Our base for the next three days was to be Bamboo Bungalows on Koh Phayam’s Aoi Gai (Long Beach) on the West Coast of the island. This side of the island suffered in the tsunami a few years ago, however the beach is beautiful again and the huts and buildings that were destroyed have now been rebuilt. There are a fair few beach bungalow resorts on the island, however as they’re all low key and largely made out of bamboo and other natural bits and bobs the island retains a laid back rustic charm. As we’re here in the off season (also called the monsoon season!), many of the bungalow operations close down, meaning you have the beaches all to yourselves – perfect! The downside is that you’re pretty limited with regard to eateries; this didn’t matter as our resort cooked some cracking food!
Not sure this has moved for a while…
I haven’t shrunk to one tenth my size - it’s the perspective, honest!
One other tiny minus of the monsoon season is the monsoons - we witnessed some of the most incredible downpours known to man! It’s great watching the rain pour down, drenching the dense tropical greenery outside our hut, all from the comfort of a big hammock! As it’s still pretty warm the other option is to just embrace the wetness and pile into the stormy sea for some body boarding or sea kayaking – awesome!
Fran sporting her new snazzy new Snoopy brolly!
On our last full day on the island, we went exploring. There are two main beaches on the island, plus scores of secluded little ones down overgrown dirt tracks. After an hour and a half trek, we arrived at Buffalo beach. It too was deserted except for a family playing in the calm waters and after the long walk we ended up doing the same! The long sweeping crescent of golden sand was covered in tiny seashells and the beach was fringed with mangrove-esque trees – very different to the West Coast but equally picturesque. We trekked up the beach as far as we could but eventually had to negotiate an ominously dark brown stream to continue our loop back to the main town. Telling ourselves the colour was due to tannins in the woody ponds, I waded through to the other side with Fran as an extra backpack – my legs haven’t fallen off yet so it must have been OK?!
Villagey life
Walking down the main island highway…
More junglemania
Mangrovey Buffalo beach
Crab in excellent camouflage gear!
Fancy a swim – the water’s lovely…?!
View over the harbour on the North-East coast of Koh Phayam
We finally got back to the ranch about 4 hours after leaving and headed to the beach, Fran opting for some journal writing and Rich choosing to take a battering from the surf in a sea kayak – no other word for it but AWESOME! Following another delicious dinner and a slight misunderstanding over our bill (we’d been put in one of their ‘villas’ for twice the price of the shell hut we’d booked!), we hit the hay ready for an early start the following morning!
Our friendly motorbike taxi riders picked us up at unpleasant o’clock and whizzed us and our worldly belongings along the fragmented concrete ‘roads’ to the pier, stopping half way as before to shelter from another downpour! We boarded our ferry back to Ranong on the mainland where we hope to catch a bus down the West coast of Thailand to Krabi. I’m currently typing this from the comfort of a comedy old plastic garden chair (the other Thai passengers have opted for an extra layer of comfort by borrowing some of the life jackets!) in what looks like a converted 80’s fishing trawler doing about 10 knots across the Andaman Sea. It’s much calmer than the outward leg (boo!) and there’s blue sky ahead – not quite as warm as heatwave Britain at the moment though!!! Anyway, hope everyone’s well and enjoying the English summer, Henley RC are doing well at the Regatta, and that Murray’s still in Wimbledon! Missing you all as always, Love Rich & Fran!
Murky morning at the pier
More retro boating
Longtail fishing boats heading out to sea
Rich blogging on the high seas, complete with Cap’n Abysmal-Beard facial hair!
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