Our trip to SE Asia is winding down and we are definitely moving into relaxation mode with our time here in Khao Lak. We were upgraded to a lovely pool access room here at the Fanari Resort, and so we have been able to take some time to just sit and enjoy the pool right outside our door when the sun is out.
We have had a couple of days where the weather has not been too co-operative, and one of those was a full rain out. We can still sit outside on the terrace as even with the rain it is still nice and warm, but we are not venturing too far from the hotel. It does provide for some quite time to catch up on some email and a bit of work and I managed to get done a few things to whittle down the backlog of things that would otherwise be waiting for me when I get back.
The forecast looked like it was going to open up a bit weather wise so we decide to rent motorbikes again and try and get in a bit of exploring. Now that we have gotten comfortable with a few new means of local transportation with the rental cars and motorbikes, it has allowed us to get out and see even more things than we could have on private tours and day trips.
There is an island north of here called Koh Koh Khao that is our goal for the first day, but we only get about half way before we see the dark clouds rolling in on the coast and decide that there is no point on riding towards the rain. We decide to try for a side road up to a waterfall, but the road deteriorates to just a muddy path fairly quickly and decide that we should just accept defeat for the day. We did have a nice day while the sun was out though, and found a few quiet little beach stops along the way out.
The second day was much better. The skies had a nice bit of light cloud so as to not be roasting hot, and we did not see any rain all day aside from about a 3 minute burst right at the end but we were stopping for a drink anyway!
This time we ended up making it all the way to Koh Koh Khao. After about a 45 minute ride up the coast you come to a small town where we are told that we can catch a ferry across a small straight to the island. We are not exactly sure where to catch the ferry and because the town is small and out of the mainstream, most of the sighs are only in Thai, but we figure that the place is not that big we will just follow the shore until we find it. Our first guess seems good from the road and we turn off towards some boats, but it turns out to be a fishing dock, and we try to ask for directions, but our Thai is not that good, and the people’s English was not that good and after some hand waving a nice girl offered to escort us to the right place.
As we often find out here things are not often the same for the locals as they would be for us back home, and it turns out their definition of ferry is not exactly what we might be used to. The ‘ferry’ for us and our motorbikes is actually an old longtail boat that has a bunch of plank decking instead of the seating that a longtail might usually have. The boatman tells us it is 40 baht each (about $1.25US) to cross and then makes some gestures that we should climb aboard. The surf is rolling the boat a bit as we walk on, but the boatman drives our motorbikes about like it is no big deal and then sticks a bit of wood behind the tire so that they don’t roll around too much during the short crossing – no straps or ties or anything and I raise an eyebrow a chuckle a bit, but who am I to question something that they have clearly been doing for a long time.
The ride across is about 10 minutes and in no time at all we are unloaded on the other side and ready to go. The whole island is only about 30km long and there is basically one main road that runs down the center of the island with occasional branches off to some of the resorts along the beaches on the west coast, or off into the fields that cover the rest of the island. Except for a few small foothills towards the north east corner the island itself is mainly flat, and in reality is more like a big sandbar. I would say that 90% of the entire island is less than 10 feet above sea level.
The impact of low season is even high here as it is a bit more remote, and during our entire ride on the island I think we only saw other tourist one time, and other locals not a whole lot more. It was quite awesome to have the entire road to ourselves most of the time, and we would just venture off onto some of the side roads to check out the beach or whatever they led off to. Most of the resorts here were closed for the season, and either wrapped up in a sort of screen to keep the weather and sand out, or were undergoing maintenance in preparation for the next high season. We even saw a few places that clearly just had not been able to make a go of it and were getting beaten down by the elements.
We reached the north tip of the island and there is another ferry dock here where you could catch another longtail boat to another island farther north, but we don’t want to chance not getting back for the last ferry to the mainland so decide to just explore a bit more on the island we are on. The map shows a road that goes down the east side of the island in behind the foothills that are there, and notes a couple of waterfalls to see, and we figure that we have time for that. If the road is on the map, it must be good right? We don’t get too far down the road before it changes from concrete to grave and then to packed dirt with washed out sections, but we are still on the ‘road’ and still looking for the waterfall.
After bouncing around on the rough trail for a few kilometers we come to ‘the waterfall’. By technical definition it is accurate because there is water and it is falling – about 2 feet. At first we think it is a trick like the place we saw in Cambodia where the actual falls are just around the bend, but that is not the case here and farther ahead the road only turns into more of a goat path so we decide that the smart choice is to give up and go back. It is getting late in the day anyway, and we want to get back before dark.
After crossing back on the ferry and back down the highway towards Khao Lak we decide to ride to the south end of the area to where we stayed back in 2009 when we came with the kids. This area has gone through a lot of reconstruction from the 2004 tsunami, and then a ton of growth on top of that, and lots of places don’t look even remotely the same as just a few short years ago.
A few of the places are the same, and one of the restaurants we went to is still around – although closed for the season – and we get down to the beach where we spent time with the kids. It is nice to see the place that we have some good memories from and it makes us think of seeing them all soon when we get home in a few days.
We have one more day here that we plan to just take it easy and enjoy the pool and then it will be time to pack up once again to make the trek back to Bangkok and then the long flight home.
