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Published: January 5th 2008
Happy New Year, and welcome to the year 2551!
We are in the future....! And let us tell you, that for us at least, it really is so bright we gotta wear shades!
Christmas saw us arrive (finally) at Ko Lanta, off the west coast of mainland thailand in the Andaman Sea. A nightmare bus ride from Cambodia to Bangkok, a few hours' sleep, and then another marathon (23 hour long) trip south, and we quite literally hit the beach well tired and ready for some sun and surf. We met up with Lon (our travel buddy from Laos) and his friends and family, and we were welcomed to our island paradise with cold beers and warm friendly smiles.
Ko Lanta was amazing. We stayed on Phra Ae (Long Beach) which is a surprisingly long stretch of sand that is completely deserted but for the lazy hammock bars strung along it and the local ladyboys' volleyball court, which saw plenty of action from about 4:30pm to sundown every day. Those ladyboys can play by the way... and their unwanted attention prompted some interesting Tom Jones recitals... "She's a lady.... (boy).... whoa whoa whoa she's a lady.... (boy).... talking
Monitor lizard
A "local" from the beach we had lunch on!about... (that not so)... little lady.... (boy)...". Ha ha ha ha ha ha. We barely left our 'patch', which was conveniently set at the best restaurant in the area, where they whip a mean off-the-menu massamun curry with a day's notice. We did stray from here a few times; we scampered down the beach each evening for 7-8pm happy hour at the cocktail bar, where the drinks flowed fast and furious, and at the end, when the bill came it was always just a case of us telling them how many cocktails we had total! Ha ha ha ha. 12 tipsy fools all ordering drinks 2 at a tim was a little too much for the nice little lady to deal with!
We took a boat trip to some neighbouring islands one day, for some snorkelling and sight-seeing. We swam through a sea cave into the heart of a tiny island. The cave was pitch dark and quite scary, and then suddenly opened up onto a minute beach, completely enclosed all around by a cylindrical wall of stone cliff. Apparently the beach used to be used by smugglers and pirates. No surprise, as you'd never no it was there
Phrae Ae Beach, Ko Lanta
"Our" beach for a week over Christmas. The best restaurant on the beach was "Somewhere Else"! Lachlan played volleyball daily with ladyboys, while Brigid got massages or layed in the cabana. without being there. On the way to the sea cave, we saw a school of tuna taking to the skies to escape a would be predator (probably a Baracuda?). About 50 foot long tuna would leap from the water, all at once, traveling about 30 feet in a perfect rainbow arc before plunging back only to do the same about 15 feet later. 6 or so leaps and they had traveled maybe 120 metres or so, and then they were gone. Brigid saw some flying fish too, which would appear just above the surface and speed through the air 'for miles', only a few inches above the water. They would disappear never to be seen again, and at first she thought that they were actually birds. We stopped at several snorkelling spots and had a great time gawping at the colourful fish and coral. We saw some huge jellyfish, and got stung all over by sea lice. Annoying little buggers! Our lunch stop was packed with nature some more... with hermit crabs of all sizes and shell descriptions meandering aimlessly all over the beach. If you've never seen a hermit crab 'in the flesh' before, believe me, they would blow
you away. They are so cool. And not shy at all. Unfortunately, it seems that their main purpose on this island is to be food for the many monitor lizards that reside there. We were only a few feet away from 3 or 4 of them, one about 6 feet long. THAT was cool, although a little unnerving, as thri claws are monstrous, and they can definitely do a bit of nasty to ya if they so desired. L spent ages just gazing at them, while B got bored and wandered off somewhere to take pics.
Our plans to get daily massages were thwarted by the sun; 2 hours building a sand turtle on the beach and L was more than red. The same two hours sitting in the shade watching him, and B was even worse. We've been very reserved with the sun since then, but are both definitely looking quite brown and candied!
After a few misfires we finally decided to go to Koh Tao for NYE, avoiding the party scene at Koh Pa Ngan, which was not really an option for us anyway, as the whole island seems to book up way in advance for
their regular fullmoon parties and NYE. We took and overnight boat from Surat Thani to the island; 10 hours of gentle rolling, on little floor mats that were crammed tightly into the upper deck. The mats were small... such that everyone was sleeping essentially in the same bed as the persons on their left and right. The boat was sold out, so it was a very friendly affair...! On arrival we avoided all of the touts and enjoyed a quiet breakfast and decided on a specific beach to stay at; Chaalok Baan Kao, on the south tip of the Island. Koh Tao has loads of the tiniest little bays and beaches, It is great for exploring, allbeit a little difficult. The roads are horendous, and boat taxis are about the only way to get far. We rented a moped one day, and had a blast; exploring along broken riverbed roads and up crazily steep hills etc. Brigid almost drove into a shopfront when she was turning around once. That was funny. If you're not used to them, they can be pretty tricky things to handle!
