Vacation...part 1

To maintain continuity and avoid confusion, I will begin this entry where the last one left off. After a very busy week of Thai Song, Brittany and I began our vacation around noon on Saturday, October 8^th. Going anywhere in Bangkok requires a lot of time and many kinds of transportation. We took a taxi to the sky train, sky train to the subway, subway to the train station. The streets were pretty flooded at that point, and our taxi driver was a little hesitant to take certain routes. The train station was overflowing with people, and we soon learned that the train we hoped to take to Penang, Malaysia was full. After much discussion, we decided to book a ticket on a train to Trang, a city in Southern Thailand. The trip would be about 12 hours, so we agreed that a first class sleeper was worth the added cost. The only other available option was third class…the stuff of horror stories. 

The train ride was quite fun, although we didn’t get to see as much of the Thai countryside as we hoped because most of our trip was at night. We slept well, and arrived in Trang around 8 the next morning. We avoided the countless taxi drivers vying for our patronage (an unfortunate reality of going anywhere in Asia I soon learned), and wandered around the city looking for breakfast. After some leisurely strolling, and multiple consultations with various tour agencies, we booked transportation to Koh Mook, an island off the west coast. After an hour in a minivan and about a half hour on ferry we arrived at the island, only to load ourselves onto a motorcycle taxi with a side cart for a ride across the island to the resort we eventually decided upon. The tour guide back in Trang had given us an insider tip that the Rubbertree Resort rented bungalows during off season for only 300 baht (about $10) per night. 

When we arrived at the Rubber Tree, we soon realized that we were the only guests at the whole resort. Apart from the four other white people who accompanied us on the ferry but were staying at other resorts, we seemed to be the only guests on the whole island. I guess they’re serious when they call it “off season”. The resort was beautiful and simple, and we pretty much had the entire beach to ourselves. It was like something off “South Pacific” with gorgeous white sand, sheer cliffs on either side, and tropical islands on the horizon. The water was super clear and the waves were amazing! Were it not for our need for visas, we may have stayed there the entire week!

The manager of the Rubber Tree was really nice, and very westernized. He spoke almost perfect English, and totally appreciated sarcasm and culturally difficult humor. Since we were the only guests, we ended up hanging out with him a lot. He didn’t seem to have much else to do. Our second day there we were joined by a man from Colombia, and on our third day two British men came to stay there. However, our farong friends from the ferry realized the Rubber Tree was a less expensive place to eat and drink, and wound up hanging out at our resort more than their own. We became friends with an Australian couple, a British man and two twenty-something Swedish girls. Bank, the Rubber Tree manager told us all about a cave that is one of the primary attractions of the island. We decided to go in together with all of our new friends on hiring a boat to take us to the cave. The excursion quickly turned into an all day trip including snorkeling at a neighboring island, beer and fruit on the boat, and the cave tour. Bank arranged the whole thing with the boat captain, and told us to be on the beach at 9 the next morning to meet the boat. We had no idea what was to come! But, you’ll have to wait for that installment…