We got through the busy border crossing much quicker than expected, but the dividend was not significant, because we lodged for the night in an anonymous motel in the anonymous border town of Aranyaprathet. We expected to find something remarkable in a town with such a long winded name, but it took us longer to learn its pronounciation than to see it's sights.
The next morning, everyone's minds were just on getting to Bangkok. We had decided that we didn't need to spend much time here, as we were now on a tightish timetable to get down to Australia and the lure of a beach in Southern Thailand trumped sightseeing another city. This proved to be a good decision.
Sue and I jumped off the truck ahead of getting to the hotel, in order to pick up our train tickets for the following day (we'd splurged £25 for 2 first class sleeper tickets for the 16 hour overnight journey). Our first impressions as we walked the streets, was how prosperous it has become (certainly since my last visit here 20 years ago). This contrasted with our second impression from a taxi window: we were forced to detour because of anti-government protests and saw hundreds of grim faced policemen in full riot gear and barricades topped with razor wire blocking roads.
We researched behind the headlines a little to find out what was going on and have been following the escalation of the trouble as we have headed further south. The simple issue behind it seems to be nepotism. The former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, fled the country about 5 years ago, in similar scenes, with charges of corruption against him. His supporters claims that it is coincidental that his companies started winning premium government contracts shortly after he was elected - hmm! 5 years later, his party is back in power, with his sister as Prime Minister and they are trying to force through legislation giving him an amnesty, creating a constitutional crisis and putting the king (who as in the UK technically has to assent all legislation) into an impossible position. No wonder that the opposition supporters have taken to the streets, but the issue seems to be polarising the country on party lines which remains potentially dangerous.
Our hotel was close to the legendary Koh Sahn Road, surely the backpacker capital of the world. The travellers here seemed to be partying on regardless of the escalation tensions just a mile away and we wondered how much it would take to prick this bubble. In the evening we went out with the whole of our group, for a meal and then onto a bar for some drinks. It wasn't quite our scene and we felt very old, so we left the others to their cocktail buckets and dance music fairly early - just as well, because most of the group only made it back just in time for breakfast.
The following lunchtime it was a bitter-sweet moment as we waved Archie and our travel companions goodbye. The group was disbanding like a break on a pool table: everyone with their own exciting onward travel plans, or heading back to families or friends.
We, fortunately, were well on our way heading south on the train as the demonstrations in Bangkok started to get nasty. We were, however, hit by a different issue, which was serious flooding across swathes of Central Thailand caused by days of unseasonably heavy rain. Much of the track was under water and, in the morning when we should already have been in Hat Yai, we trudged blearily off the train for a 3 hour bus ride to resume our journey on a different train further down the track. We passed lots of little villages that were largely under water, roads that ended suddenly and resigned looking people wading waist high through the water with vegetables on their heads which they remained determined to get to market.
Our troubles were, comparably, a minor irritation, but an 8 hour delay meant that we missed the single boat a day that headed from the small port of Pak Barra in the very south-west of Thailand to the even smaller island of Ko Boulon Leh out in the Andaman Sea. Pak Barra is not the greatest place in the world to get stuck, so we tried our luck haggling with the local fishermen, to see if we could get one of them to take us out to the island - which was about one hour in one of their long tail boats, which were usually used for coastal fishing. We eventually succeeded at a higher price than we would have liked, but we were really tired by this point and didn't want to lose our accommodation which we had already paid for.
It was an exciting journey heading out past many small islands and dramatic limestone karsts with the boat to ourselves. There were one or two moments when we wondered whether this was an ill-advised journey. The water was choppy as we got further out and these long-tail boats are not that stable - the need to get them right up on to the beach shore means they are very shallow-keeled. But, of course our man sails these waters in this boat every day and he got us there with no trouble an hour before dusk.
