July 27th, 2014
Second time’s the charm 😃😃
So after a really good nights sleep, we decided to get ourselves up on the early(ish) side and try to head out in a little timelier fashion that yesterday in case the weather only lasted as long as it did yesterday! (Noonish). So we were off by 10 am, which is pretty impressive for us!
The weather looks darn near perfect. Some small cloud cover but no rain. Perfect!
We decided to make our way up to that ferry to Kho Khao island without any side trips so as to outrun any bad weather that comes from the south. Ok there may have been one small side trip to the beach, but it was so small there aren’t even any pictures!
We got up to the area where we suspected the ferry was in Takua Pa town, and after realizing it wasn’t quite right and some challenging attempts at communication with a nice Thai lady and her friend, she just felt it was easier to show us where to go than to try to explain it. So she led us right there with her bike. We had been told by a fellow at the hotel that they would put our motorbikes on a longtail boat and ferry us across the 1km or so across to Koh Khao island. Sure enough there were a couple longtails there and they were more than happy to load up our bikes for 40 baht each 😃😃 they have these long planks they throw down to drive the bikes on and then a couple seats for us, and we are off!
Very nifty and in true Thai fashion, everything always works out.
We got across in a few short minutes and everything happened in reverse on the other side. Once we were on land again, we stopped at a road side map and got the lay of the land. Other than at the ferry dock I’m pretty sure we saw less than a dozen people the whole 4 hours we drove around this island. It was very very quiet! I’m sure this is due to a few factors, one being it’s the low season here. From what I read on the Internet, this area was heavily devastated by the tsunami in 2004 and many locals moved away after rather than rebuild here. Anyways, it made for very nice riding, no traffic to worry about and the one main road that goes north/south is very good quality. Flawless road actually. Now that did not hold true when we got off said road. Which of course we are highly inclined to do. We went pretty much down every side soi we could find, each and every one leading to the beach. And in every case, the beaches were deserted. And quite lovely.
Absolutely stunning beaches. If we had known, we could have brought suits, towels and a picnic and just stayed right here on any of these beaches for the day. Will have to remember this for another time 😉
Thought this corner was appropriate (I certainly was happy)
When we got all the way to the most northern tip of the island on the one main road. We found this interesting situation. We discussed whether we thought it was something that was abandoned after the tsunami, or something more recent that was damaged by some other storm and left as an unviable project. We will never really know….but I thought it was eerie. If it had ever been inhabited it would have been a lovely location for a resort, but maybe just too close to the ocean! With no protection from storms?
So we come back down from this area and see a sign to go east on the island, our map has indicated the are a couple waterfalls over there! It is 12:30, so we feel like we have plenty of time….and you already know we are suckers for waterfalls. So we head off. All is looking good, it is not quite the quality of the main road, but certainly passable, mostly concrete, with a few gravels patches where the concrete has washed out perhaps. I’m starting to feel like I would like a cold water could be in order and maybe a washroom? We see the signs for the two waterfalls, but I believe we are heading toward a town, so I say to Troy, when we get there maybe we can stop and find those things, then come back to this road to go to the waterfalls. He looked at me a little funny and said “don’t count on too much”. So we go around one more bend and find ourselves at the ocean with a nice shrimp farm on our left. That’s the total sum of the services offered here.
Hmmmmmm
So we turn around and decide to hit that “goat trail” to the Toan Thong waterfalls. The first one lays at 3.5 km and another at 5km. Not sure which one is the Toan Thong waterfall but I’d be satisfied with seeing the first one, and I reserve judgement on whether to head to the second once we get there. I use the term goat trail loosely as I don’t think some goats would have ventured on this path. Maybe a mountain goat with some skills….maybe.
We bumped and lumped our way through ruts, mud, rocks and boulders all the way to something that barely resembled a waterfall in my books. Maybe my expectations were too high. But I’m not sure how this warranted a sign, let alone a call out on a map as something you should go see.
I took some pictures so that no one could ever doubt me that I accomplished this feat. But it was hilarious, and certainly the adventure became more about the ride than seeing the actual waterfalls.
Took this picture right after my bike fell over when I stopped to take the picture and was hoping I could turn around, take the picture and hold the bike up with my thighs all at the same time. (In hindsight, I should have just used the kickstand)
All in all it was a great ride, we made our way out of the jungle and back to the ferry dock and caught the longtail system back to the mainland. There was a car ferry loading up beside us at the same time and I really feel like when the kids complain about the Washington State ferries, they should keep this in kind. It could be a lot worse girls!
We did stop at a place that looked like a bit of a mechanic shop after we got to the mainland to see if he could reattach the license plate on Troy’s bike. It had lost one of the screws and our feeble attempts to solve it ended up with it flapping in the wind and causing several locals who flew past us to motion to him that he had a loose plate. After that we decided to head back to our neck of the woods and actually go right past our hotel in search of the Briza and some of our old stomping ground for when we were here in 2009 with the girls. The road got a lot more exciting as we went south past our hotel. The road was still great, but a bit more windy than the northern part. So that made it fun! We found the Briza and discovered many changes. It is way more built up than when we were here. The empty field across from the Briza that used to have elephants roaming in it is now a brand new building. It’s the expansion to the Briza that I saw online. There are a tonne of shops, restaurants and services on the road to the main highway. BUT the Turtle mart is still there! 😘😘 so at least that hasn’t changed.
It was only 4pm so we felt a little early for supper, but we wanted to go down to Jo’s Seafood to have a shake or something for old times sake. But alas, Jo’s was closed (for the season I assume), Pete’s next door was open (this place was closed last time we were her-so maybe they take turns 😉) and we had a delicious mango shake while we watched the comings and goings of a massive amount of Chinese and Korean tourists. 3 tour busses pulled up in the time we were there. Somehow Pete’s and the beach got on the “tour”! We also found where the elephants had been relocated! Another nice field by the beach. The Chinese tourists were eating this up! Getting on for rides etc. There were grown men doing their very best hello kitty pose. It was wack!
Still an unbelievably gorgeous stretch of beach and it brought back many many wonderful memories of when we were here with the girls when they were little and still thought it was so much fun to play in the sand for hours.
With tomorrow/Monday being our last full day of true vacation, we are planning on taking it easy and sitting by the pool. The weather is supposed to be gorgeous ☀️☀️☀️
