Monday , February 18, 2019
Sunday, February 17, 2019
Koh Adang & Koh Lipe
We have really slow internet tonight and no pictures will upload. Early this morning Gary did upload a couple of videos from yesterday which you will find below.
The first video is the hermit crab on the beach, the second video is from the lookout on Koh Adang looking across to Koh Lipe. Koh Lipe is where the action is despite the fact it is a much smaller island. Koh Lipe has changed a lot in the last 3 years since we were here. Much busier, many more people and more expensive! The price of success.
Saturday February 16, 2019
Adang Island - Tarutao National Park
We got up this morning and felt energized. How could we make good use of this? Let’s try going for a hike through the jungle for the day in 31°C bright sunshine.
From our resort we headed into the jungle / forest. We walked about 35 minutes to the Ranger Station on Adang Island in Tarutao National Park. We came prepared with lots of water, in fact 3 bottles. So once we got to the National Park we made use of their canteen and rested while we each had a beer and a plate of fruit. After our drink, we wandered around the campground where you can rent tents and camp on the beach under huge long needle fir trees. It’s quite pretty and quiet there. The rent for a tent and 2 people would be just over $15.00 CAD per night.
We wandered around to the start of the trail to the look out which is up the mountain behind the campground area. Off we went. It didn’t take long to become overheated. We took it really slow. We met a guy on the trail with a little girl about 5 years old going up, we passed him. We made several stops and drank one full bottle of water on the way up. The signage for the trail was rather lacking. You basically followed the small trail and were continually scanning to make sure you were headed the right way.
Apparently there are 3 view points. We never did confirm which was viewpoint 1. We thought we had finally reached viewpoint 2 only to find after agreeing to hike slightly further that we had reached #2. The view was spectacular. We took pictures for an Italian guy who was also there and he took some of us.
As we were sitting resting the Dad and his 5 year old arrived. Can’t believe she managed to climb that trail! We took some photos of the two of them with their camera and had a bit of a chat. They are staying at the same resort as us. They’d drank all their water and he asked if we could lend him some money so when they got back down they could buy some water before hiking the last leg back to the resort. We said we had an extra bottle and he was happy to take that so they could have a drink while they worked their way down. Good thing we gave it to them rather than the money as once we hiked all the way back down the canteen was closed until 5:30. He actually bought us a replacement big bottle of water when he saw us at the resort later and said it had been a lifesaver having it. We managed fine with the water we had left for our hike back.
We drank almost 1.5 l of water on our return and then got changed and went for a swim to cool off. We are tired out from all the hiking. Gary’s iPhone said we did 8.1 km and climbed equivalent of 48 floors. Our feet feel like it too! We had to wash out our hiking clothes tonight as they were so sweaty. Thankfully we have a drying rack for our towels that we can easily put out on the deck and hang everything to dry overnight.
We should sleep good tonight, however we have new neighbours in our adjoining bungalow and they have one or two kids, one of which has been screaming up a storm and banging doors. Hopefully they quiet down and sleep through the night!
Friday, February 15, 2019
A Day of Relaxation
We didn’t do much today other than think about checking our ferry departure times and ticket confirmation. We booked the ferry to Langkawi Malaysia online on Dec 22, but for some reason our card was declined. We will now work to get that remedied in the next day or so. Either we try again online or go in person to book it. We’ll see tomorrow.
There was a real turn over today here with guests. The Swedes with the babies left, first the Mom to go to the doctor where she got an intravenous for diarrhea and low electrolytes. Then later the Dad with the 2 babies. They were off to Langkawi and then Singapore for 2 weeks then back to winter. It’s unbelievable how the staff pitched in with the babies while the mother was sick. The staff here are great, some don’t speak too much English, some are quite good. All the staff work together to make this place successful. We get to order our breakfast at supper time. You fill out the form, room number and your choices. When you sit down in the morning your plates magically appear. Everyone knows what guests belong and those that don’t. We saw people escorted from the pool, only guests allowed!