We now had 5 nights on our island hideaway and we couldn't wait to get into a gentler rhythm for a few days. The whole island was probably no more than 2 square miles, with half of that taken by a steep, thickly forested hill that ends in sheer cliff faces along the western side. On the other sides are a cluster of very low key resorts and about 300 islanders, known as Chaolae sea-gypsies, who have made a living on these islands, mostly as fishermen, for hundreds of years. On this side, the cliffs are replaced by mangroves and stretches of shingle and sand beaches, with a few well-worn tracks. There was not a single car on the island!
We spent the first 3 nights on the most up-market of the resorts - which was not that up-market, as it had no hot water, very few facilities and the electricity only ran from 6pm to 6 am. But it was a beautiful spot and our little cottage was charming, with a veranda with views out across a stretch of white sand to the bay. We switched for the last 2 nights, because we found somewhere just as nice on the other side of the island, but quieter and more friendly for a third of the price!
We timed our stay pretty well, as the island got hit pretty hard by the storms that caused the floods we mentioned above. A pontoon boat heading back to the mainland was swamped by waves and sunk and we could clearly see its stern jutting out of the water from the island. Just as dramatically, part of a large tree came down on our resort, crashing through and badly damaging 2 of their cottages. They spent the whole of our stay clearing up the debris and starting to repair the damage, but fortunately nobody was in them at the time.
We thoroughly enjoyed our sojourn on the island, even if I got rather sun-burnt snorkelling on the third day (there was some coral reef to be seen here, though sadly most of it is bleached and/or dying and the variety of fish not as wide as we have seen elsewhere). There were probably only a couple of hundred tourists staying on the island (most of them for some reason German, Swiss or Eastern European) and in such a small space, we got to know a few of them quite well, as we kept arriving at the same places for meals etc. We spent our time swimming, on nature walks, (spotting grey Pacific Reef Heron, Collared Kingfishers, Orioles, Brahminy Kites, Grey Bellied Squirrels, huge Great Mormon Butterflies, Butterfly Lizards and the wonderful 3 foot long Clouded Monitor Lizards that kept surprising us), watching the local fishermen bring in their catches and eating and drinking. Our second residence bought jack fish and yellow fish, squid, crab and prawns as the fishing boats landed and cooked them straight away on a barbecue for us, or simmered them in a coconut, ginger, chilli and herb broth - absolute perfection!
But our journey had to continue and at the end of our 5 days, we got the scheduled speed-boat back to the island. They had rather over-filled the boat (more than 20 of us crammed on) and this was compounded by a sudden squally shower which forced us all into the small covered area. Then there was one very large Russian gentlemen: the previous evening we had seen him lounging behind us in a bar and he had disdainfully blown acrid cigar smoke in our direction; this morning he smugly occupied 2 seats, as others were crammed together standing. But this morality tale has a good ending, because as the boat turned and sped off away from the island, the wind drove the rain into his face and he got a proper soaking, whilst we sheltered in his substantial shadow!
On the next post, we will tell you about the final leg of our overland journey: leaving Thailand for Kuala Lumpur and onto Singapore.
Flooding in a village in Central Thailand
Just us in a long tail fishing boat heading out into the islands of the Andaman Sea
Remnants of the ship wreck from the storms earlier in the week
your island retreat looks sooo relaxing, surprised you could bear to leave xxx
ReplyDeleteAndy, looks amazing. The history is fascinating too. Glad you ducked the bad weather, and taking that flight sounds just the right thing to do. Seeing Dax and the boys in London next Friday, so will toast you with a beer, or maybe a fried tarantula. Cheers, Chris
ReplyDeleteHi Sue and Andy
ReplyDeleteIt was nice meeting the two of you! I enjoy reading your blog and are really jealous of all the fab adventures you had (and will have)!
Nuy and me will be going back to Bulon Leh @ end of April. We will surely have a beer or two on you @ Marina restaurant ;-)
We both wish you good luck and all the best. Take care!
Stephan & Nuy