Ko Muk
Trip Start
Nov 05, 2006
1
42
182
Trip End
Jan 14, 2008
Ko Muk, Thailand
Friday, February 23, 2007
Trang is mainly a transit hub for traveler purposes so there's not much to say about it. It isn't a tourist destination so there is very little English or Roman alphabet. This was the first time I really felt like a stranger in a strange land. In Singapore and Malaysia, everything is usually written in the local language and English. Even if you don't understand the word, you can figure it out with a book, or at least find an address. This is not the case in Thailand. There are no recognizable signs, nothing is familiar! The Thai alphabet is pretty to look at and impossible to translate! Even if converted, the word is still in a different language.
Trang was also our first larger city in Thailand and hence our first exposure to some rather choatic driving and traffic habits. The further North we go, the more scooters and tuk tuks there are zipping through traffic. The general advice is "cross at a consistent pace and they'll miss you." Our method has been to latch on to a local and stay on their heels as they cross traffic. Tuk tuks are an Asian thing, basically a three wheeler taxi that is open air, non air conditioned, and generally exposed to other traffic. They operate as taxis, cargo transport and just about everything else you can imagine. They look they would be kind of fun drive. I'm not crazy about the idea of being a passenger in one, but alot of locals seem to use them.
Before leaving Trang, we hit a cafe packed with locals for some breakfast dim sum. Upon arriving in Ko Muk (two hours later) I felt a little queasy. This quickly developed into full blown food poisoning. I've heard about this experience from friends, the unpleasant physical reaction and the common quote "I didn't care if I died so long as it went away." I get it now. I was totally out of commission for an entire day. Laura was spared so we speculate it was on of two things that she didn't have. For all you readers, I learned something new about Laura, she can't stand the sound of someone throwing up. Really! She has to leave the room or she'll get sick herself. So I was left to fend for myself. In the afternoon, a frog appeared on the wall of the bathroom. He sat and watched me as I made my repeated visits and became my support group. I named him "god the frog" since he was always above me watching over. He hung in there until the worst symptoms passed and suddently disappeared. Closing out our first night in Ko Muk I hoped for all things to be normal the next morning.
The next morning, things were sort of normal. We booked a boat tour to see the main attraction at Ko Muk. The main attraction is the Emerald Cave. Transported by long tail boat, you arrive at the base of a cliff where the boat drops anchor. Everyone then jumps into the water and heads toward a cave at the base of the cliff. The mouth of the cave is about ten feet accross and maybe 4 feet off the water. Next you start swimming into the cave, the reflective sunlight creating emerald colored water (hence the name). The cave opens up a bit and you have high cielings with stalagtytes hanging overhead. You continue swimming into the pitch black about thirty yards until you are in the middle of the cave where you can't see your hand in front of your face. Thoughts of panic begin to drift into your mind..."what if the tide comes up?"..."keep swimming" you think, so you do...about another thirty yards and you take a sharp right and ahead you can see daylight through the other side. Emerging from the other side of the cave you find yourself on a small pristine beach with sheer walls surrounding you rising up two hundred feet. This is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. The cave and beach was originally used by pirates to hide their spoils.
One of the good things about doing this with a professional boat is the captain leads the way with a small LED light to guide you through to the darkness. The other good thing is the "dry bag" that the boat carries so you can bring cameras into the cave and take photos of this amazing beach. Unfortunately, our dry bag had a leak so no photos of this place on our blog. (Fortunately we had a really smart English kid on the boat who know how to check for this before we went into the water ) Try searching "Ko Muk Emerald Cave" and many photos are available. After our adventure into the cave we hit a couple snorkeling spots and headed back to our huts.
