Scorpion on Ko Disaster!

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We are back in the city of Trang after just visiting two "ko's" (the Thai word for islands) in the Trang province. The first was Ko Kradan, known as the jewel of the Andaman, the second was Ko Libong, otherwise known to us as Ko Disaster!

Ko Kradan was quite the picture perfect island getaway: swaying palm trees, white sand beaches, and coral reefs full of tropical fish and marine life. We spent four nights on the island, mostly at a bungalow complex aptly named "Paradise Lost". It sat inland in the forest, right in the middle of three beaches - Main Beach, South Beach (where most of the snorkelling was) and Sunset Beach (which had the best sand). It was quite a rustic place. Not only did we share the communal bathrooms with the other bungalow guests, but with frogs, crickets, and beetles. Still, the place was famous as having the best restaurant on the island and the cheapest beer. Indeed, the long communal table was always filled with an interesting assortment of travellers come 7pm. We spent our days snorkelling, lazing on the beach, and eating - can't be bad! Amongst the underwater delights, the eels and some gorgeous pink and orange sea fans were the most memorable - truly beautiful!

When we ran out of suntan lotion, we decided we had to move on or face becoming as red as lobsters. After stocking up on supplies on the mainland, we decided our next stop would be Ko Disaster, oops, I mean Ko Libong. Ko Libong is famous for its population of dugongs, which are similar to sea cows or manatees. We have been trying in vain to see these things for a while. Two years ago, we missed them in Australia, and a couple of months ago, we missed them in Egypt. The bay at Ko Libong is said to have over 60 of them, so we were pretty sure we would see them while snorkelling off the beach...

We arrived at the pier at Hat Yai and waited for the boat to go. Within about two minutes of our arrival it started to pour it down with rain. Everyone rushed for shelter under the taupaulins outside the food stalls, waiting for it to ease. When it did, they announced that the boat to Ko Libong was ready to go. Being in Thai, we didn't understand what was going on until the small long tail boat was almost full. Clambering on, we found that all of the seats under the rain cover were full, so we had to stand outside at the front. As the boat pulled out, it began raining even harder than before. The rainproof cover they had placed over all of the baggage proved rather un-rainproof, and water was pouring onto everything! We weren't too worried about getting wet ourselves, we just didn't want to get our bags wet, including everything we owned! Luckily, it eased off again and the sun came out, and we arrived at the island only a little damp and bedraggled.

At the pier, we found that the usual way to get to the tourist accommodations 9km away was to take motorbike taxis. As motorbikes are against our rules, we decided to seek an alternative. We trekked up through town, soggy and carrying our backpacks, and were the focus of attention - I guess most tourists get boats chartered directly to their resort! Just as we were about to give up and resign ourselves to a hairy motorbike taxi ride, a van drove by and we managed to flag him down and get a ride. So far so good.

Once at the beach, we had two choices of accommodation. At the second one, we found a cheap room for 350B. The owner commented to us that we wouldn't find a room for that price anywhere else in Thailand, and was quite indignant when we told him that we had found a place on Ko Tao at Christmas for the exact same price, AND it had attached bathroom. His was a sorry offering of a shabby bungalow with shared bathroom, but we took it, glad of the relatively small cost. He didn't believe our claims and said we should all phone Ko Tao right away as he knew we were lying - the cheek!

It was 5pm by this time so we decided to take a walk along the beach while we still had sunlight. It was not exactly up to Ko Kradan standards! The beach was close to the local town, which meant it was littered with garbage. Oh well, we told ourselves, we were here to see the dogongs, not go to the beach.

We went to the so-called "popular" restaurant that night and it was almost embassasingly quiet. It had quite a lot of people, but a distinct lack of atmosphere. There was no music, and no-one seemed to be having conversations, making for an awkward hush - very strange! So far, no beach and no night life, but at least we had dugongs to look forward to!

