Paradise, for a dollar a night

            A couple of weeks ago the school I teach at had mid-terms, which meant that I had Thursday and Friday off. Despite the fact that the days we don’t work we don’t get payed for, and as we have an entire month coming up filled with those days I chose to view this as an opportunity rather than an “oh crap”. Granted, its not difficult to convince yourself to look favorably on a long weekend in the short term. I wanted to go do something interesting, relaxing, and away from hoards of people, preferably some place I could camp. I started asking around, getting various suggestions, but the best suggestion I received came from the owner of a local bar, Ang Thong National Marine Park. This is a string of islands near the well known destinations of Koh Samui and Koh Panang, and while the park is frequented by tour boats for day trips, it is rarely an overnight destination. Once I started telling people I was planning on going I started hearing more and more good things about this spot, and started to get more excited and gain higher expectations.

            The boats for the island leave once a day around 8am from either Samui or Koh Pangang. This presents a slight problem that I had to get to an island that was 5 hour ferry ride by that time, but luckily the ferry system provides and excellent and only mildly inconvenient solution, the night boat. The night boat leaves Surat Thani at 11pm and gets to the islands between 5 and 6am. On weekends, or the nights before a Full Moon Party (I’ll talk about one of these later) the night boat is sometimes synonymous with party boat, but on a Wednesday evening it was a pretty laidback affair, no fighting for position on the mats, and no tourists attempting to be constantly drinking for 48 hours. Side note for tourists: Just because you are on vacation it does not make it appropriate to walk around a town stumbling drunk and shirtless. The night boat doesn’t provide a good nights sleep, but it does make the ride slip by when you are in and out of consciousness. Usually you are arriving (and waking up) shortly after the sunrise and the world is soaked with that beautiful light that only exists for an hour or so a day. Buying the ticket to the Park was easy, as was killing a couple hours eating breakfast and trying not to fall asleep in a restaurant. The boat to Ang Thong was one of the few times I have been cold in Thailand, but this was as much due to the movement of the wind as it was to the on and off rain that was falling. I ended up listening to all of Revolver, which sped things along nicely.

            By the time we came into view of the islands the rain had become fairly constant, though not heavy. We got off the boat on an island that is famous for having a large lagoon in the middle of it. It looked somewhat like a movie volcano top, tall walls surrounding the hole in the middle. There is a small hike up stairs to get over said walls, which was mildly precarious due to the rain making it a little slippery, but only about a 3 on the danger scale (1 being lying in bed on a mild day, 10 being a Jets fan in one of my classes last Monday). The lagoon was beautiful and lived up to its name, the emerald lagoon, the water was a deep green and it was surrounded by lush jungle. When I had had my fill of looking down at it, something that happened rather quicker than it might have to the press of overweight and shirtless tourists that were beginning to fill the view platform, I walked down to the water. I wasn’t certain what to expect, I suppose I thought the water would be cloudy, and I might see a small, boring fish or two, but this is what I should have expected if I were going to a lake in central Maine, not to a lagoon on an island off the coast of Thailand. The water was crystal clear and teeming with life. Sea Urchins sporting huge spines dotted the rocks, dozens of small fish were darting around, an intimidating large fish strolled out from under some rocks and swam under the plat form I was standing on just as a beautiful, multi colored sting ray glided in from deeper waters. I was taken aback. It turns out the Emerald Lagoon was created by a massive sink hole collapsing, and while it looks to be completely land locked it is apparently connected to the ocean by an underwater cave, making it possible for the wide array of sea life to make its way in.

            The stop at this island was actually fairly short, only an hour or so and we were getting back on the boat and having lunch, a good but unremarkable masaman curry. The next stop, was the last of the day for me, as it was on the island that I was planning on camping on. This island has three natural attractions, a long, fine sand beach, a limestone cave, and a hike up to a spectacular view point. They offer some snorkeling equipment, but after trying it out for a few minutes I found this to be pretty boring, there was no coral or exciting fish, only clear water, white sand, and some seaweed. I decided to check out the cave. It is a short hike up to the cave but a fairly steep one and enough of a challenge that the people that were trying it in flip flops or bare feet usually turned around pretty quickly. The hike was made more interesting by the rain having turned any dirt into slippery mud, and any rock into a very short water slide. But, the hike was short and simple enough that it wasn’t really a problem. The cave was interesting, but not mind blowing. The stalactites and stalagmites had some crazy shapes and patterns, but frankly, it seems like caves the world over are pretty similar. This one was a bit nicer because it was quite open allowing a good amount of natural light to illuminate it. The way back down the trail was actually a little easier than the way up because of a rope that ran along most of the trail as a means of supporting yourself down the steeper, and currently more slippery, sections.

