Day 32 - Pink Dolphin Bonanza
10. tammikuuta 2022, Thaimaa ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
The alarm went off at 6.15am, which would have been early but for the fact that I had been awake reading since 1.30am & Jackie had been just dozing.
We were out & on the road by just after 7am wearing our fleeces because it was damn cold on the scooter. About 40 minutes later we arrived back at the Pink Dolphin Pier at Laem Prathap. We parked up & my heart sank when again we saw that there was no-one around.
After walking along the length of the pier, I saw an elderly lady sweeping in a house, so in my best Thai I called to her “Pink dolphins?” She seemed to understand what I meant & shouted something to the man in the house next door. I think the man was on the toilet, because he was shouting back, but didn’t emerge for several minutes & when he did he soaking wet & wearing just a pair of shorts.
I had read that the price of renting a longboat & driver was between 1,000 - 1,500 Baht for 2 hours, but the man was adamant that we would be paying 1,200 which was non-negotiable. Jackie & I then stood around for about 10 minutes not really sure what was happening until another man appeared with 2 life jackets & told us to follow him.
We did until Jackie slipped on a patch of wet mud, both her feet went from under her & she crashed down on her backside, getting both her ‘Daisy Duke’ shorts & our beach bag covered in mud. When we got to the longboat, I stepped in & the boat sank below me causing me to lose my balance & fall in, scrabbling around on my hands and knees on the bottom of the boat. This was not a very auspicious start to our trip!
At just after 8am, we chugged out away from the pier & followed the coast westwards. We had given ourselves the best opportunity to see the dolphins, because the optimum time was between 7.30am & 9am & the sea was like a millpond. Apparently there are about 60 pink dolphins that live in this coastal region & no one has come up with a definitive explanation for why they have a pink pigment.
We stopped for some waterside repairs, a fellow longboat fisherman had a flat battery, so we passed our battery to him to jump start his engine. We then continued along the coast surveying the horizon with our beady eyes & our fingers crossed. The Raja Ferry port came into sight & our driver suddenly shouted “Dolphin, Dolphin”.
It was then full steam ahead towards the ferry port & we got our 1st glimpse of the pink dolphins. Annoyingly the few passengers on the ancient ferry, which we would be catching in two days time, could also see & were photographing OUR dolphins. Our driver cut the engines & we watched a number of pink, some grey & some mixed race dolphins chasing fish in the port waters.
For a glorious 30 something minutes we floated around in the port waters watching the dolphins pop up & down. We attempted to photograph them, but again with absolutely hopeless results. Our time came to an end & we motored back to the Pink Dolphin Pier feeling very pleased with ourselves & glad we made the effort.
It was still only 10am, so we took a slow ride back towards base. We by chance found a National Park just south of our hotel, which had an exhilarating winding coastal road with serious peaks & troughs as well as a couple of nice viewpoints.
Our last stop before lunch was to a waterfall recommended by Aiye. The ride started fine up a paved road, it then turned into a gravel path before deteriorating into a rutted crumbling seriously steep track. Our 150cc Honda screamed as I tried to unsuccessfully accelerate up & stay on the track. Jackie wasn’t comfortable & insisted on getting off, but she got her leg stuck on the saddle & actually fell off. It was made all the worse when the bike rolled backwards & I stood on Jackie’s foot.
I didn’t wait to hear the volley of verbal abuse, so I revved up & sped up the remainder of the track & waited for Jackie to huff & puff her way up. The waterfall wasn’t worth the effort & we had similar problems on the way back down.
We stopped at a little local restaurant, Nong Sao’s Kitchen to quench our thirst with Changs & we ordered a meal each, chicken with cashew nuts & fried pork. All delicious.
The lunch after such an early start took it’s toll on us & we were reduced to having a siesta in our air conditioned room. At 3pm we forced ourselves back up & spent a couple of hours chilling in the gardens of Leeloo, before having another really decent light dinner back at Suchada Villa.
Song of the Day: Dolphins by Fred Neil.
I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down by Elvis Costello & The Attractions.
(Whilst researching my Song of the Day, I discovered that ‘Pink Dolphin’ also had a slang meaning relating to the noise a dolphin makes!)Lue lisää
Day 31 - We’ve Become Fish Food
9. tammikuuta 2022, Thaimaa ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
After another good nights sleep we made it to breakfast at 9.30am. Sylvian was on duty & we both chose the continental breakfast option of muesli with yoghurt & french toast. It was very nice.
We asked Sylvian to arrange the rental of a motorbike & a Honda 150cc was delivered to our hotel for us. Sylvian insisted we both wore crash helmets for reasons of safety, not because it was the law. Jackie was not impressed with this & ditched her helmet almost as soon as we were out of sight of our Leeloo resort.
We cruised northbound up the Khanom coast road, then cut in land to Khanom town centre, before continuing north on Highway 4044. Our 1st detour was to Ao Kwang Pao, which had the potential to be a lovely coved beach. There were a lot of Thais tourists taking selfies amongst the litter & flotsam on the beach.
We then followed signs to a pink dolphins viewpoint, which turned out to be some rocks at the end of Ao Tongnod Beach. We gave it 5 minutes of looking out to sea before giving up.
Next stop was Laem Prathap, also known as Pink Dolphins Pier. We arrived around midday & there was hardly a sole around. I tried to converse with the odd old lady, but couldn’t make myself understood. There were a few longboats at the pier, but no drivers, so we weren’t able to enquire as to the cost to rent one for a few hours. We would have to take a gamble & come back early tomorrow.
Our next planned stop, which we found more by luck than judgement, was the Fish Spa. It is a free to visit, natural (I think) river with small pontoons in which to sit down & dip your feet in the cool water. Immediately our feet were descended upon by a shoal of hungry fish who nibbled away at our trotters, tickling us until we just couldn’t stand it any longer, which was literally seconds later. It amazed us that some Thai children were able to swim & play around in the river without distraction. It was a lovely spot & a couple of Thai families were picnicking in the shade.
Moving on we found Thailand’s very own ‘Grand Canyon’ & we ended up at Amphoe Don Sak ferry port, where a ferry to Ko Pha-Ngan departs. We were slightly perturbed to see that they were conducting Covid checks at the departure point.
Next we failed to find Khao Krot Cave, but we did stop at Coral Pagoda before heading back for a much needed drink. We ended up back at CCs for a couple of Leos & a club sandwich & chips to share, before heading back to Leeloo.
After a shower & chill, we popped up to reception & saw Aiye, pronounced ‘Eye’, who is yet another lovely lady on our travels. We discussed our plans for the morning & informed her that we would like to stay a further 2 nights. Aiye gave us a discounted price for booking directly with her & took extra money off because we would be missing breakfast in the morning. Before we left her, we enquired if she could recommend any Thai food restaurants. She showed us on a map where she & Sylvian ate most nights apparently.
After a quick Hong Thong, Jackie & I boarded the scooter & headed out in search of Aiye’s recommended ‘Suchada Villa’. We got ourselves lost & suddenly behind us a voice shouted “Simon, Simon”. It was Aiye & we had overshot the restaurant by about 30 metres.
We took the table next to Aiye & Sylvian & spent a very pleasant evening chatting about life in Thailand during Covid & their struggles over the last 2 years. Sylvian was more relaxed & Aiye was so so lovely. Sylvian suggested Jackie order the shrimp paste rice, which came with an array of other dishes for just 70 baht & I ordered a green Thai chicken curry & rice.
The food was delicious, plentiful & cheap, no wonder they ate here most nights & the waitress was also really really nice. She taught us how to say “good night” in Thai, but I’ve already forgot. No problem, we will be returning here for the next two nights.
Song of the Day: Wide Lovely Eyes by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.
(I struggled with today’s song).Lue lisää
Day 30 - The Gold Leaf Tea-Leaf
8. tammikuuta 2022, Thaimaa ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
Again slept like babies until the alarm at 8am. We got ready & had our complimentary breakfast at the coffee shop next door. A bit of a weird American breakfast, scrambled egg & toast with cold spam, chicken sausages & sweet corn salad caked in thousand island dressing.
We then packed our bags, left them in reception & took a 40 Baht taxi to Wat Phra Mahathat Woramahawih, which is the main Buddhist temple (wat) of Nakhon Si Thammarat Province in southern Thailand. The main stupa of the temple, Phra Borommathat Chedi ('great noble relics stupa'), was built by King Sri Dhammasokaraja in the early-13th century CE to establish a symbol for the Theravada Buddhism sect in the province. The temple is believed to house a tooth of Gautama Buddha. (Enough of cutting & pasting from Wikipedia).
Upon our arrival, we were harassed by an elderly, but very pushy & persistent Thai equivalent of a ‘lucky heather’ seller. Instead she was trying to flog us lucky yellow poses to give to Buddha.
We eventually shook her off & headed into the wat. As one of the more important temples in Thailand, there was some serious praying going on. I tried to surreptitiously take photos among the praying congregation & the chanting of the orange swathed monks which was slightly awkward.
We went around the museum which Jackie described as ‘just a load of old pots’, then located more golden Buddhas in an indoor building surrounding the great Chedi.
Upon entering we discovered that the Thai worshippers were meticulously putting gold leaf on to the Buddhas. Jackie in her wisdom, saw a piece of gold leaf hanging precariously from one Buddha & decided to press it back on. What actually happened was that the gold leaf clung to Jackie’s finger & she had to roll it up like a bogie & flick it away. She will definitely not be going to heaven!
After an hour or so we had seen everything we needed to see (and before we got thrown out), so we walked back to our hotel in the blistering heat again. We arrived back at the hotel sweating profusely & I begged the receptionist to ‘get me out’ of this place. In fact I actually asked for a taxi to take us to the minibus station to head further north up the coast to Khanom, the home of the pink dolphins.
Yet again we had a smooth transition from taxi to minibus. The taxi dropped us off directly behind our minibus. The minibus, which cost just 80 Baht each, only had a couple of other passengers, but lots of cargo & we set off at 12.30pm. It was supposed to be a 2 hour journey, but our driver, a Thai Nigel Mansell, got us there at 2.10pm despite having at least 8 parcel drops along the way.
At Khanom minibus station, we waited for our new hotel owner, Sylvian, to pick us up free of charge. It was at this point that Jackie informed me that she had been sending messages to Sylvian, but signing off as Simon & he will probably think I’m gay. Fabulous!
Sylvian arrived in a beat up car & we loaded our luggage in. I was relieved to learn that he was French but had a Thai wife. Sylvian pointed out all his recommended restaurants as we drove to Leeloo Paradise at the southern end of Khanom.
Sylvian introduced us to his wife, Aiye, who checked us in to what was for us the best accommodation we have stayed at so far on this trip. The decor was too our taste. It just felt classy but understated.
After dumping our luggage, Sylvian sorted out 2 complimentary pedal cycles for us & we set off to explore & most importantly get a cold beer down our necks. We pedal-cycled to CC Beach Bar & Restaurant for 3 quick Leos.
Suitably refreshed, we cycled for a couple of miles up the road in search of an Indian restaurant that Sylvian had recommended. Apparently the owner was a 4* chef from Bangkok. It was not a traditional restaurant as we know it, but a Homestay. Two miles up the road we realised that we had missed it, so turned around & cycled back.
We eventually found it much closer to home than we thought & told the owner we would be back later. We got back to our room before an almighty thunderstorm passed through. Sylvian came out to make sure we didn’t get caught in the storm & offered us free use of his scooter for the evening.
