Thanks to a mix-up at the Hostel in Ao Nang I’m currently on a three hour bus ride back to Phuket Town. What I booked last night was a ferry, or it was supposed to be. On the bright side, more blog posts, and more cash in my pocket! Other than the transportation snafu K-Bunk was one of the better hostels I’ve stayed in thus far. It could have used a few more showers and bathrooms, but the staff was amusing and I met quite a few fun and interesting people from all over the world.
Oh and their “Infamous K-Burger” was pretty good, ~$6.00 for a high quality burger and good shoestring fries. It’s a bit expensive for food in Thailand, but coming off of food poisoning having something that reminded of home was more than welcome. As a reference, last night I had a fresh mango smoothy and chicken pineapple fried rice for 90 baht (about $2.75).
For those of you following my Snapchat story, and I highly recommend you do (I post…a lot), you may have noticed a lack of anything from yesterday. Unfortunately I was not allowed a phone for the day’s activities.The hostel offered a kayaking tour on a mangrove filled reservoir owned by a local man. A hostel worker explained that the man initially refused their request to offer tours, wishing to keep the location a watering-hole known exclusively to the locals. Apparently he was only willing to concede access if the hostel agreed to this no photo stipulation. So I still have no photos for you, but I will now describe it to you in painful detail :)
we began by splashing about with the locals in the raya? (I need to see if I can find the word for what it was…okay I couldn’t, but that’s definitely not accurate), we then ate lunch as it started to pour. The rain here comes in squalls, but due to the intense heat and humidity cool rain sometimes offers a welcome reprieve. We embarked on our tour despite the conditions, trying to navigate with extremely limited visibility thanks to the rain. At that point I was definitely glad that I couldn’t bring my phone. I shared my Kayak with a Kiwi, who I ended up spending quite a bit of time with after the kayaking back at the hostel. I’m not sure I ever knew his name, but I imagine I did very early on.
The open part of the reservoir was filled with tree stumps and rocks just under the water, they were especially hard to see in the rain. There were periodic arrows directing us which became incredibly helpful after the tour guide broke off with a few kayaks at the head of the pack. She definitely didn’t seem concerned with stragglers, so when we looked back and saw a capsized kayak we took it upon ourselves to head back and help out. The kayak belonged to Annabelle and Hannah, two travelers from Leeds, who we had been friendly with earlier. After helping to right their kayak and stabilizing it as they pulled themselves from the water, we decided to swap partners in an attempt to catch up to the others. Annabelle ended up in my Kayak and the New Zealander ended up helping Hannah. At this point the group was completely out of sight and we had to rely on the limited arrows for direction. We ended up slaloming through trees in a mangrove at times guessing the correct next turn until we reached an opening where the rest of the group had been waiting.
It was still pouring as we sat at our destination. The original intent for the tour was to have us swim and drink when we arrived, but having paddled through the downpour people seemed at the very least, less than excited. Some spent time trying to hide under leaves in an attempt at impromptu shelter, an incredibly frivolous act at this point, the sun managed to burn through. A consequence of the rain, about a dozen large spiders emerged. Floating alive in the water, the spiders proceeded to climb aboard the Kayaks. And as you might imagine, most kayakers were really not interested in 2’’-3’’ spiders sharing their vessels. It was probably the most amusing part of the tour, watching people jump from kayak to kayak in an attempt to avoid contact, while others attempted to knock them back into the water with their paddles. As such, jumping into the water wasn’t really an option for safety. People started freaking out and we were all but forced to embark on the return journey. As we made it out of the mangrove the sun began beaming, it made for a truly beautiful experience. Basking in the sun, paddling the calm water of the reservoir.
All and all, I’d give it an A-.
Other notable things from the day, Back at the hostel I watched Fired Up a cheerleading spoofish movie with a member of the Canadian national cheerleading team. I had seen the movie many times before and so had she. Thanks to her knowledge, I was able to learn truly how ridiculous the movie is. I then booked what I thought was a ferry as this post began, and turned in for an early night as I had agreed to set an alarm for 7:30 for a fellow traveler who had lost his phone
And now here we are!
I’m going to try and be much better about getting these up. I’ll try for two a day for the next few days as I back fill the parts of the trip that I missed and then another with the daily updates.
I have at least one other, and possibly more that will go up today. I’m going to do my best to pace them out.
Safe Travels,
Aaron