Island Hopping

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Well, the train journey was a bit of an adventure. This time I took the top bunk, and slept fairly well. I was trying hard not to get terribly annoyed with the constant hawking of food and drinks, and I managed to only complain when this one particular porter came through. His tone and manner will continue to haunt me :-)

It was a long journey - after having taken an overnight train from Chiang Mai, and just 24 hours or so in Bangkok, we faced the next overnight train, an hour songteaw ride to our minibus, an hour on the mini bus and then about three hours on a decidedly non- luxurious ferry. We are definitely using local transportation! Nai, our guide upon whom we've all become quite dependent, told us that the only thing we were allowed to do for then next 40 hours or so was sleep and relax on the beach. This was a task we were all quite capable of.

We are in Thong Nai Pan Yai, a small beach village on the east side of the island of Ko Pha Ngnan in the gulf of Thailand. It's a beautiful, pristine beach about 1/3 of a mile long with small guest houses and restaurants nestled in the shade of picturesque palm trees. I don't think anyone of us has done anything more adventurous than ordering banana flambé and watching the local boys show off their fire baton twirling skills.

We are in a very basic hotel, but it's more than met our need for some downtime. Tomorrow will take us by catamaran over to Kho Tao for a free evening followed by a day of snorkeling!

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