You would never believe that you're in Thailand once you arrive at Ao Nang. Anywhere you turn your head, you'll be greeted by Caucasians, not just one or two of them but a whole group. You'll hear a mixture of languages from Italian, English and god-knows-what language.
To cover more ground, we decided to rent motorcycles and ride around. We found a really cute-looking scooter for 200Baht a day and we took it.
Along Ao Nang beach, the long tail boats and speed boats "parked" by the beach stretched across the whole beach. Boatmen and tourists were seen tangled in a haggling process. Boatmen were shouting out to tourists to take up their best price for boat rides.
Our first destination was Noparatthara beach ( i hope i get the spelling correct). It has very shallow beach that extends a great deal into the sea. This part Ao Nang has more locals as compared to Ao Nang beach. We quickly moved on to our next destination, Klong Moung beach.
To reach Klong Moung beach, it was quite a long ride. We rode along trunk roads, rode past shop lots, villages, plantations etc. We stopped by a catfish farm that had around 5 ponds teemed with gigantic catfish. It gave me the shivers when i saw the school of catfishes. I could only see their whiskers and the gasping mouth right at the surface of the water. It was extremely gory and disgusting. They are so used to being fed by tourists till they thronged towards you following your every step. Even now when i thought about it, i would cringe! Sorry, no photos of disgusting creatures to share with you. Let's move on.
Klong Moung beach was surprisingly quiet and empty. Even the shops seemed to be shut. At this time around, we were already hunting for restaurants to fill our tummies. They looked too commercialized for our liking hence we persevered. We trespassed into one of the private beaches of the resorts but it was too glaring and scorching hot to enjoy the moment and to snap any photos. Hopped back onto our scooters and we headed up north to Tup Kaek beach. That would be the last accessible beach for us. Anything further up north would be too far.
Tup Kaek beach was not teeming with life either. It had rows of resorts, very exclusive, very expensive. It would be a great spot of honeymooners and families if what you want is just a get-away from the hustle and bustle of city. After Tup Kaek we headed back to Klong Moung to hunt for food. We found a restaurant called Tup Kaek thai restaurant that is situated right beside the beach. We wanted somewhere that we could eat while enjoying the sea breeze. There was not a single patron except for the waiters and waitresses. Skeptical as we were, we had no other choices.
We picked the spot on the sandy beach and ordered. I again had my thai coconut, as usual. What is a beach holiday without coconut drinks? The beach was extremely peaceful and quiet. We spotted an elderly Caucasian couple drinking by the beach. It was just so relaxing and calming. We sat down and yakked over our drink and food. After we got tired of chatting, we stared into the vast sea and enjoy the sea breeze, savoured the view. To tell you the truth, my holiday plans are always packed with activities. This is my first attempt on such a slow-paced, laid-back holiday. It isn't too bad to indulge in holidays like this once in a while, but definitely not all the time and the company makes a whole lot of difference. Boredom can come kicking in and seeping in very easily.
When the merciless sun finally showed some mercy, we hopped onto our bike and continued our journey.By afternoon 4pm we arrived back at Ao Nang feeling all sweaty and dirty. We unanimously agreed to go for a massage after a whole day ride on bike. We randomly walked into one of the spa centers that was recommended in the map and turned out pretty good. You would never be able to find a massage with that price in Malaysia! We then rushed to the beach to view the sunset.
2 comments:
I think your spelling is close enough. I call it Noppharat Thara but everyone spells it differently...
If you would have kept going past the part of Tub Kaak that you were at you would have turned right and come to the end of the road. There is an AMAZING hike there - here's a link to my review of it and a pictorial too if I remember correctly... Hang Nak Trail and Mountain Top. I just went again recently - about 6 times now - and saw a very cool thin snake. I messed with it a while and took some video. Will put up at my thai travel channel on youtube when I get a minute. Did you see that yet? http://www.youtube.com/user/thaipulsedotcom
I've never stopped at that catfish place - you thought it was sick? I'll have to stop.
You should have gone fishing!
That's funny you said you relaxed this vacation - not ran around... yeah, almost dying on the steps of Wat Tum Sua will do that to you... the energizer bunny runs out of batteries! hahahha - Thanks Nick for sharing that with us (her nickname).
Ok - gotta go. - Vern
Hi Vern, i can't remember exactly the name. Wow, even arriving Tub Kaak was considered quite a feat with the heat and the sun, phew....Would be great to be able to ride in something covered :P Let me check out your youtube later.
Err there's nothing cool about the catfish place, really unless you like to see gory, scary-looking aliens gawking at you Eww...still give me the shivers.
haha....yep this is seriously one of the most laid-back vacations i have ever had.
Take care, Vern.
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