Islands – the last leg

Now for the long train ride to Bangkok which I have been looking forward to – should be really scenic.  Or not, as it rained most of the way and it also arrived so late it was dark for the last 2 hours of the trip (views of the old Bangkok areas).  We took the express train (10.5 hours for 750 km – not that express….) turned into 12.5 hours.  Had also not realised there was nowhere to get drinks, water, food (apart from the small amount they gave you on boarding).  Not ideal unless you know in advance to bring your own.

Boy were we hungry and thirsty when we arrived at the station.  Hotel was not far – but the next hurdle was that 5 taxi drivers just said no – some after looking at where we were going, some not even doing that.  Luckily for us (as we were beginning to think we would have to drag bags a few hundred meters along busy roads) the last taxi we tried agreed to take us.  No idea what all that was about, but not a great situation after a long day when you are tired, hungry and thirsty.

Lucky there was a restaurant a few doors from the hotel.

A plane the next day to Phuket and then on to our next stop Khao Lak, lovely basic bungalows by the sea, below the view from our bungalow.

Plan was for day 1 to Surin Islands, Day 2 for other things and Day 3 for Similan Islands.  Boat to Surin takes just over an hour and was pleasant as calm although not very sunny.As picture shows though the water was really clear in some areas.

Never sure what to expect regarding coral these days but the trip to the Surin Islands had surprisingly good coral and lots of fish.

It was a thoroughly good day out although visibility was not great in all the places we stopped due to cloudy weather and recent rain.  The next day we were going to Mangroves to a place called “Little Amazon”.

The pics looked great and it was stunning, unfortunately the best area had all the trees blown down by a storm a year ago, shame. The trees below used to meet overhead like a big arch.

Apparently there is usually all sorts of snakes and birds but we only saw a couple of Mangrove Cat Snakes and Egret’s.

The weather was also deteriorating by the end of the morning and raining before we got back from canoe trip.  Talked to the owner of our bungalow about the Similan Islands for the next day and he said weather would be fine, not to listen to the forecast. Somehow though it kept nagging at me so we cancelled the trip – Thank goodness we did as it rained non stop and really heavily all day long the next day and night.  No more options for the islands another day as our next place was already booked.  (And the weather forecast was not improving anyway). Such a shame not to get out to Similan Islands but that is the weird weather worldwide currently. Great for frogs though.

Hint – Do your research when needing to get around Thailand.  Car Hire was often cheaper than other forms of transport – apart from shared mini buses, which went at such inconvenient times for us it would have meant hours of hanging around – and overnights in places to get the next leg.  The train is good (although slow) and cheap but there is very limited network.

Drive south to Trang and a night in a very strange little local place full of road workers etc – quite noisy but not till too late luckily.  Taxi to Pak Bara then ferry to Koh Lipe.  A fun ride of 1.5 hours in a little speedboat in sunshine but heavy seas, around 2-3 metre swell.  On arriving there is a floating platform to get off onto.  Most of us were off the boat and on the platform when it came undone and drifted away from the shore, rapid moves to get back on boat.  (It was shallow though we would have just got wet, not drowned).  Boat then moves to another platform that is properly anchored.

We had left booking accommodation till about 1 week before and were left with few choices (in fact only one on Sunset Beach).  Nice basic place but we had a bungalow at back near a road that had motorbikes going constantly all night.

One of the more expensive ones nearer the front would have been better but none had been available.  Still you can’t complain for $50 per night on an island.  Much more expensive than the mainland as everything has to be shipped out.  We could only get this room for 3 nights so planned to move to Sunrise Beach for the other 5 nights.
Went out snorkelling from sunset beach on the first day, visibility was awful due to the recent rains and high winds.  There were also loads of jellyfish which is a newish thing for Thailand (climate change making the water warmer).  A boat trip out to surrounding islands snorkelling the next day was generally very good, although visibility in a couple of the stops was still not ideal by a long shot (again due to recent winds and rain). Visibility was good in sheltered area’s though.

Great colourful soft corals and really good large areas of hard coral, anemones and fish, not sure this is not better than Surin Islands.

I really like this island, the water looks amazing, scenery is great, you can walk around the entire place and there is lots of good food. The best part was once we moved to Sunrise beach and the winds dropped, water cleared and we could swim out to a close island with lots of coral and fish.  We swam out every day and saw different things each time.

