(It
really does look just like this — more photos below)
Ko Ngai, Thailand
Overview
The "Dragon Island". Sounds exotic, no? This is a off-the-beaten track island in the middle of the Andamen Sea (in the southwest of Thailand). White sandy beach, great diving and snorkeling, and not much more. We've got an ocean-front bungalow booked for almost a week. Geography fans: find Trang, head for the coast, look west. It's the big rock next to the little rocks.
Updates
12/6/01 About noon: This place is not easy to get to. Hopefully, that keeps the riff-raff out. We left our Bangkok hotel about 5am, flew to Trang. Minibus to Pak Meng. Wait. Wait. Boat to Ko Ngai.
We're on an island, off the coast of Southern Thailand. This is the last week of our vacation; 7 days from now we'll be back in the frozen north of America. Thrills.
This week (and this web page) are the antithesis of the others. No wonders of the world (Angkor Wat). No exotic cities (Bangkok). No rice fields (everywhere else). The Koh Ngai Resort was very welcoming. We'd call it "a non-resort resort", in that while we're pretty much captives here (one restaurant, only way to leave is by boat), it doesn't feel that way. Prices are reasonable, Staff are friendly, no appearance of Tour Group mentality (where everybody's treated like just another sheep in the flock). One of the people in reception is Khun Jom; among his many talents are language skills in North, Central, Southern Thai, Khmer (Cambodian), English and French. You have to wonder what he's doing on a remote island. It's a day job; he lives in Trang on the main land.
12/8/01 3pm-5pm: Two hour massage by the beach in an outdoor sala. 300 Baht (about $7).
12/9/01 who cares what time: After three days, little to report. We planned it that way. We went on one boat trip, a combined scuba and snorkeling trip to the "Emerald Cave". No pictures available as Scott's very expensive camera is not waterproof, but take our word for it, it's really lovely. You swim through a short cave (bats, stalactites), then stop for a half hour or so to marvel at this hole for lack of a better term, in the limestone island. About 200' wide and approximately round, it's a sandy beach that's under water at high tide, sheer stone walls going up 100's of feet with monkeys doing their monkey business (selling coconuts or something) among the vines. Verdant, imposing, lovely.
Today's spent sitting on our porch; Scott is watching topless bathing beauties on the beach (and typing in this with the PC on his lap... pretty geeky, no?), Kathy's writing Christmas cards purchased in Bangkok. Thai's don't celebrate Christmas per se, 95% of them are Buddhists, but sanuk ("fun") is #1 on Thais' minds ("If it isn't sanuk, why bother?") and this is after all an excuse for a party. See below on the Christmas Tree Potatoes.
Photos
Scott
checks out his copy of Thai Pirate magazine. Arrrrgh!
Sunset
view #1
Sunset
view #2
Thai's
will celebrate anything. (Note the potato-like gifts, and the Thai
celestial dancer statues in the background...)
It's
nice to be kneaded
Hut
Sweet Hut. But with running water, shower, western toilet, and
aircon (4pm to 10am)