« Koh Payam | Main | Volunteers »
November 03, 2005
Paradise
Koh Payam is a small island of the coast of Ranong, Thailand immediately south of the Burmese coast line. At approximately 6km by 13km, it is a little on the small side. No air port, a single dock for boats and only a few hundred Thai and Burmese inhabitants. There are about ten or some bungalows and resorts, many of which are closed during the low season: later summer to end of fall.
There are basically two paved roads on the island, one of which is considered the main road as it runs out of ‘town’. The secondary road is pretty messy and not so fun to navigate...especially in the dark. Legend has it that there are two cars on the island although I only saw one during my entire twelve day stay. Otherwise, the left-side-of-the-road drivers are all on scooters. I shared a Honda Econoline scooter with Christine (of Biel, Switzerland) most of the time. As she likes driving, has a mild Type A personality affliction, and most importantly actually has a proper motorcycle license, she did most of the driving. She’s also got a thirst for speed—-we topped out at 80kph once, which is amazing in hindsight considering the state of the roads and the size of the island.
It is about a 2.5 hour boat ride from Ranong. (150 Baht for Farang, 100 Baht for Thais.) The twice a day 15m wooden boats are slow and very ‘rustic’. Weather and cargo permitting, one can climb up to the front and just sort of hang out and take in the sights, which I did on my return along with this friendly dog that I got along with. There are two piers in Ranong from which the ferry departs and returns to depending on the tides. I had to climb up onto a fishing vessel and then the dock with my 15kg pack wearing only flip flops under very dodgy circumstances on my return trip.
My lodgings consisted of a leaky grass hut on the beach (250 Baht/night) at the Bamboo Bungalows run by this Israeli guy (Uli), his wife (Nok), his brother (Ronnie), and a mixed Thai and Burmese staff. They’ve got this wonderfully relaxed way of running things there: no passport, credit card or other deposit was required on check in...just choose your favorite bungalow. There were more upscale huts to choose from, but none of those where a mere 10m from the beach like mine was. Several evenings there were spent on my front porch watching the sun set in the warm ocean breeze.
The food served there, when available, was usually fantastic and never dipped below good. The Thai was predictable excellent. The 80 Baht spaghetti plate was surprisingly good. They make their own home made bred for sandwiches that all the other guests and I were very impressed with.
At one point we had this strange Bamboo-Hawaii connection: I’ve lived there for 7.5 years on Oahu, Ronnie lived on Maui for a few years, and three other guests (Jason & Kara (Kauai, Big Island, & Molokai) and Caroline (Big Island). Maybe they could rename it Kamaina Bungalows? Since there was not even a dozen guests at the time, this seems somehow significant...in a probably pointless sense.
Bamboo Bungalows is located on Aow Yai Beach along with a few other joints. At the end of the ~3km long beach is a place called the Rasta Baby Bar which lights up a bonfire every evening at sun set. The drinks are a little pricey but many people seemed to be hanging out there. (Well, a dozen or so last time I went...it is low season after all.) They’ve got this big swing out front which is pretty cool. Christine took a liking to it right quick. They guys working there are really nice and seem to smoke lots of grass.
Koh Payam is a cozy little island and I am thinking about spending my mid-December to early January time there. It is high season for the Bamboo Bungalows, but they half promised to let come back at a discount. As Ronnie pointed out my last day: “Stu, you’ve sort of become part of the scenery already!”
A note on the ‘Koh’ prefix for islands: apparently the translation from Thai to other languages is not so systematic and this results in some variety of spellings. Specifically with ‘Koh’ (island in Thai), it is frequently translated as ‘Ko’ and ‘Kho’. For some reason or another native German speakers love to use ‘Kho’. Many of my fellow Animal Care Payam friends referred to the island in writing as ‘Kho Payam’. Interesting, huh? I learned all this on a Lonely Planet Thorn Tree discussion board a while back.
Posted by stu at November 3, 2005 10:14 AM