Chapter 9 – What goes up, must come down.

Wow. It’s been a whirlwind of weeks on the beach. Or at least it was. We’re currently in Cambodia nowhere near the beach, but we’re a bit behind on the blog so we’re playing a bit of catch up.

We’ve pretty much been on the road, or the sea, or the dirt track, or the train track for that matter for the last 2 months. In fact we’ve almost been on every mode of transport imaginable (bar anything that flies or hovers).

From Khao Sok we took a local bus to Krabi Town and then a long tail boat to a beach called Raileh. It’s on the mainland, but you can only get there by boat. That and the fact that it’s surrounded by magnificent karst formations help to create a bit of an island illusion which is really cool.

Raileh is a strange little place. It has two sides to it, East and West. We had heard that East belonged to the backpackers and West, the flashpackers, and when our boat dropped us off 100 meters from dry land, and we had to wade through a muddy mangrove marsh to get to shore trying with all our might not to land in it, it was easy to see why.

Fortunately enough West Raileh is blessed with a pristine beach and turquoise water and we knew the 2 sides were only separated by a 5 minute palm-shaded stroll. So when our eyes locked on what looked more like’ The Swamp’ than ‘The Beach,’ it didn’t worry us too much.

What East Raileh does have going for it though is its chillaxed rusta bars that line the water’s edge. Cushion-covered wooden platforms jet out into the brown ocean which is deceptively beautiful under the night’s sky. We lost many an hour sprawled out sipping cold beers and cocktails listening to Bob tell us “every little thing was gonna be alright”.

Our sun hours were mostly spent frolicking on West Raileh and every other day a beach called Princess, or Kayaking and snorkelling around the karst formations. These arduous activities were only really interrupted by hungry bellies wanting to go in search of giant seafood kebabs. It’s a tough life.

We did on one occasion exert ourselves to something slightly more strenuous I’m sure you’ll be happy to know. The story probably deserves a post on its own, but I’m on a roll, so here goes:

If you’re sitting on a boat in the ocean looking at Raileh, you’ll see Princess Beach in the middle of East and West. You can’t walk directly from one to the other because there’s a big fat mountain in between them. You have to kind of walk around the mountain. It’s on this mountain that I discovered my fear factor.

As you come around said mountain before you get to Princess there sits a rather innocent sign saying “view point & lagoon” with an even more innocent looking arrow pointing up. Thinking about it now, the vertical mud “path” with the knotted rope hanging limply beside it should have been a warning sign that screamed DANGER, not for the inexperienced, short legged, rather uncoordinated mountain climber. Or simply, everyone BUT Kate Royce allowed.

But it didn’t, or at least not then.

It was only after I got half way up, one hand clutching desperately to the root of a tree, the other clasped tightly around the rope and my feet scrambling to find something, anything solid enough to save me from plummeting to my death, that I thought, oh shit, perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea. But it was too late. Turning back wasn’t an option. Looking down wasn’t an option. There was only up, and I was going to have to deal with the down part when there was only down to contend with.

I’d love to say that at that exact moment I had one of those so often talked about adrenalin rushes and I Spidermaned up the mountain and concluded the climb with a Rocky ‘Yeah’ at the top, but that’s not how it happened, not at all. Every bolder was a struggle. And I’d love to say that when I got to the top the view made it all worthwhile. But it didn’t, because when I did eventually make it up there, all I could think about was how the hell I was going to get down.

And down for me is just a whole different ball game.

You see, I have this thing about going backwards. My body just won’t do it. It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s just that I can’t. It’s not in my DNA. I spent many an athletics meeting being ridiculed for the fact that I had to somersault over the high jump pole. But Marc managed to convince me there was no other way.

And so the decent began. One tiny step at a time, with Marc practically placing my feet for me. Pathetic really, but If it wasn’t for him I’d probably still be up there, a mountain woman in the making grunting at passersby and foraging for food.

I can’t remember when last I’ve been frozen with fear like I was that day, if fact, I can’t remember when I’ve ever been that hands shaking, teary-eyed scared before in my life, but we made it, and I have my mud stained clothes, a couple of scrapes and my life to prove it.

No more rock climbing for me.

Despite my little incident, we really enjoyed Raileh, enough to stay longer than anticipated. But unfortunately it seems someone let the Raileh secret out of the bag so long ago that even the Americans seem to have heard about it. Needless to say, if and when we decide to go back, it’ll be out of season.

A long tail boat, minibus, ferry and another long tail boat took us to our next destination, an island called Koh Jum. It’s between mainland Karabi and Koh Lanta, and unlike Raileh, is off the beaten track.

