S̄wạs̄dī khrxbkhrạw læa pheụ̄̀xn
Hello family & friends (in Thai),
Leaving Bangkok at 4:45 AM on our 5th day in Thailand with our friends, Pam & KH, we took a minivan to the airport to catch our ‘no assigned seats’ flight to Hat Yai via Thai Air Asia. There we would hook up with other guests on the catamaran, Floridians, Steve and Jeri, living together aboard a catamaran for the next 10 days. Following our 1.5 hour flight, we took a van through the countryside to Satun, Thailand, where we would board a ferry, viewing, along the way, cows, bulls, and motorcycles (one carrying 3 people with a sleeping child between the driver and the handle bars), which we thought was a lot, until 5 years later in Vietnam, when 5-7 people would ride a single motorcycle. We missed our targeted 9:30 AM ferry and had to wait until 1:30 PM. We spent the time eating at a Muslim-owned café, ergo, forcing us to go to a local mini-mart to procure beer as a chaser to our food and the sweltering heat. We were beset with a ‘travel agent’ hovering and ‘guiding’ us through the process (turning in our passports for us, purchasing our tickets) and were told that the usual fee of 250 Baht (per person) would be 281 Bhat because it was a ‘holiday’, whilst our ticket was stamped 270 Baht…some hidden middlemen fees? Anyway, we gave him 100 Baht as a gesture of thanks and good will…like we couldn’t have done all that ourselves!
After an hour aboard our ferry, we arrived at the harbor of Ruah on the island of Langkawi, putting us in NW Malaysia now. In all the confusion and traffic, we found a taxi to the NW side of the island and our stay for the night at Mutiara Burau Bay Resort. It was only upon checking in that I discovered that my VISA credit card was never returned to me at the Sofitel. We spent $25 USD and 30 minutes on the phone, speaking to both the hotel and VISA, eventually canceling the card and relying on Pam’s largesse. Not the best start, but being at sea would not require a credit card anyway.
The next day, after a buffet breakfast that included a woven-looking Malay pancake (roti jala), we strolled the hotel grounds replete with a 4 foot Monitor lizard, then taxied to Telaga Harbor where Diane and Ray’s catamaran, the Nyaminyami, named after a Rhodesian river god (previous owner was South African), was moored. After the meet-and-greet, we set off on a 4 hour sail/motor to the western side of Koh Adang, the second largest island (4 miles long) within Thailand’s Tarutao National Marine Park. We were a boatload of 10, 6 paying passengers, our cook, ‘Pern”, Captain Ray, owner Diane, and Zack, a young man from Sequim, WA, only 2 hours outside our home town of Seattle. He was paying his way as the vessel’s photographer, sharing his vast knowledge of Eastern religion and culture to this mix of folks. After dropping anchor, we snorkeled for an hour, with one of our female passengers (not Maggie!) publicly shedding her swim suit on the aft section afterward. We boarded the dinghy, going ashore to view a sun that felt like it took forever to set, all the while imbibing pina coladas and pushing sand with our toes.
Our second day aboard found Maggie and me creeping up to the dining area from our “lottery” cabin which we “won” on a short straw draw for the 2 remaining cabins after Pam & KH secured their Birthday suite, leaving us with some light but no real air flow and no private bathroom. We dined on scrambled eggs as we motored to Kho Butang, espying Sea Gypsies in their loud long-tailed boats. On one of these 20 foot vessels, we counted 20 men, women and children, who had been encamped along the beach at Koh Adang. Our afternoon was spent nestled between Koh Butang and Koh Rawi, snorkeling among some of the best colorful soft corals (purple & magenta colored) we have seen since our time in Fiji off the island of Kadavu 2 years before when we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. There was quite a current, allowing us to snorkel upstream and let the current carry us back over this oceanic wonderland. The current ultimately impacted us negatively in getting back to our vessel, with Steve and Jeri needing to be rescued via the dinghy.