We spent several days lounging at our favourite beach; freedom beach, where the sand
Motorcycle Ridin'
Our New Year's Eve activities included taking a motorbike around the island. Very bad 'roads', but Lachlan drove like a pro. Our 'renting agent' seemed pretty nervous seeing us off when we asked, "So how do you work this thing?" is a bright white powder, for about 100 metres, bordered at each side by beatiful rocks and land spurs. The surf crashes down in a turquoise foamy splendour and you can see white sand and coral at the bottom of the water as far as the eye can see. The beach was perfect for us, as it had a small bar on the edge (ka-CHING!) and the beach itself was shaded with small scrubby trees which grew from the tideline. Here we watched locals fishing successfully for squid, skinny pipefish cruising the gentler pools by the rocks, and also some of the most impressive Baracuda EVER! One about 3 feet long, others slightly smaller. They would chase would-be prey across the bay, flying along the top of the water like a missile, darting under and over the water trying to catch their dinner. These fish our easily the fastest things we have ever seen. Less than 2 seconds of straight-line hurtling would see them cross the entire bay; about 150 metres at that point. Long silver bullets. They would make a sort of hiss as they skimmed across the water, and if you didn't see them right off the bat
New Year's Eve on our balcony
Nothing says classy like drinking wine out of milkshake plastic glasses! they were gone so quick that you wouldn't at all. "Look Brigid"... "oh... nevermind, it's gone!". Ha ha ha ha.
We broke up our lounging with another boat trip, which was a bit disappointing; the weather had turned nasty on us; there were thin clouds shady the sun, a noticeable breeze, and the temperature had dipped to about 75 F. The waters were a bit cloudy for snorkelling, and some large waves would occasionally rock the boat quite strongly. We did however visit NangYuan, which is an awesome sight. 2 small mountains and a low-lying hillock, connected to one another by thin strips of white sand with beatiful blue sea on either side of them. This place was built for photos I think, but really, there was little to do there but lay around and wait for the boat to take us back.
We spent New Year's Eve quietly; a nice bottle of wine and some music, sitting on our terrace overlooking the bay, and then a fantastic fresh seafood BBQ. We had some of the biggest prawns you'll ever find (seriously, they were about 10 inches long from head to tail, and about 1 1/2 inches in
diameter!) ***Interject... this is Brigid. They really were that big. Lachlan is NOT exagerating this time!***, and a large piece of grilled Marlin which is a very tasty fish. Just like Tuna but not so strongly 'textured'. We accompanied this with some delicious Thai curries from the buffet, and some tasty fruity cocktails. We sat on a wooden bar platform overhanging the beach, and watched fire juggling and twirling, and an endless (allbeit sporadic and irregular) fireworks show, with some very big, low-flying rockets. Some barely made it above the rooftops of the bars before exploding with a multicoloured, earth-shaking boom.
It's been great to relax like this, and just be calm. Listening to music, reading, writing postcards, juggling, or just siting there doing ABSOLUTELY nothing. I spent about an hour standing in the surf enjoying the feeling of the coral and sand tickling my feet as the waves eroded the ground beneath my feet on their way back to the sea.
So really... it's all been pretty dull and boring. No fabulous insights. No crazy stories. It's just been a very nice two weeks' holiday. Actually I lie... there IS one funny, crazy story... now that I
Snorkeling Trip on Ko Tao (Nangyuan Island)
Very cool two islands just off Ko Tao. One little strip of sand connected the two and the waves would meet over the middle of it. think about it...!
We're currently in Bangkok, after taking the worst boat trip back to the mainland. Beware of good sounding adverts like "Fast catamaran". Whoa. Maybe 30% of the passengers popped within the first 45 minutes. The rest were soon to follow, or at least disembarked after the 2 hour trip looking very grey and translucent. We may have never felt worse than we did on that boat!. The stupid thing rolled and plunged and rose at every wave. Up and down and round and round side to side. It took everything we had for us not to barf. At one point, I was holding on to the edge of the universe, swallowing hard and breathing shallow. I was desperate to take myself to a happy place. To distract myself from my own internal goings on as much as from the smell and sight and sound of people puking all around me. I was desperately hot and sweaty, and I was furiously fanning myself with the emergency procedures leaflet. It's amazing how few suitable things there are to think about in such a situation. My mind bounced from one subject to the next, searching out a handhold; Food...
Nangyuan Island
Beautiful overlook of the islands. NO... juggling... GOD NO... the on deck movie... No way... the 9 hour bus ride awaiting our landing... err.. I think not... Everything somehow entailed thoughts of motion or math, or calculation of some sort, or required thining about the spatial orientation of things. All disastrous. At one point I found my mind stuck on the spelling of weird and obscure words. It made me feel horrible and I couldn't stop myself doing it for ages. In the end, I just fanned myself. Manically. For two hours I beat out the same rythmic flapping, risking repetive motion strain for the short term gain of coolness and fresh feeling air. I just went numb. And flapped. It became a metaphor for my survival... "Must... not ... stop flapping. Must... endure... the... pain.". Brigid and I exchanged no words the whole trip. She was feeling just as bad.
So... now you can all feel happy. It isn't all just fun and games for us here afterall. We have 2 days here to close out things; shopping, eating, organising various bus transfers etc, and we still feel a little sea-legged...
So... back to the states in a couple of days. One
week in San Fran and we'll be off to Peru. And bolivia (if they'll let Brigid in) and Chile, and Argentina. Wine country!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hope your festive fortnight was fun!
L and B
PS--If ANYONE can get us Opening Day tickets...PLEASE DO SO!! 😊 We'll be back in time for Cardinals baseball 2008!!!
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Doug
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leaving
It looks like you found a great place to end this part of your trip. The scenery is great and seems to be an idealic place to relax and take life easy. You will be back in the U.S. by the time that you read this and it will all be a memory. The beach bungalow looked a little questionable. It looks like Lachlan sitting on the bed(?) in the shadows. I look forward to talking to you both about your whole trip when you are back.