Anyone visiting Thailand has to
experience the hot spots. You
can’t come to Thailand and not experience the madness of Kao San Road or a Full
Moon Party. There are good reasons
why places like Koh Phangan and Phuket are always flooded with tourists;
they’re beautiful, they offer tours, activities and a booming nightlife, and
they cater specifically to travelers.
But after living in Thailand for over a year now, I’ve grown to
appreciate the lesser-trafficked locales.
Once in awhile, it’s nice to take a detour from the beaten path and
visit a place that’s not yet littered with backpackers and covered by seedy bars
and hotels. It’s refreshing.
Koh Mook
The
second week of December was [another] 3-day weekend for me. A few friends and I headed out to a small
island on the Andaman coast of Thailand called Koh Mook (or Ko Muk). Koh Mook is in the Trang province of
Thailand, south of Phuket. For me, coming from Surat, it was a few hours in a mini-bus to Trang town, another hour-long ride in a hired
pickup truck to the pier, and then a short ferry cruise over to the
island. A bit of a trip, but so
worth it.
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| Look! Another white person! |
When we arrived it was raining, but
it didn’t take away from the island’s natural splendor and magnetic charm. It is largely undeveloped accept for two
villages, one on the east side of the island and one on the west. There are no more than a handful of guesthouses,
restaurants, and bars. You can
find few dive shops along the beach, and maybe two or three private
resorts. There are only 2,000
inhabitants on the whole island, mostly fisherman and their families. Koh Mook is also home to the “Emarald
Cave” and prides its waters as being one of the last sanctuaries for the Dugong
(a relative to the manatee). Other
than the income Koh Mook draws from tourism and fishing, the locals also profit
from harvesting the thousands of rubber trees that cover the entire island.
Being on a budget, my friends and I
opted to stay at
Mookies Guesthouse. They’re known for
having cheap accommodation and a friendly staff. Just off of an unpaved road in the middle of the jungle, it seemed
like a nice, quiet place to make our headquarters for the weekend.
We checked in with the owner, a friendly European man whose name I can't remember. His Thai wife
put their newborn baby down to nap in a hammock while she got our lodging
ready. While waiting, we sat at
the small restaurant and bar, watched the rain, and tested Mookie’s claim of
having the coldest beer on the island.
There were vacant bungalows
available but for a few baht less we decided to go with the “tents”. It being the rainy season, I originally
wasn’t to keen on this. To my
surprise, it ended up being much nicer than your typical campsite. Each tent was already set up for us and
covered by a thatched roof. Inside
there was a full bed, an electric fan, and a lamp. Not bad for $5 a night.
The rain finally subsided and John,
Janet, Brittany, and I walked a couple hundred yards down to the beach. The waters are some of the clearest
I’ve ever seen and the sea is rich with fish, coral, and other marine life just
off shore, making snorkeling easy.
We swam in the ocean. We
sat in the sand.
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| "Scorpion's Anus" |
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| "Wounded Swan" |
Brittany and I had in intense
yoga-off on the beach. Brittany
tried showing off with, what I believe, is known in the yoga world as the Scorpion’s Anus. I answered by executing
a much more graceful and complicated exhibit of strength, balance, and swagger; a
secret move called the Handicapped Swan.
It took me years to perfect.
I easily won the competition just as the sun started to go down. Poetic.
We watched the sunset. The red sky and purple ocean stretched
on forever like they were racing to a finish line at the horizon. A seafood dinner on an ocean-side cliff
and a few tall beers sent us to bed.
Nights like that remind me to be thankful.
The next morning we packed a day
bag and hired a boat to take us to various snorkeling spots and then to the island’s
star attraction, Morakot Cave (Tam Nam, in Thai). The
cave, also known as the Emerald Cave, is located just off the western shore. Its mouth is on the face of a seaside
cliff and only accessible by water.
Deep inside, the cave opens up into a secret white-sand lagoon enclosed
on all sides by towering walls of limestone. It’s like being inside of a volcano. The only way in or out is by swimming in
from the ocean and through the cave’s passageway. As the sun above shines down on the lagoon, the water becomes
a radiant emerald-green giving the cave its nickname. What gives the cave even more
charisma is that it was used as a hideout for pirates and as a place for them
to stash their treasure.
So in the spirit of true Goonies,
we packed a day bag and set out on the seas. Our backpack carried only the bare necessities: two bags of
potato chips, one bottle of water, a Santa hat, one pocketknife, one machete,
and two bottles of rum. Because
you can’t go on a pirate quest without rum. Or a machete.
We
snorkeled for a few hours at various spots around Koh Mook. It rained the whole time but that didn’t matter
underwater. Our boat guide made a
brief stop for us at a deserted island where we each took pictures with the
Santa hat for Christmas. Then, we
swigged our rum and headed over to the pirate cave.
The
boatman stopped just outside of the cave’s entrance and we hopped in the deep
green water. We swam inside and
were enveloped by the pitch black.
After swimming for about 30 meters in the darkness we saw a small
light. We followed the light and
it grew until we were inside the secret lagoon of the Emerald Cave... sounds like the title of a Harry Potter book.
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| The entrance to cave where we swam in (on the right). |
We hung out inside for a bit, taking it all in. The only other
people there were two guys we’d met earlier that had kayaked in just before us.
It was like a movie set. There was a real feel of secrecy and
seclusion. We walked around and took some
pictures. There was a poorly written sign in English explaining the history of the cave. John and I had a pirate
fight. How could you not? His machete beat my stick. Then... It was time to swim
back out into the world.
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| PIRATE BATTLE |
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| A look at the cave from the inside |
We
capped off the trip with a good night out at
Chill Out Bar on Farang Beach. We were able to see a lunar eclipse in
sky from where we laughed and drank on the beach just outside of the bar. Not a bad way to end another weekend.
