So going back to Tarutao, on my last afternoon I rented a kayak and went up the river. I didn't have time before dark to go up and see the crocodile caves, but nor did I feel like at least two hours of kayaking. One hour was fine, and it was a really beautiful area. The river was wide and ringed with mangroves. It was silent and majestic. Of course, I did wonder about the safety aspect. As the ranger walked towards the kayak I was renting, he picked up a life jacket that had fallen on the ground and placed it on a railing, next to eight or ten others. We then proceeded to walk past the lot of them and pushed my kayak in the water, and he left me to it. It reminded me of the bicycle I'd hired earlier – no helmet there either.
The next morning it was time to go to Koh Lipe. While all the other islands round here were part of the National Park, Koh Lipe was not. This meant that development was getting fairly out of control, according to reports on the Internet. I'd been here twice before – three years ago and four years ago – and found it a lovely island. I was keen to see if the commercial development was getting out of hand. It takes around half an hour to reach Lipe from Tarutao, though a stop on a beautiful little uninhabited island (I think for package tourists) extends that to about an hour.
Luggage wasn't exactly stowed neatly away:
This was the island we stopped at en route:
By the way, something that might be obvious to others, but wasn't to me: you can click on any photo to expand it to its full size. The larger one captures the full glory of a tropical beach ...
After getting back on the boat, I noticed that my feet were absolutely covered in sand. As I returned to my seat, I dimly recalled the guy before me rinsing his off before stepping inside. Oh well, I thought, there were dozens of us – surely others will bring in more sand. You'd think. I sat there quietly, surreptitiously looking down at anyone else's feet. Come, somebody, please. It was ridiculous – everyone of them freshly bathed. I stared down at the small sandcastle I'd accidentally created.
It was obvious as we approached Lipe that things had changed since I'd last been here. The speedboat drops you at a pontoon moored offshore, and a longtail brings you in. For a start, there were now two large pontoons. The bay was littered with far more longtails now. It had a general air of quiet busyness. Still, as we rode towards the shore, it still looked the beautiful place I'd come to love. The area's so picturesque, you can't help but look past all the people and enjoy the surroundings.And the water looked as beautiful as ever. Unfortunately my pictures don't do it justice – that first day was the sunniest, and I didn't take many.
My resort, Green View Resort, was situated about halfway along the main beach, Pattaya Beach. It was run by an Italian, a relaxed though slightly stoned-seeming guy. When I went to check in, he mumbled something about how I should have been there that morning, that the boat was late. I was fairly sure neither of those things was true, but it did have me worried he'd given away my room (despite having prepaid). It was the peak time of year, and every half-decent resort would be booked up. However, it seemed his comments were just made in passing, because he took me to my room towards the back of the resort. The bungalows were made of bamboo, though the bathrooms attached at the rear were concrete and tiled. I really liked my bungalow. The place I'd stayed previously really annoyed me (I'm still not sure why I stayed there a second time - probably the devil you know). Good accommodation was hard to find on Lipe in the old days, but so many new resorts had sprung up – including this one – that there were a few places to choose from. I'd actually tried to get in to Sanom Resort, which had its own private small beach, but its website was a joke and communicating with them a waste of time. (There was an automated booking system on another website that handled reservations for multiple Lipe resorts, but every time I put my dates in, it automatically changed them to October. I'm not sure how many bookings that website actually receives ...)
At any rate, I was very happy with my resort. The grounds were clean (this is not always so on Lipe), there were nice bamboo long chairs in front, on the beach. And the there was a cordoned off swimming area in front of the resort. Moreover, it was in a great position – handy to restaurants, bars and longtails.
My bungalow was fairly new (it was 1200 baht or NZ$51 a night). Sure there were some gaps around the room where the bamboo walls or "windows" didn't quite fit, but it was pretty well made and had a lot of charm. More to the point, the bed was excellent – at least after the slab I'd had to put up with on Tarutao.
