Monday 15th December 2008
The alarm went off at 8am; I got up, showered and packed before going downstairs for an Om Yim Lodge American breakfast. Prior to departing I arranged with the manager to leave some text books for safe-keeping until my return in three weeks. I then took a taxi to Suvarnabhumi for my flight at 1:50pm to Krabi. I actually got to the airport rather early at 11:30am; this was because I had arranged to meet K, who worked for Qatar Airways. I met up him, and then checked in nice and early before going for a drink at Black Canyon Coffee. Here I was chatting with K, who had been working from 3am until half an hour before we met. He wanted to learn Spanish and asked if I could help him, offering to pay, I declined his offer, my Spanish isn't that good but I did say I would help him find the right study material and give a lesson to get him started. It was time to go to boarding; so I said farewell to K and went off in search of the gate. The Air Asia flight departed bang on time and before I knew it, it was 3pm as the wheels touched down at the tiny Krabi Airport, where a driver taking me to Le Passe Temps was holding a placard with my name on it.
Just after 4pm I arrived at Le Passe Temps and greeted by the owner Olivier and his and manager, Jae who, following the registration formalities, showed me to my bungalow, the name of which was Hippo. It was a fairly small room with its wooden floor, walls and roof, at ninety degrees to it was another little wooden building, this one housing my bathroom which was complete with a wooden bath tub. Outside was my own little terrace containing a bench seat that could snugly fit two people. Beyond were seven other bungalows with a pool situated in the centre. Between the pool and the reception / lounge, a beautiful octagonal shaped building with a central dome, was a patio where breakfast was taken. In the opposite direction was another patio atop a cliff and steps leading down to the restaurant and beach. All in all it was a very serene place in an isolated corner of the Krabi province.
I changed out of my travel clothes into something my lighter and very informal then took a look around. The first people I met were Mac and Meghan, an American couple from Seattle, who reminded me very much of Vancouver Chris when they spoke. They had arrived just a few hours earlier and told me about a boat trip being arranged for the next day and asked if I wanted to come along. A short while later I met the other guests, Peter and Ben who live in Copenhagen and have a condo in Bangkok, their friend Philip and also a guy from Switzerland who went by the name of Tom.. We introduced ourselves and Peter gave more information on the boat trip, which was around Hong Island in a national marine park, I decided to join in and go.
Dinner was at 8pm, we were joined by Olivier, his mother and Jae all sitting together on a long table. We must have sat there about three hours, finding out about each other. Mac and Meghan were spending three months in Asia before going to Kenya, where they would do volunteer work for six months on a Malaria programme in a medical centre.
The next morning, I joined the other guests at breakfast before boarding the back of a pick-up truck with six other guests, two hampers one containing water and beer, the other our lunch and our snorkelling gear. We soon arrived at the pier, where Ron our captain awaited with his wooden long boat; soon we were off on a 20 minute trip out to see beyond tiny islands of rock topped with lush green vegetation until we reached Hong Island. There we hit the beach which was already filled with other longboats parked in a row and hundreds of other people. We spent about an hour their before deciding to move on to another beach, less busy. Ron took us around Hong Island and into this beautiful lagoon before heading off to a small but almost deserted beach a few minutes away on another island. Here we spend almost four hours, enjoying our picnic lunch, sunbathing and swimming around in the warm turquoise waters, before we had to head back before nightfall. That evening a couple from France, who had just arrived, joined us for dinner.
On Wednesday, Joe, someone I'd been in contact with over the internet, offered to take me out for the day and show me around. He arrived about 45 minutes late having got lost trying to find Le Passe Temps. I boarded his bike and we set of cautiously around down the long dirt track that led to the road and on our way to visit the Tiger Cave Temple. On the way I enjoyed the stunning scenery as we passed canyons with unusual rock faces topped by masses of greenery. Eventually we arrived at the Temple, it was certainly not one of the finest I had seen, Joe in fact told me that it was more of a tourist place and not a Temple he particularly liked – I had to agree. Anyway, I lit two candles and three incense sticks before a statue of a famous Buddhist monk, who I presume to have been an Arahant (an enlightened being full of wisdom and compassion), and made my wish. Then we visited the actual cave where the tiger was found and caged, although no tiger existed there now. Outside we were met by families of Macaques, a primate commonly found in region, some were eating fruit being handed to them and I noticed several babies among them. I was then shown Krabi town, the stunning twin peaks at the entrance to the town, the shopping centre, this had to be the smallest main town I had been to in Thailand. Next we rode to Ao Nang, the largest beach resort in the area, and a Scandinavian hotspot which did nothing much for me. Eventually we returned to Au Tha Lane and Le Passe Temps, where we took some refreshment and showed Joe around. Wondering what to do the next day, Joe told me we could take a kayak out around the canyons, lagoons and mangrove swamps, I thought it seemed a good idea and so we booked it for the next afternoon at about 1pm, to coincide with high tide.