After a couple of Hong Thongs we scooted out to the Indian Homestay. We ordered a chicken tikka masala, a chicken biryani, 2 naans, rice & a couple of Changs. Our table was under an awning in the owner’s back garden & we were unsurprisingly the only diners. It was a slightly surreal experience made all the more so when just after our food arrived another violent downpour sent us running for refuge into the owners kitchen. We ate our dinner side by side facing a brick wall in his kitchen.
The food was very good & reasonable, but as we mounted our scooter to ride home the engine wouldn’t turn over. The battery was flat. The 4* chef gave us a two’s up on the back of his scooter back to Leeloo, where Sylvian admitted his scooter hadn’t been used for the last 2 years.
Song of the Day: Thieves in the Temple by Prince.
She Bangs The Drum by The Stone Roses.
Get Me Out by New Model.Lue lisää
Andy and Teresa MaysToo much home truth about your nose picking etiquette - also is that a very large spider on the bed headboard. I’m at the next stage on the admin episode!! Take care the pair of you 😎
Day 29 - Blind Faith Prevails
7. tammikuuta 2022, Thaimaa ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C
Superb sleep & we both struggled to get out of bed at 9am. I dutifully went down to reception & got the latte coffee with an added shot on espresso. I then rode the motorbike back to Temptation & got my full deposit back from the nice lady, despite not actually ever putting any fuel in.
At 11am, we checked out of the hotel & two of the receptionists drove us to the Bus Sub Station free of charge. The English speaking receptionist spoke to the bus staff & then told us that she had arranged everything to get us to our next port of call, Nakhon Si Thammarat. I was exceptionally grateful & offered her a 20 Baht tip for her assistance, but she refused.
We were then in the hands of non English speaking staff who gesticulated us to sit on a bench. 20 minutes later, a bus driver with limited English told us he would be taking us in the next 10 minutes. His minibus was a disaster that stank of stale cigarette smoke & he tried to chat with us throughout his leg of journey without hardly paying any attention to the road ahead. He asked us lots of questions, which was fine until I told him I was a retired police officer. He then retorted that all police were corrupt, but qualified it by adding in Thailand.
Our minibus driver drove us & the other passengers to Songkhla hospital where waited in his minibus until a small coach arrived 10 minutes later. We were escorted to the small coach & our minibus driver boarded & informed us it would take 3 hours to get to Nakhon Si Thammarat.
We took up seats at the rear of the new coach & watched the world pass by as we headed north up the eastern coast of Thailands southern peninsula. We arrived in Nakhon Si Thammarat & when the coach stopped outside Phra Mahathat Woramaha Wiharn we got off.
The Phra Mahathat Woramaha Wiharn temple with its huge chedi (pagoda) is one of the most important Buddhist temples in Thailand, and one of the very oldest. This was the main reason for us visiting Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Several taxi minibuses pulled up to give us a lift, but we were met with confused or blank faces when I showed them my phone with either the hotel address in Thai or just the location on a map. Things got tense between Jackie & I when she kept telling me to ask waiters & shop owners for directions when I knew the directions but was trying to get someone to give us a lift.
After failing miserably to get a lift we walked the 1.2 miles laden down with our luggage in the blistering heat to our not so central, Bunprasop Garden Hotel. Half an hour later we arrived, absolutely dripping & slightly testy.
It took several receptionists before we could find one that spoke a modicum of English. She gave me a map of the places to visit, but suggested we caught a taxi & pointed on the map.
We went up to our room & spent an hour trying to cool down & dealing with some of my vetting/admin issues on the iPad. Having changing into less damp clothes we went down to reception to get a taxi, only to be told that the main temple, Phra Mahathat Woramaha Wiharn, would now be closed for the day. FFS, I was furious.
Abandoning the idea of going back to Phra Mahathat Woramaha Wiharn, we walked along our busy main road in search of somewhere to have a drink & later something to eat.
This might sound weird, but we found a restaurant on the corner of a very busy crossroads & sat down for a couple of Changs & enjoy the street life around us. We were definitely the only westerners in this town & the beer numbed the pain of not getting to see any of the sights today.
Finally chilled out & happy, we found a local restaurant with an English menu & both had fried pork & sticky rice, with a beer we had to purchase from the shop next door. It was bloody delicious & each dish cost 50 baht, just over a £1. That was two local restaurant dinner successes in a row.
We returned drained back to our hotel for Netflix & chill, but fell asleep instead.
Song of the Day: Blind Faith by Chase & Status.
Can’t Find My Way Home by Blind Faith.
Street Life by Randy Crawford.Lue lisää
MatkaajaGreat captions on the photos today. Made me chuckle. Really enjoying these daily updates...
Andy and Teresa MaysVetting admin issues . . . . even more? A beer should do it 😂. Thank god you have Jax with you 😎
Day 28 - Motorbikin’ Around Songkhla
6. tammikuuta 2022, Thaimaa ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
Despite having a lovely comfortable bed we both had dreadful night sleeps. At 9am, I popped down to reception to get a couple of free coffees. Around 10am, we headed around the corner to Temptation Car & Motorbike For Rent & saw the very attractive & pleasant lady who was being hassled last night.
She rented us a more powerful motorbike & we set off on Simon’s Tours. Bizarrely as the driver, I had to wear a crash helmet, but Jackie didn’t! Our first stop was Samila Beach to see & touch the Golden Mermaid Statue. We took our photographs & a Thai tourist asked if we wanted him to take a photo of both of us. We accepted & then I offered to return the favour. He said “Yes” then gave his phone to Jackie & insisted I pose with him. It made a nice change.
We next visited the Cat & Rat statue then returned to our motorbike to discover a monkey was trying to ride off on it!! The troop of at least 20 monkeys in this location were very aggressive & we saw a sign warning of monkeys stealing purses.
Once we had shooed the monkey away, we continued through Seree Public Park & headed to Tang Kuan Hill. It was my intention to take the funicular railway to the viewpoint to the top, but sadly it was closed, presumably due to Covid.
We motorbiked around Tang Kuan Hill & then set off on a ten mile ride to Ko Yo, an island in the middle of Songkhla Lake. The plan was to have lunch at Sunset Café, which had been highly recommended by the motorbike rental lady.
On Ko Yo, we stopped at the Reclining Buddha at Wat Phranon Laem Pho for a photo opportunity, then we cruised around the scenic coastal circumference of Ko Yo. We found the empty of customers Sunset Café & asked for 2 menus & ordered a beer. Our beer arrived in two paper cups & we perused the menu, which was ridiculously extensive especially the range of beers & ciders from Europe. After 20 minutes the 4 waitresses were still sat on their phones & hadn’t come back to us, so we just paid up & walked out.
We tried another restaurant that was full of Thais & tried to order a beer. After lots of gesticulating we finally succeeded in ordering to Changs. The menu arrived & was solely in Thai. Despite Jackie doing her chicken & fish impressions, we couldn’t make ourselves understood so we drank up & left.
We were now starving, so we motorbiked back to the historic Songkhla Old Town & parked up. We stopped in a Chinese restaurant & the miserable waitress literally dropped the menu down on our table & said they didn’t sell beer. We got up & walked out yet again.
Two doors down, we found a cafe/pizzeria serving homemade pizza & beer. We shared a very nice beef & chilli pizza with a Chang. After we strolled around the old town admiring the street art before the searing heat took it’s toll. We drove back to our hotel & had a siesta in the air conditioned room.
At 7pm, we ventured back out on foot & found a market place restaurant full of locals. Luckily they had an English version of their menu & I ordered a chicken & cashew nuts, not the dish above it. Jackie ordered fried squid with garlic. The food was excellent & we washed it down with bottles of water.
Song of the Day: Me And My Monkey by Robbie Williams.
Monkey 23 by The Kills.
Motorbike Beat by The Revillos.Lue lisää
Day 27 - Mr Simon, Been Expecting You
5. tammikuuta 2022, Thaimaa ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
Woke up with a seriously throbbing big toe & no pain killers. We had breakfast & packed & went to reception around 10.20am to settle our bill & to get a lift to the speedboat port. We saw Lucas & our nice (but NOT so dim) girl who had successfully booked our speedboat & minibus tickets back to Hat Yai Bus Terminal & revealed she hails from our next stop, Songkhla.
We arrived at the speedboat port overly early, but as a result we were allocated plastic boarding cards No. 7 & 8. For 45 minutes we sweated in the shade until we were allowed to board & we managed to secure the co-pilot seats at the front of the boat. We felt like Lord & Lady Muck!
The 62 kilometres back to Pak Bara on the mainland took just 1 hour 20 minutes across a decidedly choppy sea. At Pak Bara we did not have to show any documentation & we ushered straight through to our minibus. The only annoyance was our fellow passengers were 2 Russian or similar families & they tried to reserve all the best seats on the minibus by putting their bags on the seats then disappeared to the toilet. We weren’t having that & we moved the bags off & sat on the seats we wanted. No one said anything when they returned.
It was a painful journey on the minibus. We were too squashed in & the driver was in no hurry, the complete opposite of our kamikaze driver on the way out. After dropping off the Ruskies at Hat Yai Airport we continued on ‘just the two of us’ to Hat Yai Bus Terminal at 3.30pm. We alighted & I ended up rushing to the toilet with loo roll in hand to do what was required in effectively a hole in the floor.
After that disaster had been averted, I walked back to the PM Residence to pay for our stay back on the 28th December 2021. Booking.com had been in touch with us to say that we hadn’t paid for our stay. We tried to pay for it remotely, but it was just too difficult. When I arrived at the PM Residence, the receptionist said “Mr Simon, been expecting you”. If they had been expecting me it was a shame that they hadn’t got the necessary paperwork ready! It took about 15 minutes for the very apologetic receptionist to find & complete the necessary paperwork & take my payment.
I returned to the bus terminal & Jackie went off in search of a bus to take us to Songkhla. No one spoke English, but after Jackie’s heroic efforts we eventually boarded a minibus to Songkhla bus station. We paid the driver for 3 seats (at 34 baht a seat) so we could stack our rucksacks on the 3rd seat. An absolute bargain for a 20 mile trip. The remainder of the minibus was filled with schoolgirls.
We arrived at Songkhla bus station which was empty except for one sole scooter taxi. We had no choice, but to explain to him where we needed to go. Once he finally understood, he ran off & returned in a car. The 1.6 mile journey to our hotel took less than 10 minutes & he charged us 140 Baht. We made his day.
Our A. List Hotel is the most stylish we have stayed in on this trip. After checking in & having to produce our UK vaccination certificates, we had a free coffee in the swish reception. To our amazement a western male guest appeared & when I said hello, he just grunted. Miserable tw^t.
Up in our room, Jackie had a bath & shaved her legs in the opulent bathroom whilst I examined the damage to my left foot. It had a bruised purple hue.
Around 7pm, we ventured out in search of food. The first suitable place was Oscar’s Bar, but ‘Miserable tw^t’ was sat at the bar with 3 other farangs. We carried on & chanced upon a scooter rental shop with a pissed-up bald obnoxious Australian farang hassling the lady in the shop. Jackie stepped in to enquire about the price of a scooter for the day & the Aussie turned to me introduced himself as Adam & said “What the f¥ck are you doing here?” I tried to politely explain our itinerary to him, but every time I said something he replied “Yeah, but what the f¥ck are you doing here?” I honestly can’t remember what I said when my patience finally snapped, but he then accused me of being negative. Jackie & I walked off leaving him to rant and rave to his mate about me.
