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Vacation Land
Southern Thailand is the vacation spot. It hardly feels Thai at all in comparison to the North. People were worried tourists would stay away because of last year's tsunami but they are here. Oh, are they here - sunbathing and swimming, sucking alcohol through straws stuck in buckets of coke and rum, watching fire dancers on the beach and dancing all night at full moon, half moon, and black moon parties (Any excuse, right? There are even 'no moon' parties). Southern Thailand is nothing if not a hedonist's dream.
We are moving south, to more remote islands and beaches... less tourists, more nature. Traveling the Andaman Coast, we are voyaging on water that a year ago sucked itself up into a giant wave killing thousands... it's hard not to look at the crystalline water and the seafoam stirred up by boats and not think of all the lives lost, the bodies the ocean claimed. In most respects, you can hardly tell such devastation happened here. Things have been cleaned up. If we hadn't been to Koh Phi Phi before, we would not have known that the low-lying palm trees have all been swept clean from the sand and that the stretch of beach between its mountains was once full of bungalows and hotels that now cease to exist. Now there are new trees planted, but not enough to replace the dense coconut grove that's now gone. And there are a few makeshift buildings and huts for villagers, but everything looks temporary and quickly constructed.
We are now on Koh Lanta, an island at the edge of the 'tourist zone'... there are much fewer people here and the vibe is more relaxed. At the southern end of Koh Lanta, there are long stretches of beach nestled in a series of beautiful bays that have, to date, been spared over development. Most of southern Lanta is unspoiled - the paved road becomes dirt here and any place that still has a main road of dirt is a good place in my book. The road is not lined with hotels and shops and restaurants, ugly concrete constructions with corrugated tin roofs and a haphazard placement of signage (Koh Samui)... it's not packed with tourists and touts (Koh Phi Phi).
Sadly, Koh Lanta will probably change to be like the others, it's only a matter of time... For now, there is plenty of woodland and jungle and clear water that's sometimes the color of emeralds, and others the color of sapphires... there are plenty of places where you'll find yourself alone on a beach too beautiful to remain so secluded in developers' eyes.
There's a national marine park at the southern tip of the island, which includes several islands far off from the shore - we traveled to one of them, Koh Rok, and by speedboat, it took one hour. There we found amazing coral reefs with all sorts of colorful fish, giant clams, moray eels... snorkeling here was, aside from Bali and Lombok, the best ever. On shore, huge monitor lizards live in the forest.
Tomorrow we head farther south. We will leave Thailand for several minutes and then re-enter (not for fun, our visas run out). From Satun, we'll head out to the Koh Tarutao National Marine Park... Reality TV buffs might recognize the name; Survivor Thailand was filmed here. In the past, Tarutao was used as a prison island, chosen for an inhospitable environment of malarial mosquitoes, crocodiles, and predatory sharks. As part of the park, Koh Tarutao is totally unspoiled and I hope to see the langurs, sea otters, fishing cats, and tree pythons (OK, maybe not them). Another boat ride will take us to Koh Lipe... perhaps we'll learn to scuba dive...
From Tarutao, we'll head back north to the islands off Trang and then make our way further north towards Bangkok for (drum roll please) our flight home. We have a few ideas in mind... side steps from our beach vacation... we'll see how it goes. I have a feeling you won't hear from me for a while. We are heading to remote places... but you never know where we'll end up! Destinations are all TBD.
We are moving south, to more remote islands and beaches... less tourists, more nature. Traveling the Andaman Coast, we are voyaging on water that a year ago sucked itself up into a giant wave killing thousands... it's hard not to look at the crystalline water and the seafoam stirred up by boats and not think of all the lives lost, the bodies the ocean claimed. In most respects, you can hardly tell such devastation happened here. Things have been cleaned up. If we hadn't been to Koh Phi Phi before, we would not have known that the low-lying palm trees have all been swept clean from the sand and that the stretch of beach between its mountains was once full of bungalows and hotels that now cease to exist. Now there are new trees planted, but not enough to replace the dense coconut grove that's now gone. And there are a few makeshift buildings and huts for villagers, but everything looks temporary and quickly constructed.
We are now on Koh Lanta, an island at the edge of the 'tourist zone'... there are much fewer people here and the vibe is more relaxed. At the southern end of Koh Lanta, there are long stretches of beach nestled in a series of beautiful bays that have, to date, been spared over development. Most of southern Lanta is unspoiled - the paved road becomes dirt here and any place that still has a main road of dirt is a good place in my book. The road is not lined with hotels and shops and restaurants, ugly concrete constructions with corrugated tin roofs and a haphazard placement of signage (Koh Samui)... it's not packed with tourists and touts (Koh Phi Phi).
Sadly, Koh Lanta will probably change to be like the others, it's only a matter of time... For now, there is plenty of woodland and jungle and clear water that's sometimes the color of emeralds, and others the color of sapphires... there are plenty of places where you'll find yourself alone on a beach too beautiful to remain so secluded in developers' eyes.
There's a national marine park at the southern tip of the island, which includes several islands far off from the shore - we traveled to one of them, Koh Rok, and by speedboat, it took one hour. There we found amazing coral reefs with all sorts of colorful fish, giant clams, moray eels... snorkeling here was, aside from Bali and Lombok, the best ever. On shore, huge monitor lizards live in the forest.
Tomorrow we head farther south. We will leave Thailand for several minutes and then re-enter (not for fun, our visas run out). From Satun, we'll head out to the Koh Tarutao National Marine Park... Reality TV buffs might recognize the name; Survivor Thailand was filmed here. In the past, Tarutao was used as a prison island, chosen for an inhospitable environment of malarial mosquitoes, crocodiles, and predatory sharks. As part of the park, Koh Tarutao is totally unspoiled and I hope to see the langurs, sea otters, fishing cats, and tree pythons (OK, maybe not them). Another boat ride will take us to Koh Lipe... perhaps we'll learn to scuba dive...
From Tarutao, we'll head back north to the islands off Trang and then make our way further north towards Bangkok for (drum roll please) our flight home. We have a few ideas in mind... side steps from our beach vacation... we'll see how it goes. I have a feeling you won't hear from me for a while. We are heading to remote places... but you never know where we'll end up! Destinations are all TBD.
posted by Cheryn at 5:09 PM
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