            By the time I got back the boats were starting to leave and the rain seemed to have finished for the day, so I went to see the ranger to talk about where the best place to pitch my tent would be, and to pay for my over night stay. He let me pick the driest spot I could find, and charged me 30 baht for the night, or the equivalent of one American dollar. Pretty good deal for a spot in paradise. By 3:00 the island was almost completely empty, with only the rangers, maybe five other tourists and me. I took a walk on the beach and around 5:00 I started eyeing the hike up to the view point, which was closed due to the rain. I looked at the sign, and found it was only a 500 meter hike, “chump change” I thought, “It must only be closed to out of shape and aging tourists, not to a spritely young lad like myself!” and so after setting up my tent I popped on my hiking boots and took off. There are four view points, at 100 meters, 200m, 300m, and one at the very top. This was another trail that had a rope provided for assistance in getting up and down it, and as it turns out it was needed. What I had neglected to notice on the sign was that despite being only a 500m hike, it was 262m vertical as well, meaning that for every two meters forward, I went one meter up. This would be tiring on a normal day, with out a doubt, but the days rain had added a bit of a thrill to the whole process. The views were amazing, getting more impressive at every landing, and being in the jungle always provides something interesting, and this day it was monkeys. Dusky Langurs to be specific. At the second scenic overlook I was surprised to find one sitting on a branch only five feet from me, calmly eating leaves and occasionally looking over its shoulder at me. These Langurs are most recognizable by the white rings around there eyes which give them a very intelligent look. It is amazing how much adding emphasis to the eyes can make any creature or drawing look significantly more intelligent. After soaking in the monkey’s company I started back up the trail, and began thinking about how amazing the sunset would be from the top.

About half-way between the third view spot and the top I heard a sound that made my heart stop mid-beat. A baby’s cry. I froze, and couldn’t believe it. I knew there was no one else on the trail, and even if there had been, no parent would bring there child on this hike, especially not with its slippery state. Slowly I started, I must have heard some strange bird and mistaken it for the cry of an infant, but only a few steps later I heard it again. Loud and clear, a single wail, clearly from a baby, clearly somewhere off in the jungle. I was torn, I knew it would be crazy to just plunge into the jungle on a mountain where I was likely to fall, be knocked into a coma and slowly die as search parties wandered only a few feet from where I was lying, but on the other hand, there was a freaking baby out there. I started off the trail when I heard it again, and realized that something was a little strange about it. How often had I heard a baby give one cry at sporadic intervals rather than a steady and sustained cry, “My god, it must be hurt or weak!” I take another couple steps off the trail trying to be quiet to hear the call and find the direction it was coming from, and thinking that it was f***ing crazy. I heard the cry again, and than a sound that made me laugh with relief, a hooting monkey. I was hearing a baby, but I was hearing a baby monkey, not a baby human. I breathed and looked around and sure enough not far away was a tree with four or five monkey’s hanging out and keeping an eye on me. Relieved, I took the few steps back to the trail and starting walking, “either that was a baby monkey, or that’s a baby that’s about to be raised by monkeys.” Either way I felt it was a situation that did not require my further attention.

The top was stunning. The view easily took my breath away and left me standing there open mouthed. Islands, at least a dozen, stretched out into the ocean, disappearing into the haze shimmering on the water. It was truly spectacular, and very worth the ball busting hike it took to get there. As I was standing there, soaking in the evening light I was surprised once again by a monkey. This time it emerged out of the bushes behind me stood, perhaps 10 feet away staring at me. A rather haunting thing given the wise aura that the white rings around its eyes gave it, and after ten or fifteen seconds it turned and moved past the “No entry” sign, and left my site. I was still processing what had just happened when the monkey popped back up 10 feet further up the mountain and again turned to stare at me. Again it disappeared and again it popped up and stared at me only a few feet farther up the mountain. I am not a big believer in signs, but this was quite bizarre. The strange behavior of the monkey, combined with my desire to ignore the “no entry” sign and climb higher meant that there was really only way to interpret this, I should follow the monkey. 

So follow I did, and it was immediately apparent why the did not want travelers going up the way. The rocks were sharp and there were many sudden dips and drops and if you tilted and fell to your right you would end up with a good long time to make some peace with the world before crashing into the forest below. I climbed for about five more minutes until I came to a spot that I might have been able to pass if I had been well versed in parquet, and stopped. The monkey wasn’t there waiting to deliver some life message to me, but there was gold. Not coinage or jewelry but an entire island of it. One of the islands had a large, bare cliff facing west; the light of the setting sun had fully caught it while I was climbing. I was told when I was younger that the hour before sunset was called the golden hour for photographers, because the light was so soft and so unique that it produced some of the best pictures possible. This was the golden hour.

As I sat enjoying the sunset, it dawned on me that the sun was setting. In addition to being beautiful, it also meant that the spectacular light it was providing was fading quickly, and this meant that in addition to having repel myself down the incredibly rocky water slide I had just climbed, I was going to have to do much of it in the dark. Goody. I started down, got back to the viewing platform and began down the actual trail. In many ways going down was easier than going up, mostly because of the rope. Actually, with the rope it was rather fun, and I found myself going much too fast, doing stupid things like jumping, and intentionally sliding down slopes while holding the rope. Despite my stupidity I made it out alive, and with only a few bumps and bruises. At the bottom I got dinner and watched Terminator on the restaurants TV. After dinner the ranger was playing songs on his guitar, all in English and many songs that I was familiar with. The best song, by far, was entitled “Don’t Eat My Cat” a tribute to Gon’s (the Ranger) cat. Also listening to the music were two beautiful German women, an actor and a director, who turned out to be excellent company over the next day and a half (“Yeah, I did the hike earlier, but you know what, I bet it would be fun to do again tomorrow with you two!”).

 If this entry gets any longer than not even my mother will bother finishing it, so I will let a few pictures tell the story.