DIA 33 (18-12-2018): JAMES BOND ISLAND

Yo no lo sabiá pero Kim es forofa de James Bond, de modo que cuando empezamos a revisar las islas a las que podíamos ir como Phi Phi (la que sale en la peli La Playa), Hong Island, James Bond Island y un largo etc….ella me pidió que si no me importaba ir a esa…..a mi con que no llueva ya soy feliz….así que claro que no me importa.

Lo gracioso fue que el día que llegamos y estuvimos hablando de las distintas actividades, Ritar nos comentó de la excursión a Hong Island que es una isla muy bonita, pero nosotras queríamos ir a James Bond. Los distintos tours ofrecen ir primero a James Bond y después a Hong Island, pero ella no nos podía decir nada porque nos comenta que nunca ha ido a James Bond Island, de modo que la animamos para venir con nosotras. Y lo gracioso es que al final se animó a venir ella, el marido, y la parejita de Utah, lo que nos comentó que como ella tenía que volver a las 15.00, solo haríamos James Bond Island. 

Inicialmente a mi me daba penita ver solo una isla, pero ya que íbamos a ir todos juntos, podría ser divertido aunque fuera solo una isla…

De modo que desayunamos todos juntos, recogemos nuestras cosas .. (alguien se empieza a emocionar)...

y nos vamos a la minivan.

Llegamos a la misma zona donde el día anterior habíamos hecho el kayak pero esta vez nos íbamos en barco. 

Prácticamente en el barco íbamos nosotros 6 y dos parejas más y dos chicas. Y cuando nos dan la explicación de lo que vamos a hacer, hablan de ir a la Hong Island de modo que hay algo que no he entendido.

Lo importante es que primero llegamos a la isla que Kim quería y…..hace sol….yupiiiii. 

Como Kim no se bañó ayer en la playa de Raley (gracias por cuidar nuestras pertenencias mientras que nosotros nos dábamos un refrescante baño), decidió hacerlo hoy, solo que como solo teníamos 45 minutos tenía que hacerlo rápido. Yo mientras tanto me entretuve a hacer unas cuantas fotillos.

Aunque en teoría nosotros solo íbamos a hacer esta islita, al final hicimos el tour completo. AL marchar Kim estaba muy triste....

De aquí fuimos a hacer kayac otra vez…..solo que esta vez fue más relajado, ya que no teníamos ni siquiera que remar, teníamos remero. 

Así que hicimos unas cuantas fotillos, para pasar por un pasadizo, nos juntamos los 6 echamos unas risas….

La siguiente parada es un pueblo pesquero flotante para comer: Koh Panyee. 

La gente local es 100 % musulmanes de descendientes de Java y que están asentados en esta zona desde hace 200 años. 

Después de comer caminamos un poco por el pueblo para ver algunas zonas como el campo de futbol o la mezquita. 

A la hora acordada volvemos al muelle que toca volver a casa, pero por el camino cogemos una tremenda tormenta….cuando digo “tremenda” me refiero a una absolutamente tremenda tormenta con rayos y truenos. 

De repente todo el cielo se puso gris, el agua entraba por todos los lados, el barco daba pantocazos a cada rato….por un momento, me pareció estar en la peli “la tormenta perfecta” y tras un largo rato llegamos a Hong Island.

Ritar nos propone que si queremos quedarnos, pero realmente con el panorama, (ver video a continuación) casi que mejor volvemos a casa, porque yo me conozco y se las consecuencias de esta tormenta me van a traer (un tremendo resfriado).

Volvemos a casa, nos secamos, duchita calentita, llamada telefónica a Apple Support porque no puedo descargar las fotos del movil en el ordenador (problemas de las cosas de Apple) y tras dejar el ordenador actualizando el sistema nos vamos a ver si tenemos suerte con el atardecer de nuevo hoy.

En esta ocasión conseguir un tuk tuk nos cuesta un poco, pero finalmente lo conseguimos justo a tiempo para llegar al atardecer. 

