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Published: September 3rd 2005
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Hairy taxi ride across Ko Pha-Ngan
Keith trying his best not to get motion sickness. We are both feeling very lazy after our hectic schedule in Ko Tao. We now get to sleep-in every morning and don't need to set any alarms for Early morning dive theory sessions. Keith completed his Advanced Open Water certificate and managed to rack up 11 dives in 6 days. Diving Sail Rock and the night dive were the highlights. We were both really sad to leave Ko Tao. It is the kind of place that can suck you in and you soon loose track of time. The island is very westernised and diving centric but has a great feel to it.
Our next stop was Ko Pha-Ngan, a 90 minute ferry ride from Ko Tao. We arrived in Thong Sala, the main port, in the midday heat and were not prepared for the bombardment of taxi touts. Not many people got off the ferry at Ko Pha-Ngan so we took the full brunt of it. Our plan was to catch a taxi all the way across the island to the North-Eastern side to two bays called Ao Thong Nai Pan Noi and Ao Thong Nai Pan Yai (little bay, big bay). We had read in our trusty Lonely Planet
Paradise...
Except for the karaoke at 2am! Bungalow in the background. that this was an undeveloped part of the island and had the best swimming beach. It also said that a taxi ride would be around 80 Baht. So when we stepped onto the hot and dusty pier and had twenty touts trying to get our attention but offering nothing cheaper than 600 Baht we became a little despondent. Well we lugged our packs to the nearest shady spot and after have a cold Fanta managed to find a girl from Moldova also trying to get across the island. So the three of us managed to hustle the taxi driver down to 500 Baht and we headed off on the 45 min journey over some of the steepest and most eroded roads we had ever encountered.
On arriving in Ao Thong Nai Noi we did a little scouting around and finally settled on a bungalow 20 metres from the beach for 370B a night. It looked respectable enough and we couldn't understand why it was so much cheaper than the others. Well, the first night we were treated to night long karaoke from a bar 50 metres down the beach. At least this was a one off as the party
Breakfast on the "High Street"
Good fruit, muesli and home made yogurt seems to alternate between the 5 or so pubs on nightly basis. It was on the second night the we discovered the second reason for the good deal. We had noticed that the bungalow was very airy which we thought was a good thing until the heavens opened up. Lisa spent the night trying to lay towels across the top of our mosquito net to try and divert the leaks. In the end we had to switch off the fan as water was running into the electric socket. Needless to say Keith slept through this saga and still thinks the 370B a night was a bargain. The beach itself was awesome with very little development and what there was had been done in a tasteful manner. The bay was good for swimming in but at this time of year the visibility in Ko Pha-Ngan is poor so we weren't able to do any snorkeling. We found the first day pretty difficult as we were so used to having our days fully booked with activities. Now there was not much to do but find a spot in the shade and read/sleep the day away with the odd swim to cool off.
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Never did get around to trying one After three days of this we had become pretty good at it but it was time to move on.
We have now been in Ko Samui for two night and are staying in a smart bungalow in Hat Mae Nam. We had read that this was less developed than the popular East coast. The bay looks North to Ko Pha-Ngan and has some excellent restaurants on the beach. Yesterday we took a local taxi (similar to a mini-bus in SA) to the popular Chaweng on the East coast. Ko Samui is extremely developed and this beach front is jam packed with mainly luxury resorts. It is a lovely beach but most of the beach is cordoned off by the resorts and there are only certain areas where you can swim as there are a lot of launching sites for all the jet skis. We had a quick swim (one at a time as we had our bag with us) and during this time Keith was offered drugs from vendors three times (Lisa wasn't offered anty - hmmmm...).Needless to say Lisa wouldn't let him buy any and we walked the length of the beach before cutting through one of the
Blood Sucker
Just missed the artery... These suckers kept Keith busy with daily patrols around the bungalow amazing resorts to the shopping street which runs parallel to the beach. This street is bustling with stalls most of which sell counterfeit designer clothing and CDs. We also saw a Starbucks, Mc D and KFC. The eating places on the main drag are all over priced so we thought we would try and head down one of the soi's (alleys) to find some cheaper local cuisine. What we only realised afterwards was that these are where the lady bars are located and Lisa made us do a quick u-turn much to the amusement of the ladies who were off duty sitting at the bars. One of them shouted out "Oooh, very sexy man!!" to which they all burst out laughing and Keith was quite chuffed about. Lisa reckons they say that to all the men. Well, apart from that we have been lazing on our beach in front of the bungalow and have been kept company buy the owners puppy called Lilly. Lisa was quite fond of her until upon returning from a swim we discovered that Lilly likes books and had chosen to chew on Lisa's. At least the missing pages had already been read. Needless to say
Ko Samui Fruit Take-Away
Cut and prepared on the beach. Lilly was not in Lisa's good books and neither was Keith as he did not discipline Lilly to Lisa's satisfaction.
We have found an wesome retsaurant called Chokdee, where the tables are set on the sand and the waves lap near your feet as you eat. The food is great and Keith had a three course set menu for 100 baht = about 1 pound!Last night there was a huge storm which lasted most of the night and in to this morning. Never seen so much lightning.
We are deciding on our next destination and will be heading off tomorrow for the Andaman coast.We have not decided on whether to head to Krabi or Trang. Both of which are jumping off points to near by islands and beaches. We will book our ferry and bus tickets today after watching the Tri-nations. We have about another 10 days in Thailand before we head south to Malaysia.
Thanks for all your messages - it is great to log on and hear from you all.
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Marilyn
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WOW GUYS - I'm soooo jealous!!
Hi Lis and Keith, I know I know, I'm a bit slow to catch up soooo up early this BRIGHT (nooot) summersaturday in London and I'm up to date on your tracvels! Sounds and looks like you are having an awesome amazing time! Plse keep up with the photos and news - great!! Oh, and plse can you change my email adress (if you can) to fischer.marilyn@gmail.com. Thanks a mil! Take care, Lots love, Marilyn