Pancakes, plankton, and pirates

This past weekend I went to the mysterious and often overlooked island of Koh Tarutao. Boy was it an adventure!

My adventure started a week earlier when I booked a room on Koh Lipe instead. For some reason my booking didn't go through and I decided to do something else. Well I thought about going to Krabi for about two days then botched that plan because I didn't want to travel that far. And finally I thought about going to Koh Tarutao. I tossed around this idea for about a day. Was decided to stay home and be bored in Satun, but then at about 9pm Friday night, I changed my mind and went home to pack for my island adventure!

(In front of the entrance to Tarutao National Park)

I left early in the morning to catch the hour long ride to Pakbara Pier, booked a boat ride over and what ensued was a terrifying longtail boat ride through open water with waves as big as the boat. The reason I was on a longtail was because 7 others and myself arrived to the travel agency at about the same time and wanted the make an 11:00 speedboat. Well apparently there was no speedboat, or it was full, or something, but anyways our agent found us a longtail boat leaving within 30 minutes. Rather than wait for a speedboat, we hopped on and took a terrifying 2 hour ride.

Anyways, we made it to the island, paid our entrance fee and booked some bungalows. The group I met were so nice and I even shared a bungalow with one of them and did most other things with them too! So we got settled and hot the beach! There were about 20 bungalows at Ao Moe Lae and all of them were filled. But, despite there being between 30-40 people on our beach, it was so quiet and seemed like no one was there! The beaches had maybe 5 people on them and just around the corner were more beaches uninhabited and littered with, well litter, and shells!

Pancakes. Oh my lanta were these the mother of all pancakes! They were huge and fluffy and super yummy! Add some pineapple and wowza talk about a filling breakfast!

(Ao Thalo Wao pier)

On Sunday, I took a solo adventure and took the 12 kilometer bike ride to Ao Thalo Wao. This is the original pier for the island and the National Park headquarters. It was a tough ride and I had to walk about 3 km worth up and down hills. The bike's brakes sucked so bad that biking down the extremely STEEP decline was the safest way to get down without going into light speed! The pier alone was worth the ride, but the Historical Trail that was near the pier was very informational and cool!

Pirates. So Tarutao was originally an island full of criminals. Thailand sent criminals to Tarutao because there was no hope of escape, between the sheer cliffs and shark infested waters, escape was a far off dream. At one point there were 3,000 criminals on the island, but between the years 1941-45, half of the population died due to malaria and other diseases. After WWII prisoners were no longer sent to the island and everyone all but forgot about this southern rock. The prisoners and guards teamed up and turned to piracy to get supplies. They raided ships traveling between Thailand and Malaysia and hid their goodies on neighboring islands.

(I should mention that I rode a bike a total of 25 kilometers and walked a total of 6 because of the hills and another 2 because I got a flat tire on the way home. Thankfully it was so close to the bungalows! Lucky break!)

Over the years, everyone died or left and the island became a National Park for its natural beauty and pristine waters. Now, there is one main taxi that is more of a tank on wheels in order to get over the mountains and only a few of the local staff have motorbikes. Walking and biking are the main methods of transportation here! The island is only open during the high season and closes for the rest of the year. There is a lot of history on this island and is practically unknown to most travelers.

(My neon bike. Worst brakes ever, hardest seat ever, coolest bike ride!)

Plankton. On the last night on the island once it got dark, a quick dip in the ocean proved that there is luminescent plankton that glow when moved! Walking in the dark before the moon rose fully, we were able to play with the plankton and experience this phenomenon. Even though it wasn't like the pictures where there are like fields of glowing water, and it was more like little lightning bugs in the water, it was pretty cool!

This was such a quiet and relaxing weekend and I am SO glad I went to Koh Tarutao!

(More photos will be on Facebook, so look there to see what else this trip was like!)