Tomorrow our the next day we hope to hike to the Mountain Lookout and Ranger Station. We walked by the sign on the way back from the water fall. Apparently there is an easier route. We’ll see.
Thursday February 14, 2019
Valentines Day
Yesterday Gary & Linda trekked up to the waterfalls above the Adang Resort. We took a bit of video, spliced it together and finally got it loaded on youtube. One day later you can watch it below.
After breakfast this morning we came back to our room to take in some aircon. People will think we are crazy, but seriously we are trying to stay healthy in this excessive heat. There is no escaping it outside, the restaurant is all open air, the shade is still hot and humid. Sometimes we crave a cool down for a few hours. There’s lots of people around the resort with upset stomaches, we think the heat is a big part of it. So after breakfast we came back to our room and chilled with our e-readers.
At lunch we ordered rice, glasses with ice, a 1.5 litre bottle of water and 2 cans of Schweppes. Not ginger ale, it’s lime soda used for mixer. We diluted it with water 3/4 water to 1/4 Schweppes. We managed to get our hydration off to a good start. The heat has definitely played havoc with out appetites too. Who ever heard of steamed rice for lunch? We did save room for dessert at about 3:30 pm with our Valentines day chocolate ice cream bars.
We sat around the pool, sat in the pool and sat in the shade reading for the afternoon. I was in our plan to go hiking but its just too hot! We have kayaks at or disposal, but again it’s too hot. Maybe a bit too windy for kayaks too.
Wednesday February 13, 2019
Koh Adang Day 2
Above – the inside of our bungalow on Adang Resort
There isn’t a lot to do on a deserted island. We decided to check out the waterfall hidden up in the jungle above our resort. We packed water and a sarong to sit on and a backpack to carry it all. Off we went. To get to the trail you have to cross the sandy beach. It was like walking on red hot coals, still only 9:45 am. The resort staff said the trail starts just past the big black rock, we think he meant the huge black rock!
Once we got into the forest we thought we would be cooler, that thought faded fast because it was humid, even steamy. The trail was steep, and we were wearing flip flops because who would wear running shoes across a sandy beach? We vowed to be careful. As we climbed it became warmer and we started to really feel the heat. We took a very slow pace. We stopped a few times for a rest and water. Finally we came to a fallen tree across the stream. We walked around the log and stepped on stones to cross the stream. On the way back we walked across the log as it seemed like too much work to climb down the boulders and cross the stream by stepping on the rocks.
We met one other party of 2 Asian ladies on our way up as they were coming down. At least we were not alone! There were a few signs along the way, but they were few and far between. The trail is not really well defined in places. Eventual after climbing over some huge boulders we got to the bottom of the falls. We climbed up some more rocks and there it was before our eyes, a little trickling stream of water coming over the rocks. We didn’t go any further to see where on earth the stream comes from. No glaciers or anything around here. The water was cooler than the air but definitely not cold water. We sat around the pond at the base of the falls and absorbed the slightly cooler air. It was shady and a good place to relax.
The trip down the mountain was much easier. In fact it was easier than we anticipated.
When we got back to the resort we couldn’t get in the pool fast enough. We had a swim, cooled down and eventually went for a light lunch which consisted of mostly water. We killed a 1.5 litre bottle of cold water.
The rest of the day was spent around the pool and in the shade laying on the matts and reading. We thought this may get boring after a few more days, then we looked at the Saskatoon weather. Still well into the -30s.
