Life in Thai Prison

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Squeaky Sand

We got off the ferry on the island of Ko Tarutao, a national park area. One of the things Tarutao is known for is a prison that was on the island. They actually had one prison for political prisoners and one for regular prisoners. Apparently the main security on the island was deadly saltwater crocodiles and Sharks. However, there were escape attempts, some successful, and eventually a mutiny where guards joined with prisoners and got into piracy in the area. Many prisoners died of malaria as well.

Sounds lovely doesn't it?

That's why we went there, figured we'd avoid all the tourists. Well, we certainly avoided the crowds! All the vendors at Pak Bara tried to tell us there would be nowhere to stay on Tarutao except tents, which we were willing to do, and told us that we should continue on to Ko Lipe, where all the resorts are. But we decided to brave Tarutao and we were so glad we did. It was wonderfully quiet, empty beaches, good food, cheap place to stay, and we even got entertainment for free in the evening. We stayed in one of the "long houses" (room with four mattresses) which we shared with Kendall for 500 Baht. It wasn't fancy but a step up from tenting it for about the same price it would have cost to get two tents. It was kind of like being at summer camp. There was one place to eat in our little area, run by the park service, and then another similar place at a cluster of bungalows about 4 km down on another beach. They had good food though and reasonable prices which was surprising since they had a captive audience.

There was also a group of University students doing some sort of big camping event just down from where our long house was. They camped in a big circle and even had speakers, a band, and karaoke for entertainment, which was loud enough that anyone within a mile could have enjoyed it as well.

After getting settled in we went for a hike to check out the other areas on the island (walking was main way to get around). We walked down to a beach that must have been two miles long and completely deserted. Supposedly it used to be a nesting ground for turtles but we found out later that their eggs had all been poached years ago and they died out. Then we walked into the jungle a bit to check out a waterfall, which wasn't all that spectacular (actually we're not sure it actually existed) but it was a nice hike about an hour into the forest. The hike out started to get rather dark so we went quickly and reached the main road/pathway by dark. With our headlamps we walked for quite a while to get to the closest eating area (still 4 km from our place), had some dinner, and continued back to the main camp.

February 11th:

For being a prison island, this place is pretty nice! I woke up with a head cold and we decided to have an easy day. We walked up to the lookout point which gave great views of the island and surrounding islands in the distance. On the way down, we saw a dusky langer, a really cute monkey that is dark with white circles around the eyes. We had already seen lots of the other monkeys (crab eating macaques) around camp, in fact they had the trash cans all figured out. One even marched right into the kitchen while we were eating and ran out holding something very large. He tried to go in again but the kitchen staff shoed him away. One afternoon when we were sitting in the dining area there was a plate of leftover food on another table, which a monkey was very happy to find. He hopped right up and starting stuffing his face with rice (double fisting it). He kept watching for the kitchen staff and when he saw them coming he ate faster and grabbed a slice of watermelon to go then took off. So yeah, monkeys everywhere, but not in our room this time!

We spent much of the rest of the day lounging in the sun and playing in the water. It was amazing how empty this place was. We did get stung several times by jellyfish we never saw, or that's what we figured it was, but it was more annoying than painful. But really, this place was paradise.

Tonight the camping group really whooped it up late into the night and we watched as they did several very silly skits that we couldn't understand but a couple of them involved boys dressing up as girls and parading around being silly. Oh, the students were mainly girls. We talked to several of them when we were hiking the day before as they passed us going the other way, but their english was limited so all we could really understand was that they were studying camping.

February 12th:
Yeah, we stayed a second night, not a hard decision. Got up, had a dip in the ocean, showered and killed some time hanging out on the beach before catching the ferry back to Pak Bara. For some reason we had to take a long boat out from the pier to the ferry, which we figured was included in the price but the guy wouldn't pull up to the ferry to let us off until we all paid him 50 baht each. Tricky tricky.

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Photos

Ko Tarutao - the main camp area
You can't see our long house on this picture but it's off to the bottom left side of the picture.