Everything that bites

---

Tiny Koh Mak island is the shape of a starfish with a leg missing. It is my favourite Thai island so far, ever. 10km long and about 5km wide with two long palm fringed beaches, and a couple of smaller ones if you're willing to explore. It is so laid back that even the sunburn takes two days to come out. But, the goggos! (Insects for those who don't speak South African). I have developed a scientific theory about the ultraviolet wave lengths emitted by London white skin to attract anything that bites. And if it doesn't try to eat you alive, it will certainly give you a nasty rash. Stop that scratching!!

We are staying in a pretty traditional(ish) Thai teak house a couple of meters away from the pool at Good Times Resort. This spot has some of the nicest houses on the island but it is about 200m away from the nearest beach. The jungle gets hot and sweaty here and the breeze doesn't penetrate further than the first row of palm trees, so we have tried not to spend too much time at home, but I have had to do some work in the last couple of days which entailed drawing up some joinery proposals for a new venture and this is about the only thing I couldn't do on the beach. Paper to to mulch here in the 500% humidity so airconditioned thai hut for me and paper drawings while Andrew is loving the fact that that he can email, trade, Skype and what's app all at the same time from under a palm tree. He has set up a permanent office on the trunk of a fallen tree on Ao Suan Yai just where the sand ends and the grass begins. Got to love the technology that allows this!

Speaking of technology, it hasn't all been sunshine and smiles. I haven't yet mentioned that Andrew managed a small miracle before we left London and managed to rustle up a GoPro3 for me for my birthday. They had not been launched in the UK yet so this was no small feat! GoPro is the tiniest HD video camera you have ever seen. I can close my hand around it. It was designed for extreme sports video and you can see a whole lot of amazing footage shot on these little machines on YouTube. Needless to say, we are not up to any extreme sports yet, so our GoPro's nick name is "GoSlow". Only one small problem, with all our technology we still can't view and edit our video or photographs without plugging into a PC. Not an easy thing to accomplish on a tiny island in the tropics. A little frustrating, but we will head to an Internet cafe as soon as we are back in Bangkok and hopefully then the pics and videos will start filling up these pages.

So, enough gadget talk And back to islands. Koh Mak is in the Gulf of Thailand, just off Cambodia, in a cluster of little islands, the biggest of which is Koh Chang. We haven't been there yet, but will stop by after we have been to Koh Kood, which is where we head tomorrow. The island was once owned by Cambodia, but Thailand did a little land swap with them after the war and got this group of islands back in return. Parts of the area have been demarcated as marine reserve, but it is a case of too little too late. The coral has been destroyed even in protected areas, and there is no good snorkelling. We paddled to Koh Rayang No today by kayak to try to find some underwater life but to no avail. The kayaking was great though. The water is like a swimming pool and the visibility is awesome. We saw a barracuda chasing a needle fish bounding across the water, and there were several sea eagles on the way. There are also no sand flies on Rayang beach, so well worth the trip!

I chose Koh Mak and Koh Kood for the beginning of our holiday as they are supposed to be all that remains of the "old" off the beaten track Thailand. Until very recently they had no electricity and some resorts still have no hot water, but not for long. These beautiful little islands have been discovered in a big way, particularly by the Germans and the Swedes. Many of the local businesses now seem to be partly European owned. But as we sit on the beach and have our last supper of green curry with fresh squid, and watch the squid boat lights on the horizon like alien ships approaching for invasion, and await the fire show, none of this matters.

We have spent 8 lazy days here now and have seen the island from one end to the other first by bicycle and then by moped - just to make sure we had covered it all. You can rent a motorbike here for £5 per day, but the place is so small you don't really need to. Bicycling was far more fun although a lot sweatier.

We had our best massage yet at the Coco Cape Resort with sunset views across the bay; and have tried just about every restaurant on the island. Excellent food here!! Ban Koh Mak does a BBQ on the beach every night and the friendly staff have looked after us when we've ended up on their beach some days too. Excellent place for sunsets and banana shakes too. The ladies at Hawana have become friends. They love Brit Pop and serve the only sticky rice with mango in town, as well as a fantastic papaya salad. They have also been doing all our laundry for a price too ridiculous to mention! Leelawadee is the best source for fresh fruit, chopped up and ready for breakfast on the beach.

It is so amazing here, I could stay forever, but sadly and happily tomorrow morning we move on to Koh Kood, another hour away by speed boat, for the beginning of a new adventure.

---

Photos

Koh Mak
Awesome massage at Coco Cape