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Published: January 30th 2023
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Arrived alive, family and friends!
So I had booked a speedboat from Koh Lanta to Koh Mook with hotel pickup and for some reason (I think I was trying to find out the arrival time) I made the mistake of looking at Tripadvisor yesterday.
The reviews from this month, let alone 4 years ago, were terrible. The worst had the boat hit a mudbank and the passengers were stuck there for hours and hours, some even calling their embassies for help and having to wade through mud with their bags to extortionist boatmen in longtails, the crew having abandoned ship and left them. It made for a scary read! I wondered about changing my plan and not bothering with Koh Muk, losing £80 and going to Ao Nang or staying where I was. As it was in theory only 1hr15mins I stupidly decided to risk it. I really wanted to come here.
The pick-up was fine, the more well heeled tourists with hard suitcases left on the direct boat to Koh Lipe leaving we more bedraggled people waiting and we left 25mins late, no biggie! I had deliberately not drunk much and went to the loo at the last
possible minute, although there was a loo on the boat. Except there wasn’t. We picked up speed as we got through the channel, slowing considerately down for a couple of fishing boats and then we slowed down some more and stopped. I think I was the only one out of 25 of us who realised immediately what had happened. The 12 year old driving had gone the wrong side of the very clear buoys and had grounded us. The boat had a sort of radar screen, what on earth were they thinking of? How can this happen more than once??? This was just as the tide turned from low to high. They tried to rev and get us of but there was just a huge plume of muddy crap thrown up. The drivers dropped the anchor, which was not encouraging. The water was mid calf height (some people got out - a great idea as it turned out, except for the guy in the white trousers). The 2 boat driver children got on the phone and handed it to one of the passengers who relayed that we would have to wait about half an hour for the tide to re
float us. And the rest, I thought. One guy peed off the back of the boat but luckily the rest of us were OK.
As we were all westerners we sat in polite silence, I was the only one who read my book, lots of people were on their phones as we still had signal. High tide was 6 hours away. The guy who peed was the first to hop off into the mud and encouraged everyone to do it so the boat would be lighter. The younger people did and they tried to push us and we actually moved. This was after about an hour. The drivers had been ignoring us completely. Limited English. The nominated tourist called the office and asked how long we would have to wait, maybe a few hours. Meanwhile the speed boats from Bundhaya, all on the right side of the buoys, sped past, laughing in our faces.
The driver started the engines again and they had taken up a lot of fishing line from the mud, which his assistant pulled out with his bare hands while the engines were turning. He still has his hands, amazingly. We inched forward, the muddy
plume changed to white and we were off again, cheering, at the most ridiculous break neck speed. We hadn’t been in any danger but it was really annoying and would have been difficult to transfer us into anything else. Also the toilet situation……
We dropped people off at Koh Ngai after a few attempts to tie up in the swell, then arrived here about an hour and a half late. I’d whatsapped Yai, the bungalows guy, and he came to the pier to pick me up. I stayed with him 3 years ago. When I arrived the last time I was quite horrified at choosing such basic accommodation with a communal bathroom block in the garden and made an early exit. Then I felt ridiculous as I got used to it and really loved it, so I thought I’d give it another go. £15 a night for the (now only) bungalow. It is very, very gappy with a mosquito net and nowhere to put your stuff expect for the 2 chairs from the verandah and a coathanger. There is a fan and electricity.
Yai is such a kind person - it was his reviews which made me book
it the last time. I just had lunch at Alin’s Kitchen on the corner and he will drive people over to Charley Beach for the sunset.
To go back, I asked if I could use Bundhaya instead but that is just for the islands and not Krabi, so I’ll take a longtail to the pier on the mainland, then a van to Trang and another van to Krabi town. Sounds a much better plan!
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