We walked round the streets only to discover that all the local restaurants were closed. At 8.20pm, we bit the bullet & returned to Oscar’s Bar. The 4 farangs at the bar said hello when we walked in. We ordered a couple of beers from the lovely staff & were reading the menu when the pissed-up bald obnoxious Australian appeared in the street & started shouting about me being a wanker. One of the farangs told him to not upset the guests, meaning us as we were the only other people in the bar. We thought it best to ignore him and try and avoid further confrontation.
Jackie ordered chicken wings and chips, whilst I ordered a steak & mushroom pie & chips. The food was pure stodge heaven & we had the a special treat of proper Sarsons malt vinegar & HP brown sauce.
The pissed-up bald obnoxious Australian managed to annoy everyone at the bar, but the final straw was when the 16 year old daughter of one of the farangs popped in & the pissed-up bald obnoxious Australian said to her “Nice Tits”. To be fair, she did have them a bit too much out on display!
The pissed-up bald obnoxious Australian then made a quick exit (well, staggering from side to side down the street) without paying his bill, but left his phone & sunglasses behind. The atmosphere was much more relaxed after he left & the English farang with the daughter with large bosoms came over & had a chat with us.
We learnt that he, Chris, had lived in Songkhla for the last 18 years & was a catering manager for the off-shore oil rigs. This explained why there were a few westerners in town. He gave us some tips on where to eat & told us that his mother had visited him for Christmas & she lived in Chichester. Small world!
Chris also told us that the pissed-up bald obnoxious Australian unbelievably held a senior position at the port, but he had been at sea for some days & it was his 1st night back on shore. No excuse!
It had turned out to be a really good evening & we returned to our snazzy hotel knackered.
Song of the Day: Twat by John Cooper Clarke.Lue lisää
Day 26 - Arse Over Tit in Sunset City
4. tammikuuta 2022, Thaimaa ⋅ 🌧 27 °C
We didn’t wake up until gone 9am, then it was down to breakfast. No new entertainment was on offer, but we had some new/trainee staff that still had some way to go. I ordered an omelette, but got scrambled egg, we didn’t receive our fruit platter & it took a while to order a 2nd coffee. I’m struggling to cope with such hardship!
The sun was out & so we set up camp on 2 deckchairs for a full day of sun. At lunchtime Jackie popped back to our room & smuggled 2 cans of Chang on to the beach. Once drunk, it was my turn to get a couple more.
After collecting my illicit contraband, I walked along the beach back to Jackie & didn’t notice the anchor rope of a longboat had risen up. I didn’t just trip up in my flip flops, but I somehow managed to a actually face plant into the sand. My embarrassing shriek of pain woke up the crew on the longboat as I picked myself up & walked on as if nothing happened, despite having a cut on the top of my foot.
During the afternoon, the sun & fluffy clouds were threatening to provide us with a proper sunset. We weren’t the only ones to think so because the beach started to fill up. At 5.05pm, Jackie decided we needed to have a sundowner drink & she returned to the room to collect a bottle of Hong Thong & a can of coke. We are not cheapskates, just frugal!
Whilst Jackie was away, I splattered a full mosquito against my leg resulting in a big smudge of blood & mossie carcass. Seconds later I was being attacked by another 2 mosquitos & I quickly, but with style, walked to the sea to clean my leg. Unfortunately as I was waving away the chasing mosquitos, I didn’t notice the rock in the sand that I smashed my left foot into, which again left me in a pitiful mess on all fours in the sand with a bleeding middle toe. The bastard mossies continued to eat my legs, despite me splatting another three.
The sunset was still disappointing, no red skies, but I took a couple of arty photos for the sheer hell of it. We then returned to our room & did a bit of packing. Our dirty clothes had been successfully returned from laundry.
We were just about to head out for dinner, when I went back into our room to put my iPad on charge & somehow managed to smash my left foot on the step, ripping the skin off the bottom of my arthritic big toe. What an absolutely clumsy tw^t, I’ve become!!
After some serious swearing, hopping up & down & 1st aid from Jackie, we popped out for dinner. It was at La Luna, an Italian restaurant where I had gnocchi al pesto & Jackie had a spicy penne dish. We treated ourselves to a litre of red wine & garlic bread. It was very good.
We managed to make it home & to bed without further accident or incident.
Song of the Day: Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty.
Sunsetz by Cigarettes After Sex.
Clumsy by Cotter.Lue lisää
Andy and Teresa MaysWas sure your song of the day would have included Day Tripper. Anyhow the spotify playlist is coming along nicely. Have whatsapped you - might be of interest.
Day 25 - Breakfast with a Mermaid
3. tammikuuta 2022, Thaimaa ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
Woke up suffering the effects of eating too much curry the previous evening. It didn’t stop us going to breakfast, but Jackie could only manage coffee & some omelette. I ate all of mine & most of what Jackie would let me have of hers.
Today’s entertainment at breakfast was the appearance of a mermaid sitting on a rock in front of us. It was like being in Copenhagen…….I imagine!
After breakfast we collected up all our dirty clothes & dropped them off in reception (not literally) for cleaning at typically the dearest place we have so far found on our trip, 80 Baht per kilo. Jackie gave it all to the nice, but dim, girl to deal with. We have visions of our clothes being worn by all the staff, because no one has a clue who they belong to.
With the tide being high & consuming most of our beach, we decided to have another march around the island to burn off that bloody curry. We started in reverse & explored the resorts to the west of us, including their toilets!
We ended up on a now clean Pattaya Beach & saw 3 separate pontoons loading queues of Thais into speedboats to get them home for work in the morning. Apparently today was a Thai Bank Holiday.
After Pattaya Beach, we did Walking Street, then walked Sunrise Beach to the ‘pleasing on the eye’ Zodiac Bar for a couple of large Changs. Black clouds gathered as we supped our beer, so we headed back through the locals village & almost undiscovered jungle tracks before arriving at the opposite end of our Sunset Beach.
Over lunch of a Chang & onion bhajis, whilst a quick shower passed over, we googled accommodation & travel routes & booked a 2 night stay in a hotel in the place where the pink dolphins live. We aren’t going mad just yet!!
The afternoon was spent on deckchairs on our beach, which promised to provide us with a decent sunset. The beach was fairly full with tourists with the same opinion as us. We waited until gone 6pm, but yet again it was another unmitigated flop.
After giving it up as another lost cause, we didn’t hang about & an hour later we were heading into town. We stopped at reception & spoke to nice, but dim lady again & this time Jackie put her in charge of organising our return trip to Hat Yai Bus Terminal on Wednesday. We have now relied on her slightly more than I feel comfortable with, but hey ho!
Tonight, we had decided that we would sample some of the fare on the street stalls, followed by a quick drink & cards back on our balcony. It didn’t end up that way.
We started off with a couple of sausages that were reheated on the grill. Jackie started eating hers first & stopped half way through saying it wasn’t what she expected, then said it was cold/undercooked in the middle. I ate mine despite her best efforts to make me gag.
We went to a different stall & ordered a couple of chicken sticks. Mine was nice, but Jackie said hers was a bit grisly. And who is the fussy one?Jackie then declared she wanted to go to OMG Bar for a little something else to eat & a beer.
We arrived at OMG Bar just after 8pm & ordered 2 Changs & a Pad Thai to share from the waiters. It was a quiet night, we would eat & drink up & go. At 8.30pm, everything changed when a crowd of 30 plus people descended on OMG in a huge cloud of cannabis smoke. They were a mixture of Thais & westerners, but they all thought they were super cool. It transpired that it was the birthday day of one amongst them, a very loud dramatic transsexual in a white dress.
This made for good people watching, but what topped it off was the same band from previously started up. The very talented duo turned out to be our waiters from when we arrived. We stayed until their final song, a decent version of Smells Like Teen Spirit.
Song of the Day: Mermaids by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.
When Mermaids Cry by Eagle-Eye Cherry.
The “In” Crowd by The Mamas & The Papas.
Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana.Lue lisää
Day 24 - Spider Mystery Solved
2. tammikuuta 2022, Thaimaa ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
It was a Huntsman Spider!!
Appearance
If big spiders aren’t your cup of tea, we’re sorry to say that the Huntsman Spider is one of the largest in the world, growing as large as 30 cm!
In Thailand they’re often as large as a grown man’s hand. With long, strong legs, and a fuzzy body, these spiders are a mottled brown and tan color, making them difficult to spot against a forest floor.
Habitat
The Huntsman Spider’s natural camouflage serves it well in the woodland and forest areas that it calls home. Unfortunately, they also are curious enough to venture into houses and dwellings in rural areas, most likely because they do not spin webs, but hunt for insects and small invertebrates.
Bite
Fortunately, these spiders are shy and often scared of humans. Huntsman aren’t known to aggressively bite humans, but if you do get bitten, you’re likely in for a little discomfort and swelling that will subside in a day or two.
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At 6.30am I stumbled out of bed to the bathroom & was confronted by the spider for a 2nd time. It was on the wall next to the mirror. I edged back out & grabbed Jackie’s phone. The spider had hidden itself behind all of Jackie’s clutter beside the wash basin. I couldn’t turn her flash on, probably because my hands were a bit sweaty, so I had to resort to taking a long shot in the dark with a disappointing result. The spider is definitely living in the big gap behind the cabinet in the bathroom.
Back in bed I got back to googling & was able to identify this spider, which was probably the same as the 1st one, as a Huntsman Spider. In my defence, it would appear that Huntsman Spiders are regularly mistaken for Tarantulas. It didn’t make Jackie any happier when I read out the description above & I know I will have to conduct a thorough search from now on before Jackie enters the bathroom.
We were treated to a ‘glamour’ shoot on the beach at breakfast. The girl had absolutely no shame or embarrassment as she stripped off down to her bikini & pranced & posed in front of us bemused hotel guests trying to eat our breakfast!
We were also amused by the peculiar sight of a girl sat on her balcony wearing a mask & snorkel whilst reading.
We sat in deckchairs on the beach all day with just a few beers & went out for dinner starving. We went to the Bombay Indian Restaurant and started ordering. When I got to the rice & asked if we could easily get a 2nd rice if we needed it, the waiter replied “I think you’ve ordered enough sir”. That is when you know you’ve ordered too much!!
Our dinner consisted of popadoms with salad & mint sauce, 10 onion bhajis, a chicken tikka masala, a chicken jalfrezi, 2 naan beads & just the one steamed rice. We ate it all except 4 onion bhajis that were bagged up for us to take home for lunch. It was delicious, but we were too stuffed to do anything else after but waddle home.
During the day & evening, I sneaked into the bathroom with my camera primed, but unfortunately there were no further sightings of our Huntsman.
Song of the Day: Tiptoe Spider by Ray Bonneville.
Jumpin’ Jack Flash by The Rolling Stones.Lue lisää
MatkaajaWe had a huntsman when we were staying in the hunter valley in Oz..Tony and the kids trapped it under a vase for me to see ( and freak out at) when I woke in the morning. We then showed my two little nieces who declared in broad Ozzie accents”that’s nothing Auntie Pam , we have bigger than that at nursery”
Simon and Jackie AnnalsI think they probably look scarier than they actually are. I am bravely checking every time Jackie wants to use the bathroom. Heroic!
Andy and Teresa MaysI thought for one second what a bloody excellent photo you had got of the spider, then realised it wasn’t yours obviously. Glad to see your photo was as I would have expected 😂. Mate I’m surprised you’re going back in the bathroom to try and get a photo, luckily for Jax it isn’t a dog 😎. Are you loitering at the Free Sex beach for a particular reason. Stay safe both of you.