Tuesday February 12, 2019
Koh Lipe Thailand - Walking Street
Today we stayed around the pool and read. Rather than burn to death we laid on mats in the shade. We visited with the Swedes and their cute twins. They are 8 months old. There’s another Swedish family with 3 very cute kids too. That was our entertainment. At 4pm we took the free shuttle long tail boat to Koh Lipe. It’s a 10-20 minute trip. We walked around and bought sunscreen, stopped for beer and ate supper. We looked for the dive shop that Gary dived with before and they are no longer in business. The island of Koh Lipe looks different and busier too. We are glad so far to be huddled off the main island of Koh Lipe on our one resort island of Koh Adang. Life is good. It’s also expensive to buy sunscreen. One bottle was $45 CAD. We can’t afford to rely on chemicals for shade. We did find slightly cheaper sun screen. No bargains though! Overall life is good, we had to wait until 8:30 for the boat back to the island. Just before the last street light going to Sunset Beach we heard this loud noise from high up in the trees. Turns out they were huge fruit bats. We learned that from another couple that came strolling by and was more knowledgeable on the subject. We could see the creatures scooting around up in the branches. The first thing Gary thought, maybe he should dig out his hat from the backpack. One of our first thoughts was that the noise was coming from monkeys. We didn’t waste much time looking at the bats! We got down to the water about 45 minutes early, we just sat and read our kindle e-readers. The two Swede families were about 20 minutes late. Their supper was delayed by slow service. They called the resort and they told them the boat would wait for them to get to the beach pick up spot. Since the pick up time was 8:30 which ended cup turning to 9 pm, it was hours past sunset. The beach area was dark and deserted.! The ride back across to our island was slow due to the waves and wind. There was also night divers in the water as we went by. You could see the ocean lit up from beneath. We also had some entertainment from the 8 month old babies, they fell asleep on the way back with the loud boat motor. We were in bed by 10:30, not a sound other than our aircon could be heard. It is so peaceful here, we’re glad we chose to stay here.
Just the one picture at the top of this post today. It’s a picture of the bustling Walking Street on Koh Lipe. Blame the lack of pictures on the slow internet and no pictures to upload.
Monday February 11, 2019
Arrive - Koh Adang Thailand
Today we packed up the jigsaw puzzle that is our luggage. Once everything was in place we went next door for a good breakfast. We also took an anti nausea pill for the speed boat ferry trip. That (pill) was a waste of time. We got picked up and rode in the back of a delivery truck with our luggage. There was seating around the outside with the slatted live stock type railing to hold us in. It was bumpy, hot and not comfortable. At one of the stops we had to wait a long time for passengers. It was a good time for Gary to walk behind a gate. We made it to the ferry port and had to sit for over an hour longer than we should have. They had some type of motor trouble. Who knows what the issue was but there are 4 outboard motors on the back of this boat, totalling about 1000 horse power.
Gary went to take a pee before we departed, which was a good thing because the toilet on the boat ( called the head ) was very popular for a few people that had their heads in the head! Gary was somewhat pissed at the state of the bathroom urinal at the port. It was a long cement trough that drained onto the ground outside the building and into the marina.
The 3 hour boat trip went like watching paint dry in the rain. It was long, bumpy and overcrowded so there was little room for everyone to sit. We finally got to Koh Lipe and moored at a huge pontoon barge where we paid an entrance fee to get into the national park, and also paid for the longboat ride to shore. This transfer station is used as a make work project for the locals, and also it serves to keep a large pier from spoiling the beautiful island of Koh Lipe. Once on shore we got a tuk tuk ride to the other side of the island where we once again got into a long tail boat and took the 5 – 10 minute ride to Koh Adang island where our resort is located.
We got checked in and laid down until supper as neither of us were feeling that great. We can only assume we ate something that gave us both belly aches, luckily Linda has a stronger stomach than Gary. If it hadn’t been a travel day today, we’d have spent the day in bed as that’s how spectacular we felt.
The resort is beautiful, with a white sand beach, lounge chairs, shade and a swimming pool to boot! We went for supper, actually it should read “we dragged our asses down for supper” and ate enjoying the breeze off the water and watching the surf. Apparently, according to one of the resort staff, there is a weather disturbance moving in that is creating the choppy water right now.
That prompted us to look online where we learned that it was currently 31°C but felt like 35°C. It appears the weather disturbance means it will be windy for a few days. Still sunny and 31°C for Koh Adang and Koh Lipe in the forecast.
We paid up our tab for supper and found our way back to our room in the dark. It is very quiet here which is a treat after our last hotel that was situated on a noisy, busy street. We are thankful to finally be here and hope we are feeling better tomorrow and can enjoy the day!
