Advertisement
Published: January 22nd 2008
Ko Pha-Ngan
After writing our latest blog entry, we walked back to our beach bungalow from the internet cafe and began getting ready for bed. Our bathroom is outside, and enclosed on all sides but open on top. Michelle was out there for a few seconds when Travis heard her screaming her head off. She came running in saying "There's a frog out there!". Sure enough there was a fairly large
tree frog in the bathroom. We suppose he came in from the top. Michelle hid in the bungalow while Travis went into the bathroom to check it out. Man can those guys jump! And they can stick to the wall! Travis tried but couldn't catch the poor guy bare handed. After ten minutes of the scared frog jumping around like a lunatic, including a brief stop on Travis' bare foot, Travis eventually managed to throw a
sarong over it to keep it from jumping around. It was then easy to take the poor guy out the front door and release him!
The next day was our last on the beautiful island of Ko Pha-Ngan. We booked a day trip to
Ko Tao, another island in the picturesque Gulf of
Gulf of Thailand
Nang Yuan. Three small islands connected by a narrow beach. Thailand. It was funny because the description of the tour included: "Breakfast served while we ahead to destination with freshy morning" which basically sold the tour to us! On the way we met two Swedish girls who were fluent in English, Emelie and Lina. They were very nice and we ended up spending the whole day with them. The tour took us to Nuan Yang Resort - a spectacular group of 3 small islands connected by thin beaches at low tide, or sand bars at high tide. It was tough to stop taking pictures of the place as the water was perfectly clear and turquoise, the sand was white, and the weather was perfect. As the boat approached the island a 7-foot long
Baracuda jumped out of the ocean, its scales shining in the sun. Great to see, but not the greatest feeling right before snorkelling and to make it worse one of the Thai guides said "Big Baracuda will eat you HAHAHAHA"! We snorkelled for about an hour and saw a lot of colourful creatures including a
moray eel which continues to give Travis nightmares! We had a great Thai buffet on the boat before heading to Ko Tao for
Gulf of Thailand
Nang Yuan welcome more snorkelling and then it was time to head back to Ko Pha-Ngan.
Khao Sok National Park
The next day we were up before the sun, and caught a minivan outside of our resort to the pier. We got an express boat to don sam which took 2.5 hours. We were then herded on to a tour bus bound for Surat Thani. When we arrived we were again herded onto a sawngthaew (a pickup truck modified into a taxi with two parallel benches and a canopy) and then onto another tour bus. 8 hours later we arrived at
Khao Sok National Park and "Smiley Bungalows" which lived up to its name! The place is owned by a very nice Thai husband and wife. Their two young girls were hilarious. We were driven in a sawngthaew to a nearby monkey park where you can feed the monkeys in their natural habitat. It was a funny experience, and from there we were driven to a viewpoint to watch the sunset over the stunning limestone cliffs. The two daughters Sa Pay (5 years old) and Pan Dao (3 years old) became fond of us and began to tackle us with big bear hugs and
Gulf of Thailand
Ko Tao - if you look closely you might see a one of a kind creature: a snorkelling maam! tickle us in the face with flowers that they picked. They made the stay so enjoyable - climbing over us like monkeys while we tried to continue eating our home-cooked pad thai! It was hilarious because they can't understand English, and we can't understand Thai, but they wanted to be friends with everyone they met. Such beautiful children.
We planned a tour to Ratchaprapa Lake and it was an incredible day trip. Our tour group consisted of 3 chain smoking German women, an Australian couple, a German couple, us and our two Thai tour guides. All of the Germans could speak English fluently. We were driven to the lake, then herded on to a
long tail boat for an hour long ride past towering limestone cliffs rising out of the water on both sides. Eventually we made it to a floating village where we had lunch. The village is made up of bungalows set on bamboo rafts and was really neat to walk along. On the two or three day tour you can spend the night in the raft bungalows, but we only had time for the day trip. We also swam in the lake which was so warm and refreshing.
Khao Sok National Park
Travis fell from the hammock trying to get out After another great Thai buffet (could the food in this country get any better?) we boarded the Long-Tail boat and continued to the jungle trek / spelunking part of the tour. We were told to wear shoes but were not informed that the shoes would be going boldly into all kinds of mud and water for the entire afternoon! It was an amazing hike through the jungle, and an amazing hike / swim through the pitch-black bat cave. In the cave we could only see what we shone our flashlights on. It was awesome. We got to hold a frog that pretends it's dead as soon as you flip it on it's back, saw hundreds of bats, saw the biggest
spider (white and spindly) that either of us has seen, and saw some strange blind fish. The water inside the cave was so clear you could see right to the bottom with your flashlight. The climb itself was difficult and at times we were waist deep and then fully swimming through the darkness. The hike through the cave was the highlight of the day and made us feel like we were having a "Goonies" adventure! When we emerged on the
Khao Sok National Park
Travis playing Ta Kao - a Thai sport like Hacky Sack. The ball is made out of rattan. The newer version of the sport is like volleyball, with contestants hitting the ball with their feet or head over the net, but you often see a group of Thai men playing the Hacky Sack version on the beach. other side of the cave we had another hike back to the boat which took us back to the floating village for a snack and then home.
We mentioned to the owner of Smiley Bungalows that we had used her friend - a travel agent - to book a few things while we were in Haad Rin. The owner, a woman named Phaiwan, said "Oh yes! Did you know she was a lady boy?" No we did not! We laughed and laughed and thought wow, we dealt with her for an hour and did not know she was a lady boy. Very convincing! Good for her! Or is it him?!
