Wednesday 11-Dec-2013 10:53 AM somewhere in the Gulf of Thailand
I am sitting on the second deck of a ferry boat, plugged into the only wall outlet I could find, heading back to the mainland to go visit Kaeng Kraeng.
December 8, 2014
Today’s travel tip:
Before you take off on a motorbike with a hot blonde girl in a bikini on and a python skin belt with pouches on an island in the Gulf of Thailand, ask her if her husband is with the Russian mob and if she is being followed.
I should go into that story, it didn’t last long,
but it was interesting.
Next stop, I had to buy a phone card to charge up my internet minutes. Outside the door was a guy looking at his phone, trying to decipher the message through the thoroughly cracked screen on his Samsung Android.I told him what it meant.
He had just rented a motorbike and was out for a day of exploring. I suggested we go see a waterfall, there are a lot of them on this little island. Off we went. We walked for a while, scrambled up rocks, back into the jungle. Upward and onward until the weak had given up and there were no other hikers. It really wasn’t that much work. We walked back down, cooled off in a pool of cool water in a bed of granite boulders, we offered and accepted half a liter of water from a couple of Dutch guys, chatted with a French couple and headed off to parts unknown, here a temple, there a Chinese temple in front of which were hundreds of motor bikes. Not much to see there, they were giving away bags of food.
Beach, dead end. We rode around and through the island, never bothering to consult a map nor choosing a destination. My new acquaintance, Marek, an Estonia,n asked somebody what the biggest waterfall was. Sure, why not. Off we went, more concrete roads, a roundabout, another road, a long expanse of freshly graded clay, the road degraded into ravines. We came upon an improvised waterfall sign that led by a small stall operated by a guy blinded by opaque cataracts that led to a small wall, maybe 60 cm tall with a small retaining area that fed dozens of 5 cm PVC pipes. Onward, it was dusk, and we found a sign for a waterfall. We didn’t know how much trekking was involved but decided to venture in and and see if it was close. It was close and one of three, certainly nobody came to see that little thing, it wasn’t much of a walk or much of a waterfall. Whatever, I didn’t want to be in strange jungle after nightfall especially one that likely had a large number of large highly venomous snakes.
We were damn near the middle of the east end of the island, we were aware that there were no waterfront roads but decided to see the coast before heading back. A sign indicated Theneset Seaview, let’s have a quick look and head back.
We parked the motorbikes and our arrival was announce by three dogs which resulted in the appearance of a Thai woman who directed us to the view spot, a large deck ensconced by boulders with a great view of the sea and not a tourist in sight. We both looked at each other, back and the sea, silently changed our plans and Marek turned to me and said, “So, we spend the night here.” That was easy.
We ordered dinner and met the cook, the woman’s husband. I had a few iced coffees, no sugar, which always evinces a reaction and we sat on the deck and recounted the felicity that gave rise to our stay. We had a few items to charge up and asked if there was an outlet. The husband walked off and fired up a generator which remotely puttered the sounds of a small diesel engine and soft music started, some Hendrix blues, Bowie’s Little China Girl, Stevie Ray Vaughn and so it went, great stuff, all of it. Kerosene lamps were set out. We dined and told travel stories, while our hosts checked on us attentively but not intrusively. A little “joy” was produced and the evening passed tranquilly with a pleasant mild buzz.
I asked whether there were a lot of snakes there and Noi assured me that there weren’t. After I talked about all the snakes I had as pets she produced her phone and showed a conflict between her dogs and a cobra that had occurred fifty meters from where we were sitting.
Now, where the hell is our cabin?
Morning
A foot long gecko hung out over the door on the inside of the cabin. I walked up and shortly thereafter and Noi appeared and offered coffee which was soon followed by an omelete and fresh fruits. After a morning swim in the bay Marek and I decided to check out of our respective lodgings and motorbiked up the road “Lonely Planet description’ and then west to the International Airport, a small building with a earthen driveway, I don’t know if the landing strip was paved. Back up another road back east and off to my lodgings. I packed, grabbed a few items and asked if I could store until I returned. My hostess agreed to contact the motorbike company and extend my rental for another two days.
