Ellen Besso Coaching

My friend Jill was saying the other day that she’d like to hear more about the beautiful island where we spent the last 3 weeks of our trip. I had intended to write about it but life kind of intervened…

Getting to the the island is a bit of an effort. Also the beach at the resort is not a pristine one so the hoards of beach party people avoid it which adds to its specialness.

We were met at the Krabi airport by my brother, who had arranged for a driver in a flashy pick-up truck to take us and our stuff to the ferry. It took less than an hour to get to the ferry dock in a tiny village built on stilts along the waterfront. The women of the town were reserved but smiled back at me, while the men stared more.

We didn’t have long to wait for the ferry. It was called a long tail boat and held us, our bags, my brother and several other men with motorcycles. With slight modifications (such a slide-down ramp in our case) these boats are used as ferries, tourist boats and cargo boats. The ride to the government dock on our island took only about five minutes. Each island has a substantial government dock. The motorcylists can’t disembark at the dock as there are steep steps there and the motorcycle would have to be lifted up by several men; it’s been done of course. So my brother and the Thai men stayed on the ferry and travelled a little farther along to a beach landing.

We waited on the dock for our pick-up for the next leg of our journey. After about 15 minutes a battered, rusty old pick-up truck backed slowly down the long dock to the end where we waited. The dock was so long because of tides and the very shallow water. We climbed up into the back of the truck and sat in the back with our bags, driving several miles across the island on rutted dirt roads to our resort.

I hadn’t realized in advance how off the beaten path we were headed. I thought we would take a very short boat ride from shore and arrive immediately at the resort. I also thought the internet cafe was in the little town on the shore, but in actuality it was all the way into Krabi town.

The island is without electricity, although it will be hooked up by the end of this year since it’s on the way to a larger tourist island that’s scheduled for electricity. It’s rustic but our lives there were not very rough. Electricity was produced by generators from 7 to 12 pm, cold showers were available (on a hot afternoon the water coming out of the tap was warm, but who needs hot water when it’s up to 35 degrees Celsius (around 95 or 100 F). Many wonderful meals are turned out daily by the lovely Thai staff for the western tourists from all over the world – Germany, France, Canada, the U.S., Great Britain, Australia. Food is cooked on propane stoves and ingredients kept fresh on ice, received daily from the mainland. Many of the guests have come annually for many years, often owning their own small homes on leased land.

But the real charm of the place is the tranquil atmosphere. Our little rental house was at the very end of the resort, with a high deck with a panoramic view of the sea and the outlying islands. There was enough entertainment just sitting on the deck to satisfy us for much of each day – we watched the tide come in and slowly cover the base of the mangrove trees, then retreat backward, the boats go by delivering people and goods around the neighbourhood, the swimmers and down on the lawn and in the jungle beside us, the monkeys provided a side show all of their own. Coconuts, their dietary mainstay, abound in the area, so they don’t have much to do. When they’ve finished picking coconuts they spend their time playing, fight amongst themselves (the males), and annoy the humans by stealing or breaking their belongings if they get access to their houses!

When I first arrived I felt a bit trapped and wondered how on earth I would pass 3 whole weeks there. But after 2 or 3 days had gone by I relaxed into the slow, slow pace of the island. Our schedule revolved around meals and swimming, and each evening at 5 pm we looked forward to a game of Bolle (somewhat like lawn bowling with our Swiss friends. The longer one stays, the harder it is to leave. But eventually the day arrived when we had to make the return trip back to Krabi, take a short flight to Bangkok, then the next afternoon fly back to Vancouver via Taipei.

Unfortunately I’m unable to post pictures at the moments as that part of the program is not working.