Day 25

Mango Bay

After waking up to Alfie telling me I had 30 minutes before checkout, I quickly put together my stuff and we checked out, storing our bags not so securely at our hostel. Alfie had returned his bike that morning, having to pay 3500 Baht for someone else knocking over his bike and scratching it - ouch. We wandered down the beach and we found a restaurant overlooking the beach for some breakfast. We both got a very peculiar "breakfast burger" which was a half deconstructed beef and egg burger with various veg. Strange but highly rated - plus maybe the first time I've ate a burger with a knife and fork.

After that me and Alfie split up, he had already been to Mango Bay whilst I was diving. First I did some shopping around for a snorkel mask and a GoPro casing. I land on a midrange snorkel as I knew I was going to use it for a while, and find a decently rated case that let's me take my GoPro down to 30m which would be more than enough. I then rent a scooter from our hostel where she took a 3 minute long video of the condition before I set off.

This was most definitely not a simple approach. There are options to take the boat round but I went for the spicy option. First I had to take my bike half off roading which was very interesting with dodgy brakes going up and down steep dirt trails, dodging rocks. I had definitely not been pumping my brakes as one of them was quite slack after a while - quite worrying so I took it very slowly. Eventually after reaching the end of the track - I had no signal and Google Maps had given up by then.

I follow 100s of stairs downwards before reaching a scrambling section through a boulder field round the edge of the bay. This was fine but would have been a hell of a lot easier had I not been carrying a snorkel in 1 hand and wearing nothing but sliders on my feet. Eventually I make it to the beach and sit on a sunbed. I see I still had signal and needed to try and contact Alfie so I made my way up to the restaurant with the promise of WiFi, so I ordered a mango shake only to be told it doesn't work. Putting my thousands of pounds of student debt for a computer science degree to good use, I guessed the password on my first attempt. Feeling quite smug about "12345678" I was quickly humbled again when it really didn't work in the slightest. Oh well he'll figure it out.

I set up my snorkel - having no idea what I was doing and put it to use almost immediately. Someone on the sunbed next to me suggested I go to the left hand side with my snorkel so I went for a swim and it was amazing to see the fish and coral that were so close to the shore. I swam back to set up my GoPro in its new casing and went back out to grab some photos and videos of the colourful parrot fish, stripy banner fish, yellow butterfly fish, and what I believe to be some small barracuda.

After a while I head back, chat to a Chilean guy called Pedro before heading out again - not seeing as much on the other side of the bay. After heading back, it was time to make the trek back as I didn't want to drive in the dark and wanted to make sure Alfie's bookings had gone well. I make my way back along the rocks, made even harder this time as my feet were wet and sliding around in my sliders. Then, up the 100s of stairs I had flown down. Smartly, near the top where I had paid for entrance they sold drinks as well, where I had no choice but to get some much needed water as by now I was sweating like I had been on a run. I get back on my bike and make my way back up the dirt track, being careful not to end up in the surrounding jungle, eventually I make it to the main road.

A jeep attempted to go down the road but soon after reversed back up having realised its mistake. There was a random dude who was gonna pay this taxi 300 Baht just for a 5 minute drive down the hill, so I offered him to just jump on the back. Apprehensivly, he agreed and asked me to go slow which I happily obliged with - I'm not the biggest fan of riding with a passenger as it throws the balance and weight off completely. I drop him off then drop my bike off getting the okay for conditions - luckily she didn't try the brakes.

I meet with Alfie and after getting gnawed by mosquitos, we go for some dinner where I go for a Spaghetti Bolognase (very Thai I know) meaning both my meals today were super Western. Although everything was super expensive, so this was a money saving move more than anything. It was a yummy Spaghetti and Alfie made fun of me but I have no regrets. We then pick our bags up from our hostel where I sneakily go for a shower and we grab some snacks from 7-11 before boarding our night ferry.

Last night when I booked our ferry it got cancelled so I had to book with another company who happened to not have any pictures so it was a risk but we had no other choice. Upon boarding it was extremely obvious why they had no pictures. Small bunk beds and thin mattresses lined the floor and I thought to myself- it can't get worse than this. Spoiler alert - it did. The dude showed us that we were infact sleeping outside of the boat on the floor of a narrow walkway. It's a hilarious situation that to me is all part of travelling but I'm not sure Alfie had the same perspective.

I chatted to some fellow boat mates about how funny it was before settling into my short mattress (having to climb round the outside of the boat to get to my bed). On the negative side, we had no space or AC BUT on the positive side, no one could walk over us and the ocean breeze was our natural AC. I lie here now actually quite enjoying the peace of the breeze, sound of the waves, the night sky, and the occasional spray from the water.

Also, my pictures are all stuck on my GoPro still so you'll have to wait to see my expert marine photography.Read more