There’s no direct transport to Koh Jum. Yet. You have to take the Koh Lanta ferry and tell them where you’re heading. Half way to Lanta the ferry stops in the middle of the ocean and long tail boats come from Jum to pick you up. Everyone with backpacks in hand looks at you with this “what do you know that I don’t” look as you wave them away with a know-it-all smirk. It’s a random yet satisfying experience.

What can I say about Jum? I shouldn’t actually be saying anything. It’s only because I like you people so much that I’m spilling the beans on this little piece of undiscovered paradise.

It’s absolutely incredible. Rustic little log cabins hidden away in tall palm trees give the impression that there’s nothing there, no one there. And there practically isn’t. We stayed in what can only be described as a gorgeous little wooden wendy house on stilts with big windows that let the cool outside breeze in. There’s no electricity, so gas lanterns help you guide your way back from the bar at night. By day the beach could be solely yours for hours.

I don’t have much to say about what we did here, because we literally did nothing. And it was bliss. Unfortunately the lack of an ATM forced us to move on, and as we were already half way there, we made Lanta our next stop.

Check out some photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43679192@N07/sets/72157622953896043/

Stay tuned.

M&K

Chapter 8 Continued - Some Monkey Madness

These are 3 monkeys we filmed trying to get over a river on a couple of wires. We thought it was pretty funny. Check it out.

Just because...

For Jo.

Chapter 8 - Thanks. But no thanks.

It was hard, but we finally managed to tear ourselves away from the clutches of Khao Lak. I can’t say it was the most amazing place I’ve ever been to, but there’s just something about it that makes you want to buy a scooter, rent a little bungalow in the mountains and stay for as long as it takes you to forget that anywhere else exists.

We couldn’t really have earned our ‘backpacker badges’ if our journey started and stopped in Khao Lak though. So we put our lives back into our packs after a particularly boozy send off, and headed north to Khao Sok National Park way too early the next morning.

Khao Sok is a rainforest in Southern Thailand that is said to be older than the Amazon. It’s home to elephants, tigers and bears (not that we saw any) and is littered with clear streams, waterfalls and gigantic limestone cliffs. In a word, it’s magnificent.

Unfortunately our expedition was tinged with a tad of bitterness from the beginning though. We had gone to speak to Shaun, an expat in Khao Lak who had recently moved down from Khao Sok after a fairly hefty stint in the jungle. (Stay with me, I know all these Khaos can be confusing). What we thought would be a friendly chat filled with tips and tales quickly turned into a 3 way Thai conversation between him, his Thai wife and her sister in Khao Sok, with us sitting in baffled silence on the sideline.

Before we knew it a tour had been organised on our behalf without the option of opting out and the worst part about it was he expected us to be grateful, which at the time we kind of were because we weren’t quite sure what had just happened or how.

We came away slightly bemused, but once we had talked it through in the quiet of our room we came to the conclusion that all the “added” extras were probably worth the “special” fee we were paying, and we were able to go to bed feeling a bit better about the situation.

So, what was meant to happen:

On arrival at the bus station/bench on the side of the road, we were going to be picked up by Shaun’s Thai wife’s sister. She would then drive us around until we found accommodation to our taste and budget. Once settled, we would then be picked up and taken on an orientation tour of the surrounding area before going to her restaurant for lunch. From there we’d go kayaking on the river. After which we’d be taken to Monkey Temple, and the tour would conclude with a stop off at the lookout point to watch the sunset.

What actually happened:

We arrived at the bus station/bench on the side of the road, and Shaun’s Thai wife’s sister was there waiting for us. Good start. From there she took us to her restaurant. Not exactly according to plan, but we went with it. She gestured for us to pick up our packs and walked us across the road to what were quite obviously her best mate’s bungalows. They exchanged words (in Thai) and with that, she was gone. According to her, our accommodation hunt was over.

We were given the option of seeing two bungalows, one that cost 800 Bhat, the other that was 250. BIG price difference. It didn’t leave us with much of a decision as we could only really afford the latter, so off we went with Shaun’s Thai wife’s sister’s best mate to see what £3 would buy us.

Through the “tropical garden” we trekked, and just before we reached the ass end of beyond we came upon it, a pile of woven leaves and sticks ominously balancing on termite ridden stilts. We should have turned around then and there, but we’re not ones to shy away from a bit of rusticity, so we followed new Thai lady in through the door that she almost took off as she opened it.

There is just no single word to describe what awaited us inside. I’m writing this wishing I had taken a photo so you could all see it for yourselves. Something lived in there and it wasn’t human. The bed looked alive with creatures. The walls were alive with creatures. Nature had moved in and it didn’t look like it was going to be moving out for us.

There was no way in hell we were going to spend another second in there let alone a whole night, and new Thai lady knew it. She had that ‘I know I’m showing you the most disgusting room we have so you’ll cave and take the 800 Bhat room’ look in her eye.

