The Giant Lizard and the Killer Kayaking

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We spent 3 lovely days in my favourite place in Thailand, Ko Mok. I came here before but it definately deserved another visit so that Gaz could see it as well. The island is part of the trang province and after spending the night in the city of trang we woke up in the morning to get the minibus to the port where we would be picked up by boat and taken to Ko Mok. It is so so beautiful and as the boat pulls round the corner the view of the cliffs that fall into the calmest of clear waters and white sand makes you want to never leave.

We had a great fews days taking massages on the beach as the sun set and spent sunny afternoons around the pool reading and taking occasional dips in the sea for some snorkling. We took a boat trip to the emerald caves and snorkled around the island where we saw some colourful coral but not too many fish.

On our last day in Ko Mok i experienced a giant lizard attack and after spotting the meter long lizard with extremely strong legs and an evil look outside our bungalow i felt cautious walking back to the bungalow alone to get my passport. Anyway i braved it and the walk there was fine but as i returned to the reception the lizard, hiding under another bungalow, watched me heading along the sandy path and as my foot came nearer to the 'dragon' lizard it made a jump out of its hiding place and straight towards my feet with a massive hiss and a scuffle it suddenly realised how big i actually was and decided against attacking me and ran off, lucky i wasn't a small child or else i may have been lizard' meat!

After my near death experience we quickly headed off the island and met a man about a boat to take us to Ko Kradan. We could see Ko Kradan from Ko Mok, and were excited about visiting another island so paid our guy 600 bart to take us across the water.

We arrived in Ko Kradan which again had views of lime stone cliffs, clear sparkling seas and a thin strip of clean white sand running around the island. We checked in to Ko Kradan Paradise bungalows and were given a room with a partial beach view and they even threw in a few extra bugs than usual for free.

We went snorkling for the afternoon and saw plenty of small fish, millions of sea urchins and big colourful star fish. Unfortunately our extremely cheap snorkling gear we bought the day before didn't last long before breaking so we decided we would cover up and hire a 2 person kayak and paddle around the island. Looking back at it now i feel that i thouroughly enjoyed my kayak around the island that took 3 hours. We saw plenty of cool things, stopped at a few deserted beaches and i can now say i kayaked around an island, pretty cool i think. At the time it was a different story, the sun was crazy bright and even with a hat and my broken sunglasses my eyes were damaged by the sun and about an hour into it they were streaming with water. To Gaz' horror i broke down on the beach in tears with my eyes in so much pain, i knew we had to keep on going and there was nothing i could do for them at that time. We got back in the boat and after being knocked out the kayak by a wave, breaking my sunglasses and capsizing we got back on our way and an hour or so later arrived back where we started exhausted and achy.

Gaz has been a bit traumatised by the whole experience and swears he will never go kayaking again - so i pick up leaflets and pamphlets about kayaking when ever i can and suggest we go again.

That evening we had dinner in the bungalow restaurant and drank a bottle of sangsom between us in the hope that it would help me forget about the hundreds of bugs in the room. It didn't!

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Photos

Longtail boat at sunset
What a fantastic photo

Amazing Cliff of Ko Mok
This is my favourite photo

Sun Set off of Ko Mok
One of the many sun sets we have been lucky enough to be watching

Me
For all of you who have forgotten what i look like!

Looking Good
Gaz and his new sun glasses!

Ko Kradan at sunset
The island we kayaked around!