Y aunque parezca extraño....la "paparazzi" no es la única que saca fotos....

Unas cuantas fotitos, cenita y a casa a descansar, al llegar, vemos que Ritar está con una chica, entramos a saludar y confirmar que nos ha reservado un traslado para el día de mañana y resulta que la nueva inquilina, Jane, es sorda y Kim sabe algo del lenguaje de signos. 

Estamos de charla un rato, Ritar, que es un encanto nos saca algo de fruta para picar y a una hora decente nos despedimos hasta mañana.

Day 14, 18-12-2018: 007 and the Floating Football Pitch …… Travels with my Father revisited?

We are up at our normal time and once again have a fabulous breakfast. Today is an exciting day for all!!

Ritar an Bancha, our hosts, are going to join us for our tour today!! And we are going to 3 very excitingadventures!!

The van promptly picks us up at 08:40 and whisks us away to Krabi Discovery Tours once again. But no kayak to start today. We are to take a speed boat out!! All 6 of us ramble on (Alex, Kara, Ritar, Bancha, Cris and I) along with 2 young ladies, one from England and the other from Venezuela. We are very excited as the day holds the promise of blue skies and pure adventure.

STOP 1: Kkao Ta Poo Island

For anybody who has seen the 1974 James Bond Man With The Golden Gun, this is the island from themovie!! For those who do not know one of my dirty little pleasures: I LOVE JAMES BOND films!!! Very excited that we are able to fit this into our schedule of events. Shortish ride out (due to the speed boat spect), we come upon the island with great anticipation. We know that there is going to be some other tourists (this is a very pretty island and James Bond was filmed here) so we are ready for the onslaught of others to interfere with us, but no worries as they are here for the same reasons as we are. Now,

Ritar has never been here and I think she is actually more excited than I am to get to do a tour. We just have to get her back by 15:00 to receives tonight’s new guests – we hope that we will deliver!

Cris pays the entrance fee as I am too busy looking and acting like a 5-year old in a candy store.

Yup, that is a happy Kim in that picture!!

Here is a little bit of information on the island. It looks much bigger in the movies, but that is Hollywood (or in this case Pine Wood Studios in London) magic.

We get off the boat and are told we only have 45 minutes to enjoy the island!! OMG!! Only 45 minutes to view the epic, iconic island!! What shall we do first??!! Pictures of course!

What do I spy?? Can it be true?

You can swim to the island!! I can go touch it!!! OMG!!! OMG!!! OMG!!!

Well …… I do not know if I would really call it swimming. The water is shallow (maybe 1m deep) and there is really thick, crappy mud on the bottom so you really cannot realistically walk there even though the depth would allow you the walk. Treading water is very difficult in these conditions and attempting to take a picture makes it even more difficult. But, I shall preserve!!!

After what seemed like the shortest 45 minutes of my life, we board the boat for the quick journey to

partake in some kayaking.

Now, this kayaking trip is a bit different from the one the day before as this one we have someone to

paddle the kayak for us lazy people on holiday.

Which in turn frees up the paparazzi to also take pictures.

The ever-ingenious Thai have set up a floating vending stop in this kayak trip. I am sure that the soda for 50THB that I purchased for our paddler gets recirculated often through the tourists throughout the day.

They took us by some limestone formations. We all enjoyed the beauty and relaxation of the short

kayaking trip.

Once done, it only took 30 minutes for the kayaking, we took a short boat ride to the Floating Village.

We had a nice buffet lunch and then were granted a bit of time to walk around and explore.

In order to help navigate around this village, they have placed signs and arrows along the walking path.

Some years ago, the village made a floating football (soccer for all you American people) pitch for the youth. This team surprised many people by winning some tournaments.

I personally was expecting the pitch to be in better condition as I had just seen it on a BBC television

program called “Travels with my Father” – very funny for any of you who have Netflix, you may want to check out the first season in Southern Asia.