Day 23 - 2022 Explorers of the Year
1. tammikuuta 2022, Thaimaa ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
I had an absolutely rubbish night sleep. I could hear trance music in the distance, but I can’t blame it on my lack of sleep.
At 9.30am we got up & still full, headed down to breakfast. We had the same again & were surprised to see Lucas helping out. It was very busy, but he told us most people were leaving later during the day.
It was a bit of a grey day, so we decided this was the perfect opportunity to explore the island on foot. We initially headed for Sunrise Beach, which is a long white sandy beach on the easternmost side of the island. We passed a couple bars that still had drunk/hungover revellers who it appeared hadn’t yet been to bed this year.
After walking the length of the beach we concluded that we much preferred our beach at Sunset Beach. Our research before booking paid off! It didn’t help Sunrise Beach that it was quite windy, which made the sea too choppy to swim in & difficult to lie on.
We returned to the centre of the island via the locals village behind Sunrise Beach. Extremely loud techno music was blasting out of a hut for no apparent reason & inexplicably it had been going since New Years Eve night. We know because it’s the music we could hear from our hotel nearly a mile away. The village was quite frankly a bloody mess with a lot of rubbish littering the walkways. We did spot a water monitor that slid into a pond when we approached it.
We then walked the length of Walking Street to Pattaya Beach & the scene of last night’s big firework display. There was still plenty of evidence of it on the beach with discarded sparklers & spent rockets. This was another place in need of a good clean up!
Having walked along Pattaya Beach without finding anywhere suitable to quench our thirst, we followed a road up off the beach & within minutes we were back at our Bayview Sunset Resort. Instead of going home we walked back to Walking Street & sat ourselves down at Ja Yao Restaurant, which turned out to be staffed by slightly surly, but very camp transvestites. One waiter changed from t-shirt & jeans to a frilly blouse & pantaloons during the time we were there.
We shared 4 well earned large Changs having walked 4.54 miles that morning according to my watch & just watched the world go by. We resisted the urge to eat, but made our mind’s up that we would just have a series of street food snacks that evening.
We returned to our resort & booked our next accommodation for a few days time. We then decided to unadvisedly have a power nap & woke up at 6.30pm feeling groggy & not really in the mood to go out.
We forced ourselves back out & stopped in OMG Bar for a quick drink before we ate. The bar was a sports bar with premiership football playing silently on TV screens & a decent drum & guitar duo playing cover versions live on stage. It was a great atmosphere & we stayed, slowly supping our beer, until 9.45pm, when hunger got the better of us.
We walked back to where the street food stalls had been cooking to discover to our horror that they were all packing away without a morsel of meat left to buy. We had to make do with just a banana & chocolate roti each, whilst listening to the “Yoo Hoo” of Madam Yoo Hoo every time a westerner walked past her restaurant opposite.
Jackie felt full after her banana roti & apparently so did I! We walked them off going back home.
Song of the Day: Just the Two of Us by Grover Washington, Jr., Bill Withers.
Under the Bridge by Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
Creep by Radiohead (Album version only).
(A selection of some of the songs played by the band OMG Bar).Lue lisää
Day 22 - Saying Goodbye to 2021 in Style
31. joulukuuta 2021, Thaimaa ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
Woke up at 5am to the sound of a small animal with claws (or a tarantula with clogs on) scuttling around on our ceiling. It was most unnerving.
I got up at 9am, looked in the mirror & remembered that I had got myself a ‘Pompadour’. I started looking for Song of the Day for yesterday’s blog & found the perfect song to sum up my new hairdo.
Breakfast was a repeat of yesterday except that we spread our Bovril on the toast and we had a splash of rain. The hotel manager, Lucas appeared & excitedly informed me that they had got some smoked ribs in especially for me from a new supplier & I’d be the first to try them. Great, I’m now going to be a guinea pig tonight!
After a morning on the beach we popped back to our room for just one beer each on the balcony. During our lunch break, Jackie received a friends request on Facebook from Big Anne & within minutes they were conversing about the trials & tribulations (or lack of) of getting back home. I just hope that Big Anne doesn’t get wind of my blog!
We returned to the beach for a somewhat cloudy afternoon, then called it a day at 4.30pm to prepare for our big night.
At 6pm & all dressed up to the nines, we went back down to our Sunset Beach to join our fellow diners for pre-dinner drinks & to watch another non-existent sunset. Our fellow diners included a family of Canadians, who were teachers living in Bangkok, a German couple who accused us of being the spitting image of a couple of her friends & 3 Brits who we didn’t actually get to talk to.
On the beach we had a couple of mojitos & chatted to the Canadians about our respective travels & life in Thailand during the last two years. Once darkness started to fall, we were ushered up to the The Hill Restaurant, which was a beautiful setting, an open air terrace overlooking the bay. The remainder of the diners were already sat in the restaurant.
Each group, mainly couples, had individual tables. I was proud of the fact that I was the ‘special one’ until Lucas burst my bubble by telling me that there was another meat eater in our midst. It turned out to be the accusing German woman & it would seem I was more ‘special needs’ than the ‘special one’.
Lucas did the rounds taking drinks orders. We, like many, ordered white wine & Lucas came back with two Spanish bottles for us to choose from. We made our choice without any mention of prices to influence us. I knew it wasn’t going to be cheap!
The 5 courses came out as per the photos & the scheduled menu. Instead of the fish I had chicken satay, spicy marinated pork & smoked ribs. Jackie definitely benefited from my ‘fish intolerance’, because she had a whole lobster to herself while other couples had to share exactly the same sized lobster & she definitely had more sashimi. What was most impressive was the fact that Jackie ate every single bit of fish, it was only when & we got to the steak course that she suffered. I did help her out!
Lucas was extremely passionate about the food & took great delight explaining to us what each course was & how it was prepared, which all added to the overall experience.
Despite sipping the wine instead of our usual guzzling, we had to order a 2nd bottle of wine half way through the meal. Following dessert of chocolate brownie, mango & coconut ice cream, we had a small firework display on the beach in front of us, which was intimate and a nice conclusion to the meal. Jackie videoed the tail end of the fireworks on her phone & was so pleased with herself she started WhatsApping all & sundry her firework display & with a ‘Happy New Year’.
Lucas then invited us to join him on a bar crawl to end at Pattaya Beach in time for the fireworks scheduled to take place at midnight. We were keen to go, but we were too stuffed to contemplate drinking for the next 2 hours. We have turned into a couple of middle aged lightweights!
I apologised to Lucas that we were too knackered & then I signed for our meal. I had a minor heart-attack when I saw the cost of the wine, luckily we didn’t know what the cost was otherwise I would never have ordered the 2nd bottle, which would have put a minor downer on the evening.
All in all it had been a fabulous evening & one that will live in the memory for a long time to come. Surely that is what life is all about!
We ended our evening with a couple of cheeky Hong Thongs on our balcony & retired to bed at just before 11pm.
The 20 minutes worth of fireworks on Pattaya Beach woke me up at midnight!
Song of the Day: Special Needs by Placebo.Lue lisää
Simon and Jackie AnnalsThank you Pam. Happy New Year to you & Tony. Happy campervanning x
Simon and Jackie AnnalsTeresa, Hong Thong (Golden Phoenix in Thai) is a Quality Thai Spirit produced from molasses and blended with alcohol with high degree of purity.
Day 21 - I’ve got a New Year’s Pompadour
30. joulukuuta 2021, Thaimaa ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
Jackie & I were both awake around 4am fighting over the one double sheet that we had on our bed. Basically the air-con that we had paid extra for was too cold. The disagreement was resolved by adjusting the temperature to 23 degrees & Jackie putting on a fleece.
We got up at 9am & had the shock of my life to find a saucer sized dark hairy spider on the wall in the bathroom. I told Jackie not to enter & I backed out of the bathroom to fetch my camera. It was at least 10 seconds before I could return to the bathroom by which time the huge spider had vanished into thin air. This didn’t help Jackie!
I am not exaggerating when after googling Thailand spiders I have identified it as a black tarantula. We still haven’t found or spotted it since. Sadly I have no photographic evidence, just my eye witness testimony. I now have to thoroughly search the bathroom every time before Jackie will enter.
We went to breakfast for an ‘American’ of eggs, bacon, chicken sausage (they can keep) toast, as well as banana muesli, fruit & coffee. It was pretty decent.
After breakfast we sought out Lucas the resort manager to tell him we would like to have the New Years Eve dinner for two. It was something Lucas had offered us when we checked in. It was not cheap at £43 each for a 5 course meal, but our research showed that our restaurant, The Hill, was No. 1 on TripAdvisor out of 81 restaurants on the island & previous diners had described it as the best meal of their lives. On the downside the first 3 courses were fish or seafood that I don’t eat. I explained this to the incredulous Lucas who said he would try & work out some meat alternatives & to come back after 4pm to check his alternative menu for me.
We dilly dallied on our balcony & Jackie hijacked the cleaners for an extra pillow & an extra bed sheet. We hit the beach close to midday & realised it was a small but perfectly formed beach. I had a deckchair, whilst Jackie lay on the sand until lunch, beer & some dodgy crackers with pork floss on our balcony.
The afternoon was cloudy but we were still catching it. At 4.30pm we returned to Lucas who told us that the restaurant kitchen was too small for the chefs to cook additional dishes, but he had arranged for us to go to an Italian restaurant where they had both a fish & meat set menu. I told him that Jackie had set her heart on his NYE feast & I was prepared to sit out the 1st 3 courses if he reduced the price. He (nor Jackie) was having this & he said they would rise to the challenge & create some ‘special’ dishes for me. I suspect the chef’s will be really happy with this decision after already telling him “No chance” or probably something stronger.
Jackie & I then grabbed a bottle of Hong Thong & some cokes from our room & sat in a deckchair to watch the non-existent sunset on Sunset Beach. Once it was clear there would be no sunset (we still haven’t seen a good one yet on this trip) we showered & headed into town.
The Box restaurant we had earmarked for that evening’s dinner was full, so feeling brave (the 4 Hong Thongs probably helped) I ended up in the barber’s chair. I selected the ‘Pompadour’, which I now know to be a hairstyle named after Madame de Pompadour, who was a mistress of King Louis XV of France. The barber’s incredible attention to detail, including the use of a cutthroat razor, meant my haircut lasted about 40 minutes, despite a queue of customers forming. I walked out looking & feeling a million dollars for just 300 baht.
The Box was still busy so we went to the Banana Tree restaurant where I ordered a NorthEastern Thai dish of minced pork & Jackie had chicken & cashew nuts. It was nice but not special. We managed to stay awake long enough to walk home.
Song of the Day: Pompadour by Tim O’Brien.
(The lyrics are brilliant. Exactly how I felt when I looked in the mirror this morning!)”Lue lisää
Andy and Teresa MaysWho but you, goes on holiday and has a hair cut . . . You tart 😂
Andy and Teresa MaysBut you’ve only been away 21 days, and surely you had a pre trip barnet snip. Happy New Year you two - have a fab and fishy evening!!
Day 20 - Utter Chaos & Confusion
29. joulukuuta 2021, Thaimaa ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
At 8.05am, we got down to reception just as our minibus arrived to take us on the next leg of our journey. We were driven through town by our kamikaze driver who totally ignored all road signs & traffic lights. We picked up a Spanish girl, then headed out to Hat Yai International Airport where we filled the minibus with mainly westerners who had just flown in.
