Thailand: 1970's

Stayed the night at a lovely guesthouse in Trang with a very friendly family. The next morning, took a van to Hat Yao and then a boat on to Ko Libong (incase you forgot ko = island in Thai). It's a nice little tropical island with lots of flowers and a couple fishing villages and no cars. The fishing villages are all muslim, which meant I had a nice roti canai for breakfast upon arrival before taking a motorbike the 10km on a dirt road to the other side of the island. There are only three small places to stay on the island, all on the same beach. As it's the low season (which dramatically ends on nov. 1st), I got a great deal on my beachside bungalow run by a really friendly family as well. Had a great day of weather, so spent the afternoon wondering around the beach and wading to a nearby island and then just doing some reading in the hammock and playing beach pong with the owner's 3 kids. And of course swimming in the andaman sea. I had forgotten just how warm the water in Thailand is. Malaysia and indo have warm water, but thailand is even warmer. It's like bathwater, except it doesn't cool down so you can stay forever. I was also the only tourist on the whole island. The trang islands are still a bit more off the beaten path being farther and harder to reach than phuket and phi phi. So this added to the fact that it was low season, meant I was the only one on the whole island. I had dinner that night in a nearby fishing village. I think it's rare for tourists to wonder into the villages for eating so it drew quite the crowd and commotion to come see the farang eat at the local place.

The next morning, got up bright and early to great weather to take a longtail boat and go dugong spotting. Dugongs, also known as sea cows, are a very endangered sea living relative of the infamous florida manatee. Saw 4 on the trip, or the same 1 4 times, who knows. They just come up for a couple fairly quick breaths, like a whale, before diving back down to munch on the sea grass.

After I was done with the dugong tour, I took a boat back to hat yao on the mainland. As I was barterig over the cost of the motorbike ride to the next port I was going to, 3 japanese expats who live in bangkok stopped by and told me they'd take me there in their car. They live in bangkok and work for a magazine that is published in bangkoks for all the japanese expats living there. These guys' jobs were to write the travel section each weak, so they get to go to these different islands to write about them and the places to stay. Not a bad job. It was 1pm when I arrived at the port and turns out I had missed the last boat which goes at noon to ko mook, so I would have to do an expensive charter. But, I have been in asia long enough to know there is always another way. So I asked around the port and found a boat heading to ko mook just carrying supplies and I could hitch a ride with it. It was amazing how smooth of a travel day it had been. I had never had to wait, from the time I got finished with the dugong tour until my arrival in ko mook, more than 5 minutes for any kind of transport. I couldn't hardly believe it, especially after being in indonesia. It was a good thing too b/c a few minutes after landing on ko mook, it started pouring. There was a woman on the cargo boat with me and she led me to the place she worked at called cocos. They had nice bungalows, but out of my price range. The two owners were incredibly nice though and gave me a tent to pitch on their beach. The owners were both totally chilled thai guys who had lived at one point in LA and I enjoyed just sitting and talking with them. After the rain ended I walked around the fishing village there and then to the otherside of the island to Farang beach where most of the accomadation was. The beach there was gorgeous with huge karst rock cliffs on either side and islands in the distance and empty as well. Although ko mook was a bit more developed for tourism than ko libong, it was still quite empty. I had the whole beach and the sunset to myself. On the way home I stopped at ate at this really nice woman's restaurant, and she was so happy to have me there to talk to. I wanted to do a tour the next day, but to charter a whole tour yourself was quite expensive, but I couldn't fin any other tourists, so I told her my dilemma. She said to come back the next morning.

The next morning (Halloween!!), walking by her place, she came running out telling me she had found 3 other people to share with. So that was most excellent.

The first stop was a place called emerald cave. It was this cave into the limestone cliff that you had to swim about 100 yards, 80 of it in pitch black (the guide who was far ahead did have torch) to this small emerald lagoon and white beach inside the mountain with the only opening to the outside world, straight up. It was quite spectacular and very amazing. Apparently pirates back in the day used to hide their treasure in there. A lost and hidden beach and lagoon. Something straight out of pirates of the caribbean. The swim to it and back to the ocean was pretty intense b/c of the total darkness and the waves, which were small but had a crashing noise amplified by the cave and tunnel. I'm a good swimmer, but at one point, even I was a bit nervous I'd get lost, but apparently there were no side passages.