By 9pm we decided that we had had enough "excitement" for one night, and headed to bed (our mattress on the floor that is) to read for the rest of the night. We had a peaceful night other than what sounded like the odd rat scratching within our bamboo walls!

Next morning, we got up and had breakfast so that we would be ready for the dugong spotting trip at 10:50am (it wasn't possible to snorkel from shore as planned as they were in a bay half way around the island). By this time, we had decided that we would check out after the three hour trip and catch a 2pm boat that was due to leave directly from our beach. Of course, the dugong boat didn't arrive until 11:25am, so we got a late start and resigned ourselves to spending another night on the island.

We headed out to the bay where the dugongs are supposed to hang out, grazing on the eel grass, and waited.. and waited... and waited. After a while, our boat driver told us we would take a break and visit the park headquarters for birdwatching. This turned out to be a dugong interprative center, all in Thai! We soon left and returned to the bay to search for dugongs. After a while, we were getting a little skeptical and asked the boat driver what he thought our chances were. He was brutally honest and told us that you really only see them in the early morning when they are grazing. At other times, such as mid-day (i.e. right now), they are off somewhere else and you don't see them! At hearing this, we realized that we were wasting our time and asked him to head straight back to our resort so that we could catch the 2pm boat. We arrived back at our beach at 1:55pm and, typically, this boat was actually early, and pulled out just as we arrived. Plan B: take a taxi back across the island and get the public boat, the same way as we had got here.

The resort next door to ours had a songthaew, an open taxi which it used to transport guests, so we arranged for them to take us back to the pier. The driver finished his lunch and then headed to his taxi, wiping clouds of dust off the chairs in the back. When was the last time this thing had been used?! As it turned out, we were soon covered in a fine layer of dust ourselves as the taxi bumped over the unpaved roads. At one point, a felt a tickle on my leg and looked down to see a cockroach climbing happily across my legs - gross! Let's just say we were a little jumpy for the rest of the trip!

Once at the pier at Ko Libong (Ko Disaster) we had amazing luck and boarded a long tail boat to the mainland instantly. Couldn't have been better timing. Unfortunately, we ran out of luck when we reached the mainland and had to wait around for ages for the taxi back to the city of Trang. When we finally got on our way, I opened my small backpack to take out a book and something caught my eye - several nastily striped legs crawling inside my backpack. Aaaaaargh! I let out the most horrendous scream, one that would have woken the dead! Within about 1/2 a second, I realized that my "spider" was in fact a scorpion!!! Even more hysterical, I clambered over Scott (who had been sleeping peacefully) in an attempt to escape from my bag. Meanwhile, Scott called for the driver to pull over, which he did without question. When we told him there was a scorpion on my backpack, he opened the door and we threw the backpack outside. The scorpion was suddenly no-where to be seen. The driver was sooo nice. He took a mat out of the van and emptied the contents of my backpack onto it, searching for the offending creepy crawlie. When he had cleared everything out, revealing all of my personal belongings (which I wasn't worried about at this stage!), he finally repacked my bag for me and we were on our way, satisfied that the scorpion had run away! Gross! For the rest of the journey I kept my legs firmly up on my chair, and kept my backpack at a distance, making Scott sit next to it - what are husbands for anyway?!!

I was more happy than I have even been to arrive back in the grimy old town of Trang and check into our regular hotel with its clean white tiled rooms - phew! I spent a nervewracking half hour emptying the contents of both backpacks carefully, shaking an item at a time, until I was satisfied that we hadn't brought any more little friends back with us from Ko Disaster! Well, we did bring a small beetle back in my big backpack, but I was OK with that - at least it didn't have pincers and a stinging tail!

Finally feeling happy and secure after checking the bags, we went out for dinner and celebrated with a large Chang beer, a vegetarian pizza (a rare weatern food indulgence), and two chunky Kit-Kats - "cheers" to leaving behind dirty beaches, lack-lustre restaurants, and shabby rooms with beetles and SCORPIONS!!! Ugh!

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Photos

This is the life!
Floating on Main Beach