We quickly found an internet cafe and Marek reserved the last bed at the park. A few blocks later we located the bank and paid for our reservations, which cannot be made online.
I was dressed for any eventuality, in a swimming suit, hiking boots, a shirt and a jungle vest. When we made our way to the southeast corner I walked back to the pool while Marek checked out. I immediately recognized the pool as a place with wild pool parties from a Thailand posting on one of my many research sessions. Here there were but a few people in the early twenties, drinking beer for breakfast. In the picture were scores of hot young Thai woman running around without clothes. If only Marek’s room mates had picked up a naked girl he wouldn’t have been so surprised once her pants came off. It would seem to be in the best interest of all parties to disclose that the junk is external. I looked more than out of place in my garb, but cared little.
We set out to what we hoped was a quiet beach on the northwest of the island, adjacent to another tiny island that was but a short swim away. We found a little spot on the water and had Pad Thai and mango salad. We lingered and finally set out to the beach a picturesque, sparsely populated stretch of sand with a beautiful small island that one might be able to walk to during low tide.
We arrived back at after dark, each had a banana shake and I a couple of iced coffees and a wonderful meal. We showed our day’s pictures to Noi and Oo and Marek broke out his computer and showed pictures of his travels to India, a destination Noi and Oo have considered.
We passed the evening with quiet blues and mirthful conversation.
Next Day
I gave thought, but no consideration to renting out the whole place by the year at 20,000 baht a month, about $700, but then came to my senses. Hell, I had just abandoned my house on the Caribbean a few weeks earlier due to restlessness.
We moved an old large battery, topped up the electrolyte, fixed the end to a charger and started up the generator. After the charger was set to the 18 volt position the hydrogen started to boil out of the electrolyte, but without a hygrometer or volt meter it was impossible to ascertain the condition of the battery. At least that would give them some music during the day hours without running the generator.
Morning
Moi informed us that there was an alternate beach and an alternate trail. Off we went, down a trail that headed away from the intended direction and instead of walking narrow paths through the jungle we descended on narrow concrete steps between houses and soon were met by a large pig that came around a house to investigate. A large monitor scampered off a rock and into the jungle. It seemed as though we were intruding as we were near front porch of all the houses, but, many were probably rental units anyway. Over large granite rocks. Is the progression pebble, rock, boulder, rock? I guess so. It is the “Rock of Gibraltar” and “The Rock” in the Bay of San Francisco and El Piedre outside Guatape in Colombia. Back the length of the beach we were on the previous morning to the South end we crossed a rickety wooden bridge that brought us to a dead end, found another walkway right in front of some cabins, waded through some water and found the little beach. Abandoned cabins were everywhere, perched atop rocks on the water’s edge, high up on rocks on the hillside, on the beach, all of them dilapidated and devoid of furnishings. Very strange. We swam in the bay around the large rocks and headed back, a different way, of course. Across a field, under a fence, through the jungle, over more rocks, through somebody’s yard, the generator running, boats lying around and nobody in evidence. Marek suggested that we swim the river, murky with suspended sediment, but fearing crocodiles I suggested we follow the river for a while. Soon it became rocky again, we found some inscriptions on a stone, later to find that that was the marking ordered by a former Thai king to mark one of his favorite places a found our way to the other side up a slope and to a road. We happened upon a large four bedroom house with an infiniti pool that rented out for 13,000 baht a night. A short trek on a road and we were back.
We described what we had seen and Noi told us that most guests don’t even find the beach and that we had seen a great many things she had never seen. We just hung around. In the evening I suggested to Marek that we just have them go to town with us, gather our things and drop us off at the ferry.
We paid them 1000 baht to take us to town, bought our shit, posed for more Facebook pictures got on the Ferry and headed out to Turat Surani.
Jonathan Allen LaFleur