Also interesting, after sunset, the resort was playing a movie on the beach with a big screen, almost like the days of the drive in. This would be a sit on the beach and watch version. The movie tonight was The Imitation Game. We have it on our laptop.
One last comment, the internet here is really slow at times and flakey, Gary had to process the pictures to a file size under 150 Kb. These pictures wont have the resolution of pictures on our past posts.
Sunday February 10, 2019
Koh Lanta - Last day on this Island
The picture above is fresh squeezed orange juice. It tasted so much better than it looked!
Today, Sunday we took the day off. We rested. Can you believe that? We went for several walks, the first before breakfast the second long walk after supper. We read, did some hotel reviews on Trip Advisor and hotels.com. We also paid our MasterCard bill, which includes matching the invoices up to the statement. That stuff all takes time. It’s comforting to know that we spent less money in the past month, and no money at Costco.
Tomorrow we are getting picked up at 9:50 – 10 am and heading to Saladan Pier where we will take the speed boat ferry to Koh Lipe, a distance of about 120 km which takes about 3 hours.
We got our last stamp on our ice cream card which got us a free serving. We both had passion fruit sorbet. Gary has fallen madly in love with passion fruit! Linda’s not so crazy about it but still enjoys it. Even the sorbet has the little seeds in it which remind us of pomegranates but much more tangy. Neither of us had ever eaten passion fruit before this trip where we stumbled across it in Vietnam. Raw passion fruit is 73% water, 22% carbohydrates, 2% protein and 0.7% fat. In a 100 gram amount, fresh passion fruit contains 36% of the Daily Value of vitamin C, 42% dietary fiber, plus B vitamins riboflavin and niacin, iron and phosphorus. It not only tastes good, it is GOOD for you!
Other interesting did bits, our custom made clothing made it home on February 7. It had been several places on the way home too.
Tomorrow, speed boat ferry, then 10 days on a deserted island. We have internet but we’re not sure how good the service will be. To avoid disappointment don’t expect too many pictures until we get to Malaysia on Feb 23. Don’t forget you can subscribe to notifications on our blog. This will send you an email when we have made blog updates. Give it a try! Click here: Subscribe which is available on our Home page.
Stay warm everyone back home. Just for the record its now -31°C with the balmy -39°C windchill in Saskatoon.
Saturday February 09, 2019
Koh Lanta - Day 4
It is now exactly one month since we arrived in Asia.
We had a slow start today due to sun burns. We didn’t really know what to do. After breakfast we covered up and hiked to the far end of Klong Dao Beach a distance of about 2.5 Km. By the time we got to the far end we were both exhausted from the heat and humidity. We stopped at a bar for mango smoothies to cool off. It barely got us in shape to walk partway back to another bar where we stopped for a beer and and order of French fries. By then we were fully recovered having spent at least an hour or more sitting and surf watching in the shade. On the way back to our hotel we watched the crabs making designs in the sand as the tide goes out. See the background picture at the top of this blog post. The crab transforms the sand beach from hard smooth wet sand to a mosaic of designs. It’s quite intriguing. Gary made a little video of the crabs doing their work which is posted below.
By 6 pm we were ready for supper and off to the restaurant next door. Gary has a craving for fish. Linda had spaghetti Thai style. She had the hottest spaghetti she has ever eaten. The hottest anything for that matter. She likes it hot but that was too much. She finished it and survived for ice cream later. Tomorrow is our last full day on the island of Koh Lanta. We will take a ferry Monday to Koh Lipe where we will stay for 10 glorious days. It was our favourite spot last time we were in Thailand.
Back to the crabs. We did a bit of research on the beach full of crab made sand balls! Sand bubbler crabs live in burrows in the sand where they remain during high tide. When the tide is out, they emerge on to the surface of the sand, and scour the sand for food, forming it into inflated pellets, which cover the sand. When they see someone coming they are as fast as lightning darting back to their burrow. When Gary set up the GoPro the crabs disappeared for a minute until they thought they were in the clear. Walking on the beach flattens their sand balls until they come back and make more.