Thursday morning, Joe arrived just before 10am; we went down to the beach where after a stroll along the water's edge we sat on the sand watching the little crabs darting about. Later we rode the short distance to the pier where we took a spot of lunch before getting in our kayak. In front of us was our guide, we paddled our way across the sea towards our first canyon and before we knew it we were at a cave filled with Macaques going about their business. I noticed how easily these Macaques blended into the rock of the cave, being almost the same colour. As we continued our journey, passing caves where sea gypsies once lived, I was amazed by the sheer beauty of the place and before we knew it, we arrived at an incredibly beautiful lagoon, the turquoise water contrasted by brown stone of the tall canyons and lush green vegetation growing from them. We called out only to hear our echoes breaking the tranquillity of the location, it was amazing. We journeyed on, seemingly a thousand miles from civilisation, through more canyons, passing some wondrous caves before suddenly arriving in the swamp. Our journey was now a much slower one, pointing our kayak through the narrow and at times very shallow water, trying to avoid the roots of the mangroves on one side and the protrusions of rock at the base of the cliffs in the other. Often we had to duck beneath overhanging roots and at times we would have to push and pull our way out of them, the water here was a stagnant greyish brown. Onwards we meandered sometimes the channel widened and we would made speedy progress, then suddenly we may turn a sharp bend into a channel so narrow, we would have to use the mangrove roots to push our way along. Suddenly we saw what appeared to be a crocodile ahead in the water but as we came closer to it, we realised that this was a harmless reptile swimming its way along. We also saw birds, a most unusual dark blue in colour, the flora and fauna here were so very different to what I'm used to. Eventually we turned into the open sea and paddled across the straight back to the pier. Upon reaching land, we washed our hands and Joe bought ice cream, which was very welcome after our afternoons exercise. Back on Joe's bike, he wanted to take a look at the main pier, a two minute ride away, as we reached it a large beetle crossed the bike's path, Joe wasn't able avoid the creature and it met an earthly end under the bike's front wheel. This upset Joe, he was concerned that as well as being responsible for the creature's demise, it struggled before giving up and may have suffered some pain. I have learned that a good Buddhist holds all life dear and will not even kill a mosquito intentionally – if only other ideologies and religions could be the same, how much better this world would be. We returned to Le Passe Temps, took showers and changed our clothes and Joe stayed to dinner that evening.
Friday and Joe had to go back to work today, so I decided I would take it easy. Mac and Meghan were leaving and after making our farewells, I took a book and settled down on a sun bed at the beach. It was a well needed lazy day which included a short siesta late afternoon. My inner peace, which had been with me all day, became shattered with an email I received after dinner that night. Once again my bank was sending my card to the Brixham branch and would be available for collection in ten days. Twelve days previously when I reported the card lost, I had been promised that the new card and associated security and pin numbers would be sent to my UK registered address within five to seven days, Now five to seven days on from when everything was supposed to have been resolved, not only would I have to wait a further ten days but the card yet again was being sent somewhere it shouldn't. I tried phoning the bank but gave up after five minutes on hold – I would call them in the morning, about 1 to 2am GMT, when I knew I would get straight through to someone based in the UK. Needless to say, that night I struggled to get to sleep.
Saturday, I arose from a poor night's sleep at around 8:15 and promptly made my call to the bank. I was irate but well mannered to the person on the other end, who could not offer much apart from sending me yet another card, a complete waste of time. I asked for someone in authority to call me back. About an hour later, a manager by the name of Debbie, called and told me that she had found an obscure item on my account which forced the sending of my Visa Debit cards to Brixham, she had now rectified this and I would get my new card in about two weeks. I'll not bore you all with any further conversations with the Spanish owned bank, which continued for much of the afternoon but the upshot is that they gave me an overdraft to keep me afloat until I got all my necessary bank and security numbers and could properly access my accounts again. Upon my return to the UK, I shall not be letting the matter drop, oh no. Now today the plan had been to join with some of the other guests on a trip to some different islands; instead I rented a motorbike, droving over 120 kilometres to release some bank-related stress out of my system. After dinner that evening, Joe came over and we sat on my terrace drinking beer, looking at the stars and making small talk.
Sunday, I went to breakfast late, well 10am, Mat, the breakfast waiter (who other guests had likened to Manuel at Fawlty Towers) told me there were no croissants or baguettes left, disappointed I ordered a ham omelette instead. Perhaps I should explain myself about Mat. His real name's Mohammed, he smiled a lot and one could often here him singing away, all in all he seems a happy chap. The downside was his memory, which was akin to that of a goldfish. Sometimes we would have to ask for something three times and he would still forget. He had this habit of bringing one item, two if we were lucky and three if it was a lottery winning day, things at a time on his tray, so we would get coffee, sometimes with milk but he always had to make a return trip with the sugar, or, we'd get our croissants and baguettes but the butter would come sometime later. Guests would order pancakes and they would be delivered to other guests at a different table who would then think they were getting treated and proceeded to eat them. I liked Mat, he gave us something to talk about, we knew he meant well and there was no rush anyway, so one could afford to allow an hour for breakfast giving him time to get his act together.
At this point I will tell you that this was my last day here before departing to Koh Samui, I wished I was departing for Bangkok and maybe that is what I should have done.... ....I will tell you in the next blog, Koh Samui. Just after breakfast I received a phone call from Joe, he had left something in my room, I went there and found a Christmas card, so sweet. Peter, Ben and Philip were leaving late afternoon returning to Bangkok, where Peter and Ben would go to their condo and from where Philip would enjoy his last night before flying back to Denmark for Christmas. After lunch I was overtaken by tiredness from the previous 36 hours and had a long siesta before seeing the Danes off. I had a quiet evening, settled the bill and after dinner that night, I packed my stuff and went to bed sleeping soundly, this was the calm before the storm.
