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Asia 2008 - 00592
On the way to Coral Island. Thailand [Apr 2008]. April 20 - April 21
Ko Phi Phi Don --> Pukhet --> Coral Island --> Pukhet --> Don Sak
We left Ko Phi Phi and headed west for Pukhet - the largest island and the wealthest priovince in the kingdom. It's the second most popular tourist destination in Thailand (first being Pattaya), with its west coast taken over by top end resorts. Our next destination, however, was located in the south, a little island called Ko Hai aka Ko Hey aka Coral Island. While researching Thailand on the Internet, we came across it and it looked quite promising. Surprisingly, our enquiries about means of getting there from Pukhet puzzled Ko Phi Phi'ans since none of them knew the place even existed!
We got a taxi on the east pier, where the speedboat dropped us off, and told the cabbie to take us to the south pier, from where we had to find a transport to Ko Hai. The first and the most obvious choice was a 'tourist information centre'. Unfortunately there were no boats going there that day and we would've had to wait for the next day, either for a regular ferry or for a pricy
Asia 2008 - 00601
Wai'ing Ronald met in Pukhet. Thailand [Apr 2008]. Pirate Boat (???).
We gave it a pass and eventually found a longboat owner willing to give a lift. We settled on the price and made him agree to stick around when we get there until we'd found a place to stay and if we hadn't, to take us back. It took about 40 minutes of a pleasant trip to get to Ko Hai. It looked very pretty as we approached, calm and peaceful. Our first try was at the Coral Island Resort with beachfront bungalows. However the prices were way too high for our taste. My guidebook listed few other options so I was sure we would find something eventually. I asked a nearby sitting Thai about the directions and this is when it got tricky.
- Hi, I'm looking for this place (showing him the place mentioned in the guidebook)
- Uhmm....it's not on this island.
- What? What do you mean?
- It's not on this island.
- We're on Ko Hai right?
- Yes
I checked the index again...Ko Hai page 836...I showed him the section's map, with Ko Hai up north.
- Ko Hai, we're on this island right?
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Asia 2008 - 00605
On the ferry headed to Ko Samui. Marcel, Nuchi, Beata and Me. Thailand [Apr 2008]. Uhmm, yeah Ko Hai but...this map is strange, it says Hai is next to Ko Mook and that's way down south of the country. Besides, the resort's phone number...the area code is no Pukhet's.
I showed him the Pukhet's map with Ko Hai in the south and began to realize what's going on.
- So there are two Ko Hai islands in Thailand?
- Well, uhmm, yeah apparently (surprised).
- And Coral Island Resort is the only resort on this island?
- Yes.
- Oh man, thanks.
My guidebook failed me. I just found out there are two Ko Hai island in Thailand and it indexed only one of them. When I read about the accommodation options I read about resort on the other Ko Hai. Coral Island looked really nice but it was just not worth it to stay for the money they wanted. We got back to the boat. We came all this way for nothing. Well, Phuk it, at least we scored a pleasant, longboat ride and I taught a Thai something about his country. We took a taxi to the city center and after accommodating, hit the town. The Pukhet Town was mostly skipped by the tourist who went straight to the west coast, so the town's infrastructure and facilities were primarily citizens oriented. We hung around for a while, feeling slightly out of place since other farangs were almost nowhere to be seen.
We arranged for a mini bus to Ko Samui on the Gulf Coast, for the next day. We had to do some backtracking, few hundred kilometers north. Of course it would've been easier if we had done Samui first and then continued on going south to Krabi on the Andaman Coast. The thing is we wanted to avoid all the heavy raining that comes with the rainy season, starting as early as sometime in May (according to different sources.) The Andaman Coast gets a lost of rain while The Gulf Coast is almost not affected so by doing the west first and the east second we would have plenty of time to explore the former.
There were two other people going to Samui with us. Marcel, 29 years old Swiss, who'd been on round-the-world trip for the past 5 months, and Nuchi, a Thai woman going back to work after few days off in Pukhet. We befriended and decided to meet again after settling on Ko Samui.
Later, I went again through the Pukhet section in the guide book. I eventually found a short description of Coral Island, with Coral Island Resort mentioned as the only accommodation option. Somebody just forgot to index it. Oh well, no hard feelings though.
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