Well, it didn’t work.

Packs in hand we hightailed it out of there and walked our way from one resort to the next until we found a lovely clean, riverside bungalow disease free and human friendly all for just 300 Bhat. No thanks to Shaun’s Thai wife’s sister.

Next on our “agenda” was the orientation tour of the area, so we made our way back to the restaurant we had first been dropped off at. But there was no orientation tour. There was only lunch, which, I have to say, actually deserves a bit of credit. We had barely finished chewing our last mouthfuls, however, when a crazy-eyed man arrived and began to usher us into his car, “Kayaking, you go kayak now!” We weren’t about to argue.

About 10km on and a few near death experiences later we came to an abrupt halt on the side of the road in what had to be the middle of nowhere. Our driver pointed to a man halfway down what would become an inverted incline carrying a kayak, then got back in his car and left us standing there. There was nothing else to do but follow him.

Despite the fact that we were kayaked and didn’t actually get to kayak ourselves, the Kyaking was great. Khao Sok really is incredibly beautiful. The towering limestone cliffs lined with trees older than our greatest grandfathers have this way of making you feel insignificant in the world. It’s a truly incredible place to see.

But back to business.

Just before we arrived at our final destination our guide found us a beautiful black and yellow snake. Mysteriously, a VERY similar black and yellow snake, in a very similar tree appeared in photos taken by friends' of ours who visited the park 2 weeks later. Coincidense?

Our crazy-eyed driver man was waiting for us as we beached, not to take us to Monkey Temple or the lookout point as we had been told, but to take us back to our accommodation as he had been told. You see, he wasn’t the monkey Temple Man, he was the Kayak man. How silly of us not to have known. So we asked him to drop us off at Shaun’s wife’s sister’s place thinking that maybe she had arranged for the Monkey Temple man or the lookout point man to collect us. But she hadn’t, and she couldn’t take us because she ‘no have car anymore’. And with that our “special” tour for a “special” fee was over.

What’s the moral of the story? Don’t go speak to Shaun in Khao Lak if you want to go to Khao Sok.

Our “special tour” aside, it was a magnificent place to spend a couple of days. Just peaceful and beautiful and refreshing. We got to walk unassisted and at our leisure through one of the oldest rainforests in the world. We got to see monkeys swimming for the first time in both our lives. And we got to experience a completely different side of Thailand. All in all, it was worth tearing ourselves away from the beach.

K&M

Check out some of the pics here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43679192@N07/sets/72157622872037077/

Chapter 7 - Top 5

One of my favorite films has to be High Fidelity. Throughout the film John Cusack and his misfit employees list their "top five" for every conceivable thing imaginable, from music to relationship make ups and breakups.

To decide on one’s "top five" is a big thing. It’s not just a case of quickly rambling what’s top of mind. It deserves some serious thought, discussion, debate and often requires the overnight test. Just ask a friend what their "top five" all time movies are. Chances are they’ll have to get back to you on that one.

To be in the "top five” it has to be great and then some. Lying in a hammock that’s stretched between two palm trees, watching the sun set over a perfectly still ocean while nurturing a beer is pretty special, but it’s just not capable of being in the "top five”. If however a whale swam past at the same moment the sun sank behind the horizon, then you’re talking.

So after numerous discussions here are our “top five” for Khao Lak (aka month 1)

Number 5: Visiting Home & Life orphanage. This sounds quite worthy, but it’s anything but. These children are the most optimistic, fun-loving kids we’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. It was an incredible experience for us.

Number 4: Eat all you can 99 Bhat Mokataa Barbeque. Ever barbequed bite-size pieces of meat over sizzling hot coals set in the centre of your table with chop sticks? That’s a mokataa. If you don’t know what it is, look it up? You’ll rate it.

Number 3: Drinking Tiger beer at Mo’s bar, The Rusty Pelican. (Yes he does get a heap of Simpsons wise cracks). Mo’s an avid musician, and has toured with some of the greatest bands of all time. If you ever make it to this 4m x 5m, jammed full of character bar, make sure you don’t leave without hearing some of his incredible stories.

Number 2: White Sands Beach. It’s more than just a pure white beach that runs for miles. The water is turquoise and people are scarce. Get there before anyone else discovers it.

And finally, our number 1…

Diving the Similians. We’ve already dedicated a whole post to it. If you haven’t already, check it out.

K&M

PS Check out some Khao Lak photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43679192@N07/

Chapter 6 – Sepak Takraw

Whilst in Khao Lak we came across this game of Sepak Takraw being played at the festival of Loy Kra Thong. It’s a sport native to Southeast Asia which seems to require a certain amount of gymnastics. Think volleyball with no hands. We thought it was pretty impressive. Click ‘play’ to see for yourself.