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Published: November 8th 2008
Back in Bangkok
The waitress who took this photo remembered us from when we used to go to her bar every week.
Any TEFL people: it's the one on Rambuttri with all the Buddha statues.Meanwhile, back in Bangkok....
So we made it. After a mammoth flight with an 8 hour monster stop over in Qatar, we landed in Bangkok. It was about 7pm and we loaded onto a bus and headed for Khoa San Road. Once checked in to our hotel, despite having not slept in 30 hours - we headed to the bar. We reasoned that this way we would go to bed at a normal time and combat jet lag. Right?
Anyway, we spent about 5 days in the big smoke and our predictions were confirmed - it was kinda like we never left! Weirdly, we had a similar feeling about England when we came back after 13 months in Asia. Having lived more or less in Bangkok there was little we needed to see - so we hung out and ate Thai food on the street and watched the world go by and even went to see a film at the cinema (appropriately for the region - Tropic Thunder).
Nothing excitingly different to report from the big city, but needless to say - it's still there and in one piece.
Big long coach trips
It was soon
time to leave the city and head for some open spaces and ocean breezes. So we boarded a 9 hour bus journey for Ranong in the south, near the Burmese border. Nine hours may seem a bit harsh, but bear in mind that the bus actually has a stewardess who wanders up and down the aisle at given times distributing refreshing cold towels, bottles of water and the odd cake. Plus, there was a stop at a service station mid trip where we got free lunch! Being the only foreigners on board we were well looked after by the other passengers who liked to make sure we had enough rice.
When we arrived in Ranong we had our 1st motorcycle taxi ride since we left to a nearby guesthouse. You do slowly get used to pelting along on the back of a moped carrying all your luggage. Although, obviously you'd never consider it in England...
Anyway, we just stayed the night so we could catch the morning boat to Koh Phayam - just another tropical paradise island, you know.
Welcome to Paradise
Koh Phayam is perhaps one of the nicest islands we've stayed on out here
Our 'resort' from the beach
The Hornbill resort. We thoroughly recommend it. Great huts, nice food, friendly people, great location, cool dogs. if you want to combine a lot of factors. Peace and quiet, friendliness, wildlife (in and out of your bungalow) and life on the beach. I arrived in Koh Phayam thinking I'd get bored living in a place like that...and left as someone happy to be a beach bum. Anyway, I'll flesh out the details.
Koh Phayam has no mains electricity - all that is there is fired by generators or solar power. It also has no roads. It does have narrow concrete paths that allow mopeds to ferry things around the island - including tourists, food and livestock. What would the world do without Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki and their amazing motorbikes? I have no idea.
So we arrived from the ferry and were immediately loaded onto motorbike taxis and transported across the island to Hornbill Huts. We booked a room in advance in Ranong at Pon's Place. After a bouncy ride through the jungle we arrived at our destination - a selection of cute wooden bungalows on the edge of the beach. Our hut was great. It had the sea within view of our ample porch and its own hammock. What more can you need? As
a bonus it also had electricity (at night, anyway). Heaven eh? We were welcomed by a bloke called Kop and soon settled in to island life.
We love animals - hence the university careers
Koh Phayam is brimming with wildlife. Soaring over each beach during the day we saw literally hundreds of sea eagles (the Rough Guide said you might spot "one or two"). But at night the island really came alive. At dusk we saw bats swooping overhead and hanging from our washing line. On a wander through the jungle at night we saw fireflies (a first for me so I was very excited). And this was just outside the hut. Inside we had a massive toe-kay. Basically a big gecko about the size of a Bradford rat - but much friendlier. Avid readers may recallthat we had a resident toe-kay once before in the bathroom of another bamboo hut on Koh Lanta. We called Eddie Liz-ard. Anyway, they're a bit weird at 1st, but don't really bother you, eat insects and are considered good luck by Thais. The only thing that annoyed me is that at 5am each morning he decided to call. It's really loud
and meant to sound like "toe-kay" - hence the name (it's a Thai thing. Cats are called "meow"), but I don't get it myself. It was enough to wake me up though.
