The beautiful islands in the Andaman Sea of southern Thailand have always been slightly enigmatic to me: A place of heard beauty, which I knew existed, where friends had visited and regaled awesome adventurous if not lunar stories. A place I knew existed, but I never quite imagined I would ever visit, nor did I have a burning desire to do so. I am mightily glad we did! Our last “hurrah” on holidays…..our final bit of sunshine before heading into the bleaker European Winter (I get goosebumps thinking of it!).
We flew into Krabi airport, after realizing at Bangkok airport that Daniel’s passport was missing: he boarded the flight accidentally using his old cancelled passport – no one noticed! A driver was supposed to be waiting for us in Krabi, to bring us to Aonang. We couldn’t find our name in any board, nor the hotel name we were going to. The dispersing airport crowd was thinning fast as passengers went their respective ways. We scanned the awaiting drivers again….all three of them….until we spied a driver holding up a sign saying “Kind Regards”, and Daniel laughed and told him that it was like having “Ka pun kap” on his sign. He laughed and was a bit embarrassed. I twigged just then, and asked him whether he was awaiting to take someone to our hotel name. He said yes! It’s how we had signed off the email requesting to get picked up from the airport. Daniel is now rechristened “kind regards”!
Daniel spent the initials at on the phone to potential places in Bangkok it could have gone missing, police, embassies and airlines, in a mild panic, given we are leaving within a week.
After we addressed this not do minor hiccup and bureaucratic hurdle, we got on with enjoying our last few days. We rented some scooters and off we went!
The land is verdant and lush with palm and banana trees. The karstic outcrops are a dramatic backdrop to the scenery.
Ilona and I took an island hopping snorkeling boat trip, to the idyllic sun kissed, turquoise shallow waters and white sands (washed up from the surrounding coral) of the Hong Islands. All was going swimmingly well as Ilona acquainted herself for the first time with using a snorkel….until…..we snorkeled in the open water, along a coral ridge. Ilona managed to step on a sea urchin and got stinging spines in her right foot. There was no vinegar or lemon juice available on the islands, (after I had a task of hauling her back to the boat, without her going under water, as she was really in pain) which would break down the spines. One of the crew tapped it for about 15 min to try to break them, and rubbed some sort of masticated date paste onto it, when we reached the next island. She did snorkel again after that, but we had to treat her foot with vinegar and lemon when we got back ashore, and tackle the 1.5cm spine lodged in her big toe with a needle and tweezers! Yikes!
The landscapes and seascapes are amazing. The King has a holiday home on the mainland, overlooking the islands.
Aonang was pretty devastated in the 2004 Tsunami; the captain of our boat luckily had a day off, on that Boxing Day – otherwise he would have been out at sea. He lost many friends and colleagues.
Daniel ended his trip early, to get to Bangkok as soon as possible on Monday, to ensure a swift issuing of temporary travel documents. The NZ Embassy were lifesavingly helpful….and hopefully we will have no trouble leaving the country.
The mystery as to what happened his passport is nagging though, and we hope it wasn’t stolen (but can’t think of a time it could have been)…..
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