We spent our last day on Koh Mook exploring the island. After breakfast we headed out to explore the village on foot. We crossed over to the other side of the little peninsula that housed our resort and headed back towards the island.
We spent our last day on Koh Mook exploring the island. After breakfast we headed out to explore the village on foot. We crossed over to the other side of the little peninsula that housed our resort and headed back towards the island.
Butted-up against our resort is another nicer resort, Pawapi Resort. It looked comparable to Sivalai Beach Resort. I asked a Beach-goer, who I believe was European but spoke good English, about their stay and she said it was very nice and they were happy with their choice.
The Village in Koh Mook
As we made it past the resort and into the start of the village/locals area the scenery changed quickly. Like some other reviews I had read stated there is a lot of garbage that is washed up on the beach, as well as littered around their structures.
It is my opinion that their lives are centered around seeking the basics for survival that thought on taking care of a bigger picture, the environment, is off of their radar. We did see one location where it was obvious that garbage was being sorted for recycling, but when walking through the heart of the local’s living quarters the amount of trash littered everywhere is disheartening.We walked past a small trinket shop where everything has been hand made from coconut shells or palm tree. Together we gathered three large kitchen spatulas/choppers, three soup spoons, an elephant carving and five coconut shell rings for a total of $23.
Scooter Adventure…
About an hour into our exploration Dale was over walking and we rented scooters. It cost $250 Baht ($7.50) to rent a scooter for 24 hours. Pretty steep, haha. They drive on the left side of the road in Thailand, the ‘road’ is pretty narrow and there is quite a bit of scooter and taxi traffic. It was a little nerve-wracking. Dale and Kadie are adventure-seeking dare devils, while Chase, Dawn and I were a little more cautious/nervous. Dawn and I both laid out scooters down by driving off the edge of the road (there is no shoulder and in most places it is about a six inch drop off the side of the road). No harm was done though, at least physically. Just our pride. #laughatyourself
We scootered over to Charlie Beach to have lunch at the cafe on the cliff, Ko Yao Viewpoint Restaurant. There was a giant ball of bait fish close to the shore that was being assaulted by a couple teen boys. It was interesting to watch as they would scatter and reform. We realized that we had seen this ball of fish when we had been there a couple days earlier, but without them being disrupted we had thought it was a rock!
We scootered back to our resort and spent a couple hours down time relaxing/napping in the A/C in our bungalows. Kadie was too hot to swim in the pool even!
Dinner Options in Koh Mook
Once it cooled down a bit we made our way back into the village for dinner. On the way to Charlie Beach is Hilltop Restaurant. The smells wafting from it as we drove past the night before were amazing. We weren’t so lucky this night though, as after waiting about 20 minutes post ordering we were told that the cook was MIA!
Back to the village center we went and ate at the place with the giant prawns. Kadie skipped the crab this time! We all shared a plateful of prawns, sans Chase who is anti-seafood.
Mr. Ott was our taxi driver. He not only taxi’s on his day off, but also after work. The language barrier was pretty substantial, but he worked hard to try to communicate and answer our questions.
We returned our scooters and called it a night. I gathered and packed some of our things before going to bed in preparation for our departure the next morning. Dale would tell you we spent one too many days on Koh Mook. If you are the type that enjoys laying on the beach with a good book this is a great place to do it, but if you are the type that wants an adventure every day than four nights is probably long enough.
If you enjoy these vacation posts you would enjoy reading about the best snorkeling we have every experienced here!
