'round the world

KYN to Ko Pha-ngan

Well, I'm feeling better today. Was a little angry yesterday, but am feeling far better today. We've moved to a new place on the island and now are really enjoying it. Our hut is great, right on the white, soft sandy beach, between a couple of palm trees, next to beautiful water, with a hammock and a Western toilet. Paradise, again. It really is incomparable to last nights place except for the fact they are both huts. I should apologize for yesterday's rambling angry weblog.

Regarding KYN:
KYN was absoultely fantastic and we were quite lucky to both get to the island and to meet Denny (the owner of the Nam Tok Bungalows). We got picked up to go to KYN outside of one of the travel agents' offices. The owner of the ferry happened to be in town, so we were able to ride with him in his brand new truck with a/c rather than having to take a bus. The trip from Krabi to his ferry took about 25 minutes and the ferry ride was fun as well as we were the only tourists aboard. The scenery was fantastic and I took far too many pictures of the limestone cliffs... I hope they turn out well.

Once in KYN, we were greeted by Denny who took us to see his place. The huts turned out to be only 2 months old, had huge bathrooms and lots of room in the living area. There were only 3 huts (one of them a duplex of sorts), occupied by Stefan, a French cartoonist/animator/painter, Marek, a Polish-Canadian professional photographer, as well as Denny and his good friend Yeah who happened to be the chief of the island. Denny allowed us to have a motorbike for the day for free and we spent a little while travelling a loop around the island which took approx. 30-40 minutes.

On Day 2 at KYN, Yeah took Kacey and I for a tour of the island by motorbike. He introduced us to rubber plantations where we saw the collection and manufacturing of rubber (smelled like Hallowe'en masks or surgical gloves). He also showed us cashew nut trees, mangoes, bananas, coconuts, papaya and on and on. He took us to a fishing village built on stilts over the mud flats and a place where the island's curry was made for export. Later on, he took us to a breathtaking place where monks from Bangkok come once or twice a year to meditate... a large porch high up on a hill, looking towards the limestone islands and cliffs between the 20km passage to the mainland. We also we shown a beach where nobody went, but was absolutely beautiful, just below the monks' meditation compound. We stayed at the beach the rest of the day.

Day 3 at KYN was spent mostly on KYY, the larger sister island to the south. KYY had a population of about 8000 while KYN's was just above 3000. Our day began early as Denny, Yeah, Kacey, myself, Marek, Stefan and, Marieka an older lady from Holland who is, or was, a professor of Islamic Studies, all took our motorbikes across the straight to KYY. We spent nearly 6 or 7 hours touring the island and only had to pay for our food, gas, and boat to cross where a similar tour from Krabi would have cost at least 1200 baht each, not including food or gas and only would have lasted 3 or 4 hours according to a brochure we later flipped through. Having Yeah with us helped a lot as he knew many people and many beaches and villages to visit. This trip was like our tour of KYN, only longer and hotter.

Day 4 at KYN was spent lounging around Denny's "Take it Easy" Bar, which didn't have alcohol but had a lot of good conversation.

Day 5 began early as we headed out on a longtail boat with Denny to take a tour north of the island around bays and to beaches that the tours from Krabi or from Phuket don't get to see. The northern 1/3 of KYN is a National Park full of monkeys, cobras (neither of which we saw) and hornbill birds (funny looking birds with huge, multi-leveled bills - we saw two or so). We saw a 1000+ year old tree in "Big Tree Bay" as well as beautiful lagoons and beaches. In the evening Denny threw a party for Stefan, Kacey and I as we were leaving the next day. Before the party, Stefan, Yeah Marieka and I went to an inland fish farm to catch our dinner. We used fishing line wrapped around a bottle with massive minnows on huge hooks for bait. Stefan cast the line in first and within literally 5 seconds caught a 2kg Grouper. In 15 minutes, we had caught 5 or 6 fish, kept 3, and headed back to start a BBQ.

Day 6 was a sad day. We packed up, had breakfast and took a 1pm ferry to Phuket. Luckily for us, Stefan and Yeah were heading to Bangkok so we were able to catch a ride with some of Yeah's friends into Phuket Town, from the harbour, saving us time and money. Each day at KYN could have taken an entire weblog and I have included most of the highlights without going into detail. The people we met at Nam Tok were great. Stefan, the animator, made paintings. Marek told us of all the places he had been (basically everywhere from Lake Baikal during perestroika in the 80s, to being robbed of all his belongings including Canadian landed immigrant papers in South America, to places in India that seemed to be 500 years behind Western civilization and on and on). Denny and Yeah impressed us with their sincerity and hospitality. So many stories, too little time. Kacey and I both wanted to spend more time here, but we torn between staying and seeing the rest of the country. Our night in Phuket was bad and last night here, on Ko Pha-ngan, was worse after a 4-hour bus and 3-hour boat ride, as evidenced by yesterday's weblog. Today is far better and we are both in better moods enjoying this island far more.

All's fine,
Graham

Posted by graham at March 3, 2003 12:25 AM