At this point in my writing I realised I haven’t got a clue what I did when, the idea of days just disappeared. The only number I seem to remember was how many days I had left on the island. So instead I’m going to write about the highlights.
Sarah’s first experience of a warm sea! That’s right, Sarah asked me if the sea was cold, I said no, it’s really warm. That was the end of that. However, on one of the days we went down to the beach to watch the sunset and Sarah paddled in the sea, which was followed by “it’s really warm!!!”. It was at this point I learnt that Sarah hadn’t been anywhere with a warm sea. What a place to experience your first warm sea on a Thai island, awesome! We followed this experience by sitting on the beach with a cold beer and watching the sunset.
That kayak adventure. With Sarah feeling better, we decided to take advantage of the fact that the hotel offered free kayaks. Of we set with a little push from the hotel staff. We soon found absolutely no rhythm! To you, to me comes to mind, was entertaining on reflection, but wasn’t really getting us where we wanted to go. However, after a few exchanges we were soon in sync and speeding across the sea. Our first point of call was the island to the left of the resort. We decided to stop on its beach and have a wee explore. Not much to see, however it was entertaining when I looked down and say hundreds of ants of the floor, I’ve never moved so quickly! We explored some of the rock pools looking for live, not much around unfortunately. We hopped back in the kayak and continued around the island, where we saw some local guys diving for what I guess was scallops / clams. As we could see lots of remains from clam shells on the rocks. We made it around to the other side, without discovering much more it must be said, so we turned back.
As we turned back facing the resort, I remember the beach that was to the left of the resort, not accessible on foot, so I asked Sarah if we should go there, it was a deal. This turned out not to be a smart move. It took us agesssssss to get there. I don’t have the exact time, but I’m estimating at least an hour. We were both knackered on the way, I hadn’t kayaked since year 6 or something. We had to take rest and alternate who was rowing. On the plus side, we got to see some jelly fish on the way, I don’t believe I’d seen any in the wild before. Thanks to a solid five-minute row, we made it to the beach, and took a well-deserved rest. We took a stroll part way down the beach and to my surprise there was another person on the beach. We picked a spot and lay there recovered for a while.
In the distance, we could see what was either smoke or water vapour. Part way down the beach we decided it was smoke, therefore conserving some energy and not continuing to explore it. The reason I thought it might have been water vapour was because the hotel gave us a map, and I was sure it had a waterfall on it in that area. Turns out later it was indeed a waterfall, never mind, gives us a reason to go back. Talking about back, it was time to head back to the resort. Something neither of us were looking forward to, it must be said. We must have been about ¾ of the way back, when the sky turned rather dark. We looked behind us and there was just a wall of black cloud, but unfortunately we didn’t have the energy to row any faster!!! So instead we changed tactics. By this point we were alongside our beach, so we headed to show and I decided to pull the boat the rest of the way in the water, this was so much easier then rowing! This wasn’t without fault though, as I fell over a rock. Didn’t notice anything at the time, but when back at the hotel we realised I put a big gash in the heal of my right foot. Ouchie! We did indeed make it back though, not before the heavens opened and we got completely soaked, but I actually enjoyed it, it was rather refreshing after all the rowing.
So, in summary, we had an adventure for sure. One we felt for days, as we both had some sunburn and Sarah had this bizarre heat rash on her arm.
We concluded that day by walking around the local village. One of the things that drew us to Koh Libong was the fact people lived on the island, which would allow us to see that way of live, and experience their culture. It was eye opening, the contrast to our air-coned hut at the resort was vast. Some of the homes were solid brick, while others were wooden and on stilts, and looked like they were one big blow from falling down! That was an interesting encounter with some young children, who were all rather polite at first shouting hello to us. Then it changed somewhat, and one little lad seemed to be pushing us out of the village! All a bit odd. But I know one thing, I don’t believe I could live that way, so I’m really appreciative of what I do have.
Christmas Day, ants for breakfast. Yep, I had ants for breakfast. We slept in late, so when I did wake, hunger hit! I knew we had some Oreos so I headed to the fridge. No Oreos to be found. Then I noticed them on the top of the fridge, so I took one and popped in my mouth, as you do. Cookie goodness. It was at that point I noticed lots of black dots all over the surface, it took my blurry eyes a few split second to realise they were ants!!! That’s right, there were ants all over the Oreos, all over the biscuit that was in my mouth! I ran to the bathroom and literally had to scrap ants from the side of my mouth. Turns out Sarah thought that the Oreo’s didn’t belong the fridge. Lesson learnt there.
The day improved though, as we’d booked massages. I’d opted for a Thai oil massage and Sarah for a foot massage. It was an experience. They literally put their whole weight into it, and I’m not very bendy. Having said that though, at the end of it, I did feel rather good.
It was now time to go for a snorkel, with little expectations. Turned out to be great. The coral wasn’t that colourful, but there was life there. We saw lots of little small fish including angel fish as well as several crabs.
We concluded our Christmas Day by going to a BBQ on the beach. We had huge tiger prawns, squid, chicken and some baked potato, all several feet away from the sea. The owner of the bar even put on a fire show for us. Satisfied with our night, we paid up and were heading out when the owner had one more surprise for us. He had a lantern for us to release, and informed us that if we made a wish as we did so, the gods would decide. This was a brilliant way to end our Christmas day.
That’s that, back to the big smog (Bangkok) for a few days now, then off to Sydney!
Lots more pictures over on Instagram.
