wheel.

I exchanged emails and goodbyes with the Swedes and then caught a taxi truck to the pier. Waited there for a bit, then the boat arrived. A fairly uneventful trip to Railay. Some American’s next to me that talked non-stop, which made reading difficult. At Railay, the boat anchored a fair ways from shore, and those of us heading to Railay were transferred to longtails to make our way to the beach. Railay looks amazing, and is surrounded by limestone walls. It’s part of the mainland, but inaccessible accept by boat. I headed directly to the east side, since I’d heard it was where the cheaper accommodation is. Found a cheap, but not so cheap by Thailand standards, room. Not as nice as the place in Ko Lanta, but will do for a night (I was originally going to stay here for two nights, but it’s so expensive, it’s cheaper to head back to Krabi). The manager seems pretty rude though, sadly.

We’d been exchanging emails, but I told Eveline (the girl I’d met in KL) that I’d give her a call when I got to Railay to see about meeting up, so I called her, but she wasn’t around yet. I emailed Robin and Jolina to let them know what accommodation prices were like in Railay (they’re heading here eventually). As I was walking back to the resort, I ran into two Aussies I’d met earlier (and were actually at the same resort in Ko Lanta) – Pennie and Wiki (and never has there been a girl who more suited her name). Chatted with them for a bit (mostly complaining about the prices at Railay), then parted ways. I threw my swim stuff together and hit the west beach to see the sunset and get wet. Water was very warm, and quite wavy, thanks to all the longtails.

Pennie and Wiki ended up at the beach too, and entered the water pretty close to me, so I went over to say hello. Talked with them for a while, and watched the sunset (moves pretty quick!), before deciding I’d spent enough time in the water. Pennie and Wiki were out of the water too, and staying at the same resort as me, so we headed back.

The three of us grabbed some dinner, getting caught in the rain at one point. For the non-rainy season, it sure has rained a lot. Hasn’t really put a damper on too many plans though, thankfully.

I called Eveline, and through a terrible connection I think we’ve agreed to meet in Krabi tomorrow evening. I’ll give her a call tomorrow and see if I can get a better understanding of exactly where we’re to meet.

Emerald Cave

I met Jolina and Robin at their room before 7am, and we walked along the beach to the restaurant, where the owner now knew us pretty well. She’s a super happy lady, and makes some amazing food. We had arranged for our pickup to be at the restaurant and, ten minutes earlier than scheduled, our driver arrived. Young teenager, in a Bob Marley t-shirt, with a nice new truck – tourism must pay well. The tour is a family run affair, from what I could gather.

Some of the other tourists we were to pick up were very late in getting ready, to the driver’s and our own dismay. We finally got everyone on the truck and sped south to the southern beach where we were to catch our longtail boat.

The first island was about an hour and a half away. We had a small group on the boat, about 12 people, but unfortunately at the first stop there were about 100 screaming Chinese tourists already in the water. The first stop was Ko Mook, I believe. No beach, just vertical limestone rising out of the water. We snorkeled there for a bit. I was a little underwhelmed at first, but once the Chinese left the water, the visibility improved, and there were quite a few fish. Some yellow and black striped fish seemed quite curious and got pretty close.

The next stop had a better selection of fish, but not in huge numbers. We snorkeled around there for a bit, then headed to the Emerald Cave. The Chinese tour was ahead of us and already filing into the water – single file, following their guide. Our guide (who had done no guiding up to this point) told us to follow him, and with little organization we jumped off the boat, and did our best to keep up (he had flippers, which is an unfair advantage, me thinks).

We swam, following our guide into the cave, the water taking on a green glow, and reached a point where seeing two feet in front of our faces was an impossibility. The guide turned on his flashlight and sped off again. We winded our way through the cave, before spotting some light ahead. We followed the light, and were rewarded with a spectacular hidden beach. The beach was fully enclosed by the limestone around it. Trees grew here and there, and the sun shone from above, but the only access to the lagoon was through the cave. It was probably the nicest thing I’ve seen on the trip thus far, but sadly I was unable to bring my camera along for the swim.

We had lunch and some fruit on the boat after the cave. Much needed after a day of swimming in the hot sun. We headed to Ko Hai next. Ko Hai was a beautiful, quiet beach. We had an hour to swim and snorkel, but stayed for closer to two hours, for some reason. Not many fish to see, but the water was very clear. If I head back to a Thailand island, and want to do nothing but sit on a beach, Ko Hai might do the trick. It was pretty nice, as far as beaches go.

