Leaving Prachuap Khiri Khan, we adopted a leisurely pace essential to survival in the 90-degree-plus sunshine and made camp on a beach at Khao Sam Roi Yod National Park. The following morning we cycled in between dramatic karst pinnacle formations to reach the trailhead for another famous feature of limestone: mesmerizing caverns open to the sky. We hiked up to the entrance for Tham Phraya Nakhon, featuring a pagoda-like "meeting hall" built for King Rama V's visit in 1890. In our typical fashion, we arrived about ten minutes too late to see the structure illuminated by rays of light filtering down through the opening, but the tree-filled cavern was a lovely blend of nature and culture nonetheless. Next we explored the aptly named Jewel Cave (Tham Kaew), featuring the usual cave formations but with the sparkly addition of calcite crystal deposits and the bonus of bat colonies and a whip scorpion sighting.
It only took one motorbike taxi, one longtail ferry, one "sorngtaaou" (shared pickup truck transport), and one minivan to return to Prachuap Khiri Khan from the little island of Koh Chang. Back in the scenic town, we enjoyed the night market and repacked for the next leg of the cycle tour heading north to Bangkok. The next morning we braved the ridiculously large population of urban monkeys guarding the 396 steps up to a derelict temple complex perched on a hilltop overlooking the bayside town. It was certainly worth the sweaty effort and proximity to primates expecting a handout for the views north and south along the coast.
Leaving Prachuap Khiri Khan, we adopted a leisurely pace essential to survival in the 90-degree-plus sunshine and made camp on a beach at Khao Sam Roi Yod National Park. The following morning we cycled in between dramatic karst pinnacle formations to reach the trailhead for another famous feature of limestone: mesmerizing caverns open to the sky. We hiked up to the entrance for Tham Phraya Nakhon, featuring a pagoda-like "meeting hall" built for King Rama V's visit in 1890. In our typical fashion, we arrived about ten minutes too late to see the structure illuminated by rays of light filtering down through the opening, but the tree-filled cavern was a lovely blend of nature and culture nonetheless. Next we explored the aptly named Jewel Cave (Tham Kaew), featuring the usual cave formations but with the sparkly addition of calcite crystal deposits and the bonus of bat colonies and a whip scorpion sighting.
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Our primary reason to come to Ranong was to make a "visa run" by crossing the border into Myanmar briefly and re-entering Thailand. This common practice for tourists in Thailand is actually a misnomer since we had received a free 30-day entry stamp rather than a formal visa. We haggled with the boatmen at the dock to get the going price (for tourists at least) on a decrepit long tail that would motor us half an hour across the inlet separating the two countries. As the boat pulled in to the Thai departure stamping station, the boatman announced we needed to hand over an additional 50 baht per person. We said, "No thanks... Nice try, buddy!" and ignored him since we were not aware of any legitimate departure fees. The older Scottish couple also in our boat complied without protest though, so he tried again with us. I get particularly worked up about scams during times when travelers are at their most vulnerable, such as border crossings, so I got off the boat and walked up to the official in his office window with our boatman following behind me. I politely but firmly said, "I'm sorry, but I thought it was free to leave Thailand." He just looked at me and smiled, but remained silent, so I added, "I'll take that as a yes then." I returned to the boat and we were not pestered to pay any more mysterious fees for the duration of our trip. We docked in Myanmar and efficiently took care of the formalities. During a quick look around town, the hilariously naive Scottish couple had bought some off-brand cigarettes that were promoted as top quality American ones. They were a bit disappointed when they showed them to us back on the boat and we didn't recognize them. Now let's think about this, why would there be any American cigarettes in a border town in Myanmar!?!
After returning to the mainland from a week spent on the little dive island of Koh Tao, we were hit with a full dose of Thailand's heat as we cycled north. April is reputedly the hottest month of the year. After melting along the roadside despite our proximity to the beautiful coastline, we don't disagree with that statement one bit.