I have to say, I kept forgetting about the little bin. I was naturally reluctant to retrieve the paper from the bowl (yes, I know some of you are saying, "too much!"). So I flushed and had visions of the whole system backing up and breaking down. I was actually fortunate that I'd managed to avoid this custom in Thailand up till now. I generally actually choose resorts according to the toilet facilities. As a Westerner, I like the idea of flushing my business and sending it as far away as possible. It seemed archaic somehow to hold on to it. Sometimes I used the toilets in malls in Thailand, and if there was a basket, I took my wilful ignorance of it as incentive for them to implement a better toilet system. I mean surely they want to join the rest of the world. With enough blockages I figure they'll give up and finally invest in a state-of-the-art set-up.
I will say, however, that as Lipe has a little eco side to it, I did use the basket most of the time. I put it down to a "new experience" thing while simultaneously trying to pretend that it just wasn't happening.
At six o' clock I met up with my friends Pat and Mat (Patricia and Matthew) from Holland. We'd first met on the Vietnamese island of Phu Quoc three years ago. We'd stayed at the same resort and taken a snorkel trip together. Early on in the trip we'd been handed small fishing poles, and there was something ridiculous about the whole affair – perhaps there was no bait or something along those lines. I remember one of us cracking a joke, which another responded to, and soon we were riffing like jazz musicians. To the confusion of the boat operators, we put our poles down, dispensing with the farce, and spent the next while talking and laughing. We spent the next couple of days together and caught up in Saigon, and it seemed like the start of a good friendship. We emailed each other and I sent them comedy and they sent me food. When we agreed to catch upon Lipe at the end of their three-week Thai holiday, I remember thinking, what if we don't laugh as much as we did that first time? Luckily we did – probably more so. To begin with, I had always thought Pat was Filipino for some reason, though she actually has Indonesian origins. That was cause for some merriment. They weren't at all happy with their accommodation, for having booked a bungalow identical to mine near the front of the resort, they found out it was called "beach view" and paid double what I did. This also caused some hilarity, as they regularly complained of being ripped off while I touted how nice the resort was.
The next day we walked to the other side of the island to catch a longtail to neighbouring Koh Adang, a National Park island.
As you can see Mat's twice the size of Pat. Despite being small, though, Pat does make up for it in energy and enthusiasm.
I was just trying to think of ways to describe Pat. The term "pocket rocket" jumped into my head – is that a phrase to describe someone small and fiery? Apparently not. I just Googled it and Urban Dictionary gives the definition: "The act of masturbating like a ninja ... Masturbating ... inside one's own pocket." Okay, well didn't know that. I have to say, this is the kind of discussion I'd have with Pat and Mat. Being European and sophisticated they're naturally incredibly at home discussing bodily functions and things scatological (we'll get to Mat's toilet mishap in due course). Pat introduced me to the term "yummy mummy", which is a synonym for MILF.
Anyway, here's one they took of me:
So over to Adang we went. The idea was to walk to the Pirate Waterfall. Adang is hilly and deserted except for a National Park camp and day visitors. Despite being a city boy (they live in Amsterdam), Mat is apparently adept at reading topographical maps. He took a look at the National Park map of Adang and estimated we could walk to the waterfall in ten minutes or so. Half an hour later we were still traipsing through forest, ducking vines and trying not to slip.
After about forty minutes we reached our destination, and it was a pretty area. Sitting in the cool, fresh water made the walk worthwhile.
After walking back, we snorkeled for a little while and then caught a longtail back to Lipe. For dinner that night we went to Varin Resort, which is one of the biggest on the island. We had an excellent deep-fried fish, some superb deep-fried prawns covered in garlic, and a nice mango and cashew salad. The food on Lipe is so much better than it used to be. There is something to be said for development.
Speaking of which, it's just after 1.00 p.m., so I think I might go and have some lunch ...
No comments:
Post a Comment