We anchored for this night off of Koh Lipe, going ashore for our meal at a funky and comfortable venue where a table for 20 had been set up for us, to include passengers from our sister catamaran, StressBreaker. Aside from the food and companionship, our evening was highlighted by Pam being adopted by a feral cat (she is a cat owner) sporting mangled ears, remaining in her lap and being fed bits of fish the entire time. In the darkness, we soon could see the lights outlining the squid boats in the horizon.
Waking up to our 3rd day and up by 7:30 AM, we discovered that we had missed assisting in readying our vessel for the day’s sail (the jib, foresail & main were already set) and we were already sailing north to Koh Rok Nok, 43 nautical miles north, 7 hours away. So, we were left with lounging, reading our books, until we dropped anchor at the mouth of an inlet between the 2 Rok Nok islands, facing west. Maggie and I took one of the 2-man kayaks, with Pam & KH hanging on our aft rope, heading into shore. Our snorkeling here was not up to par with the previous day…lots of dead coral close in, with some color further out in pools of cold water, appearing as aquariums, where hundreds of small fish were congregating around several large rock formations. After an hour we returned to the boat, this time Pam & KH were piloting the kayak, with Maggie and me in tow, until they capsized, resulting in fits of laughter and appreciation for the dry bag! As rain clouds started forming, we took the dinghy to the other of the 2 islands where a Ranger Station is located, with markers recognizing the 2005 tsunami that devastated the area less than 1.5 years before our visit! We trod up the red brick pathway, among what we named the ‘Camouflage’ trees, to the island’s acme at 500 meters elevation.
Our descent brought us out onto a rocky portion of the beach which was strewn with empty plastic bottles, which was replicated time and again during our adventure, unfortunately! We discovered the local bar, purchasing a bottle of Chang, meandering amongst 4 Monitor lizards to hook up with Ray and back to our boat, kicking back on the aft section, caressed by soft breezes, treated to sheet lightning in the eastern sky. Topped the day off with another hot, Thai dinner, G & T’s and a Mangosteen dessert.
We were in bed by 9:30 PM, but had a hard time falling asleep due to the heat, eventually moving from our cabin located below deck to the aft section, laying on a mat, listening to the loud, no-mufflers long-tailed boats heading out to fish. We arose to a beautiful sunrise and 84 degrees Fahrenheit, with Zach madly snapping photos. Bun created a wonderful breakfast to start off our 4th day at sea, with fried bananas and Thai soup and then we motored 14 nautical miles NE to Koh Muk , arriving just after noon. We caught up on sleep, napping on the netting between the pontoons at the boat’s bow, protected from the sun by a canvas shield. Pasta for lunch and then snorkeling to the right side of the beach and around a rocky point, dodging the long-tailed boats. The best part of our 1.5 hour snorkeling was coming face-to-face with a moray eel and a lion fish (brown with huge white spots and long feathery fins and tails). Not sure if we knew at that time this is a poisonous fish.
Ashore, we checked out the eateries, internet café and the local village which was 4 KM away, passing rubber trees with their cups affixed, collecting the sap, and coming upon giant open pits containing foul-smelling liquids (Maggie’s thought was that it was formic acid for converting the sap to latex). We came across rows of latex drying after the pits. We found the filth outside the shacks-on-stilts sad, plastic-upon-plastic! We came across men frying small fish over a circular metal can, foul smells and scrawny black chickens. We aborted the trek to the village, stopping at the “Cozy Bar”, overpaying for cocktails, with Pam refusing to drink them because they ‘tasted like cough syrup’.
We met the rest of the crew on the beach in front of Charlie’s, where a table for 10 was set up for us. We dined on large prawns, chicken kebob, Larb Nui salad and Chang beer. Walking to the dinghy, we stepped gingerly around 3”-4” crabs, scurrying to the surf. Before turning in this night, we all sat together on the aft section, with G & T’s and conversations on British humor (Captain Ray’s heritage), actors, etc., a great exposure for Maggie and me. In the next dispatch we will be visiting Hongs (islands which are fringed with rain forests, hidden lagoons, and white-sand beaches).
Cheers for now, Stan & Maggie