Koh Mak = Heaven

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We lost count of how many times the minibus stopped on the way, we were glad for a couple of toilet stops but not for the other ten or so which included stopping at roadsides to purchase whole cooked chickens hacked up and then nibbled on for the rest of the journey by the couple sat in front of us.... When we got to the pier at Laem Sok we were the only ones out of the 8 on our minibus heading to Koh Mak, the rest were going to koh Chang, the island we had decided to skip for obvious reasons.

We just caught the 3 pm speedboat which was lucky as it was the last one of the day, quite snug in the back of it among the four locals who by the looks of it had been to the mainland to stock up on supplies.

20 minutes into the journey and we found ourselves in the middle of a storm, we were all drenched and the driver stopped (yup in the middle of the storm in the middle of the vast gulf sea with the enormous waves bashing us up and down) and seemed to make the decision it was passing and onwards we went!!!

Arriving on the island with no one around a lovely girl who'd been on the boat with us told us she'd ring a taxi for us, ten minutes later a truck from our hotel turned up and took us 5 minutes to our resort, Ao Kao White Sand.

We instantly fell in love with Koh Mak, no big buildings, supermarkets; we passed nothing but a temple, a small school, and a couple of trackside cafes. Then we arrived at our beach and we were even more blown away! I can't seem to find the words to describe how we felt, I suppose the best way to sum it up is the whole place is just how nature intended, like a desert island, Robinson Crusoe! Skip the rest and come straight to Koh Mak would have been good advice, we really had found paradise.

To top it off we'd been put in a luxury bungalow, which included a DVD player and an endless supply of films, the next day we extended our booking from 3 to 10 days!

We've spent our days here sat on our balcony looking out to sea, reading, a bit of music, afternoon beach walks, sunsets with shandys, evening meal and a film. We've made friends with a lovely stray dog who waits for us in a morning, I share my breakfast with her and she spends her day hanging out with us; sat on our balcony or on the beach. I love her and will be sad to say cheerio.

We borrowed a motorbike one day and explored the island, only came across a handful of people, the lady who filled us up with gasoline, a few people in one of the villages and we passed a few other locals on bikes.

The whole island is still covered in rubber and coconut plantations and is still the locals main source of income, we saw rubbers that had been rolled out and drying and coconuts where everywhere! The people on the island have refused to let the island "turn into another Samui" and so far have succeeded.

It is a true paradise and we feel so lucky to have spent some time here.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />

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