Before you start to read this post here is a formal warning: The following blog post contains descriptions of days spent on beaches and drinking at bars. Emma-Louise Naef apologised for what seems to be repeated content but, in order to stay true to the real events, must brag just a little bit more about life in paradise.
In order to make this post seem less like showing off I will promise not to leave out any tough or unenjoyable bits which also help me to convince myself that I am not just lazing about on beaches. The first tough bit that I am referring to is my journey from Koh Tao to my next destination Koh Phayam, a small, much less touristic island off the coast on the opposite side of the country from Koh Tao, where I was planning on meeting a fellow traveller who I had met in Pai. After the ferry to Chumphon on the mainland I found myself in a huge crowd of people with no idea how I was meant to get to the Chumphon bus station for my next coach. An employee of the ferry company ushered me towards a coach heading for Chumphon town and reluctantly I paid for the ticket at climbed aboard. We travelled for quite a while until we reached Chumphon train station. Everyone piled off the coach, including the driver, a sign which should have told me the coach was indeed not going to take me to where I needed to go. I stayed on the coach hopeful that perhaps he was just having a break before a man came on the coach and told me I needed to get off, crashing my hopes once and for all. The man who had asked me to leave the vehicle was actually a taxi driver (convenient) and asked me where I needed to go, then told me it would cost 300baht to get there as I was on my own. Slightly disgusted by such a high price, but even more worried that I may never find a way to get to the bus station without this taxi, I jumped into the passengers seat. The driver turned out to be a pretty interesting guy who, amongst a number of things, had trained as a free diver, lived in Canada and been in the Thai navy. He spoke English really well and gave me some tips about Koh Phayam. He dropped me at the station and wished me luck and, after getting to know him a bit, I slightly less reluctantly handed him his fare. The next coach to my next destination, Ranong, was not for a couple of hours so I bought some snacks and sat with my book until it arrived. The coach was air-conditioned and had free wi-fi and so I sat back and decided to take this time to relax and enjoy the beautiful Thai scenary which was whizzing past the windows. I checked my messages on my iPad and saw that the person I was meant to be meeting in Koh Phayam, Yeori, was in fact stuck in Bangkok with no way of leaving. That week was in fact a huge national holiday which encompassed Thai New Year and Songkran (a national festival where people traditionally throw water over one another to wash away sins and bad luck but has, in many places, turned into a giant water fight in the street) so the transport in and out of Bangkok was completely full. This threw me, and made me suddenly realise that I was on my way to somewhere I knew nothing about and sudden doing it on my own. After a couple of minutes of worry I realised that I was always doing it on my own and pulled myself together.
I arrived at Ranong, another bus staion that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere and found a sign, of almost miraculous existence, saying every backpackers favourite word 'information'. Surely in the direction that the sign was pointing I would find someone who could help me get to the town of Ranong and into a reasonable hotel for the night before my ferry to Koh Phayam in the morning. Well, yes, this person was sitting behind the information desk, but this person, along with all the other people at the bus station, did not speak a word of English. This lead to an indefinte amount of time spent attempting to use English words, just repeating the word 'Ranong' and 'taxi' and finally using physical symbols for hotel (the arm triangle over my head to symbolise a roof, which didn't seem to translate and successfully the palms together on one cheek to show sleeping, by which point I had a small audience attempting to decode my charades) after which the information lady rushed to her phone and soon a man arrived who would take me to his hotel in central Ranong! Usually I would not get in a car with a complete stranger, but after the debacle that had lead to his mans arrival I was pretty convinced that he really did own a hotel. The interior of his car made me slightly doubt my judgement though as it was completely kitted out with frog themed car accesories. There were numerous frog statuettes in various freeze-frames on the dashboard, green frog seat belt covers, a fluffy green frog steering wheel cover and even a frog head gear stick cover. It was odd to say the least especially as the language barrier meant that there was no chance of getting any explanation for these objects and so I just sat surrounded by them trying to keep my face relatively neutral, it was a bit of an elephant in the room really.
The hotel was basic but perfect and the boy behind the reception desk spoke English which allowed me to organise my ferry to Koh Phayam to the next day woohoo! I skyped friends at home that evening and lay on the bed mentally calming myself down. It is amazing that when you get used to staying in one place even for 2 weeks, travelling can become so alien, although I will defend that this was a pretty strange journey regardless.
The next morning I got up early and got a taxi bike to the ferry terminal. The 'ferry' turned out to be a boat thats primary function seemed to be to deliver fresh food to the island and the boat owner had decided that they may as well take some passengers along for the extra cash. I spent most of the long long journey squeezed between a basket of watermelons and some courgettes. Yes, I had booked the slow boat to save some Baht but nothing prepared me for how slow it really was. I watched as speed boat after speed boat sped past all taking passengers who had paid 200baht more than me directly to the island, bastards.
When we finally arrived I was the only westerner on the ferry pier. All the other holiday-ers were Thais from various parts of the country visiting with their family over the holiday period. It was interesting to see the Thais who were so obviously from Bangkok next to the local Thai people. There was a completely different uniform it seemed for the two groups. The Bangkok group all wore brilliantly clean, bright, eye-catching clothing, some of it stylish but a lot of it so outlandish that it looked like some sort of costume. The island group wore dusty flip flops, cut off shorts, jeans, bandanas and smiles on their faces. I was approached by one of the island group as I got onto land and he convinced me to come and see the bungalows he had to offer. He was an old, friendly, wise looking Thai guy, with whisps of grey heir escaping from under his dusty navy blue baseball cap and a nearly toothless smile which often let out a brilliant, infectious laugh. His name was Yudi, I learnt that he was fluent in German as he had studied engineering there when he was younger 'in the British part of Berlin', and after a very bumpy ride on the back of his rusty little moped we arrived at Palm Beach Bungalows, the accomadation that he managed. The bungalows were absolutely beautiful and I fell in love with my little seaside shack almost immediately.
