The Thailand Island Hop 8th-21st October

Our long boat was jam-packed with locals heading to the mainland. We were half-way back and there was some problem with the steering. We had to jump ship into another rescue boat and take that one to the mainland. Good start. We arrived at our destination of Koh Lanta and were swarmed by accommodation touts. Lou held her own in taking on 5 at once whilst Jonty made them line up and “sshh!” We chose a resort set up on a cliff facing a cracking beach that had pretty big waves. It didn’t take long for Jonty to be in amongst it body surfing the waves. Lou attempted to join him, but struggled to hold onto her bikini against the current.  We spent the majority of our time on the beach, but had one exciting excursion to some caves.  We hired out a moped (the only way to get around the island) and Jonty, the driver, expertly took us through mud slides. Lou had her eyes closed for most of the trip.

 The cave guides are a local family based at the entrance. We were given a 1920s style flashlight and climbed up the side of a waterfall to the cave entrance. There were 4 different rooms within the cave, all interlinked. The guide was excellent and showed us exactly where to place our feet. The only time we felt slightly nervous was when we had to cross a make-shift bamboo stick bridge that hovered over a 30ft drop. At the base of the furthest cave was an underground lake which was refreshingly cool. We hadn’t quite appreciated how stiflingly hot it would be underground. To exit the cave we had to contort ourselves through a series of awkwardly shaped rocks and were then greeted by a thousand bats hanging from the ceiling. A thoroughly muddy, but enjoyable day. We decided to complete our day of activity with a traditional Thai massage and were pummelled for an hour. Not at all relaxing and completely painful! It was character building.

The next island was Koh Phi Phi. A busy, touristy island that manages to retain some charm. The setting is superb. Mountains either end of two interlinked beaches/sand bar. The sea was green and clear and you could walk out waist-deep for a long way. Great for aerobee. We hiked up to the viewpoint at the top of one mountain which gave us a memorable vista. We also discovered a tasty restaurant where everything came ‘on rice’ for a pound. The sad thing about Phi Phi is that there is litter everywhere. It was severely affected by the sunami and has building works going on in all available spaces. They could really make it something special but it seems to be every man for himself at the moment.

We moved onto Railay beach near Krabi. Lou was in shock when the boat pulled into a muddy, rubbly beach with vegetation everywhere and couldn’t quite understand how Jonty had remembered it as being one of his favourite places. But as we crossed to the other side she was amazed at the huge limestone rocks that cascaded out of the sea and protect the bay. It was indeed picturesque and our favourite beach by far. Pure white, soft sand, sunny days and a cool sea to swim in. A good find.  We wished we’d stayed longer.

We decided it was time to hit the east coast islands and headed off for Koh Phangan. Up until now, we have had brilliant weather. However, after 2 nice days and a resort with a swimming pool to lounge by, the weather turned. Dreadfully. Solid rain for 3 days, we have never seen so much rain. It was interesting to witness for a day, but then came the need to leave and dry off. Tomorrow we head to Bangkok.

17th September – 7th October Perhentien Islands to Thailand

The boat to the islands was exhilirating, pure speed. We arrived at Long Beach where we had to hunt down some accomodation. We settled for what can only be described as a garden shed with a bed in, but it was right on the beach and had a fantastic view! There were holes everywhere, hopefully the mosquito net would prevent too many bites. A bargain at only 2 pounds, a great choice.

While on the island we ventured out on a snorkelling trip, 5 hours of cruising round in a boat captained by a 14 year old. First stop was ‘turtle point’ where we swam following a turtle for about 10 minutes. It was large and glided through the sea at quite some pace, with the ability to turn in an instant. It was quite something. Our next stop was ’shark point.’  Fearless Jonty jumped straight in, but it took Lou a good 5 minutes of convincing herself that it wasn’t dangerous before she jumped in. So for some reason we swam around looking for sharks. Jonty spotted a black tip shark and tried to follow but lost him. Lou had no sightings a little miffed after building up the courage to get in. We had a couple more stops swimming with schools of colourful fish, the water was crystal clear, before we stopped for lunch at a local fishing village. Our last site was ‘coral garden’ there were types of coral that we hadn’t seen before including a vibrant violet and turquoise. Then, unexpectedly a shark swam right underneath us. We followed and it lead us into shallow water where the coral was inches underneath our stomachs. We quickly retreated. The trip was full of surprises.

 The rest our time on the island was spent on the beach, we had lots on sunshine during the day and spectacular thunderstorms at night. Luckily our shed was waterproof!

Travelling in South East Asia is as adventurous, if not more so, than in South America. We left the island at 7:00am in the hope of reaching the west coast of Malaysia by nightfall. We arrived at a bus station to find that we had just missed the bus and the next one wasn’t for 12 hours. The puzzle of how to fill our time was solved by going to a hostel and relaxing there all day. It was like a pet shop. There were boxes of turtles, rabbits hopping around and cats constantly miaowing.

Eventually 10:00pm came and we boarded the bus to Penang. We managed to get some sleep amidst the freezing cold air-conditioning but were woken up by a policeman shining a torch in our eyes. He kept saying “passaporte” and pointing. Jonty made Lou show the man at the back of the bus our passports, but he turned out to be a pedestrian and stared at her blankly. We had to disembark for a man to write our names and passport numbers down on a scrap bit of paper. All a bit odd really.

We arrived in Penang at 4 am, waited 2 hours for the buses to start and hopped on one to our hostel in Georgetown. After some breakfast and a sleep we joined in with the cafe culture of Georgetown. It was nice meandering from place to place, reading the paper and having a drink, plus the food was delicious. A night here was all we needed to recuperate, then it was off to Thailand. A simple border crossing and now we need to get our heads around the Thai Baht currency. Here we are going to do some island hopping, our first stop was the quiet island of Ko Muk.

 We got a long boat to the island, where we were met by a man on a moped with an attached shopping trolley/side car. We both jumped in with our bags and it was a bumpy ride across the island to Farang beach. We knew it was still low season but were surprised at how few of the resorts were open, namely two. There were four other tourists on the island so we had the fantastic beach all to ourselves. The off season also has the bonus of dicounted rates and we were able to afford a 4 star bungalow. Not a wooden shed in sight!

We took a boat to the Emerald Cave. This is a cave that can only be reached by swimming through a pitch black tunnel. As we entered, the sea turned a magnificent green and we could hear a noise much like the roaring of a dragon. The tunnel eventually opened out and we could see light ahead. There was a beach inside the cave, that had 100m high cliff surrounding it on all sides. We were alone, apart from our guide, and it was a strange feeling of awe and a desire to explore, but we only had a short time there. It was an impressive sight.

We enjoyed our private restaurant and ate dinner by candlelight (obviously too early in the season to put the electricity on!) But the next day we decided to rejoin the backpacker society and moved to a tent further down the road! We spent the whole day on the beach, perfecting our throw of the waboba ball (be sure to look it up if you don’t know what it is Ben/Tom) Ko Muk was picture perfect Thailand. We caught a scooter back to the pier to jump aboard another long boat to take us to the next island.