Island Peaks and Cheesy Plates
Koh Samui, 26th March 2002
This time when I arrived at the boat for the cruise, I had more than
enough cash on me. The cruise itself cost 650B, about 10 pounds
(including lunch, pick up & drop off), plus a 200B (about 3 pound)
entrance fee to the national park.
The sun was beating down strong, and it was only 8:30am, as we
cruised out gently to sea. Koh Samui slowly disappeared from view,
and then there was no sign of life. Just the rolling blue waves
encircling us.
After about 1 hour, some very small islands started to come into
view, we were getting closer. The small land masses and even smaller
rock formations jutted proudly out of the water. As we got nearer,
cameras & camcorders were brought out to record the stunning views.
The first stop we made was at the main island of Koh Wua Talab. It's
the largest island in the park, but it is still very quiet & sleepy.
The park headquarters are here with a small shop, some bungalows, a
cafe and toilet facilities. It is possible to spend a few nights on
the island if you want to. But I'm only here for the day.
We stopped a good distance from the shore and the guide gave a
lengthy speech in Thai through a broken megaphone before making a
very short statement in English. Basically, we had 2 hours to
explore the island, after which we should return to the boat for
lunch.
All instructions given, we watched as a couple of long, thin boats,
powered by small propellers on the end of a long pole (photos to
come soon) drew up along side the boat. A bit like motorised Italian
gondolas. We all filed off onto them, and they turned round and
headed to shore. They stopped right on the beach, but we still had
to jump into ankle deep water to reach the shore.
The first thing I looked for, was the path up to the island's peak,
about 430m high. The climb is quite taxing. Although it's called a
walking track, it's actually a steep rocky trail that you have to
clamber up. Luckily I'd expected this and worn walking sandals. The
climb was very hard going and took a good 30 minutes. It's started
off steep and I had to climb over loads of rocks, using a convenient
thick rope as a hand hold. This isn't a climb for the weak or
elderly! It's actually quite dangerous, it would be very easy for
someone to slip, with nothing but hard, pointy rocks to break your
fall.
For most of the climb, I was luckily in the shade of trees, but
still I was sweating 'to the max', this was the most amount of
exercise I'd done since climbing Mount Fyfe! The end bit was the
hardest though. After lots of hard climbing, the trail exited the
shade and I stood at the bottom of a steep rocky face with the sun
beating heavily down onto it. Drawing deep from my energy reserves,
I pushed on upwards. There was some tricky sections to manage, but
soon I was standing on a wooden platform at the peak of the island.
Dripping with sweat, I greedily downed half my bottle of water and
pulled out my towel to wipe myself dry. As I was looking out over
the view, a young Thai teenager, came up just behind me and sat
down, breathing heavily and sweating as much as me. He didn't have
any water, so I offered him mine, and he gratefully accepted.
The view over the island and the rest of the park is absolutely
astounding. The efforts the climb requires is definitely worth it to
see this awe-inspiring view (photos to follow). The shimmering,
blue, undisturbed water separates the untouched, green islands as
they stretch out below you. As I stood there taking in the sight
(and recovering from the climb) more people arrived breathlessly.
Many of them obviously hadn't expected this climb and were
struggling up this difficult trail wearing flip-flops!
After I'd recovered, I began the descent. I thought it would take
much less time, but certain sections took longer to go down than to
go up!
Anyhow, after a long descent, I was back on flat ground. The Rough
Guide mentioned another trail up an even steeper route, but a nice,
cool dip in the sea sounded much more tempting.
The water around these islands is unbelievably clear! Even when it's
over a metre deep, you can still clearly see the bottom. There's
also no rubbish around, but I guess the possible 5 years
imprisonment stops people doing that!
After a short swim, I could feel the sun starting to burn me, so I
got changed out of my togs and put a T-shirt on. You can burn really
easily out here, even if you've got dark skin like mine.
Soon, the tour guide started rounding everyone up, and we all hopped
back into the smaller boats to ferry us back to the main boat.
On the boat, we had a yummy lunch of chicken curry (mild), rice and
vegetables. The portions were huge, and we were allowed seconds, so
I stocked up on as much as I could eat. Eat more now means not
having to pay for more food later! That's a budget travellers tip,
always make the most of free food!
We made another stop at a smaller island called 'America Island'.
There was an easier climb up some ladders & steps to see a large
lake. Impressive, but not as amazing as the other island. We had a
long stop at this island just to swim and lie in the sun. Actually,
I lay in the shade on a comfy deckchair to stop myself burning! The
guide has said we all needed to be back by 3:30pm, but he got
everyone back on just after 3pm. They don't do any roll calls or
head counts, so it's best to stay near the main group or it they
leave early, you might get left behind!
We then cruised back to Koh Samui. When we got on the boat at the
start of the day, a man took a photo of each of us as we boarded the
boat. No doubt to make a tacky 'I went to Koh Samui and I got this
cheesy photo' photo. So when we alighted the boat, I was dubious
when I saw him again next to the harbour. Of course I had to have a
look, and it was actually quite good! He'd taken each of the photos,
cut them out and stuck them onto a Koh Samui souvenir plate (photo
to follow). Very cheesy and tacky, but the good kind of tack that
just has to be bought! At only 100B (about 1 pound 80) I couldn't
resist it, and I bought the cheesy plate.
Nothing else to report for today, it was a quiet evening after that!
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