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Published: December 22nd 2006
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Kris's description of Ko Jum
For those of you who arnt aware, Crimdon is a seaside town near Peterlee. There is a holiday camp there. Look it up. Kate Well we spent a couple of nights in Krabi town while I got over my illness. Nothing much to report about that, we didnt see much except for our room at Bai Fern Mansion, which was very nice. On day 3 I was well enough to walk around, so we decided to go to one of the islands, Ko Jum. We heard about Ko Jum from Kris's mate from Sheffield Uni, Mike Hughes, who went during his round the world tour a couple of years ago. It sounded very small and not developed, and just the sort of place to recouperate.
Ko Jum - It's abit like Rum
Ko Jum is a small island, about 6km long, with no electricity. It is mainly forested, with hill at one end and with one road running north to south and some bunglalow resorts along the long, sandy beach. We caught the Ko Lanta ferry, and when we passed the coast of Ko Jum, longtail boats from the various bungalows came out to pick us up. It was rather like going to the Isle of Rum (where I did my PhD fieldwork). We had booked into the Joy Bungalows, and for 400
The beach
It really was that quiet. I counted onlyn 10 other people on the whole beach at one point. baht got a wooden bungalow with bathroom and big balcony. Joy Bungalows had about 40 bungalows of various sizes, from bamboo huts to massive family villas on stilts, and had a restaurant on the beach. There was no electricity during the day, and once the sun went down they cranked up the generator to power the lights and music in the restaurant. When you wanted to go to bed, they gave you a parrafin lamp to light your way.
As you can imagine, there wasnt alot to do on Ko Jum, except laze on the beach, swim in the sea, read, eat and sleep. It was perfect!. We took a walk along to the village, Ban Ko Jum, which has a beachfront school and lots of piers on stilts where the fishermen go out from. There are Tsunami warning signs all over, Ko Jum is on the Andaman coast where the Tsunami hit, and many of the bungalows near the beach where washed away, but it has all been rebuilt now. Basically since the island is so small, the evacuation route marked out is to go up high.
Ko Jum was one of the first places we really
experienced how it can rain over here. It hasnt particually rained anywhere else we have been in Thailand so far, but the Andaman coast is just getting to the end of their monsoon. Each morning it would be sunny with blue skies, and then during the day it would get more and more cloudy. Then sometime after 2pm, the heavens would open. And it would pour. I have only experienced rain like this on the Isle of Rum. These were no showers, you got soaked to the skin in about 5 seconds. And then it would just stop. As I said, this is the end of the monsoon on this side of the country, and it stops raining in December. So it seems to be making the most of the last of the rains....
After 3 nights on Ko Jum we decided to go somewhere with electricity, and so caught the ferry to the next island, Ko Lanta.
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