Beach Getaway

We had a great week at the beach!

We started out with a quick fly, long wait, and a ferry to Koh Tao, a very small island in the golf of Thailand - it takes less than 5 minutes to drive a across! Our hotel met us at the pier and we took the short drive up steep hills and rough roads to Aow Leuk Beach. The view was amazing! A shelter bay with crystal clear aqua blue water and coral reefs on either side. It wasn't the best sand, but the beach was quiet and not many people - perfect for us! Our room was set up on the cliff side with great view of the bay. It was rustic and natural - no ac, no hot water, no tv - huge doors opened up onto our deck (with hammock and chairs!) overlooking the bay. The room was equipt with a net to cover the bed while you slept - for the bugs and we hoped it was deter any lizards too! One night, we did spot a very large lizard in our room - we chased him out. He woke us up during the night with his lizard call as he was in various spots in our room.

 

We named him Bingo.

In our two and a half days there we snorkeled (lots). It was probably the best snorkeling we have ever done - the coral was colorful and came in so many different sizes and shapes. We also saw many brightly colored fish! While Josh was taking a video - he spotted a shark! We made our way back to the beach in a hurry. Later we found out it was only a black tip reef shark - we showed a local what we saw and he said that was a very big one! Check out the video - can you spot it?!

 

We spend the rest of our days reading and relaxing on our deck, laying on the beach, enjoying the restaurant. We rented kayaks one afternoon and made our way to Shark Island - we didn't spot any though. While out we got a view of some other beaches and bays on the island - I think we picked the right one! We had a wonderful time in Koh Tao! It was beautiful, quiet, peaceful, and relaxing! And we saw many geckos and lizards - no snakes though!!

Wednesday we made our way to Koh Phangan by ferry. The hotel was nice, but we missed the last one - had a.c. this time which was a nice change. It was a fairly nice beach with views of the nearby islands, but it had murky water compared to Koh Tao. It was a protected bay so in the late evening and early morning it looked just like a lake back home!! We didn't spend too much time here, as we left the next day. We did have a nice walk in the ocean - seemed to be knee/thigh deep forever!

Thursday we made our way to Khanom on the mainland by ferry.  Once at our hotel we were pleasantly surprised with how nice it was. A beautiful quiet beach - less people than in Koh Tao! Our room was very nice, probably the nicest we have been in in our 6 months! We rented a moped and drove into town, it felt great to be on our own driving how we wish! 

School we saw on our drive - notice the cow!

The next day we got up early in hopes of spotting a rare pink dolphin known in this area - we had no luck. After breakfast we hopped back on our moped and headed in search of a waterfall and a cave. It was wonderful driving down local roads, some gravel, and seeing rural Thailand, and being on our own again. We searched and searched for the waterfall with no such luck. Later, we found out the directions were old. We headed to the cave next. While driving down the road we heard a scraping noise - look back to see our license plate 20 feet behind us! We retrieved it and attempted to put it back one, but somewhere along the way we lost a washer and a bolt. Two Thai teens stopped to help us - we got it back on, but it was only hanging by one bolt, not two! So on we drove - after a few bumps it fell off again. So Beth held it the rest of the journey. We made our way to the cave and a Thai park ranger, who spoke no English, took us through the cave and tried to explain things the best he could. The cave was amazing - we had to fit through some tiny spaces and also saw some huge halls with formations everywhere. We also saw many bats! 

On our way back it started to rain, gradually it came down harder and harder. Later we talked about all those times when it would rain and we would see people on mopeds and say "I think that would suck riding in the rain." - turns out it does, but it's much drier if your the passenger!

It rained off and on for the rest of our trip, we did find a break in the rain to enjoy the ocean for a bit and battled the waves. We got a massage in a little outdoor hut near the beach - in the pouring rain! It was actually really neat and the massage was great! We left our resort very early - 5:30 a.m. to drive to the airport. We really enjoyed our beaches getaway - even if we didn't get too many sunny days. It was great to relax and soak up some of our last days in Thailand.

 
Back in our hometown of Nonthaburi now, preparing for Songkran Festival - the three day country wide water fight! We will let you know how it goes in our next post!