Of course, the drawn-out dread of taking the night boat turned out to be much worse than the voyage itself. Instead of the nice big boat docked the night before, we were instructed to load our bikes on to a smaller older-looking boat, adding insult to the injury of not directly rolling on to the Koh Tao-bound boat twenty-four hours prior. Nonetheless, the sleeping berth was cozy without being over-crowded, although a bit warm since our designated mattresses were at the opposite end of the one air-conditioning unit. With tourists on one side and locals on the other side of an aisle lined with motorbikes plus our two beasts, to our great surprise everyone was quiet and went to sleep immediately. Before we knew it, we were docking at Koh Tao early the next morning. Still in a daze, we cycled to the southern settlement on the island of Chalok Baan Kao where we checked in to the budget-friendly Tropicana "Resort" and waited for our pre-researched dive shop to open. We had singled out New Heaven for their extensive conservation efforts and investment in the local community, but unfortunately their customer service was severely lacking when we made a simple request for a 15-liter tank for Matt. Fortunately, our back-up choice came through for us as the amiable staff at Big Blue Diving casually responded, "15-liter tank? Got it, no problem, free of charge." While they also engage in conservation work, we had some reservations about going with one of the bigger and busiest companies on the island, but we signed up for two dives the next day as a test run. Despite missing a whale shark sighting by opting for sleep over early-morning dives, we had a good experience with some easy shallow dives the following afternoon. We got a sense of the dive scene in Koh Tao as we boarded the biggest dive boat we have ever seen. This was followed by quite a surface swim to get to the actual dive site because of the queue of equally-large boats strung behind one actually tied to the mooring line. Nonetheless, our dive master Nick was enthusiastic and knowledgeable, and particularly good at finding miniscule nudibranchs. Big Blue may be a mass operation, but it didn't ever feel impersonal. While the dives sites themselves were not too impressive, we were satisfied enough with the company to check out deeper and more famous dive sites with them the next morning. While the whale shark sighted at Chumphon Pinnacle the previous morning had already moved on, we found the site to be one of the most dramatic places we had ever seen underwater. With excellent visibility, we could see "anemone fields forever" covering the angular rock walls, many of them the size of table for two. Little did we know at the time that that would be our last Koh Tao dive with clear water. Our second dive, at the HTMS Sattakut 742 wreck, introduced us to the murkiness of the plankton blooms allegedly timed with the approach of the full moon. Fortunately, our dive master Steven was a character both above and below the surface and kept us entertained with his humor and antics while searching out the small stuff. The following day, we optimistically committed to an all-day boat excursion to the premier dive site in Gulf of Thailand known as Sail Rock. Unfortunately, the visibility was so poor that our dive master Ben missed the entrance to a vertical swim-through chimney as we descended. Again, our strategy was to stick close to the wall and look for the small-scale diversity of life, but it was a shame to miss the renowned beauty of the big picture. The crew adapted the day's schedule and opted to try Southwest Pinnacle rather than do a second dive on Sail Rock, but the visibility wasn't much better there either. We wrapped up the day at Shark(less) Island, supposedly named for the shape of the island resembling a giant dorsal fin. Having adjusted our expectations with the lack of good visibility, we wrapped up our diving experience with a couple more pleasant afternoon dives followed by a night dive. Some new and favorite species we spotted over the course of all of our dives were blue-spotted rays, titan triggerfish, scrawled filefish, brown banded pipefish, and my personal favorite--the yellow box fish! While overall Koh Tao may not be the best quality of diving, it certainly is some of the most affordable. After just seven dives, we reached the cheapest price bracket of less than $25 per dive. All of the diving combined with a hilly bicycle commute between our hotel and the dive shop at opposite ends of the island had not left us much time for relaxing or energy for exploring. We decided to take a non-diving day for some beach time and snorkel time. Somewhat ironically, the snorkeling led to our only sightings of a black-tipped reef shark and tremendous green turtle while on the island. Later that night, we even rallied to stay up past our bedtime in order to go to the Koh Tao institution of the Queen's Cabaret, a nightly show by extravagantly done-up kathoeys, referred to as Thailand's third gender and also known as "ladyboys." From