We stopped just once at a 7-11 petrol station, where I treated Jackie to breakfast - a double pack of pocket sandwiches, one filled with crab sticks & the other tuna. Apparently they are really nice! I had a pineapple Danish pastry.
We arrived at Pak Nam at 11am to discover it was heaving with Thai holidaymakers all waiting to take the speedboats out to the islands. Apparently, Thai residents have been offered huge discounts as a government incentive to keep their tourist industry afloat.
Jackie & I were dropped off at a tour office where we were provided with some documentation & a laminated numbered card each. We were then instructed to join the queue at the terminal for pier 3.
We joined a queue & a lady started waving a card with a QR code on it. We photographed it with our phones but nothing happened because I’m too tight to pay for a Roaming Data add-on to my phone! We tried to explain this to the lady, whilst others huddled around us trying to photograph her QR code, but it didn’t go very well so we continued in the queue.
We then got to another checkpoint, where they wanted to see our passports, proof of Covid jabs & the completion of an online form after downloading that QR code. The lady at the checkpoint finally understanding that that we hadn’t completed the online form ushered us to one side to complete a written information form then we pushed our way back to her. She let Jackie straight through, but after examining my passports said something about me not having the right something or other. I called Jackie back, then without explanation she waved me through. I was perplexed!
We then all huddled together in front of Pier 3 whilst our cases & rucksacks were loaded on to the speedboat. Everyone was ready to board when a young Thai girl started barking her orders. It transpired that we were supposed to be in a queue in the order of the numbers on our laminated cards. This caused further confusion & consternation.
At midday (30 minutes late) we had all finally boarded the speedboat & were crammed in like sardines, when we finally left the dock. After 50 minutes we slowed down at an island & the crew shouted instructions in Thai. We had no idea what they were saying & could hardly hear them anyway because some annoying Spaniards next to us were singing & laughing too loudly.
Anyway, most of the Thais disembarked when we docked, leaving all the westerners sat where we were. The speedboat then moved away from the dock & we moved seats for more space, because we assumed that the Thais were not returning. The speedboat then dropped anchor & we realised that this was just a 15 minute scheduled stop to Ko Tarutao island, the largest island of Tarutao National Marine Park, but now we had no means of getting off.
Thirty minutes later all the Thais eventually returned to the boat & we set off. No sooner had we got back up to full speed, when we stopped again at a beach on Koh Khai island. This time we went ashore & took a photo of it’s ‘famous’ rock arch. A Thai from Bangkok offered to take a photo of Jackie & I on my phone, but then insisted on taking 10 of the damn things. I then felt obliged to offer to do the same for him & his wife on his camera which of course he was pleased to accept.
These scheduled stops were a nice idea in theory, but in Covid times they just added to the potential risk of Covid being spread around the boat as people fought to squeeze past others with masks generally at half mast.
Around 2.30pm, we docked at Koh Lipe on a wobbly floating pontoon. It was chaos, but we managed to reach terra firma with all our luggage without falling off. On land an official looking lad asked us where we going & when we told him he told us to wait where we were. We assumed our hotel was sending someone out to collect us.
We waited & waited until we were the only persons from our boat still at the pontoon port, so Jackie went back to the man who just said “You’ll have to get a taxi). Brilliant, we could have done that half an hour ago!
The taxi was a motorbike & sidecar combination, which struggled up the steep rutted hills, but it made it to our hotel at a cost of just 50 baht each. We checked in at reception at the Bayview Sunset Resort, where we discovered that they had sent us a message that morning to ring them for a free transfer. We didn’t receive it because I’m too tight to pay for a Roaming Data add-on to my phone!
We were initially disappointed with our new room & checked the information on booking.com to make sure we had what we had booked. We had, so we popped to the beach bar for a spot of late lunch. The prices are dearer than we had previously being paid, so we had just a couple of small beers & shared a plate of fried ribs with garlic.
We returned to our room much happier & unpacked. We showered & sat on our balcony for a quick beer, then locked ourselves out of the room. A cleaner who was eating her dinner managed to unlock us AND offer us some of her dinner.
We walked to Walking Street on the other side of the island & discovered it to be bustling with tourists. It was a strange experience. We walked Walking Street twice, before finally settling on a Thai restaurant that wasn’t too busy. I had crispy garlic chicken & Jackie had a spicy green curry. All just nice & then we walked it off going home shattered.
Song of the Day: Kamikaze by PJ Harvey.
Chaos From the Top Down by The Stereophonics.
Sound of Confusion by Secret Affair.Lue lisää
Day 19 - Heading to the Deep South
28. joulukuuta 2021, Thaimaa ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
The alarm went off at 8am, but I had been up hours monitoring the dismal performance by United at Newcastle. We showered, packed & were in the hotel reception at 9.20am.
Ten minutes later, Chanika rolled up in her big Mitsubishi 4x4 & jumped out dressed as Dolly Parton without the chest. She was wearing a checkered shirt, jeans & cowboy crocks! Chanika was were usual excitable self & she chatted with Jackie for most of the 50 minute journey to Khok Kloi bus station.
At Khok Kloi we were about an hour early, but Jackie wanted to be safe rather than sorry. Chanika rang the bus company to confirm it would be stopping for us, then we insisted she waited with us no longer. We gave her a decent 500 baht tip (she had been worth every baht) & sent her on her way.
At 11.20 a battered old bus rattled into the bus station & tooted it’s horn. The female conductor jumped out & beckoned for us to hurry over. I threw our large rucksacks into the hold & boarded the bus. The conductor squirted our hands, gave us our tickets for ‘Mr Simon’ & we were off. The bus interior was disastrous with bits missing from the back of the seats, the vinyl floor had lifted into a big bubble & their were tears in the seat. Having said all that it seemed to go well & it was comfy.
The 1st brief stop was Phang Nga with it’s very scenic limestone cliffs & rock formations which continued all the way down to Krabi. The bus passed through Khlong Thom, Mueang Trang & Phatthalung before arriving at Hat Yai bus terminal at 6.20pm. We had only one 10 minute stop at a service station during the entire journey of 241 miles, but it did seem to pass pretty quickly. It probably helped that we had two seats each to ourselves, plenty of snacks, half a bottle of Hong Thong & I watched 4 episodes of ‘Narcos’ on Netflix on my iPad.
When we got off the bus at Hat Yai we were mobbed by taxi drivers, but I shooed them away, because it was only a very short walk to our hotel. I hoicked my rucksack onto my back and went to start backpacking, when Jackie announced she had got her mask stuck on her earring. Her mask was hanging from her right ear, so after taking a photo of her predicament, I set about unhooking her. It took a while, with bemused taxi drivers looking on.
Eventually disentangled, we backpacked to our hotel, PM Residence, just 400 metres away. After checking in to our very satisfactory £17 a night hotel, we immediately went back out to Central Festival shopping mall. It was huge & spread over 7 floors. We managed to do a lap of each floor (got to keep the steps up) without buying a single thing. We were also the only westerners in the shopping mall & we stuck out look sore thumbs.
Despite having a food court on two floors we resisted the urge to eat there & instead we went to the only restaurant we had found out in streets around us. We sat down & ordered a couple of Changs, but were curtly told that they didn’t sell beer. It was a Japanese (& possibly Muslim) restaurant, called Mari Chan, but strangely it did show beer for sale in their menu!
I ordered 2 plates of gorgeous pork Gyozas & Jackie ordered a the teriyaki chicken set, which came on five different plate including a bowl of soup & some random chunks of fish. It was an experience.
It would appear that not that many westerners make it to Hat Yai & this was probably summed up by a little girl in the restaurant who couldn’t tear her eyes away from Jackie, probably she had never seen anyone with fair hair let alone with blue eyes! The little girl waved Goodbye to Jackie when we left until we were out of sight.
Song of the Day: Let The Day Begin by The Call.
Everywhere I Go by The Call.Lue lisää
Andy and Teresa MaysThe little girl probably couldn’t believe Jax eating fives plates of food 😂 - hope you’re enjoying Narcos. Feel any better hearing Liverpool lost 😂 The trip sounds amazing.
Day 18 - Quiet Day on the Western Front
27. joulukuuta 2021, Thaimaa ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
The day started with more coffee & Christmas cake on the terrace. It was then a trip to reception to print off travel confirmations.
We had just settled on the sun beds when Jackie’s phone rang & true to form she handed it to me like it was a ticking time bomb. It was Chanika telling us there was a problem with tomorrow. We were thinking ‘Oh here we go’, but we should have had more faith.
Chanika told us that our bus & the only bus of the day was now leaving Phuket bus terminal at 10.30am & not at the scheduled 11.30am departure. Incredibly we had had no notification of this change & we would have missed the only bus of the day going to Hat Yai. Chanika had come up trumps yet again & she arranged to pick us up from our hotel at 9.30 in the morning.
After an hour or so of melting in the sun, he headed into town to change some US dollars we had & to buy some provisions for our lengthy bus ride tomorrow. We stopped for a cheeky Chang in Thai Life & we ordered a bacon & onion rosti & some french fries, which didn’t let us down. We returned via my shortcut which it would seem was someone’s front garden, because we had to clamber over a barrier at the other end to get out.
It was another lazy afternoon by the pool with a little bit of research for our onward travels. That night we went out to dinner to a little shack, ‘Give me Five’ recommended by American Dad for it’s onion soup. We both ordered the onion soup, with a portion of garlic bread to share. It tasted a lot better than it looked. We skipped mains & I had the sticky mango rice & Jackie the fried bananas & ice cream. Both desserts were huge, we struggled to finish them, but they did finish us.
We waddled home & had a small nightcap on the terrace before calling it a night.
Song of the Day: Drag It Down - Janice Long BBC Session by New Model Army.
Frightened - Janice Long BBC Session by New Model Army.
(No explanation required).Lue lisää
Day 17 - Boxing Day Rain Relief
26. joulukuuta 2021, Thaimaa ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C
We had a decent nights sleep & started the day with coffee & Christmas cake on the terrace. Jackie WhatsApp’d Chanika to let her know that the Similan Islands trip had been a great success & to enquire how she was getting on with arranging our onward travels on the 28th. All we wanted was a 1 hour 45 minute taxi ride back to Phuket bus terminal. It couldn’t be that difficult.
Minutes later Jackie’s phone rang & she tossed her phone to me to speak with Chanika. I had a confusing conversation with her, but I ultimately worked out that she had other plans that would save us time & money. She said would need to visit us again. Not a problem we would be by the pool all day.
Chanika arrived an hour later & sat crosslegged on the terrace floor in front of us as if we were a king & queen sitting on our thrones listening to one of our subjects. It felt a bit awkward. She wanted to see our bus tickets from Phuket to Hat Yai bus terminal. She was going to arrange for us to board the bus at Khok Kloi bus terminal instead of Phuket. This was would reduce our taxi ride to 1 hour, saving us about 1,200 baht & an extra 2 hour lie in. Perfect!
Chanika then went into a big long sob story about how she gets up at 4am every morning to make breakfast for the Thais & she only made 45 baht profit this morning, how her mum has cancer & her brother a bad foot, but they can’t afford the hospital fee, how her electricity was going to be cut off on the 27th December & so on & so on. It didn’t make sense when she drives around in a big top of the range 4x4. We humoured her until she ran out of things to say to try and make us feel sorry for her.
Our healthy lunch consisted of crisps, popcorn & a beer.
In the afternoon, we sat by the pool in the scorching sun (the hottest day yet) until we had a lovely 10 minute downpour to cool us down. We stayed out in the sun until 4.30pm, when rain set in for the remainder of the afternoon.
