16/2/25
The room wasn’t as fancy but the air conditioning was just as powerful. We kept trying to turn it off but after it went off with a timer at 3am we woke up shortly afterwards feeling hot. It must have been a leaky room and we couldn’t handle the heat otherwise. Every single hut on the island had its own air conditioning unit.
The breakfast buffet was identical in every hotel. Except some of them had a special egg station. We were familiar with this from being in Mexico more than ten years ago. So it was the usual salad, but this time with roast potatoes, followed by a mountain of watermelon and pineapple.
We were checking out, again, and heading up to the ‘mountain top’ hotel again. Before we left we rented snorkels from the hotel desk and then got taken up the hill in the pickup truck they use. P.P Mountain beach was letting us stay in the same nicer room, avec ocean view, for two nights. Even though we’d made two separate bookings due to the imperfections of booking.com. We’d discovered that sometimes it will say 2 nights isn’t available but you can book two consecutive nights separately.
It was about 11:30 when we left to hike through the jungle across the island. Our eventual goal was Nui Bay. A beach which was apparently surrounded by karsts and only accessible at low tide. We followed the road and path, the same way as when we went to ‘viewpoint 2’ but then we carried on further north.
We saw some people, a couple from a Spanish speaking country that wanted some clarity on the route. They didn’t have adequate maps, and were trying to use google. The best option we’ve found is called Organic Maps. Offline and openstreetmap. All the hiking trails were marked as was a little ‘i’ that explained Nui bay was only accessible at low tide.
It was a good 45 minute walk across the island. We were completely shield from the Sun by the trees fortunately. The path was covered in roots and had some steep rocky sections. Once we reached a concrete road we walked alongside a mangrove restoration project and then an abandoned construction project for a new resort.
We walked round the back of the concrete husks to La Na beach in Loh Lana bay. There were some locals and their makeshift shacks on the beach. They seemed very uninterested in the tourists. Right now there was definitely no possibility of walking along the side of the beach towards Nui Bay.
After sitting and sipping water, next to a tourist and his singing boat driver, we walked towards Ao Loh Bakao. There was another hotel, the fanciest on the island, just a stones throw from the village. It was much smaller and more laid back than Ton Sai and many times more inaccessible. In the village we succumbed to having fruit smoothies. The avocado one actually had fruit in but the coconut flavour was just that. Dollops of essence and sugar. And a few scrapings of coconut meat. People must often think they’re having actual fruit.
Optimistically we headed back to the beach. The tide had not gone out. We guessed it would start making us some room around 2pm. Laying in a hammock between concrete pillars, in a hillside unfinished villa, was a scuba diving instructor called Marco. As we walked up to explore we said hello and chatted for a while. He was Italian and had been working here for 8 months. We shared a love of freedom from work with each other. His ambitions now he was 35, and had become a manager as well as diving where he dreamed, was to start a business.
At 15:30 we figured we should check the beach again. Marco had shown us the right place to check the tide times. Then we noticed some people who must have been walking back having trapped themselves in the morning.
There was some slight wading to get to the fisherman’s village along the edge of the bay. Their lives must be ruled by the tide. They have boats of course but it still looked like the village was coming alive as the tide receded from under their houses. In the middle of the village was a path sign posted to Nui beach.
The steep sandy path had a thick bundle of ropes running up it. Some were frayed and others new. They were fairly useful to get up with. Over the top there were more and being able to abseil felt imperative to getting down safely. As we headed down we caught glimpses of the towering pillars of limestone and then the path opened out onto the spectacularly framed beach.
The bay was full of boats and the beach full of people. It wasn’t a secret beach but most people arrived by boat. Some people had made the journey by kayak. We tried snorkelling in the bay. It wasn’t very exciting. We were starting to realise that low tide made it easier to snorkel, less big waves, but the bleached coral was never as flush with fish.
Corals are invertebrates, and it’s basically their skeleton which is covered with colourful, photosynthetic, single celled organisms. The additional stress of high water temperatures and nutrient changes cause the coral to expel the zooxanthellae. Thus destroying an incredible trading relationship that has lasted hundreds of millions of years. The zooxanthellae get shelter. In return the coral receives energy providing compounds. Yes, climate change is responsible for heating the oceans and destroying half the coral reefs.
The fancier snorkels had valves on the bite piece but were heavier and our mouths tired more quickly. We didn’t realise how quickly time had gone, we didn’t have a torch and wanted to go back via Ton Sai for dinner. The day is always only around 12 hours long here. After buying some more water and what tasted like glacé cherries back in the village, we didn’t want to be those idiots in a jungle without sustenance, we took the ‘shortcut’ to Ton Sai.
It was just the main route to the town from this side really. The steps were basically made of roots and we headed sharply up, then over and down the hill to the waters edge. We’d been able to hear the party music for quite a while. No wonder people this end of the beach complain so vigorously in their reviews. Basalt rocks laid a path around the bay. It was quite a long way but the music and visual of the town made it feel shorter. It was so hot though, we were both dripping with sweat. At least we weren’t wearing heavy cotton like some tourists that were visibly becoming very sticky in their dinner attire.
After heading to the supermarket for even more water and an unusual bottle of soya milk tea, we went straight to Dow for dinner. Surprisingly it was shut. Although we were going to try a noodle shop, they had no toilets. So we ended up at Basil Bistro. It was just as cheap and we had a curry each. During our meal there were some large bangs that turned out to be fireworks. The locals seemed to be more interested than anyone else. We also had a banana in hot coconut milk, a dessert known as Kluai Buat Chi.
At the fruit market we bought two dragonfruit and some bananas for our boat trip the following day. We observed a local paying half the marked price for watermelon. Then walked to get the shuttle back to the hotel.
Occasionally a porter will come up behind you making beeping noises so they can push their huge 2-wheeled trolley past. Often they’re filled with luggage but also used for anything at all up to and including transporting heavy building materials. In the heat of the evening it must have been hard work to do it once. But to do that all year round must be boring. There were at least two loads of people waiting when we arrived 15 minutes early. Two pickup trucks soon arrived and we were shuttling up the hill in no time.
Being dropped at your door by a pickup truck (we didn’t ask but someone else had requested so we got lucky) couldn’t help but feel like an unnecessary indulgence that would only serve to increase our period of adaptation to Thailand. We ate some mango, dragonfruit, longan (like a lychee) and a few nuts.
Surly They Won't Make It 