Frogs, Lizards and Rats – Oh My!

Bus information isn’t always easy to find in Thailand. For the major destinations, you can find out the schedule from any of the tour agencies which are plentiful. However, for smaller places it is often harder to figure out. I knew that I needed to get to Ranong in time to catch a ferry at 2:00 PM to Koh Chang. My strategy was to get to the bus stop as soon as possible in the morning and hope I made it there in time! However, I wanted to book a trip with one of the dive shops to dive in the lake in Khao Sok national park in about a week. I headed to the dive shop at 7:30 AM figuring that somebody would probably be around. Nobody was, so I called the mobile number and found out that the manager would be there in about 20 minutes. I wandered off and got a coffee before returning to sort out the dive trip. Then I went back to my room to grab my backpack and head to the unofficial bus stop. Shortly after my arrival, a couple arrived who were also heading to Ranong. They had been told that a bus came at 10:00. Since I had read that it was a four hour bus trip, it didn’t seem likely that I would make the ferry. Even more discouraging was when the bus finally showed up at 10:15 and we climbed on… standing room only. Four hours of standing!! Thankfully it was air conditioned. Not particularly powerful A/C, but better than none at all. Part way to Ranong the bus stopped for about 15 minutes and we all got off. While I was in the toilet, slipping and sliding on the very wet floor in my flip flops, the guy was approached by a lady from a tour agency. It looked like there was a fast ferry to Koh Phayam at 2:30 PM and she was confident that we would make it in time. I had planned to go to the island of Koh Chang, but had mixed feelings about it since I thought it might be a little bit too quiet of a place for New Year’s Eve. Also, I knew my dive buddy, Chris, from the Similans trip was on Koh Phayam along with a deaf-mute couple from the boat. I decided to go to Koh Phayam!

We bought our tickets for the ferry which included a taxi to take us to the pier. We just barely made the boat. Once we got to the island, I had a whole new dilemma… It was December 30 and places were booked out. I knew Chris was staying at the Bamboo Bungalows as I had texted him to find out. However, the couple from the bus had tried to book at the same place and they were told it was full. In fact, they had had an extremely difficult time finding a place that wasn’t booked. After talking with a few foreigners who were doing some work on the island, I was offered a ride to the Bamboo Bungalows where I would see if I could get a bungalow. If not, I’d walk the beach and hope that I could find something. I had done really well at avoiding motorcycles and scooters so far on this trip. After my Vanuatu wipeout I have a bit of a phobia now. However, the only transport on Koh Phayam is motorcycle taxis. So with my huge backpack on my back I hopped on the back of this guy’s bike. There aren’t exactly roads either. It’s more of a concrete track which is badly broken in spots and in others it is non-existent. The weight on my back made for a very unstable and nerve-wracking ride, especially when the concrete disappeared and we had to ride through sand. But we made it safely! At Bamboo, there was just one available for only one night for 1500 baht, far more than I wanted to pay, so I started to walk down the beach. Right away, I found Chris swinging in his hammock on the veranda of his bungalow. Yay! Buddies reunited. I was able to get a bungalow at the place next door so all was sorted for a few days of relaxation. After a long and sweaty journey, I was so happy to hit the water. I ended up chatting with the guy who was staying in the next bungalow and we were in the water for about 3 hours. The entire time we were being stung by tiny jellyfish! However, the water felt so refreshing I didn’t want to leave. Kal and I stayed in the water until the sun had set. Then it was time to shower and meet up with Chris, Christoph, and Christina who were all staying at Bamboo Bungalows. I’ve never spent any time with deaf-mute people before this trip and I am absolutely amazed by Christoph and Christina. They have an amazing ability to communicate. They can read lips quite well although they have a harder time with English than German. Occasionally there is the need to resort to pen and paper, but most of the time you can understand them and they can understand you. They travel all over the world and are two of the most positive, funny people I have ever met. After a beer at the Bamboo Bungalows, we set off down the beach to find a place to eat. We chose a restaurant that Christoph and Christina had been to and said was good and fast. It turns out that my meal wasn’t great, but the company was fabulous which is all that really mattered. Kal joined us as well as another German girl named Katrin. We spent so long at the restaurant that they brought us free dessert of fried bananas. Delicious!! Kal, Chris, Christoph and I closed out the night with a visit to the reggae bar Rasta Baby at the far end of the beach. It was quite funny to see Thai guys with dreadlocks. The bar was what you would expect from the name… there was this crazy Dutch woman with a high pitched giggle that when asked where she was from replied, “The sun, the sea and the stars!”

Finally, New Year’s Eve!! The couple in the bungalow next to me moved out as they had been chased out by a rat. Kal found one scurrying around his bungalow as well and they came and put a trap in his room. I spent a very lazy day going from hammock to sea to hammock. We all decided to go to the same restaurant again since the guy had told us that they would be giving paper lanterns for NYE. We were all very excited about the lanterns. Not even another inferior meal (seriously – frozen vegetables in Thai green curry?! disgraceful!) was spoiling this night. The whole evening was spent eating and drinking on the beach, watching fireworks being set off and watching paper lanterns drift off into the night sky. Finally, we decided to light our lanterns. It was such an amazing experience to make a wish, light your lantern, wait and wait for it to get hot enough to fly, and then watch it float away. This was definitely unlike any NYE I have had before and probably ever will again. It was such a chilled out, magical evening. We spent a bit of time at what was the most hopping place on the beach, which really just meant that they had the music turned up a bit louder than the others did and their fancy lights had attracted maybe 40 people. I stopped at Chris’s bungalow on the way back to mine so we could swap e-mail addresses. I sat down in a chair on his veranda. He tried, but failed to sit in his hammock. It was an epic move! He went backwards over the veranda and fell onto the wooden deck chair that was on the ground below. Ouch!!

The first day of 2010 was mostly spent alternating between hammock and sea again. The trap in Kal’s room was successful and he had to show me the rat before they came to take it away. I found a huge lizard had moved in to my bungalow in the morning. I left the door open in the hopes that he would wander out but I suppose he came in through one of the many openings and would leave on his own terms the way that he wanted to. Later on when I went to the toilet before bed, I found a huge frog. Oh well, at least no rats for me! Although I did get a very good look at Kal’s rat as it was being carried away by the woman who was cleaning his room after he moved out. Besides the vast array of critters, the bungalows I stayed at had many other fine features such as half a day without water and no power one night. There was only supposed to be power for four hours in the evening, but one night it simply didn’t come on. The wireless internet never worked either. I guess beggars can’t be choosers and maybe next time I should book ahead!

Tomorrow I venture inland and make my way to Khao Sok national park. It’s jungle time!