The rain continued until 8pm, when we went out for dinner with an umbrella. We returned to Thai Life, but went for the nearest thing we could get to a traditional Christmas dinner. Jackie ordered the Wiener schnitzel XXL, but the waitress now knowing Jackie’s sparrow like appetite suggested that they could do a smaller cheaper version for her, which she accepted. I ordered the cordon bleu chicken, but she didn’t recommend a smaller version for me! Both dinners were really delicious & we ate the lot.
To finish the evening we stopped in the Piranha Bar for a couple of strong Thai Piranha cocktails costing just 70 baht each. The bar owner also had his own sob story which he off loaded on to Jackie.
Song of the Day: Sunday Rain by Foo Fighters.
Kings And Queens by Thirty Seconds To Mars.Lue lisää
Simon and Jackie AnnalsThanks Pam. Is Tony snoring too loudly for you to get to sleep at this unearthly hour. Hope you had a great Christmas (when the power returned) & happy new year to you both x
Day 16 - Similan Islands Christmas Trip
25. joulukuuta 2021, Thaimaa ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
The 6.45am the alarm stirred us from our alcoholic stupor. Over coffee, I gave Jackie her Christmas card, but the kind gesture was not returned, apparently she had forgotten to pack mine!!
At 7.30am, a minibus arrived to pick us up, we then collected a family of 3 Americans before having to wait nearly 20 minutes for 3 Thai lads to join us. We eventually arrived at the Check-in Andaman private pier for coffee & breakfast over a short briefing from our tour guide.
At 8.45am we had collected our equipment & boarded our speedboat. Jackie & I were literally 1st on & we took up seats at the very front of the boat to capitalise on the sun. We were joined at the front by lone a Brazilian girl, who was a bit of a strange cookie, and 5 giggly Thai girls.
The 70 km crossing took a spine juddering 80 minutes before arriving at Similan Island Koh 9. (Ba-Ngu) for a 40 minute snorkel session in the crystal clear waters. After 20 minutes of looking at mainly little yellow fish, Jackie & I had had enough of our salt water eye bath & mouth wash so we returned to the boat. I did however get some interesting photos of the little yellow fishes swimming between the two of us.
Next stop was Koh 8. (Similan) the largest island for an hour & 20 minutes. When we arrived it was teeming with tourists from other tours, but as our guide advised they would be gone in 15 minutes & true to his word they were. Leaving Jackie on the beach, I climbed the 150 metres up to Sail Rock which was a stunning viewpoint.
Once I had returned to Jackie, we had a quick swim then collected our Christmas lunch. It consisted of 2 trays of food each & a bottle of water. It sounds a lot & it was, but it wasn’t overly edible. We had cold very spicy pork with cold rice, cold sweet & sour sauce with cold spaghetti & a couple of chicken wings plus some other bits I didn’t even want to try. During dinner we were joined by a large water monitor that had us abandoning the table when it got too close.
After a few photos we boarded our speedboat & set off for the next destination. Just a couple of minutes into the journey, one of the crew spotted a whale coming up for air. The boat was immediately brought to a standstill & for the next 20 minutes or so we tracked a couple of Omura’s whales from a distance of just 30 yards with Jackie & I having the perfect viewing spot. I knew we were witnessing something a bit special because the crew were very excitable & were taking photos of their own. It was the perfect Christmas present.
The Omura’s whale or dwarf fin whale is a rare & little known whale species. It is the most recently identified species of whale and then only from dead specimens in 2003. The 1st live identified sighting of one in the wild was in 2015. They measure 12 metres in length, are super-streamlined, but are so rare that scientists don’t know how many exist. Most sightings have been in Madagascan waters, thus sightings in Thai waters seem to be very newsworthy events.
Next stop was Koh 7. (Pays) for another snorkelling stop. We both got in again & to our delight it was abundant with fish of all colours, including a particularly a big shoal of the little yellow fish swimming around us. After another 20 minutes, Jackie declared she had had enough & started heading back to the boat when someone shouted that they had spotted a sea turtle. They were over 100 metres away, but this was not an opportunity I was going to miss.
With mask & snorkel flapping around my head & camera in hand, I attempted to front-crawl & fight my way through the other snorkelers to the turtle sighting. I arrived puffing & panting which made breathing through the snorkel difficult, but I was able to espy the turtle, which I have identified as a Hawksbill sea turtle. It was camouflaged by the coral, but I was able to follow it for several minutes & point & shoot my camera in it’s general direction.
Elated, I returned to the speedboat before we motored over to our final stop, Koh 4. (Miang) National Park. It was for a 1 hour stop. We walked a trail to the other side of the island where we spotted several brightly coloured Nicobar Pigeons & fruit bats crawling & flying through the trees.
It concluded our exceptional & highly recommended trip. The speedboat crew were so helpful & pleasant. The Similan Islands were pure paradise, both on land & in the sea. For us it made the perfect Christmas Day.
We then made the 80 minute speedboat crossing back to the mainland for coffee & ice cream before being bussed back to our hotel at 6.00pm. We were both shattered, but after a shower & rest, we made our customary WhatsApp video calls & messages to family & friends before heading out to dinner.
Dinner consisted of chicken satay, a Pad Thai & a beer each at Thai Life, then we called it a night. We were just too knackered & full to carry on.
Song of the Day: Christmas Paradise by Carole King.
Tales of Brave Ulysses by Cream. (Courtesy of American Dad on our trip).Lue lisää
Andy and Teresa Mays
Is that it . . . Your best whale shot 😂 The trip sounds fantastic.
Simon and Jackie AnnalsI know it was a bit pathetic. In my defence the whales were swimming along minding their own business, not doing handstands for us……and my waterproof camera doesn’t really have a zoom!!!
Andy and Teresa MaysSo you didn’t jump in, swim like Mark Spitz to get a close up underwater shot then. Lack of effort I’m thinking. 😂
Simon and Jackie AnnalsI wanted to but the crew held me back. It’s all about having respect for the wildlife…
Day 15 - It Was Christmas Eve, Babe
24. joulukuuta 2021, Thaimaa ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C
Woke up to the sad news that yet another friend had been diagnosed with cancer.
Breakfast on the terrace consisted of a cup of coffee & banana flakes courtesy of Chanika. We then had a mad rush to ensure our sun beds. Some miserable Germans were laying towels out around OUR pool. Bloody cheek.
After an hour or so of sunning, I was getting itchy feet, figuratively, so I hired a scooter from the little shop opposite the hotel & Jackie & I went in search of a new sd card for my camera. After a lot of stopping & asking we eventually found the camera shop about 2 miles away & paid fractionally over the odds for it. Still we needed it.
To celebrate, we treated ourselves to lunch at a much cheaper ‘locals’ restaurant on the main road beside some roadworks. I ordered a green curry, but when it arrived they had been a bit too heavy handed with the fish sauce. Jackie insisted on swapping & so I had her chicken & cashew nuts. Neither were that nice, but the cold beer made up for it.
After a scoot around the resort, we concluded that we had made the right choice with our hotel, we returned the scooter & sat down by the pool we had to ourselves again.
That night we planned to have a simple pizza & a relatively quiet & early night (best laid plans & all that), because we had an early start in the morning. We didn’t want any dodgy stomachs on our boat trip!
After a quick livener, we headed to Mr Chay’s Bar for a pre-dinner drink. We drank beer & wine & nibbled on the complimentary roasted peanuts. Amongst the peanuts I found a roasted chilli & bit half off & swallowed. F**k my mouth was on fire. Jackie thought I was being a wimp & nibbled on a bit before spitting it out & then started sweating profusely. So much for taking precautions!
Once Jackie had stopped sweating by consuming a couple of wines, we popped to Pinocchio Restaurant for a bland pizza to share. We then stopped at Piranha Bar, which we had awarded best dressed Christmas bar in town for a quick 99 Baht cocktail before heading home. No sooner had we ordered our drinks, I was rushing to the toilet not once, but twice.
Before we knew it, it was late & we had had three very strong cocktails each & were fairly sozzled. Typically us!!
I hope my choice of songs don’t offend.
Song of the Day: Cancer by My Chemical Romance.
Slide Away - Live For Teenage Cancer Trust by Noel Gallagher.
Cancer by Tom MacDonald.
Fairytale of New York by The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl.Lue lisää
Day 14 - A Visit from Lovely Chanika
23. joulukuuta 2021, Thaimaa ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
We managed to drag ourselves out of bed at 9.45am, then had a coffee & some left over mini doughnuts on the terrace. It was very pleasant with small birds & butterflies flitting about in the lush green foliage. At 10.30am the cleaner arrived, so we relocated to the sun beds around the pool.
Again we had the pool to ourselves. With the benefit of decent WiFi, I booked a pair of Stone Valley Festival music & camping tickets for Jackie & I. To celebrate, I cranked up the volume with some Big Country on my speaker.
For lunch, we bought a couple of beers & some sour cream & onion Lays from a tiny shop opposite the hotel. Our lunch on our now nice clean terrace was disturbed by a WhatsApp message from Chanika. She had sent us some information on trips to the Similan Islands that we had asked her to research & at a price considerably cheaper than the brochure price. We WhatsApp’d back that we would like to book it & she said she would be with us in 15 minutes to complete the paperwork.
Twenty minutes later, Chanika arrived bearing homemade Christmas gifts for us. She gave Jackie a beaded chain to clip to her mask (all the rage over here), me a packet of nicely wrapped banana crisps & for both of us a bar of soap using ingredients from her garden. I’m hoping she hasn’t gone all Gwyneth Paltrow on us!
She then pulled out her ticket book, which she said hadn’t seen a single booking in the last two years & completed the necessary documentation. We didn’t have enough cash on us so she gave us a lift to the money exchange to change up some more cash to pay her up front for the trip. Let’s hope this is not some elaborate scam!
We finished the afternoon with a little siesta until the peace was shattered by the sound of loud rap music & the grunting & groaning of what I hope was Muay Thai boxers training.
After a shower (apparently the water is now too hot & too powerful for Jackie) we were having a quick ‘livener’ on our terrace when I read the information leaflet that came with our antihistamine tablets for our itchy sandfly bites. It read that only one should be taken each day, avoid alcohol & they may make you drowsy. No wonder we were tired, we had been swallowing a couple of tablets at a time & washing them down with beer & gin.
We went out for the evening via a shortcut, which Jackie was convinced was someone’s garden, but I saw it as a public right of way. We had dinner at a Thai/German restaurant called Thai Life where we had our tastiest starter yet, satay chicken & a cheeky garlic bread. We followed it up with a lovely Penang curry & Tom Yum soup. Over dinner I discovered my sd card in my camera was full. Bugger!
We sought out Mr Chay Bar only to discover that it was closed & no sign of life. I just hope it hasn’t been closed down by the authorities after the Thai Government issued new Covid guidance including a request for citizens to inform on any bar/restaurant not taking necessary precautions. I’m not sure Mr Chay was!!
Song of the Day: Alone by Big Country.
Tracks of My Tears (Live) by Big Country.
(The words seem all the more poignant knowing that Stuart Adamson committed suicide in a hotel room in Hawaii on 16th December 2001 aged just 43).Lue lisää
Andy and Teresa MaysHave you got a who’s who of rock star deaths by your bedside - cheer up, you’re on holiday 😂
Day 13 - Rookie Error Nearly Disastrous
22. joulukuuta 2021, Thaimaa ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C
Had an itchy night, waking up at 2.30am & not really getting back to sleep again. At 7.30am, we dragged ourselves out of bed, had a cold shower & packed our rucksacks. I had a dickey stomach, which is the last thing I wanted on a travelling day!