The next place we went was ko kradan for some snorkelling and then onto the gorgeous white beach there with good views of the turquoise sea and surrounding karst islands. We did the short hike to the otherside of the island for views to that side.
When the tour was over, we all just sat around on the ko mook beach and read and then swam, b/c again, the water is so insanely warm here. Back at my bungalow area, the guys had prepared me a big halloween feast (that they would end up not charging me for as a gift) of some spicy peanut curry and then a huge, huge fresh fish. We also had some fresh grilled pumpkin for halloween and a desert of papaya picked from one of their trees. After the dinner, I walked back to the other side of the island to a place owned by an australian guy (brian) and his thai wife who were having a halloween party. Every tourist on the island was at the party... all 7 of us. The three other people from my tour (max--french canadian, manny--brit, izzy--aussie), some old irish guy, and then an american couple (virginia--from texas and robbie from florida). Costumes were in short supply, but fun was not.

The next day, the guys I was staying with had hooked me up for a homestay at a muslim fishing village on an island in ao phang nga marine park where I was going next. So I took the boat to the mainland, bus to trang and then bus to phang nga town. When I got off the bus a woman came up to me and asked if I needed any tourist info. I was interested in the tours they had and how to get to this island where I would be staying, so I went with her. Turned out she did the tours and booking with the same people I was going to stay with, so she was able to arrange all the transport and everything for me. Again, such smooth travel.

Took a boat ride to ko panyi, which is a little island in the bay. The fishing village is quite interesting b/c it's completely on stilts. None of it is on land. There is a huge giant karst rock as the island, but nothing can be built on it, so instead the people have built a village on stilts. At low tide there is land muddy land exposed, but at medium and high tides it's all water underneath. It's so crazy where they build! I would imagine there are some older people on the island who have never touched foot on actual land. They have a soccer field, but it's a cement "field" on stilts. Needless to say the island was gorgeous and and stunning views, especially at sunset of the bay filled with giant limestone islands. These limestone islands are so spectacular b/c they just just straight up out of the water 100's of feet high. Impressive impressive impressive. I again had the island to myself. During the day, lots of tours come to this island from phuket on their day trips, but I had it all to myself in the afternoon and evenings. They made me a huge tasty seafood meal and I just enjoyed the view under the full moon. The full moon is the one thing that has been keeping me in check in terms of time on this trip, b/c it's such a blatant reminder...and well, there is only 1 more full moon left on my trip!
The next morning I went on the full day trip of the phang nga bay and marine park. Only one other guy, a dutch geologist, was on my tour. And what a great tour it was. First of all, I was glad to be on a traditional and smaller longtail boat compared to the huge budget boats with 40 some people coming from phuket or the fancy schmancy modern speedboats coming from phuket b/c it allowed us to go into smaller caves and areas such as that, as well as I got much better views with only two of us on the boat. We first explored the mangroves and some back passageways there, and then we visited some of the main sites such as hidden lagoons, huge caves and tunnels that we could go from one side of the island to the other buy going under the mountain in the boat. We also visited one where we got out and walked through a cave to a hidden lagoon on the inside of the island. We had lunch on a secluded beach. And we also visited the famed james bond island which is one of the main tourist draws b/c the island just sits awkwardly balanced over the water, like it will fall anytime. And also I guess b/c it was featured in james bond's man with the golden gun. And lastly we saw some places where people 3000 years ago lived in cliff dwellings and had some hieroglyphics. But the best part of the tour was definitely just cruising by and checking out all the crazy gorgeous limestone karsts jutting out of the water.

Stayed another quiet night on the fishing village, and left the next morning back to phang nga town. I was lucky to have gone on the tour the day before b/c this day was ugly and cloudy, though just a sprinkle of rain. Back at phang nga town, I took a motor bike to Phra Sang Manora national park and spent the day walking around there. It had some cool caves and rainforest, but the best was the streams in the area that were blocked by some unique limestone formations into lots of clear blue pools for swimming. So I hiked up the nature trail one way and came back by walking and swimming through the creek. The pools were how you might imagine a fairyland, with tall trees and big roots everywhere and then these pools with cascading waterfalls coming out of each one. Reminded me of the pools in the animated movie Fern Gully that takes place in the australian rainforest (and is a great movie by the way), and which of course has some rainforest fairies.

Back in phang nga, I explored around a bit. It's a nice town with limestone karsts cliffs everywhere as well. Went up to a buddhist temple with a nice view of the town and then made it back in time to catch my night bus (fancy double decker) to bangkok to meet up with the infamous conrad and whitney.

I was very lucky to experience this last bit of thailand that I did. The fact that I was in some of the less touristy areas combined with the turn of the offseason to the start of the higher season is what made it so great. I feel like I got to experience thailand like it was back in the 1970's. You always hear from old backpackers (that I meet in other countries) who travelled in the 70's when the hippy trail was first starting about how completely amazing thailand was with its friendly people, empty beaches, etc but how now they think it's ruined and won't go back. Well, I think I was lucky to see this b/c I can tell you it was definitely much different from when I was there in march-april at places like ko tao, samui, and phi phi.