In addition to the toe-kay we had a tree frog in the bathroom. He stared at us annoyedly whenever we showered. There was also a horrible incident when I went in in the middle of the night, turned on the light and found him bathing in the toilet. He stared up at me as if to say - "Oh. I'm in the toilet aren't I? How embarrassing." Obviously there are two horrible options I could have followed but I did neither and toileted elsewhere. Save the Earth, etc.
We like people too - hence we have friends
The people on Koh Phayam were varied and interesting and we enjoyed their company. We arrived off the boat with a bearded Canadian who looked like Santa. The 1st people we met at Hornbill were a chilled Swedish couple on an extended beach holiday (incidently, the Swedish and Canadian contingent were later to sing "Happy birthday" to Kate) and our Thai hosts, Kop and Tee, were typically lovely.
Our hut
She was called Monika. According to the key fob anyway. Other than that the island has a general hippy mentality. As an illustration, we went to a bookshop where the books were sorted into the categories - "English", "French" and "Spiritual". The bars on the beach were excellent. Literally set in the sand and made from bamboo, drift wood and tree trunks. One bar was called Rasta Baby Bar and displayed the usual Thai island obsession with Bob Marley and Reggae. I guess that's linked with the fact that everyone smokes a lot. The patrons smoke a lot and the Thai bar staff smoke a lot. And fire dance. And listen to "No Woman, No Cry" on repeat. No doubt it plays havoc with working out the bar bill.
Dr Kate Lloyd's big 3-2
You might be thinking - Kate's 32 now, bumming around Thai islands with no financial security, no car, no house and a hairy boyfriend for company. Yeah, me too, but I'm 29 for the next 8 months so there's plenty of time.
But seriously...Kate had her birthday on Koh Phayam. Her 30th birthday was in Pudsey at the Wetherby Whaler and her 31st was in Sapa in the northern mountains of Vietnam. It's
Going for a walk along the island road
there are no cars so it isn't really a candidate for widening... been an eventful few years. We really celebrated the night before with drinks on the beach watching the sunset followed by dinner at a desserted restaurant (we thought it had customers but they turned out to be staff). After feasting on seafood we ended up in a beach front bar drinking the night away with a ragtag mob of Australians, Thai and Irish.
On Kate's birthday I went and bought her presents. Okay that might sound a little odd but we don't have anywhere to keep things. Sometimes the setting is more importnant. She woke from her slumber on a aparadise island and was greeted with jewelry (made from shells, obviously), a new purse, some sweets and a slide whistle (yes, the type you hear on Carry On films when someone's trousers fall down). It's not everything, there's more in Bangkok, but there's no use for a new Dodge Ram, otherwise I'd get her one. Anyway, she's crap at reversing.
Live! Tonight!! Sold out!!!
Recommendations if anyone reading this goes to Koh Phayam. Stay at Hornbill Huts! Tee even got the ferry back to Ranong with us (coincidentally) and her mam gave us a lift to a
Our frog
who lived in our toilet, jumping up at my bum when I sat down, and then decided to explore the bedroom. which resulted in us chasing it around the room as it hopped about from wall to ceiling to floor. guesthouse of our choosing. They were lovely. Plus, you should definitely wander up the road to Koy Shop, run by an ENglish bloke and his Thai wife. Grab a beer from the ice box, take a seat outside and have a chat as the sun goes down and the surrounding jungle starts to buzz. Then, with your torch (they sell them in Koy Shop if you forgot it), navigate back to the beach and watch the fireflies.
Anyway! Wake up!!! You can't stay there forever!!!
Can you.....?
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kyley
non-member comment
they are said to be a jelly fish
if you google the blue button jelly fish you will get alot of information about them my little sister found one and asked me to find out what it was for her