I got the van to the Kuan Tung Pu Pier and then waited on the old ferry for an hour watching them load supplies on her. Everything loaded by hand. Boxes, eggs, motor parts, a LOT of toilet paper, a couple motor scooters… Even the 4’ by 4’ by 5’ blue ice containers of chilled foods were loaded with a block and tackle. Fascinating.
Then we were off like a herd of turtles, motoring along the river at a stately 8 mph.
We left the river and a string of haze clouded islands appeared on the horizon. I love Thailand! Then we motored for a rather long period of time in which I read a great deal.
The usual ferry scrum ensued upon arrival so I got in line and found a motorcycle sidecar taxi. 50Baht/$1.50US for the ride to the bungalow. Ko Mook has the ramshackle feel that kind of saddens me. My first walk on the beach later I picked up a handful of broken glass, there was too much garbage to even start. Not as bad as some beaches, but bad enough. Which is tragic because the place is truly idyllic. The garbage is mainly on the west side of sunrise beach, the east side is much cleaner. The east side is also where the more expensive bungalows are. The road has been paved with paver blocks. There are sections where the blocks have fallen into sinkholes, but no one has bothered to even bring sand to fill the holes and replace the blocks. Argh.
Way back in the day when I believed that I was a Traveler, not a Tourist, my fellow Traveler friends and I used to argue at length about the way small idyllic islands could be developed in a sustainable way that allowed the families there to thrive and the environment to not be destroyed.
Sadly, none of our brilliant ideas have ever been proven to be workable.
But i was moving along, so I sat and chatted with the waitress for a bit at Perfect Restaurant and tucked in to plates of Yum Woon Sen and Seafood Curry with Long Bean. Absolutely delicious! And the sunset to the west cast a warm glow to the evening.
Breakfast was a nice rice porridge with chicken at my bungalow. Then I walked the beach area a bit, collecting less glass this time. The tide was out and the mudflat was in full bloom but the place is still beautiful. Then it was home for a short nap.
Swam for a bit after the tide came in, then had a barracuda dish with stir fried rice and veg at the Fisherman Kitchen. Another outstanding dish! The fishermen were bringing in the days catch as I was waiting. This was an observant (?) Muslim family place so no beer with dinner, but the mango shake was outstanding!!
The next day it was a Thai omelet and rice for breakfast …
then off to the pier for my snorkeling trip. Wow. This place is beautiful and Ko Kradan is even more so. Snorkeling is kind of sad, almost all the coral is dead now. Warmer waters and pollution from the septic systems have pretty much wiped them out. Still a lot of fish and some clams, but I am not sure what will happen to the beaches long term if parrotfish (and other coralivorous fish) do not crunch up the hard coral and pass it out of their systems. Will the beaches eventually get sparser? Not sure. But it is still kind of odd to think of that beautiful white sand beach as parrotfish poop.
So my list of fish spotted is something like this: butterfly fish, parrotfish, wrasse, jack, mackerel, barracuda, a couple of sea turtles and 2 large clams plus a handful of smaller clams. No leafy seadragons this time, love those beasts! They are like something out of a sci fi movie!
Grabbed some shrimp fritters at 7 Seas on Ko Kradan. Perfect beach setting, great staff, sand between my toes, beautifully fried fritters, with very little shrimp in them. It was kind of funny. Sad but funny.
But the happy part of this is, Ko Kradan has done many of the things my traveler friends and I wished would be done. They have set most of the bungalows and cafes back from the high tide line, (though not as far as I would like) they have lowered the room density, they have maintained the beaches, they have installed tie up spots near the coral so the boats do not use anchors there and they have taken care of their staff a bit better. I was rather tickled with this. Ok, I was overjoyed.
Next we motored up to Emerald Cave. You swim into a 90 meter long, pitch black cave that twists and turns with just a meter or two of space over your head. There was a huge school of mackerel (?) under us as we entered and left, not sure why they were there but they were beautiful. Stolen photo below. The fish I saw were in more of a horizontal cylinder, but the numbers were similar.
The swim is actually a bit nerve wracking. Only the one guide had a light on the way in and the cave was pitch black, which I think i mentioned before. LOL. Interesting.
Then, finally, the cave opened out and we swam into a lagoon surrounded by a huge bowl of vertical karst rock formations and greenery, 70 meters wide and more than 100 high. Amazing! Also amazing how much less stressful it was to swim back out with two guides and their lights on both ends of our swim party.
Motored along to another dive site, accidentally frightened another sea turtle off. Then it was back to Ko Mook and dinner at the Perfect Restaurant. Massaman Gai and a Chang beer. Done right with potatoes and peanuts, just about perfect.
I feel like I have moved back in time and I am back in my Thai island refuge.
I needed some extra alcoholic drinks just to cool down…
).