serious to seriously sexy, we were enthralled with the variety of performances. Matt was super relieved that an obnoxious bachelor party group eliminated his personal risk of being selected for any audience participation numbers. The next day, we put our bikes on a boat for the last time in the foreseeable future and said goodbye to Koh Tao. While we certainly enjoyed our week there, we didn't exactly fall in love with it either. With a younger party crowd vibe, we may have been more enamored had we visited ten years ago. That said, had we stuck around longer--perhaps for a full-length conservation diving course or dive master training program--we may have connected with the established dive community and changed our perspective as well. With the sheer numbers of divers in the water and one-in-the-same tourists consuming scarce water while generating waste on land, Koh Tao is far from pristine. However, with the multitude of dive shops and local economy so dependent on diving, there seems to be a general "before it's gone" awareness. It seems organized efforts are largely spearheaded by dedicated longtimers who have witnessed Koh Tao's exponential development firsthand. Beach and reef clean ups, artificial reef construction, and tree-planting for erosion control might not be enough in the face of rapidly warming and acidifying oceans, but it is more than one might expect from a popular backpacker destination. With Danielle and Erik heading back toward Bangkok on a bus, we were now faced with plotting our route off of Koh Lanta. Trang, the region south of us, sounded enticing but similar with lots of tempting small islands and more karst topography. At the same time, we felt like we might be stuck in Thailand indefinitely just with the options heading north to Bangkok. A desire to eventually make it to another country prevailed in the end and we found ourselves putting our bikes on a boat (no, not again!) to Phuket, the one place in Thailand we had been determined to avoid based on its pretentious reputation. Arriving mid-day, we ate a delicious coconut green curry pizza and set out to cycle to the north end of the island. A few miles out of town, Matt came to a sudden stop, I caught up to him, and we both stared at his bicycle's chain lying in the road. He had already repaired the chain once in the same spot where it had broken again, so we accepted the fact that it was long overdue for a new one. Now for getting to a bicycle shop. It would be a long slow walk or a hassle to put the bikes and bags in a taxi, so we decided to giving towing a try. We hooked some webbing around a bar on my rear rack to Matt's front rack with about five feet between us and it worked like a charm. Plus, we got a lot of funny looks, cheers, encouraging honks, and thumbs up. By the time we got the new chain taken care of, it was late in the day and the historic district of Phuket town actually looked like an interesting place to wander around. There is always tomorrow to get to where you are going anyway. We were indeed successful in getting to Siranath National Park the next day, where we set up our tent under some towering sea pines just off of the beach. We had heard that there was some good snorkeling as the coral had gradually recovered from the 2004 tsunami, but the murkiness made it difficult to see the underwater life. We selected some snacks for dinner from the vendors as they were just packing up their carts and stalls for the day and carried them over to the beach for a sunset picnic. We couldn't bear to keep the sea breeze out of our tent that night and without the buzz of mosquitoes around, we left the tent door open, only to discover we had been nearly sucked dry by morning. Apparently, we had been sleeping very well. We reached Khao Lak that evening and headed directly to the office of Wicked Diving, hoping to jump on a liveaboard dive boat within the next couple of days. The taste of diving we got in Koh Lanta had set off the craving for more and from what we understood, the Similian and Surin Islands were worth a special splurge. Perhaps due to their excellent reputation, Wicked was booked up until early April. While they offered to get us situated with another dive shop, we decided to wait in order to go with this company. We had singled them out for their commitment to environmental responsibility and positive contributions to the local community, which is particularly relevant with the Khao Lak area being the hardest hit in Thailand by the 2004 tsunami. Looking around at Khao Lak's main street bustling with tourists browsing shops and restaurants largely oriented toward them, it was difficult to imagine the devastation of just over one decade ago. Evidence is there, if you seek it out, such as visiting the memorial that has been created around Police Boat 813 at its resting place a few kilometers inland. We learned more about the specific impacts of the natural disaster and its aftermath at an eclectic little museum afterward. The rest of our time was spent enjoying the ambiance of the