Mosquitoes, Manti and Muay Thai
Trip Start
Sep 05, 2011
1
3
35
Trip End
Jul 18, 2012
Koh Samet, Thailand
Saturday, September 17, 2011
To say we were disappointed is an understatement. On the journey from Bangkok to Ban Phe pier, approximately 200km south, the weather gradually worsened. Large grey clouds billowed above our minivan and the rain was battering against the windscreen. Trying to remain positive I kept telling myself that the coast gets the worst of the rain due to the mountains, the islands should be fine.
We arrived at Ban Phe pier having only seen one moped crash, not bad for a 3 hour drive in monsoon rains. The transfer from the minivan to the boat was fairly straightforward. Hand your bus ticket in, swap it for a boat ticket and off you go, hurry the boat is leaving now. Negotiating the rickety pier at speed was not something I was prepared for. I am known for being clumsy so I approached the uneven planks of wood with caution and let Elliot speed full steam ahead. Relieved to have made it over the pier I was then faced with a plank. Yes a plank. This was the only access to the boat (little did I know that 7 days later I would be faced with an even bigger boat related challenge). Feeling unbalanced by my backpack I slowly stepped onto the plank aiming for the boat and trying not to look down. Luckily Elliot was already on the boat and along with the Thai man working at the pier helped me onto the boat.
Due to the impending rain, the sea became increasingly aggressive. What should have been a smooth 45 minute cruise in the tropics turned into a bouncy navigation through the grey, miserable waves. We made it, although the grey water looked more like Scarborough than an island in the Gulf of Thailand. We were met off the boat by a herd of songthaew drivers, songthaews are shared taxis. On the islands they tend to be a 4x4 vehicle with benches in the back which carry approximately 10 people. We had pinpointed Hin Kok beach as our destination and the journey cost us 20 bahts per person, about 50p. We had been lucky so far and had not been caught in the rain, that swiftly changed about halfway from the pier to our beach. The heavens opened and the rain cascaded down on us. Don't be mistaken in thinking that these songthaews are proper taxis, they are open to the elements and have no roof. We were soaked. Foolishly we had decided not to buy an umbrella in Bangkok and immediately regretted this decision.
As the songthaew stopped at Hin Kok beach we dived off, grabbed our bags and ran into the first accommodation we could find, Naga Bungalows. We had read about this place in our Rough Guides book. Although cheap (350 bahts per night - £7.60) the rooms weren't great. We decided to book for 3 nights as the rain was still pouring down and neither of us fancied venturing along the road, sorry mud track, to find any better accommodation.
The room itself was ok. Tiled floors, relatively clean bed and a fan. The bathroom was not. It was separate to the bedroom so to access it you had to walk accross the terrace. The bathroom suite was a dark burgundy colour, so you couldn't see the dirt. Let's just say that flip flops had to remain on during showers. The toilet, which at first appeared to be western, had a bucket of water alongside it to enable flushing. This in itself doesn't bother me, but the minimal light in the bathroom resulted in this task being at times dubious.
We ventured out briefly for some food at along the road, it was still raining. The rain had massively dampened (no pun intended) our spirits. We had been looking forward to some beach time after the chaos of Bangkok and to arrive to such poor weather was a bit of a let down. We spoke briefly to 2 girls who had thought the same as us, beach time before Cambodia, they informed us that a local guy had said it would be bad weather for at least a week, not the sunshine we had hoped for.
We were restricted to our little beach area on the first night due to the rain. Rather than sit in our room we headed down to the bar at Naga Bungalows armed with our books. I bailed and opted for a cheeseburger and fries. A little early for stodge maybe but I was feeling fed up and as everyone knows food cheers me up. We sat studying our books with intent, there was no way we could stay here for the full 7 nights as planned if the weather remained this bad. We could head to Cambodia early or we could flip our route around and head north in Thailand to Chiang Mai and go on through to Laos. Later that night we were joined at our table by a couple from Leeds, Tom and Katie. We started talking and realised we had been on the same flight from London on the previous Monday, weird. They were also at the start of a mammoth trip around South East Asia and Australia so we discussed route options. They were heading north to Chiang Mai and then into Laos so we swapped numbers just in case we flipped our route so we could meet up. We had a few beers at Naga then we moved on the Reggae Bar next door and the buckets began.
The reggae bar was hilarious, a local man with a keyboard was playing classic Reggae (I use this term loosely) tunes on his Yamaha keyboard, making good use of the cheesy background beats. I think we may have drank 3 or 4 buckets of Sangsom (local Thai whiskey) and coke - we opted for no Thai red bull. We ended up stumbling back to Naga and playing Shithead in the communal lounge, sometimes in the dark when the electricity cut out - luckily I had my windup ladybird torch, a purchase that had been mocked at the time it was bought. Unknown to me I was getting mauled by mosquitoes, I would soon regret not applying more deet in the morning.