An hour later we were ordering breakfast, banana porridge with honey for me & Jackie ordered the smallest in the world cheese & ham toastie with a pot of fresh coffee. Having paid up, we said our goodbyes to the characters I’ve previously referred to and we hiked down to the pier for the 10am speedboat back to the mainland.
The speedboat was a 40 minute bumpy crossing to Ranong Port, then a taxi transferred us to Ronong Bus Station, where we bought some random snacks - a honey & a strawberry pop drink, some Thai equivalent of pork scratchings and some unidentifiable sweet pastries.
At 11.30am sharp, the coach departed & headed south. Despite being only 25% full, a young junior Hitler ticket collector kept coming back to check that everyone was sitting in their allocated seats. We also had the army again check our passports & the travel documents of our fellow Thai travellers halfway through our journey.
As of today the Thai Authorities are clamping down on the movement of new tourists to Thailand. We understand that the Thailand Pass scheme that had allowed us to travel after our test & go procedure has been scrapped. Now all tourists without a previously issued Thailand Pass can only fly directly into Phuket & now take 2 PCR tests & must remain on the island of Phuket for at least 7 days before being allowed to travel elsewhere in Thailand. This clearly has a serious impact on those tourists who have booked a 1 or 2 week holiday somewhere in Thailand other than Phuket. No wonder British Airways & TUI have cancelled all their Thai holidays & flights!
Nearly 3 hours later we arrived at Takua Pa Bus Station & the driver announced that we’d be stopping for 15 minutes. We decided to get off for a leg stretch & Jackie went to the toilet. Whilst waiting for her my stomach suddenly gurgled uncontrollably & I dashed to the Gents. There were 3 cubicles each with a different height toilet set in the middle of the cubicle. One was a hole in the floor, one was a normal size bowl & the 3rd was of a height somewhere between the other two. More importantly to me at this moment was that none had any toilet paper. What an idiot for not packing any in our hand luggage.
In panic I scampered to the food hall grabbed a large handful of tissues from a ladies food stall. I asked if I could take them, but scampered back before she could reply & I made it back to the Gents just in time!!!
Twenty minutes later we unceremoniously dumped at our schedules stop at the side of the main road through Khao Lak. No one was around to offer us a lift, so I walked down the road until I found a lovely little lady, Chanika, in a tour shop. After explaining my predicament, she offered to close her shop & drive us to our hotel for 150 Baht (about £3.50). She explained it was really quiet & I had been her 1st customer in three days. When we arrived at our new hotel, Fanari Khaolak Resort, Jackie & Chanika, who couldn’t have been more helpful, swapped mobile numbers as we would definitely use her for any future business we had in the area.
Our new receptionist was not particularly warm & welcoming. She walked us to our room, plonked the key fob in the slot to activate the electric, said “OK” & walked out. Our hearts sank. The room smelt musty as if it hadn’t been lived in for 2 years, which it probably hadn’t & there was dirt between the floor tiles on our terrace. I asked for a broom, which didn’t do the trick, so she took some photos & promised to get properly cleaned in the morning. As she was leaving I then told her we didn’t have any coffee-making or tea-making facilities. When she returned with a kettle, cups & sachets, I asked if we could have a couple of extra harder pillows. She smiled sweetly and later returned with 2 satisfactory pillows. A quick squirt of citronella around the room & we were sorted! We really can’t complain too much when we are paying just £167 for 6 nights over Christmas.
At 5pm, we went for an explore & found a German reggae bar called Mr Chay Bar. It was quiet when we arrived, but in the hour that we were there it had transformed into a lively bar, which apparently also has live music in the evenings. We have already earmarked this as potentially the place to be on Christmas evening.
We went home, showered & went straight back out. The restaurants in Khao Lak are much more westernised than at Koh Phayam & clearly aimed at the western tourists. They also come with western prices, on average 50 - 100%, but when I mentioned it I was accused of being a cheapskate!
We settled on a restaurant called Siam. The staff were ultra polite & the food was beautifully presented. Jackie had red chicken curry & rice, whilst I had chicken & cashew nuts, which was nice but not sensational. After a quick G & T nightcap on our terrace we had a very early night.
Song of the Day: Clampdown by The Clash.
Cheapskates by The Clash.
(In tribute to Joe Strummer who died on this day in 2002 aged just 50.Lue lisää
Day 12 - Last Day of Feral Living
21. joulukuuta 2021, Thaimaa ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
During the night we had a power cut & the fan stopped. At 4.30am Jackie & I were both awake scratching our backs from more bites during the night.
At 9am the power had still not returned so I went off to investigate. I bumped into Jan & James who updated me that a fire in the kitchen had knocked out the entire electricity supply. I told them about our bites & Jan informed me that our oozing crispy bites were actually sandfly bites, particularly prevalent on Long Beach. Typical. There is no such thing as paradise!
I then went to the breakfast area where I confirmed that there was no internet, but on the plus side I was able to sneak a couple of covert photos of Big Anne with my iPad. I was quite pleased with my efforts, because the last time I tried something like this I was chased down a Las Vegas sidewalk by Elvis in a mobility scooter screaming obscenities at me!
We were just finishing up our coffee, when Big Anne reappeared in a new dress then incredibly donned a tiny motorcycle helmet & headed out with her friend, Emma. It took all my willpower not to follow them.
We hit the road shortly after & took a detour downtown to try & spot Big Anne, but failed miserably, so we headed back to Long Beach & embarked on our longest walk yet to very end of Long Beach & back.
Lunch consisted of satay chicken, french fries & Changs. We kept it deliberately light because we had decided to stop on the way home at a pizzeria we had spotted that had a 5 - 6pm happy hour of cocktails & pizza, which we felt we ought to take advantage of.
We had a 2nd walk of the day after lunch & came across a monster from the deep washed up on the beach. It was a disgusting jellyfish like nothing I’d seen before.
We later both fell asleep for the afternoon & awoke shortly before 5pm. We didn’t fancy cocktails and pizza, so we settled for a Chang on the beach & what promised to be a spectacular sunset. It wasn’t. We also had some entertainment in the form of a little man climbing up into the coconut trees & chopping off all the coconuts. Apparently, yesterday a coconut crashed through the table in the exact place where we had been sitting for lunch today.
After the sunset petered out to nothing, we left the beach & rode slowly home along the now pitch black paths teeming with insects & the occasional bat. We arrived back at Sabai Sabai to find Big Anne still helmet clad having just dismounted her scooter. If only we had been seconds earlier!
We got ready & went straight out to our ‘Authentic’ restaurant where we both had the crispy fried pork. It was then back home for our final nights sleep in the hayloft.
Song of the Day: Born Feral by New Model Army.
Sandfly by The Swinging Blue Jeans.Lue lisää
Day 11 - The Tale of Big Ang
20. joulukuuta 2021, Thaimaa ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
Both Jackie & I received half a dozen mosquito bites in bed, which are crispy and oozing like the sap from a tree.
I went down to breakfast first & was reacquainted with Big Ang, who asked if she could join me at my table.
Jackie & I first met Big Ang at Heathrow Airport, when she occupied the three seats immediately in front of us on the plane. She got off at Phuket Airport and she arrived behind us in the same taxi at the same wrong hotel & then arrived behind us in the same taxi at the correct hotel. She was keen to talk to us at the correct hotel because she wanted our knowledge to help her complete the check in & Covid processes. During this brief exchange we learnt that she was meeting a friend & going to stay at her friend’s brother’s beach resort on Koh Phayam. We saw her on a couple of occasions over the next 24 hours, but I felt she was blanking us, so I took a dislike to her.
Almost as soon as we arrived on Koh Phayam, we worked it out that Big Ang was going to be staying at Sabai Sabai. This was confirmed when we first met owner James’ mother who said that her daughter was arriving in a few day with her friend, who she tactfully described her as a larger lady.
Big Ang is a tall, but also very wide 58 year old lady with her legs covered in tattoos & New Model Army red spiky hair. She has limited mobility due to nerve damage & suffers from anxiety. She is an ex-nurse and met James’ sister, Emma, whilst both volunteering at a shelter for the homeless.
After chatting about our travels to date, we were joined by Jackie & the subject of music came up when I got a message to say my PIL tickets had been secured. Jackie piped up to Big Ang that she wouldn’t like my music or have heard of my favourite band. On the contrary, she likes New Model Army and generally the same bands as me. I wasn’t surprised judging by the colour of her hair. She went up even further in my estimation, when she revealed that the first band she ever saw in concert was the Dead Kennedys. We talked about concerts and festivals and she tipped me off about the Stone Valley Festival South 2022 in Hertfordshire which features a lot of my bands. I suspect I will be booking a pair of weekend tickets for it in the coming days!
Big Ang turned out to be very pleasant and amusing, but she did like to talk. It was nearly 2 hours later that we managed to prise ourselves away & scootered off back to our favourite beach.
At Long Beach we repeated our routine of reserving our beds at Lazy Hut, then took a walk for a mile up the beach where we took a swim amongst the trainee surfers on the sporadic big wave.
We returned to Lazy Hut in time for lunch consisting of beers, french fries & fried vegetable spring rolls. Jackie ordered a pork curry with extra spice that was way too spicy to eat. She ate half, then pretended she was full.
The afternoon was the same same until 5pm, when instead of having an ice cream from the little motorbike man & we both had a sundowner gin & tonic for medicinal reasons. The sun had gone down when we returned to the scooter only to find that the scootering German couple from Sabai Sabai were also mounting their two scooters.
After exchanging pleasantries, l attempted to get a flying start in the nonexistent race home only for Jackie’s flip flop to fall off in the sand. Luckily I was blocking the path, whilst Jackie made several panicky aborted attempts to retrieve her shoe. Finally we were off & as soon as I was confident with the condition of the road, I opened up the throttle leaving the Germans for dead. It did mean that we got yet another bug facial, but more importantly we won.
After showers we were getting ready when we heard a strange loud flapping noise, but assumed it was some animal outside. I then went to the loo and was confronted by this foot long lizard running down the wall. It nearly gave me a heart attack, but I managed to grab my phone & get a quick photo of it before it disappeared into the bamboo wall. I might yet still win BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year or maybe not……
We returned to ‘36’ for a green & a yellow curry followed by a quick Hong Thong nightcap back at the cottage before calling it an early night.
Much to my surprise Jackie decided to get dressed in a white skintight vest top & white knickers. She looked like a wrestler from ITV’s World of Sport in her wrestling leotard. I was going to bed with ‘Jackie McManus - The Great Mosquito Destroyer’.
Song of the Day: My Love Is Like A Wave / Razor Blade Reprise by The Silencers.
Rise by Public Image Limited.Lue lisää
MatkaajaVery amusing read today! From your description, I expected Big Anne to be bigger...
Simon and Jackie AnnalsHa ha ha, I thought as I was writing it l was overly bigging her up!
Day 10 - Now Officially Eaten Alive
19. joulukuuta 2021, Thaimaa ⋅ 🌧 24 °C
We both slept pretty well, but a small gap in the mosquito net allowed one in to bite us about three times each. As I was getting dressed, I picked up my shorts from the downstairs bed to discover they were saturated. We eventually worked it out the Jackie hadn’t screwed the lid back properly on a large bottle of water & it had leaked down through the floorboards to my shorts below. Brilliant!