newish Monkey Dive Hostel where each hip room has natural history facts about the marine organism painted on its walls. From Khao Lak we had a nice ride to Khao Sok National Park. Even the steep, sweaty one-thousand-foot-high hill was scenic enough to be enjoyable going up and more so on the way down in the cooling evening light. We took a bungalow near the village at the west entrance of the park and did a combination of biking and hiking within its boundaries the next day. The main attraction on this side of the park is waterfalls, none of which were more than a trickle after an extended dry period. The other big draw is seeing the largest flower in the world at up to a meter in diameter, the rare and putrid Rafflesia, a parasitic plant with no stems, leaves, or true roots. Besides being informed that the flower was not currently blooming, it sounds like the environmental ethics of seeking it out are also questionable. Sites that have previously received a lot of foot traffic have yet to re-bloom. Instead, we took our time looking for wildlife in the dense forest that the visitor center notes has been growing there uninterrupted for an estimated 150 million years. Being the middle of the day, we didn't see much except for abundant and ever-present lizards, but we did hear the whooping calls of gibbons, which I would liken to friendly Martians from an old-school sci-fi movie. We tried to locate them, but stands of the thickest and tallest bamboo we have ever encountered kept us from venturing far off the trail. We made our turnaround point a refreshing swimming hole, but we were already soaking wet with sweat by the time we got there. The east side of Khao Sok is popular for boat trips on a tremendous reservoir that has artificially created many karst islands, as well as spending the night on rows of floating raft houses. Despite the temptation of allegedly better wildlife sightings and unique lodging, we decided that the combined cost of the boat transport, raft house, and pricey daily entrance fee was not worth it. We simply overnighted in a town near the east entrance and moved on without ever setting eyes on the fake lake. The amount of food opportunities that line the roadways is Thailand is generally a blessing, but occasionally it is a curse. We managed to shamelessly snack our way to the Gulf Coast, stopping for bowls of noodles, meticulously cut baby pineapples, kettle corn, and iced coffees. We learned our lesson, or perhaps it was just an unfriendly reminder, that sharing three bags of deep-fried battered bananas followed by ice cream does not make for happy riding. Quite nauseated, we lurched in to Suratthani, home of the night boats to the Gulf islands of Koh Tao, Koh Pha-nang, and Koh Samui. We could have rolled up and instantly gotten on a boat to any of the three, but that would have been far too simple. You see, along with over-abundant food offerings, Thailand simply has too many combinations of possibilities. We had recently been faced with one agonizing decision after another. North or south? To liveaboard or not liveaboard? If so, now or later? How much or how little should we do at Khao Sok? Are we on a cycle tour or are we on a boat tour with the extra baggage of bicycles? Will we ever make it back to Bangkok? Now we had to figure out which island(s), with or without the bicycles, and whether to take the night boat in front of us or research the specifics of day boat departures from distant piers east of the city. My poor husband, already fatigued from carefully considering options A through Z, was now paralyzed with dread of getting on a night boat. The final straw was rolling up to the night boat going to Koh Pha-nang and being quoted the same price for each bicycle as our personal passage cost, no negotiating. That just seemed wrong, so on principle alone, we rode away with as much indignity in our pedal strokes as we could manage to convey. With the ticket offices of the day boats already closed for the day, we turned our attention towards finding cheap lodging instead. After a long night of hemming and hawing and not enough sleeping, Mr. Kohn was still not satisfied enough with any of the options to commit to a decision. It was only by putting on my cycling clothes and definitively announcing that "we were no longer going to go to any islands on any boats, we are just going to cycle north, plain and simple," that he suddenly came to his senses. He agreed to the night boat to Koh Tao with the bicycles, thus saving us three days of riding since we would return to the mainland at Chumphon, a city decently north of Surat Thani. By taking the night boat in the city center, we wouldn't have the hassle of getting out to the day-boat piers with a full day of riding or trying to get the bicycles on the crowded shuttle buses. Now we just had to contend with a very long day of waiting for 11 p.m. to roll around... |
Casey and MattIn search of threatened places, cultures, and species…before they're gone. Archives
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