The boat dropped us off outside our hostel, so we had to wade through the water to shore, our bags over our heads. It was the nicest day in Asia so far, and definitely a good day to be at sea.

We had dinner at our usual spot in the evening, and each had our own pineapple for dessert. I also arranged my boat to Railay Beach for the morning. Not much happening at the resort, so I read (must finish book!) and got some sleep, surprisingly not as tired as I thought I’d be.

Beach Music

Lazy day, so not much to report. Got up in the morning with the intention of going for a run on the beach, but it was raining lightly . Did some reading (there’s a good book I want to swap with in the library), then when the rain stopped, I hit the beach. Very soft sand, definitely not for running. I walked to some rocks, that and climbed over them, reaching a small secluded beach, followed by some more rocks. These rocks looked a little trickier, so I let them be, and walked back the way I’d came, and headed south down the coast.

After a lot of walking in the bright sun, with no sunscreen on, I figured it’d be wise to head back to the resort and put some on. I oiled up and hit the resort pool for a bit of reading. Robin and Jolina were already in attendance. When the sun came out from behind the clouds, it got terribly hot, so I jumped in the pool to cool down a bit. My day repeated a similar pattern for most of the day. Substitute pool for sea on occasion, but you get the gist.

We tried to get some dinner in the evening at the same place we’d had lunch earlier, but they were closed. We had been discussing an island tour, and settled on a 4 islands snorkeling tour for the next day.

Back at the guesthouse, I retire to bed early as we want to get an early breakfast before the islands tour.. There was a big party at the resort, but it seemed pretty tame. Apparently it’s low season at the moment, although that normally isn’t the case until May.

In the morning, the Swedes and I headed for breakfast at a place John recommended. A little pricey, but we’re starting to figure John wasn’t as frugal as we’re trying to be. I had a pancake, hoping it would look as glorious as the ones we saw at the night market, but it was fairly underwhelming.

Another travelling day, this time to Ko Lanta. Ko = Island here in Thailand, so we’d be taking a boat at some point. We were supposed to be picked up at 10, but our taxi did not arrive until closer to 11. We piled in, and headed to the bus terminal, where we hopped on a (blessedly) air-conditioned minivan. It was a little crowded, and I ended up sitting on Robin’s suitcase for the first fifteen minutes or so. I was nearly at the point of cursing the lack of meat on my posterior, when we dropped off the mother and daughter I was sitting next to, and I had two seats to myself.

We picked up a couple of more people on the way, and dropped off some others, but I managed to retain my seat. The young girl in front of me was pretty cute, and seemed quite taken with Robin’s camera. The Canadians I met in Te Anua had given me some Canadian pencils to give to kids on my travels, but they were buried in my luggage, otherwise I’d have given one to her.

We got on a ferry to Ko Lanta Noi and drove across the island, and got onto another ferry – this time to Ko Lanta Yai. There were some police inspecting vehicles, but we managed to make it through without much incident. The bus dropped us off at the bus depot, and we went through the never pleasant task of trying to figure out where we wanted to sleep for the nights (or at least one night) on the island, We told the guy in charge of the taxis we wanted to be dropped off in the middle of one of the beach areas. He told us it would be 50 baht each. Steep ($1.60), but a twenty minute taxi drive.

The taxi was a pickup truck with two benches running along its side. To our surprise we were dropped off nowhere near where we wanted to be, about 5 minutes later. We tried to tell the driver that we weren’t where we wanted to be (there was a decent resort, but nothing around). He had no clue what we were talking about, so we had to negotiate another 30 baht to get further down the beach.

Now where we wanted to be, we tried to find a place to stay, but the places in the area weren’t really what we were after, price wise. The driver, whose company we didn’t like was still following us around – hoping for a commission from the resort, no doubt. Jolina and I left Robin with the bags, and headed towards the beach to check out the next place, but it too wasn’t what we were after. When we got back, Robin was talking with someone who had a good place down the road. He offered to drive us there for free, but changed his tune when he spotted our taxi driver. The taut for the resort made haste and took off, and we decided we’d eat some food, hoping the taut would return.

Had a great lunch at a place near the main road. As we waited, a truck pulled up and another taut from another resort offered us a room. We haggled him down to half the price, on condition of seeing the place, and went to check it out.

Blue Andaman Resort turned out to be nice. Robin and Jolina definitely got the better of the two rooms, but I certainly feel I got my money’s worth. 300 baht (less than $10) for my own bungalow with private shower and bathroom.

I headed to the beach and had a look. Low tide, so the beach looked a little rocky, but the beach faces west, and before long we were hit with the nicest sunset I’ve seen in forever.