Katie and Tom were leaving for Chiang Mai the next day and I think at that point we had decided we would be hot on their heels to escape the rains. We woke up in the morning and the rain had stopped. Relief swept over us and we quickly got up and ready, and practically ran to the beach. The sea was still choppy but the sun kept making a brief appearance and thankfully the rains held off. This I could cope with. The beach we were on was very pretty although it was not yet a tropical haven with the blustering, grey waters crashing over the sand every 5 seconds.
That night we ventured further to the next beach, Ao Phai. Here we found the Silver Sands restaurant which served reasonably priced, good food and cheap Chang beer. This may sound sad but the out of the 7 nights we were in Ko Samet we ate here for 5 of them.
To top off the good food and beer there were some adorable puppies on the beach, they must have only been a few days old at best. They drew in the crowds and there was a constant stream of women uttering "aws" and "oos" at the babies.
The weather got progressively better throughout the week. The sun was now shining for most of the day and the sea and calmed and was now a luscious turquoise colour. Life was good and we finally had the relaxing beach break we had come here for.
Everything was great apart from the room at Nagas. We went on the hunt for new accommodation, we had only booked into Nagas for 3 nights and now planned to stay for another 4 nights so wanted to find somewhere with a slightly better bathroom. We were back to the original plan, straight into Cambodia. We finally decided on Jep's Bungalows which in hindsight probably wasn't the best choice. We booked 4 nights and headed back to Nagas in order to pack, happy with the decision we had made and determined not to drink too much so we were in a sound state to carry our backpacks the following morning. This didn't happen...
That night we met another couple called Marsha and James and preceded to drink Chang after Chang whilst discussing travel plans, weddings and The Infinite Monkey Cage (Elliot). We moved from the Silver Sands restaurant to their bar on the beach and invested in some buckets and a shisha pipe, strawberry flavoured. We had a great night, surrounded by sea, sand, fire shows and, of course, dogs. So great that James had an "early night".
The next morning we had to force ourselves out of bed to move to Jep's. We arrived and then it hit me that it may not be much better than our previous residence. For the 150 bahts extra per night we had a slightly better bathroom. It was an en-suite this time so no trekking across the terrace in the middle of the night, but the bedroom was vile.
There was a rather pleasant mould growth in the corner of the room, the light may as well not have been there and I could see tiny bugs on the bed sheets, to put it mildly it wasn't great. Our new bungalow was further up the hill too so there was a higher risk of mosquitoes, I quickly made Elliot hang the mosquito net. At least we hadn't wasted our money on that. The room was also boiling hot and the fan didn't do a great deal for me in the 4 nights to come. I was glad to see the back of that place when we left the following Sunday morning. Maybe the room seemed worse to me as I had started to get a cold, obviously the hot Thai weather was too much for me!
We met Marsha and James the following night in the Silver Sands Bar and it resulted in much of the same. Although an addition to the previous night was a cheeky Praying Mantis which insisted on jumping on our feet, arms and backs. Not great for someone who hates insects.
On our sixth night in Ko Samet it was Elliot's 30th birthday. We had received a flyer earlier in the day on the beach for Muay Thai, or Thai Boxing, that evening. Elliot was keen to go so we planned our evening out. BBQ at Silver Sands then back up to Naga for Thai boxing. Sounded good to me. The BBQ was fab, even though I was thoroughly full after the big feed. It was obvious that in the 1.5 weeks we had been eating 2 meals a day our stomachs had shrank.
We headed up to Naga for the start of the Thai boxing. It was pretty quiet when we arrived but throughout the night locals began arriving for the main event and various tourists. We ended up speaking with 2 guys on a summer break from uni, I almost killed them when they said they had just turned 21, and a group of International School teachers from Pattaya on the mainland. I should have known after the first Sangsom bucket that this would be a big night, teachers are the worst after all! The Thai boxing ended up being pretty good, even though they started out with children fighting which I thought was a little bit wrong. After the boxing finished we headed back to our usual haunt, Silver Sands and the real party began.
Elliot's birthday was on a Friday and Ko Samet is a notorious weekend haunt for people from Bangkok, the place was rammed full of people. The busiest I've ever seen it! As I propped up the bar ordering Chang after Chang Elliot danced his birthday away. He had a fab night but felt the 30 year old hangover the next day.
Our last day on Ko Samet started with some stodge to cure the hangovers, I opted for a Club Sandwich which did the trick. We spent our final day chilling on the beach, for a change, and had a very quiet evening due to a relatively early start the next day. My cold had gradually gotten worse over the last few days so I needed to escape Jep's bungalow and cut out the late nights. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed Ko Samet I was looking forward to moving onto somewhere new and continuing our adventure, next stop Ko Chang. We had decided to postpone our trip over to Cambodia by a few days due to recent flooding, bloody monsoon. Ko Chang is halfway between Ko Samet and the Cambodian border. More beach time than first planned but life could be worse.....
Comments
Good to hear Eliot is getting into dancing now he's hit 30! Awww to the puppies but ARggg to the mouldy wall! x
Haha - you gotta love South East Asia. So many variables!! xx