Blogs from Ko Muk, South-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia

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 ... read more

Thursday 20thFebruary 2020 On Tuesday, after yet another challenging journey, we arrived on the beautiful little island of Koh Muk. The idea of island-hopping was to enjoy the boat journeys as well as the destinations, however, these journeys haven’t all been idyllic (the first few were). The speedboat was overloaded when we started off from the pier in Koh Lanta, because another boat had a problem, so all of the passengers on that speedboat (heading for Koh Lipe) climbed over on to our boat, with their luggage, and with folk sitting on the floor once again, we headed off down the eastern side of Koh Lanta, under the bridge that connects to the mainland on the north east of the island, through mangrove channels then out to the open sea. The sky was heavy and overcast, ... read more

The day started well, Grandma’s Kitchen was open at 7.30am as promised and my pick up came exactly at 09.30, despite my last minute jitters that they’d forget me. At the ferry we Ko Mook people got on first and they put our bags downstairs, as we were the last to get off. It was much nicer sitting upstairs on the deck although there was no seating. The first stop was Ko Ngai, which looked VERY nice from the boat and I wished I was getting off there. Then we went past Ko Mook and stopped at Ko Kradan, which looked better for a day trip than an overnight. You had to get off the front of the boat onto the sand, and for people with suitcases along came a guy with a trolley and wheeled ... read more

Getting into Thailand did not go as smoothly as I had hoped mostly due to (as always) my lack of planning and knowledge. I basically looked at the map and decided to make Koh Muk my first destination. After saying my goodbyes to Celine I hopped onto a ferry boat bound for Satun on the Thai mainland. Once in Satun immigration was a breeze as I had my prearranged visa. At the ferry terminal their were many direct "tourist" options for $400b ($13USD) to get to the island of Koh Muk. I shunned them of course and hopped onto a local bus bound for Trang ($120b) where I would try and transfer to another bus for Kuantungku Pier where I could get to the island. Didn't happen - at least not right away. Arriving at the ... read more

It has been a couple of years since my last update. I’ve done some traveling during that time, but not much, and mostly to places I have already written about. I think an update is finally in order though because Saai and I just visited another place that was new to us. We spent the last couple of days on Koh Mook (also spelled Koh Muk), an island in the Andaman Sea (Thailand). Before I get started with Koh Mook, however, I would like to mention the biggest news from the last two years – the arrival of our daughter, Kimberly Joy, on May 8, 2011. Since this is primarily a travel blog, I will focus on Koh Mook, but you can check out a couple of pictures of our little girl at the end of ... read more