Ranong

Spoke too soon about our bodies now being adjusted to Thai time. We were both awake & reading at 3.00am, then fitfully slept for the rest of the night. We certainly couldn’t blame it on our air conditioned room which was very comfortable.

Breakfast for me consisted of an instant coffee & a small pack of Dewberry jammy dodgers. At 9.00am we checked out of our hotel & the receptionist took us down the road to a bus stop & explained to the driver we wanted to get to the ferry port. It seems fairly straightforward, but there are two, one for speedboats & one for the slow boat (ferry). It seems everyone assumed that we wanted to catch a speedboat to Ko Phayam, but no, we had set are minds on catching the 10.00am cheaper slow boat.

The receptionist told us the fare would be just 15 baht each, however the bus driver told us it was 30 baht each. Jackie felt quite aggrieved until I reminded her that the fare was less than £1 each. The bus journey took us all over town with other passengers getting on & off, including an old man who gave us a running commentary of the sights, mainly temples.

Half an hour later we arrived at guess what? The speedboat port. We tried to explain that we were in the wrong place and eventually with the assistance of the other passengers we drove another 50 yards up the road to a ticket office for the ferry. Here we paid our 200 baht for the ferry fare and were taken by free taxi to the slow boat several miles away.

At 10.20am, laden to the gunnels with provisions of every description, our slow boat chugged out into the open waters of the Andaman sea. Once at cruising speed Jackie had her breakfast of a ‘Pocket Sandwich’ containing a fishy substance & between us we shared a couple of beers.

At 12.15pm, we docked at Ko Phayam pier & disembarked. We were due to be met by a representative from our hotel, but no-one identified themselves to us, so we had no choice, but to hike (like proper backpackers) the 600 metres to Nitiporn Resort. When we were a sweaty mess and just twenty metres from the resort, two employees appeared on a motorbike combo and insisted on carrying our rucksacks the rest of the way. Thanks a lot.

In reception, we were met by a chunky transgender lady, who after the usual checking in formalities informed us that our room was not quite ready and their restaurant was only open for breakfast. I understand why they haven’t opened their restaurant, because they appear to have only 3 rooms currently occupied, which begs the question ‘How the hell have they not had time to get our room ready?’

We walked back towards the pier, where we found a sea front fish restaurant for lunch. Jackie had a seafood Tom yum soup which apparently was delicious & I ordered spicy pork & rice. Over lunch we really started to chill out & embrace the slower pace of life on the island. We have already started talking about extending our 4 night stay. An added bonus is the wearing of masks don’t appear to be enforced on the island.

After lunch we half unpacked our rucksacks in our concrete & glass cube of a room. The remainder of the afternoon was spent sunning ourselves on the pool beds looking out to sea.

That evening we found a restaurant called ‘36’, which had a couple of tables occupied by westerners. Jackie had a Thai green curry and I had chicken with cashew nuts, which was the best meal we have had on our trip. The ambiance had been just right and cemented our plans to stay on the island longer.

Over a Hong Thong nightcap, we tentatively looked at accommodation options to extend our stay and discovered that our Nitiporn Resort was fully booked in the week leading up to Christmas. Further research would be required.

Song of the Day: Slow by The Fratellis.Read more