There are some great little restaurants on the island, our favorite for evenings is Bombay Indian and for lunch this little beach place does great Thai food.

We did not try these eclairs but clever – no idea how they do it. Tthink they also need chocolate and cream).

On day 2 a barge turned up and was parked for 3 days, using a digger, loading and unloading.  Kept us entertained – as did the long boats coming in overloaded with supplies from boats moored further out.

Funny to watch them remove a motorbike from a longtail – not easy. Still stormy and most nights were pretty wet, we got soaked a couple of times coming back from dinner.  One night we were sitting outside watching the rain and there was an almighty crash and huge bolted lightening over the island, everything shook and jumped, pretty scary. The last night when I got up 2 longboats had sunk, must be quite common I think.

Watching the work to get one back to shore was entertaining, if I was younger without back issues I would have offered to help. The forecast for our boat trip to Langkawi from Koh Lipe was horrendous, high winds and high seas.  We were expecting another little power boat but actually got a big ferry.  The weather forecast was totally wrong too as no wind and completely flat seas…..

Langkawi – not at all what I expected although it most probably does not help that it is cloudy and wet a good portion of the time.

We certainly thought there were a number of things to do but once here you realise how much of it is hype.  The costs are high and the reviews when you dig down make most things not worth doing.  For instance you read that the snorkelling in the Marine Park is amazing, but then you find the odd review saying its all dead – talk to some locals and they agree, nothing much left now and the tour companies want to charge a lot more than you pay in Thailand for similar trip but with better coral.  We decided not to bother, instead did some waterfall walks – not bad but so much rubbish here it really spoils these natural places.

Never the biggest lovers of Malaysian food we did find a great roti with black pepper restaurant and one with great curry but limited choice.  There was also a really really bad Indian restaurant.

The cable car, slide and sky bridge we did not want to miss, so first dry morning with some blue sky we drive up there (about 30 mins).  Buy our tickets stand in line and then it all stops, some people are asked to get off (we have no idea what is happening as in Malay).  Eventually the cars started moving but no new people getting on.  A lady explained to us they had electrical problems and would not run for another hour (do not understand why not all people were asked to get off).  Off we go, might as well go and look at 3D art museum which is included in price – get to that and they have shut due to power outage…. Wait around for 1.5 hours, go back wait a bit more, then people are getting off.  Not sure whether they had been stuck in the cars or on the stations but they were being given refunds, then we are told we can have our money back too as not going to run at all today.  Such a shame as no wind, clear blue sky and not many people when we first got there. Oh well try again tomorrow if clear.  We did come across this cute family when leaving though.

The next day was dry but not clear,  will give it a go as forecast worse for rest of the week. We get there early again (8.30) – not as empty as yesterday, assume all the people who did not do it then are now trying to catch up too.  Sky not as good either but not wet which is great.  Get to counter – not opening till lunch time (12.00) for maintenance…….  Forecast is rain by twelve.  Took a bit of a drive around the island, Gunung Raya and a waterfall.

You can walk up to this viewpoint, a long steep climb (We were chicken and drove).  Looking at the state of the steps not sure many people actually do walk up.

As it was still dry with blue bits decided to give the skycab another go.  FINALLY we are on.  It’s not nearly as long as the one in Kuranda, Qld but is apparently the steepest in the world.  Great views from the car and from both stations, although it is a little windier today than yesterday. 

The Slide that takes you from car to bridge was not working today (funny, seems to be a theme around here). It looked like fun.

Instead you walk down around 300 steep stairs which is real slog coming back up, especially since they are very steep for short legs (mine) and also there is a constant stream of people coming down and not enough width for 2 way traffic. 

The bridge is incredible but a little scary as by now there were some really strong gusts of wind. Not being a real lover of heights I was pleased that I did go all the way on this bridge.

They are also building a new overhang viewpoint, almost complete.

Certainly it was well worth doing and the 3D Museum was interesting too. (Although we did not partake in the “Stand here” bits so you could take your own photo with the picture.

Last day and it has done nothing but rain all day, at least it gives me a chance to catch up on this. Still no great sunsets as cloud or rain every night.
Google maps only allow so many stops on a route so I have shown the main roads and put pins to places off the road.