Day 33 - Thursday, March 17 - Ko Tarutao / Ko Lipe

Woke up pretty early as the sun was up, the waves were crashing, and I had a samll gecko crawling on my head. I took a most excellent outdoor, got dressed, and walked along one of the many trails that criss crossed the park. The inside of the island was thich jungle while the sand around the beach was powdery white. It really was quite spectacular and I was loving every minute of it.

I had breakfast at Café Tarutao as it was still the only choice. I had some fresh fruit that was grown on the island and some eggs that given the absense of chickens on the island, assume they came over to Tarutao on the boat with me.

After breakfast, I found my friend, the English speaking Park Ranger, and planned my morning. For 400 baht, I got on a long tail boat and traveled through miles of mangroves on Tarutao's largest stream, the Khlong Phante Malaka and finally arrived at Tham Jara-Khe (Crocodile Cave), only accessable by boat. When we got to the entrance of the caves, we got out of the boat, walked up some rocky path and back down into a little stream of water and into the caves. Unlike all previous 3 caves I’ve been in during my trip, this was prepared for the tourist. It had ropes, small ambient lights, and signage explaing all the different formations. The first half mile of the walk was on floating bamboo rafts. The stalactites and stalagmites were awesome. After getting to solid ground, the caves went on for another mile or so and then we turned back.

Back on the boat is when I declared this day, “Marc is a Geek Day”. For another 600 baht, I had arranged for the boat to take me on a tour of the parts of the island where they filmed Survivor. We went to both beaches where the teams stayed, the site of all the challenges, and the site where they built Tribal Council. Although, completely gone, and not a sighting of anything Survivor, it was very cool for a Survivor geek like me.

Back at the Ranger Station, I paid my bill for the boat ride and my one night campiong and waited for the boat to Ko Lipe. There was really nothing to stay on Tarutao for, especially traveling solo.

The boat, supposed to leave at noon, finally arrived at 1:15P. I got on, went to the top deck, and watched as we pulled away from one of the most beautiful parks I’ve ever been in. The water was still green, the beaches white, and from the sea, it was almost more beautiful than from land.

On the boat, I met Logan, a 24 year old traveling the “world” and his parents, Marlow and Les, who are visiting him for 3 weeks and seeing parts of Malaysia and Thailand. We chatted it up, and after traveling 2 hours into the middle of Ko Tarutao National Marine Park, passing many many many of it’s uninhabited islands, slowly made our way to Ko Lipe. This water surrounding the island was the bluest water and whitest beaches I’ve ever seen. Could this be possible being that I just came from the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. On the boat, we also met Jeff, a Kansas City native, who after owning a bar on Phi Phi for 5 years, gave it up 2 years ago to open another bar of the same name, Karma, on Ko Lipe. He told us a good place to stay and gave us directions to his bar which wasn’t going to be hard to find as it was on the beach next to the bungalow operation he recommended.

The boat landed just off the shore of Lipe and long-tail boats came to meet us and take up to the respected beaches. We got to the “Mountain Resort” but it was full. We walked to “Andaman Resort” and they had rustic beach bungalows that looked sort of what I stayed in at Khlong Jak and I took one for 400 baht. No Air Con, but everone seemed to say it cooled down a bit at night on this side of the island. We put our bags down, and met on the beach for an afternoon swim. We met Gail and Kim, a Canadian couple traveling for 3 months and we all swam, floated, relaxed, and talked.

After the swim, we went to “Mountain Resort” for dinner and some Chang. After dinner, we went to Karma, Jeff’s bar, and enjoyed a fire show, some beer, and conversation. Everyone slowly made their way to their bungalows and Logan and I went for a swim as we heard there was phosphorescence in the water.

http://www.amonline.net.au/explore/faqs/phosphorescence.htm

The only place I've ever heard of or read about phosphorescence was from reading "The Beach". WOW! It's one of the coolest things I've ever seen. When in the water and moving your hands, arms, and body about, it looks as if there are tiny white lights almost like fireworks in the water. The link above will give a brief explanation and you can read further if you want.

After an hour of amazement, it was time for bed.