It was an overcast start to the day so we spent the whole morning uploading & downloading in the WiFi breakfast area, whilst drinking instant coffee & each eating a big fluffy pancake with pineapple & bacon. I benefited from Jackie not particularly liking hers. We managed to book seats on a bus from Phuket to Hat Yai, accommodation in Hat Yai & transport to the island of Ko Lipe.
Just after midday, we jumped on our scooter & headed straight back to Long Beach. This time we stopped at the next bar along, Lazy Hut, who had far superior sun beds. We reserved our chosen bed for the afternoon & took a walk along the beach & through the occasional cloud of smoke from bonfires in the jungle. We walked until my watch announced that we had completed a mile before turning around & walking back.
We had worked up a decent thirst & imbibed in a couple of beers for lunch, before settling down for a siesta on our very comfortable sun beds. I had taken my Bluetooth speaker & we listened to the relaxing tracks on a playlist with the unsavoury title of ‘Fister’s Lot’. Don’t ask!
It would have been relaxing if we hadn’t been bitten alive by mosquitoes 🦟 which were forming pusy lumps on Jackie’s arms, legs & back. A fly kept landing on one of Jackie’s scratched open bleeding pusy bites. Our bodies were an eyesore. Bizarrely they were nowhere near as itchy as our first night at Sabai Sabai.
At 5.30pm, a motorcycle & trailer combination materialised on the beach & the staff from Lazy Hut rushed down to buy his wares. I was intrigued, well Jackie told we to go & investigate, so I joined the throng & discovered he was selling ice creams in a bun. I ordered a bun which was loaded with sticky rice, some jelly stuff, coconut ice cream, chocolate ice cream & topped with chocolate peanuts, chocolate drops & coconut cream, all for less than £1. Again I liked it, but Jackie doesn’t need to have one again.
Sunset was shaping up to be another flop so we headed off to a hilltop viewpoint restaurant I had spotted on the outward trip. We had a small beer each and chatted to a middle-aged German couple who were also staying at Sabai Sabai & had actually travelled over on the same ferry as us. They told us they were going to Bangkok next where they were going to rent 125cc scooters & ride them up to Chang Mai with their rucksacks. Mad. Whilst chatting with them we started getting bitten on the ankles & we whipped out our mossie spray. They informed us that they don’t use mossie spray for ethical reasons, so we have come to the conclusion they must be tree huggers!
Conscious that they were leaving the restaurant just behind us, I raced back to Sabai Sabai along the path through the now pitch black jungle. For our troubles we got a very unpleasant & relentless bug facial including one in my eye, which persuaded us to not ride the scooter at night again.
After a very quick shower we headed out to ‘36’. The waitress immediately confirmed we wanted our usual - 2 large bottles of Chang. Embarrassingly predictable! I ordered the Fresh Vegetable Spring Rolls which contained large chunks of mango & watermelon as well as vegetables sitting in a pool of penang & tamarind sauce. Jackie ordered a Pad Thai which she pimped up with extra chilli, sugar & sweet vinegar. All absolutely delicious.
Song of the Day: I Can’t Look At Your Skin by Graham Coxon.
One Tear by Paul Weller.
Smoke in My Eyes by Josh Flowers & The Wild.Lue lisää
Andy and Teresa MaysHere’s something for you I found today . . . https://open.spotify.com/album/57EkTny9UjqpLhFz…
Day 9 - Deja Vu in Reverse
18. joulukuuta 2021, Thaimaa ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
If think that might be an oxymoron.
I woke up having had the best sleep on this trip by a mile, but surprise surprise Jackie claimed she hadn’t slept at all. Mind you she did go to bed dressed as a coal miner, with her torch containing a dying battery strapped to her forehead, but wasn’t bright enough to read her book.
Around 9.30am we hauled ourselves out of our comfy bed & went down to the breakfast area for coffee. I finished off by blog, whilst Jackie tried to sort out our onward transport to our next destination with James the owner. It resulted in us saving ourselves about £30, by getting the slightly slower bus back down to Khao Lak rather than a taxi that we were considering. This new plan was a win win, because he also made a few Baht commission for booking it.
We also rented a scooter off James who tried to guilt trip us into having it for the remainder of our stay. Understandably, he is doing his best to make money because he hasn’t had the best of it in the last 2 years. He has had virtually no visitors, hence no income due to Covid & he had a baby with his wife, but they are now separated. Chin up!
Just after 11am we hit the road on our new 125cc scooter to try & recreate the lost photos. Our first unscheduled stop was to Phayamas Private Beach Resort that we had nearly previously booked & had been recommended by Jan & James. It was down a very long path & after parking up, we took a wander through the resort. The accommodation huts looked luxurious, but despite there being in excess of 30, it was clear that only three were occupied. The resort was so remote & soulless that even Jackie agreed that she was glad we didn’t book to stay there.
We then continued to Kwang Peeb Bay, which we now know to be known locally as Monkey Bay & the resort was abandoned by the owners when Covid hit struck Thailand. On our previous visit there was not a sole around, but now there was a row of scooters in the parking area & about 10 people down on the beach. We took our photos & left.
Next stop was the ‘Beautiful Rock by the Beach - Ko Phayam’s Top Attraction’ or “just a hole” as Jackie described it. It had a Thai courting couple that kept getting in the way of our crime scene reconstruction. I am pleased to say that they took the hint & moved, but it annoyingly clouded over at the very same moment ruining our photos.
We accidentally took the same couple of wrong turns ending at dead ends before we finally arrived at our intended destination - the northern end of Aow Yai Beach or Long Beach. It was after 1pm, we (I) were (was) starving so we plonked ourselves down at Long Beach Bar & Restaurant. We ordered a couple of Changs & I ordered a chicken & cashew nuts, whilst Jackie went off piste & ordered Pad Thai green curry with pork. Jackie’s was sensational, whilst mine lacked the wow factor.
After lunch we sat on the complimentary sun beds & marvelled at how beautiful this beach at Long Beach truly was. We don’t normally like wide expanses of empty beaches, but the sand was firm & spotlessly clean & the water was crystal clear with a flat sandy bottom with no rocks to stub your toe on.
At 5.00pm, the mosquito witching hour, we ordered more drinks & waited for the famous sunset. After an hour & now a couple of drinks the sun slipped below a cloud without even a whimper.
We celebrated avoiding any mosquito bites, only for a lone little bastard to bite me three times on the foot & Jackie once in her armpit. We drank up & scootered home at dusk, but it had already got too dark to spot potholes on the path.
We got home surprisingly in one piece & had a quick shower, which was unsurprisingly still cold. As soon as I was ready I had to go outside to leave to Jackie to moan endlessly to herself about the temperature of the water.
We went to our ‘authentic’ restaurant for dinner. Embarrassingly the cook, cum waitress shouted “2 large Changs” the moment we stepped across her threshold. Jackie ordered pork & chilli with rice, but asked for it to be spicy. It seems I got tarred with the same brush, because my macaroni with chicken & green curry blew my socks off. In fact I could only eat half of it as my mouth was on fire.
When I settled the bill, I managed to procure a couple of plastic glasses, then we visited the supermarket to purchase some essential provisions. We returned to our cottage & polished off half our bottle of Hong Thong, whilst listening to one of my favourite albums - Meccano Mind.
Song of the Day: Deja Vu by Roger Waters.
Pride by Syntax.
Destiny by Syntax.Lue lisää
Andy and Teresa MaysOh that’s crafty finding an album that’s now not available on Spotify!! Glad all is going well despite the mosquitos.
Day 8 - A Hornbill Party to say Goodbye
17. joulukuuta 2021, Thaimaa ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C
Woke up at silly o’clock again. So much for getting into a sensible sleep pattern!
At 8.00am, I sat out on the veranda with a coffee & realised that the tree in front of us were teeming with a party of at least 20 hornbills, including juveniles. My research on our hornbills identified them as Oriental Pied Hornbills.
After breakfast we showered, packed & checked out of Nitiporn Resort. Bizarrely, 2 lads from the resort were on us in a flash & insisted they transport all our bags the 40 metres down the path to Sabai Sabai Beach Bungalows next door. Making up for failing to pick us up on our arrival I suspect. Sabai Sabai is owned by a 40 something year old Englishman from Stanstead, named James & his (ex) Thai wife, Sarah.
After completing the formalities, James took us to our 2 bedroomed sea view cottage, which had cost us just £126 for five nights. There is a saying that you get what you pay for & this was certainly the case in this instance. Our cottage was a 2 storey wooden shack with a bedroom on each floor. A very steep internal staircase connected the two. The cottage had no air conditioning, just a fan, no fridge and bedding, which although smelt clean was badly stained. If that wasn’t bad enough, we couldn’t get WiFi in our cottage. We were really going back to basics and this is just about as basic as Jackie is prepared to go.
After dumping all our luggage, we headed out. We hadn’t left Sabai Sabai before we bumped into James’ mother who with her husband had been staying here for the last month & were staying for another 2 months. She chatted at us for about 20 minutes telling us that most of her stay had been in torrential rain & it had only turned nice a week ago. She also ranted about a boat that arrived on the beach, virtually outside her room, with a big digger & a pile of sand. Apparently they were digging a new reservoir somewhere behind Sabai Sabai.
Jackie & I then walked down town to the Buddhist Temple on the pier & up to & personal with a golden Buddha on the hill. After the statutory photo, we took refuge from the sun in our ‘authentic’ restaurant for a couple of cold Changs.
After stocking up on mosquito spray, we almost certainly will need it, we returned to Sabai Sabai, where we bumped into Jan & James sat on their veranda. Jan originates from Bury St. Edmunds & James from America. Jan & James have been living in Thailand for the last 2 years & Jan has been coming to Ko Phayam for the last 18 years. We had seen them out & about drinking in the bars & as expected they knew every resident farang & most of the island’s bar & restaurant staff. We chatted to them for about an hour before they had to leave to attend the birthday party of an alcoholic bar owner. They invited us to join them, but it was only 3pm so we said we would try & catch up with them later.
We chilled under the shade of a palm tree until 5pm, when as warned we were attacked by mosquitoes. It was horrendous & despite being slathered in 3 coats of mossie spray an hour later my legs were on fire. Jackie also was being bitten in our cottage, but to make matters far worse she discovered that we had no hot water & she had to have a cold ‘refreshing’ shower. I didn’t hear the end of this for the rest of the night!
At 6.30pm, we abandoned our new resort & sought solace down town. Our legs were as itchy as hell, so we took up residence at our usual table in ‘36’ & tried to numb the pain with ice cold Changs. We could hear the birthday party opposite, but neither of us were in the mood to deal with drunken ageing westerners.
About an hour later, the extreme itchiness of my legs had subsided sufficiently for me to concentrate & we ordered dinner. We had planned to take a day off from spice, so Jackie ordered summer vegetable rolls and french fries, whilst I ordered pasta carbonara. It came as 3 plates of generous portions of loveliness.
We returned to Sabai Sabai feeling much more relaxed, so we collected our iPads & did internet stuff in the bar area, with a cocktail to help us sleep! I had a ‘Mai Thai’ (when in Rome….) and Jackie had a ‘Boy From Devon’, not literally! We’d never heard of it either.
We went to bed that night with some trepidation.
Song of the Day: Mosquito Song by Queens of the Stone Age.Lue lisää
MatkaajaSo very jealous of your adventures … sounds as if you are having an amazing time despite the odd mishap!! 😀
Simon and Jackie AnnalsIt wouldn't be one of our trips without the odd mishap
Andy and Teresa MaysI had to look up the slang 😂😂😂
Simon and Jackie AnnalsPervert