Krabbi Province
The next morning - January 13th - we sadly had to say goodbye to the nice family of Smiley Bungalows and their two beautiful girls. They tackled us with hugs before we left! We arranged a minibus to Krabbi province and on the highway we passed 1. An Elephant, and 2. A pickup truck filled with coconuts with a monkey sitting on top of the pile! Two things you'd never see on a highway back home! We were let off at a hard sell
Khao Sok National Park
Travis handing a monkey some bread. The monkey shrieked and bared her teeth, giving Travis a minor heart attack and requiring a change of trousers. tourist place, telling us EVERY SINGLE room was booked on Railay Beach, except a few left at this one expensive resort. It was way over our budget so we said "No thanks, just a taxi" and headed to the beach ourselves to try to find a better deal. We did without too much trouble and as we looked around we noticed a lot of places had vacancy signs.
Railay Beach is nice and is only accessible by boat. It is a mecca for mountain climbers (especially nearby Ton Sai) due to the amazing limestone cliffs that line the island. The peninsula is governed by the tide: when tide is out the long-tail boats have to anchor out at sea and walk the muddy ocean floor, but when tide is in they can come in almost to the beach. We booked a half day sea-kayaking tour that was great. We saw a jellyfish bigger than a soccer ball, lots of
mudskippers, a lizard / crocodile looking thing about as long as Travis' arm, and lots of monkeys. The craziest part was when we were surrounded by mangrove trees there were monkeys all around us jumping and climbing. In another rocky
Khao Sok National Park
Monkey about to enjoy some bread. area we saw mountain climbing monkeys! We returned to our resort restaurant and within minutes a tropical storm blew in - the rain was going sideways - so we decided to sit tight and order some dinner.
It is so incredibly hot here about - 32 degrees celsius - and the sun just seems to drain our energy so we find we're drinking a lot of fruit shakes to cool off! We keep saying "and this is winter?!?!?!"
Ko Phi Phi
We took the ferry from Krabbi to
Ko Phi Phi - said to be one of the most beautiful beaches in the world - and it was like boating into a postcard. Turquoise water lapping at white sand beaches. Extraordinarily clear water. Limestone cliffs looming over blue lagoons. It really is one of the most beautiful places we've seen. Ko Phi Phi is made up of two main islands: Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh. Phi Phi Don is the larger of the two and is where all of the tourists stay, while boatloads of tourists flock to the uninhabited Phi Phi Leh on day trips. Phi Phi Leh was made famous in the movie "The Beach"
Khao Sok National Park
Travis and the daughters of the owners of Smiley Bungalows. Sa Pay and Pan Dao. as Phi Phi Leh's Maya Bay is where most of the movie was filmed. Ko Phi Phi was hit very hard by the
Tsunami of 2004. This entire area of Thailand is still under reconstruction.
When we arrived on Phi Phi Don we immediately headed away from the crowds to Long Beach. Long Beach is only accessible by Long-Tail Boat but is worth the ride as it's less crowded than Ko Phi Phi's other two main beaches, and we thought a much nicer beach overall. Again we arrived with the hard sell travel agents telling us there were no vacancies on Long Beach, but while Michelle sat with the packs, Travis was able to find a room fairly easily (the first four places were full, but the fifth had vacancies). We spent the rest of the day lounging on the beach like the lazy backpackers we are! The sunset was gorgeous. The next day we made the obligatory day trip to Phi Phi Leh and spectacular Maya Bay. It was incredible. The ocean was a little rough on the return to Phi Phi Don, so the waves were crashing hard against our long-tail and into our faces. It was
Khao Sok National Park
Sa Pay picks some flowers. Later she tickled us in the face with them! like getting a bucket of salt water in the face every 20 seconds! It was annoying at first but after everyone on the boat was soaked through it became pretty funny! The next day we climbed to the viewpoint (tough work!) enjoyed a seafood dinner on the beach, and - our favourite - got a coconut oil massage on the beach!
We had another funny creature adventure in our bungalow - this time it was a gecko. Michelle grabbed a broom and chased it out the door while screaming the whole way! Travis laughed and laughed and now Michelle thinks she is the Crocodile Hunter!
Phuket
Jan 20th we hopped a ferry from Ko Phi Phi to
Phuket and grabbed a minibus to KaTa Beach - again away from the crowds of Patong. Phuket is very different from the other beach areas we've visited in Southern Thailand. It is much more westernized and has many more tourists. The beaches are nice. We again walked until we found accommodation, then quickly booked a Gibbon Rehab Centre visit! Of course as soon as Michelle saw the Gibbon Rehab Centre brochure she made us go there!
Gibbons are Michelle's favourite!
Khao Sok National Park
Jungle Cave Trek with maam on a vine swing The centre takes abused Gibbons (unfortunately far too many) and reintroduces them to the wild after rehabilitation. We spent our days in Phuket enjoying the beach and relaxing as we'll be out of beach territory for the next few weeks or so.
The last two weeks we have travelled some of the best beaches in Thailand. Our favourites were Ko Pha-Ngan (away from Haad Rin) and Ko Phi Phi (Long Beach). Later today we are leaving on a 12-hour overnight bus to Bangkok, followed by an overnight train to Chang Mai where we will spend some time in Northern Thailand.
Thanks for reading, and hope everyone is well!
Love Michelle and Travis
Advertisement
Tot: 0.202s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 17; qc: 84; dbt: 0.1058s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Kevin
non-member comment
so cool
Wow. All those tropical places are so nice! Apparently the snorkelling maam is VERY rare. Im surprised you even got a picture of one. I heard that they sell for millions on e-bay. HAHA! Im not surprised trav fell out of the hammock. those ones are really difficult to get out of. Its funny that you guys went to Phi Phi islands because im a computer game I have you can go to the Phi Phi islands in those exact bays :D Love you both, Kev