World Backpack

Well we’ve now been here for about two months, and have just over two months left…. what to do now?

On Bottle Beach

Since we last wrote, we have gone night fishing, and spent 5 days at a place called Bottle Beach, at the northern tip of this island. I will begin with our fishing trip…. we really wanted to go fishing, instead of just a regular trip somewhere – I heard we could go night fishing, but this one tour operator insisted that we couldn’t go because the weather is no good for it at this time of year. But, we persisted, and found one for 800 Baht per person, which is about $26.00 CAD per person. That’s a crazy price, because it’s more than 800 Baht for both of us just to take a taxi to the end of the island – the spot from which our boat departed. So they picked us up at our place at six, then we took a sangthew (a truck with benches in the back) to Thongsala (the main pier town) and they stopped and were like, “We’re stopping at 7-11, want some beer?” hahaha, so we stopped and got some Chang beer (when in Rome…), and then picked up a couple more Thai people, and went to a beach that was docked with fishing boats. We walked into the water and got on a boat; then a bunch of Thai taxi drivers came on board too, and broke out the food and drinks, and then we went for about 45 minutes, and by then it was pitch black. We have never seen so many incredible stars before – it was like we were sitting in an observatory… the only other lights we could see were from the squid boats (they’re extremely bright, and apparently there’s a ton of squid there!). Then they just gave us our rods, chopped up some squid, and we started fishing!

Me on the fishing boat

Me and my catch, SHARK!

The terrifying face of my shark

It was really more like going fishing with a bunch of people instead of taking a tour, because there was no instruction or anything – we were basically tagging along. Everyone started catching these little fish (about 6-8 inches long, look sort of like piranhas) but me (Steph), so I was a little sad, but then my rod started bending and I started reeling in my line, and I could hardly do it – my rod was digging into my stomach just so I could keep holding it, and then after quite a while, a bunch of people on the boat were yelling “Shark! Shark!” I CAUGHT A SHARK! A baby bull shark! Which, in reality, means there are a couple adult bull shark parents out there with a grudge against a certain Canadian girl who took their baby, but still… it was pretty cool. I felt bad, as it’s a shark, but I didn’t intend to catch it, and it would have died if I put it back. And we ate it the next day. And it was delicious. Anyways, we then went to a couple more spots, and they were not as successful as the first one, but everyone kept catching fish. Chris caught six! About half way through the night, we stopped at a place called Bottle Beach so we could get more squid for bait and use the washrooms, and Chris met these guys who were staying there and they told him how much it was to stay there, etc., and we decided to go there in a couple days. We then got back on the boat, and attempted some more fishing, but most of the people had drank a few too many, so there wasn’t much enthusiasm. At about 12:30, we got back to the beach, bagged the fish (and shark!), and they drove us back to our place at Leela Beach. We luckily had a fridge in our room, so Chris put the fish in an extra big Ziploc bag and they stayed nice and fresh in our fridge for the night. The next day we gave them to the people at the bungalow and they said they’d cook it up for us at dinner. It was amazing – we expected them just to fry it or something, but they filleted the shark, and made some sort of salsa for on top (with tomatoes, onions and capers), and then cooked the little fish whole. It was sooo good.

Delicious! The fish we caught, and a spicy dipping sauce.

The shark’s untimely (but tasty) demise as a fillet o’ shark

The next day we went back to Bottle Beach and stayed there for 5 days. It was only 300 Baht a night (less than $10 CAD), and it was really nice. The beach was by far the nicest beach yet, unbelievably clean, and the water was absolutely perfect. It was just really nice. The people who worked there were hilarious, and one of them would only accept being referred to as Johnny Depp. The weather, however, didn’t really cooperate, and it was too windy so just sit on the beach, you always had to be sheltered somehow.

On the 19th, we left Bottle Beach and spent the day at Koh Maa, a little beach/island combo that we fell in love with last time we were here, and we were actually really disappointed. It has changed so much it’s barely recognisable; several bungalow operations have since been developed there, and the beach is really dirty, and nearly all of the coral has died. Last time we went there, I remember snorkeling and being in complete awe – the colours were so striking, and there were mass amounts of fish – but now it’s dead coral and a lot of sea weed, but some fish are still around. It’s just because the place has been so over run with tourists, snorkelers, and divers, and people don’t understand that if you touch coral for a second, the whole thing dies – but it takes years to come back. It would be like if we touched a tree every time we went hiking and it died – there would be no trees left. It’s pretty sad – but this other couple that we met at Bottle Beach also came to Koh Maa and had never been there and they thought it was lovely – so if you don’t have anything to compare it to, then it’s great. Regardless, we had a wonderful time at both Bottle Beach and Koh Maa, and on the way back to Leela beach that night we stopped in Thongsala for dinner at the market – and boy was it delicious! We had Thai pancakes with pineapple and sweet milk (they’re more like pastries, and they are square and folded up – will definitely be making those when we get home), pineapple shakes, shared some pad thai and sweet sticky rice with mango, and then had a couple of mangosteens (sometimes you can get them at the store at home – if you ever come across one, try it – they are soooo good!).

Chris with our yummy market dinner – pineapple shakes, sticky rice (right), mangosteens (centre), and pancake (bottom)

A market stall in Thongsala

Yesterday was Chris’s birthday! Hoorah! We had a lovely breakfast, then booked our tickets to Cambodia (we leave on the 29th), and then spent the day just hanging out, playing paddle ball, and relaxing. We were going to go jet skiing, but the water was rough, so we settled for a Heineken on our hammock on our porch. Later, Chris got a head, neck, and shoulder massage and a foot massage at the spa where we’re staying (my birthday gift haha), and then the people at Sarikantang set up a lovely arrangement of stringed flowers hanging off our umbrella, honeysuckle sticks, and lanterns decorated with paper butterflies. I pre-ordered the Thai Royal set dinner a couple weeks ago, so they brought that out and it was amazing! We got drinks, rice crackers with some sort of chicken gravy, red curry with beef, sweet and sour veggies with fish, and king prawns with chillies. Then they brought us sweet sticky rice with mangoes! And just when we were about to leave, they brought out the birthday cake (which I completely forgot I ordered…) and we all sang Happy Birthday! It was so nice, they’re the sweetest people.

Chris and a piece of birthday cake.

Chris and some of the birthday decorations!

As I write this, we’re sitting in an internet cafe drinking jasmine tea and Chris is looking into flights to Vietnam, Indonesia, China, and Burma. We’re trying to figure out where else we want to go, our plans are kind of screwed up because of the weather, so we are thinking of flying somewhere else for a week or so because flights are so cheap and we have our triple entry visas. We’re leaving Cambodia (back to Bangkok) on the 6th of July, then we might explore around there (go to some markets, then up to Ayuthaya, Sukothai, and there’s a Tiger Temple north of Bangkok that looks pretty amazing), then we might just fly right out of there again for a week. Our plans for volunteering may not work out, as the whole country, except for where we are, is getting hit pretty hard with monsoon season, and there’s apparently a lot of flooding and such, so it restricts what we’ll be able to do.

That’s all we’ve got at the moment, hopefully we’ll have more plans by the time we write next! We hope everyone is wonderful, miss you, see you in about 9 weeks!

xo – Chris and Steph

PS – HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!!!

RHINO BEETLE!