Once we had our fill (small village), we took to our boat for our ride back via Hong Island. We are stop off there to relieve ourselves of 4 people who have booked a 2-hour snorkel and beach time on the island.

We had a little thunderstorm (okay, not really little at all) on the way back that got every soaked rather quickly. Cris attempted to take refuge in her rain jacket but it, too, became very soaked.

We came across 2 long tail boats with their catch for the day – jellyfish!! They are attempting to shelter from the storm without much luck as they do not even have tops on their boats.

We press on for Hong Island so the others can have their scheduled fun – seas are rough and the wind is blowing the rain into us, does not sound like sun and fun on a beach for to!

We finally make it to Hong Island. They have one of those plastic square docks there too.

So, this is why the dock is the way it is, huh? Interesting engineering and solution to the typical floating dock that has the whole dock moving up and down at once. Could be interesting to walk on but you just need to time your forward movements to the waves that go forward.

After we drop our 4 people, we continue to head back to Krabi. The storm leaves us and the sun kind of comes out.

We are treated to a beautiful view of the countryside from the boat – lovely, just lovely.

Once back on land in Krabi, we get our ride back to the house with enough time for Ritar to meet her

new guests. We are also in time for the sunset on the beach, so we get ready quickly and head that way.

A tuk tuk stops and offers us a ride – but my guide (Cris) does not have the name of the coffee shop up on her Google Maps, so he leaves us on the side of the road. We walk a bit as it is only 2.5km to the beach and actually an easy walk. We walk by a small market and think of checking in there for a tuk tuk– no luck. We attempt to wave down a few – no luck. Yeah, it is easy to just walk out to the main street and flag down a tuk tuk – according to all the guide books and shows but not really as it is a …. Tuesday night and it is hopping!! We finally are successful in getting a tuk tuk and get a ride to a little coffee shop right on the beach (the one from last night) that has a restaurant next to it. We arrive just in time for Cris to go to town with her camera. I just stand there and enjoy the sunset and ocean.

After the sunset, we decide to try the restaurant by the beach. We sit down and proceed to be circled by “sharks ready to pounce on a sickly fish” – or that is how I felt as the servers circled and circled and circled. Now, one may find this to be good service; however, it is annoying when you tell them

repeatedly that you need a minute. Once we decide and order, we sit back to relax and enjoy the sounds of the ocean and the meal. Now, we have learned a very important lesson in regards to Thailand service versus service in the western world: even if you tell the server that you want to start with something and then share certain food for the meal, it does not mean that you will get the food in that order, which is how it happens here. Once we get our food, it seems that the shark servers are satisfied with you and then leave you alone …….. even once you have finished your meal and you are just sitting there waiting for the check. Finally, we are able to wave down a server who understands the sign for check (literally the sign for a check mark made in the air).

Now, to find a tuk tuk. We walk around for a bit, see a tuk tuk. Tell them where we want to go, they

quote too much and will not negotiate (as Cris is a master at the tuk tuk negotiations). We walk a bit

more, find another one …… another one rejected. Walk some more more …… find tuk tuk stand …… all rejected by the tuk tuk negotiator. Look at Google Maps, see that we are actually starting to walk in the wrong direction so we turn around and start walking the other way. So far, all the tuk tuks have not known where the house is so I tell Cris to have Google Maps route us to the restaurant on the corner and we can just walk from there. She brings up the restaurant (Punjab Palace – lots of Muslims and Indians in this part of the country). We walk on ….. and on …… and on …… so much for it being easy to find a tuk tuk at a reasonable price in Thailand. Cris asks again and again. It is becoming a rinse and repeat cycle. We spy a different tuk tuk drop off people and Cris rushes over to talk to the driver. She negotiates a fair price and we are off to the restaurant. He drops off on the corner and we take a quick walk to the house. 

Luckily, we do not have to pack tonight as our taxi will come at 10:00 tomorrow to take us to the bus station for our trip to Khao Sok.