I took a well deserved nap in the net hammock that hung on my 'balcony' and when I woke up Yudi offered to take me for a tour around the island, which of course I accepted. We rode to the pier again and he took me to see the buddhist temple and large buddha statue, there was also a temple built on the end of a pier, something I had never seen before.
We then travelled up into the hills to a little cafe with panoramic views of the island and the mainland in the distance. Huge plumbs of dark cloud began to appear over the mainland and the rumble of thunder and flash of lightning made for a pretty beautiful show from where we were sitting. Yudi laughed and said 'so much rain there, we have had no rain for 6 months!' We drove in the sunshine down into the town so that Yudi could buy some supplies and the wind began to pick up, it looked like I may have bought the much delayed rain with me because after a few minutes huge drops of it started to fall onto the dusty surroundings. It rained heavily for about 15 minutes and as soon as it showed signs of stopping Yudi and I jumped onto the moped and headed back to the bunglalows. That evening I walked down Aow Yai (Long Beach) and found a restaurant with wifi. The beach itself is 4km long but compared to other island beaches I have visited it is very quiet, only a handful of resorts line the beach with only a smattering of guests, which made me wonder where all the Thai tourists had gone to. Another thing about the beach was that it seemed to be solely inhabited by couples on romantic holidays, in fact I didn't meet one other traveller who was here alone. Brilliant. However, as if by magic, the restaurant that I went to on that first evening not only had wifi but 10 ridiculously cute, very little, very fluffy puppies. And what does every single girl who finds herself alone in a couples retreat need? That's right, she need a load of puppies.
Awwwwww.
On the 13th I decided to venture out and walk the length of the beach to see what was going on. The answer was not much, but it was a gorgeous beach and so I enjoyed it regardless. I went and sat at one of the many beachside restaurants and had an ice coffee while I watched some people take to the waves for the surf. This beach is one of the very few (if not the only) beach in Thailand that offers the waves needed for surfing. Ok, it was not the same standard that I had witnessed in Aus, but people were enjoying it none the less. I walked back down the beach to the bungalows and asked Yudi fir some advice about how I would get to Phuket Airport in order to meet my sister, Bonnie, in a couple of days time. He instantly started dialling a number in his phone and speaking to the person on the other end. He passed the phone to me quickly introducing the voice as his 'sister'. Every single person Yudi had introdiced me to so far had been his sister or his brother, but as he hadn't introduced me to too many people, I assumed he must have a big well-connected family. The woman on the other end spoke quickly in heavily accented English but I managed to gather that I would have to take the speed boat from Koh Phayam to Ranong, then she would send someone to pick me up and take me to her hotel where I could catch a coach to Phuket Airport. Brilliant! Another wonderful show of Thai hospitality and resourcefulness!
Over dinner I met a journalist and photo journalist who were living and working in Myanmar (Burma) and I spoke to them about the new book I had started reading that day The Trouser People which was a autobiography of a journalist who travelled through modern Burma and learnt about its troubled past and equally troubled present (great book, seem to be on a bit of a lucky streak with my books at the moment).
The following day was more rain, when the rain stopped I attempted to snorkel in these but the silt on the sea bed and the rain churning up the water meant that the visibility was rubbish, and I saw a suspicious looking jellyfish, so I gave up. I retreated to my little shack and began to pack my bag for my trip the next day. It goes without saying that I spent my evening playing with puppies.
I woke up early the next morning in order to hitch a lift with Yudi to the ferry pier for my speed boat to Ranong. I said farewell to Yudi and jumped aboard the little boat and enjoyed a very speedy crossing back to the mainland. As I got off I expected to find someone waiting there to take me to Yudis 'sister'. I waited and waited until I gave up and spoke a man who had been organising taxis for people. I told him I had been waiting for someone to collect me because I needed to get to Phuket airport. He nodded his head and instantly dialled a number, which I presumed was for a taxi, and handed me the phone. A voice on the other end said 'Is this Emma?' and I felt like laughing. It was Yudis 'sister'. Perhaps, I thought, she is my guardian angel. How she ended up on the other end of this call I still have no idea but the man gave me a lift to her hotel where I ordered an ice coffee. Without meeting the sister or even mentioning that I needed to get to the airport, when I got the bill it included 400baht for my coach ticket. Thailand has a way of seeming as though no one knows what they are doing but always getting you where you need to be. It's almost like magic.
I arrived at the airport 7 hours early so skyped my friends and ate the most expensive meal I have had since being in Thailand, Burger King. I sat by the arrivals gate watching lots and lots of people walk through until I saw a pale Bonnie-shaped person walking towards me. I pounced on her and hugged her maybe a bit too tightly, it was so great to see her. That night we stayed in a nearby hotel curtesy of Dad and we ate a whole easter egg that Bonnie had bought with her.
I think I will leave it there, even though 2 weeks have passed since Bonnie arrived. I think those 2 weeks deserve their own post!
Thank you for reading!
Emma x
A great read, keep em coming.
ReplyDeleteThe diving sounds great, but it was much harder in my day, no dive computers, we had to work out dive, stop and rest times ourselves, that was BSAC a proper Dive organisation not like PADI, blah blah blah
NB if you've been consorting with Beach Puppies, which are notoriously flea ridden, you WILL need to be fumagated when you get back.