In just a morning we swapped a jungle paradise for a beach paradise! Ko Kho Khao, meaning Neck Mountain Island, is just a short ferry ride from the mainland, on some of the smallest but most colourful vehicular ferries I’ve ever seen.
Due to its flat landscape the island was devastated by the 2004 Tsunami, and many locals chose not to return and rebuild, leaving the island quite a sleepy place. We are staying at Hapla Beach, halfway up the beach that runs down the 16km island, backed by feathery casuarina trees and overlooking the Andaman Sea.
There are just 6 beach bungalows …
and a restaurant …
… set in a shady wooded area overlooking the beach.
And here is our beach …
Our days here have been busy … a bit of a walk one way or the other, a little sun, a swim, salad for lunch, chill in a hammock, a bit more sun, another swim, snap the sunset, sundowners and dinner and bed, all to the sound of the sea ….!
There appears to be nothing north of us except beach and to the south just a few resorts. Apparently the centre has grassy sand flats and there are mangroves and canals to the east and the locals are farmers and fishermen but we didn’t stray far enough from the beach to find out for ourselves!
The sea has been like a millpond in the morning as the tide goes out, then as the day warms up, the breeze gets up and the tide returns with breakers. Crabs busily scuttle in and out of their holes, or drag their home along with them and some quick little bug spends the day excavating a sandy burrow, leaving Nasca-like patterns on the sand.
Some days there were visitors or passers by … a boat pulled up with passengers and a large fish to be cooked for lunch … the weekend brought several local families out to eat … exploring tourists looking come for a change to their resort buffet and locals taking a shortcut! One day Gordon the Gecko was found shading under one of the brollies!
There was a full moon on our last night here, but fortunately we were not on Koh Phangan as there would have been some 30,000 people crammed on one beach celebrating the Full Moon and partying from sunset to sunrise … certainly not an essential on our itinerary! Here the sun sets in tranquility …
We are now well into the second half of our trip, and so far the only Western food we’ve had was a Subway at Surat Thani airport, where the only other choice was KFC or McDonalds! Oh and Chris has had the odd chip here and there … apart from breakfast that is … where my good intentions to eat local dishes fly out of the window when faced with stirfry every day. We started well in Bangkok, with the delicious Thai breakfasts at W-Home, but since then we’ve settled into a bit of a routine, Chris favouring omelette and me pancakes … and I was surprised at how many places served pancakes. Then I read the story about the Banana Pancake Trail … which goes like this. Once upon a time a guidebook was written for backpackers in SE Asia and cafes found that including banana pancakes on the menu helped get an inclusion in the book … as all backpackers like a few home comforts … and now the Banana Pancake Trail, which has no clear route, is used as a metaphor for places popular among Western tourists. I have to say I prefer mango or pineapple, and no we haven’t had a full English or been to an Irish pub!
Having relaxed and topped up the tan, it’s time to leave paradise … but it did have a downside which neither of us will miss … the hungry sand flies which have taken a liking to us both!
Next a short hop to Phang Nga Bay.
Well we opted for the flights – who wouldn’t when you could fly in a plane with a beak!
Contrasting with the speed, noise and spray from a longtail boat was our sedate canoe ride along the Sok river one morning. The scenery changed at ever turn, and we stopped halfway for a coffee break, brewed up over a small fire on the bank. We were hoping to see kingfishers, but maybe they had already been fishing as all we caught was a couple of glimpses of iridescent blue as they flew past although we did see a frog … a tree frog perhaps!
Chiang Rai, 200km north, may have history and even some wats, but we arrived to go trekking and left more impressed with the contemporary art.
We stopped for a rest in a village where Lahu and Akha tribes live …
We timed our stay to catch the Flower Festival which began with a two hour parade round the outside of the old centre, ending in a park where the floats could be admired close up and there was an orchid display and street market. We just took so many pictures of the fabulous floats, together with school bands and people in traditional costumes. Some of the large figures are covered in coloured rice, and a few of the flowers were dried and dyed, but most were fresh using a lot of chrysanthemums and orchids and the effect was stunning.
Doing a cookery class has become a regular feature on our trips since our very first class in Bangkok in 2009 and we spent a great day at Thai Farm. We started with a quick market tour and also a look round their organic garden at various herbs and vegetables, then starting cooking in the lovely open air kitchen. Between us we made Tom Yam soup, Pad Thai, spring rolls, curry paste lovingly ground with a pestle and mortar and made into red and green curry, a stir fry with basil, sticky rice with mango and coconut bananas. As there were choices of what you could cook, with a group of 10 it was a little more confusing than all making the same thing, but it all worked out fine. I was most pleased with the pad Thai which I intend cooking again and while I love the green curry, but it wouldn’t seem the same without the special Thai aubergines which I’d have to get from a specialist shop.
After all that eating, a bit of exercise seemed a good idea and our guesthouse organised for us to go for a trek in Doi Inthanon National Park, 90 minutes from Chiang Mai. In a small group of 8 we began with a stop at Wachirathan Waterfall …
Beginning at Phitsanulok Station, the train took us across the Central Plains with views of farmland as far as the eye can see, mainly rice, but also fruit, vegetables and flowers, punctuated with the odd building and town but then mountains started to loom all around, covered in trees and scrubby undergrowth.
From the lower terrace there are views to the city 300m below …
There are plenty of opportunities to gain merit through donation by writing a prayer or message on a gold cloth to be draped round a Buddha, on a bell to tinkle from the eaves or a new tile for the roof. And thankfully, the walk down is a lot easier.
It had been humid and in the mid 30s since we arrived, exactly as expected, but then we woke to a rain shower and a cooler day.
We are staying in W Home, a charming B&B in a neighbourhood of homes and local businesses just off Charoenkrung Road, the first road ever built in Bangkok.
Our comfy, if bijoux room, overlooks the lane outside and we were woken on our first morning by cockerels crowing.
When we were here before, Chris bought a couple of snazzy elephant handkerchiefs at the airport which said Jim Thompson on the label. Despite the guide book referring to him as the most famous farang in Thailand, we had not heard of Jim Thompson, but now know he was an American who came to Thailand with the army after WW2, fell in love with the country and returned to live. He was an adventurer and entrepreneur whose fame partly came from reviving the dying silk-weaving industry, promoting the silk in America where it sold well, especially after his company made the costumes for The King and I on Broadway, depicting the life of King Rama IV. He gained further renown by constructing the Jim Thompson house by dismantling six teak houses, all over 200 years old and reassembling them to make a home which he filled with Oriental art and particularly Thai paintings which he opened to the public. And then one day, while visiting the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia, he went for a walk … and never came back. His mysterious disappearance has certainly added to his fame. We went on a tour of the house and watched a demonstration of boiling the silk cocoons to extract the thread and spinning it and I added several new hankies to Chris’s collection for his birthday.
Having wished each other a Happy New Year while flying over Afghanistan, we arrived in Singapore on a warm but slightly grey New Year’s Day.
These parks are open from early in the morning till late at night, free and really well used with lots of families visiting and picnicing. The new Gardens by the Bay has a couple of huge domes filled with plants which we didn’t visit, but also Supertree Grove, containing giant tree sculptures planted with ferns and orchids which take centre stage for a free light show each evening.
Off Travelling Together 