Trang, Ko Lipe & Hat Yai

So without Greg I didn't fancy staying in Krabi and I found I didn't want to go to any of the possible destinations we had looked at before deciding on Krabi so I headed for Trang.


Trang is a city in the south where there is absolutely nothing to do! I spent just the one night there. Had a wonder about a few of the streets and visited the night market for some food.


The owner of the guest house arranged for me to get a speed boat to Ko Lipe its part of the Tarutao - Adung National Park and the only island you can stay on. The sea gypsies or Chao Le were there before it became a national park and under Thai law this land cannot be taken from which i think is quite cool.



The owner of the guest house did warn me that as its now low season parts of the island will have closed down. She dropped me at the bus station the following morning and I made my way to the pier.



the bus journey was fine, even the speed boat (2hrs) was fine it rained at one point at we all got wet but eventually we arrived- there was no pier so we had to wade off the boat onto the beach.



Now it was time to find somewhere to stay. The owner of the guest house was not kidding when she said places would be shut, i don't think that even she expected the whole island to be shut though! It took about two hours in the now blazing sunshine to walk from one side of the island to the other with my back pack and i eventually ended up back at the boat.



The chap who ran the speedboat was very nice he arranged for me to have a beach hut from the same place he was staying and as it was technically closed it was very cheap. I was warned that there would be no electricity except between the hours of six and nine PM. This turned out not to be the case there was no electricity to my hut full stop!



As there was no where to eat food the Boatman and his crew also invited me to dinner which was really nice of them- the food was really really hot. Apparently he lives on the island during the high season but goes back to the mainland for the monsoon weather. each week weather permitting he comes across and spends two nights on the island ferrying locals and random travellers such as my self.



He explained that the beaches around the south were not their best at the moment as they were heading into monsoon season and the sea was dredging all sorts off rubbish off the sea bed and dumping it on sand. In about September groups of people would arrive for a massive clean up operation.



he also explained about the Chao Le, they do not speak Thai but a dialect of Malay and they have no religion except ultimate respect for the sea and an ancestor. This ancestor was an Indonesian fellow who married into the tribe and eventually led a group to settle on Lipe and for this he is honoured.



We arranged to meet for breakfast the following morning and i went back to my dark little hut with a couple of candles.



The next day was incredibly hot. and the island looked fantastic. I found that the hut no longer had any running water now too, i must have used what little there was the night before. Breakfast with the Boatman was noodles- really really hot! and i think i spent the whole day on the beach with the occasional swim until the sun started to go down and it was back to my dark little hut and the candles. This is not really a bad way to spend a day- though i did burn just a bit.



Well the following day was totally different i woke to an almighty storm- the sort where the thunder is so low over head that each time it rumbles you dive for cover! i could not even see the sea from my hut with the sheets or rain and the fog and the hut was on the beach! Typically this is the day i am getting the speedboat back to the mainland!!



Oh joy oh Joy a group of us, me and some locals sat with our belongings waiting for the storm to clear. At one point the tide managed to pull the boat from its anchor and sent it crashing into the longboats moored alongside (a line of heads popped up from the boats and i noticed for the first time that each one was occupied by its owner bailing it out as fast as it was filling with rain water!). The crew of two managed to pull it back using mainly ropes and only the engine once it was away from the longboats. These chaps are really strong.



Eventually the Boatman gave the order that we were to set off. It had not stopped raining but the thunder and lightening seemed to have moved on. This was the scariest boat ride ever it was worse than being on a pirate ship at the fair. Some of the locals were throwing up over the side (i was proud to hold on to my stomach!) and we were all wearing life jackets that had not been in evidence on the outbound trip- that upped the scare factor a bit too! Every so often the boat would slam into a wave with a huge jolt and you would wait for parts to fall apart it felt like a car crash!



At one point something went overboard and we had to stop whilst they worked out that it was not a person and it was nothing of any real value worth turning round. Whilst we were stopped the motion was terrible if it had seemed bad whilst we were moving this was much much worse we were bobbing about like a cork!



The rain had never let up and the thunder had been rumbling ominously above as the engines were re started. We did make it back to land obviously but it is not really something i would like to do again!



Soaking wet and just a mite smelly from not been able to wash properly (the sea just does not get you clean!) i got myself booked on a mini bus to Hat Yai the last stop before Malaysia. I pity the poor person st next to me!!



There is nothing much to do in Hat Yai either (except call the folks in OZ at a ridiculous time in the morning- sorry!) but i still spent two nights there just getting over the trauma of the boat trip. From here i took the bus to Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia!!