Day 2
I started Day 2 with a visit to the gym at the W Bangkok Hotel. The view out the 6th floor window made it easy to daydream about what life must be like on a day to day basis in Bangkok, as well as anticipate all the adventures we would find in Southern Thailand.
Afterwards I returned to my room, quickly showered and finished packing then we headed to the airport to catch our flight into southern Thailand; Trang to be exact. The cost of flights from Bangkok into southern Thailand are crazy cheap – like $30-40 each way. I’m not sure why all of Bangkok doesn’t fly south almost every weekend!
Heading to Southern Thailand
The flight took just under an hour and a half. We had set up transportation from the airport to the pier through our resort. Our driver was waiting for us upon arrival. It was about an hour drive from the airport to the pier where Mr. Ott was waiting for us to take us the rest of the way by longtail boat, which took about twenty more minutes. The cost for transportation to the resort for five of us was 1200 Baht ($32).
Sivalai Beach Resort, Koh Mook Island
We chose to stay at the Sivalai Beach Resort on Koh Mook Island for five nights. From our research there are three ‘main’ resorts to choose from on Koh Mook. The one we chose, which is located on a sandy point that juts out into the ocean so it is surrounded on three sides by water with beautiful soft sand beaches, one in the center of the island that is new and minimal-modern in its decor with concrete walls and a 15 minute walk to the beach or one at Charlie Beach that is a very reasonably priced, no frills option. There are other options, but those were the three that we narrowed it down to choose from.
Note: Across Thailand hotel rooms are designed with one large bed and one twin bed that usually doubles as a bed/sitting area. When making hotel bookings they only allow three people per room in a lot of them. So if you are a family of four and try to search for a room to hold two adults and two children your search will often yield ‘No Availability’ because their rooms are not designed to accommodate four people.
After making the trip through the village and seeing the other resorts we were happy with our choice. It is a bit shocking to see the conditions in which the locals live. Their homes are huts that house no beds or furniture. They sleep on the floor, eat their meals on the floor and appear to have no electricity or running water. Sadly, there is little pride in one’s property and there is garbage strewn all over the village. I believe it is partially because there is not really anywhere to go with the garbage and partially a lack of good stewardship for the environment. I would think that the government or resorts on the island would take the initiative to clean things up to provide tourists a better experience. The water is beautiful, the snorkeling is really good and most of the beaches are amazing. There is a garbage problem though that I hope will be addressed sooner rather than later.
We checked into our rooms and changed into swimsuits, then took a Koh Mook style taxi, which is a scooter with a form of multi-person sidecar attached to it, to Charlie Beach. We got there in time to take in the scenery, watch the sun set and then have dinner at what looked to be quite a dive. I was beyond skeptical and was fearing the worst, but could not have been more mistaken. Although there were not any ‘kid-friendly’ menu items such as pizza or mac n cheese the food was amazing. I ordered Pad Thai (which is listed as Pat Thai on the menus here). We also had a whole grilled fish, tempura shrimp and fried rice and everyone agreed their meal was delicious.
We returned to our resort and took a walk on the beach back to our bungalows. The beach was covered in hermit crabs and their tracks. At one point I could count fifteen of them right in from of me. It was a fun experience.
Word of warning: Thai beds are really hard. Almost like plywood with a sheet on it. I brought some ZzzQuil with me to help me sleep, knowing this could be an issue. I considered buying a small, packable air mattress to bring along but decided I didn’t want to take up that much room in my suitcase.
Day 3
Our plan going into Day 3 was to have a lazy day – play at the beach, swim in the pool, lounge around with no set schedule. However, that plan quickly changed. Partly because the weather forecast was saying the next day was going to be stormy and partly because Dale has a hard time sitting still for any length of time.
Breakfast Buffet
We started with breakfast, which was buffet style with an omelette bar. Fresh fruit, some pastries, toast, bacon, sausage, pancakes. A rather safe, American-style breakfast. The coffee was good too. I usually think the coffee is too strong, but it was good.
Snorkeling at Ko Kraden
After breakfast we headed to the pool while Dale planned our day, then we took off on a snorkeling trip. We were taken by longtail boat to an adjacent island, Ko Kraden. We saw a variety of fish from small Wrasses to large Parrotfish. There were a few large brain corals, but not much else for coral. We did see an eel poke it’s head out of a rock that I am guessing was about three foot long. He was white with black spots. Plus one more small eel that was camouflaged on top of a rock.
Lunch on Ko Kraden
After snorkeling we went to shore at Ko Kraden and had lunch at the island’s restaurant. The food wasn’t as good as it had been the night before, but it was still good. I ordered the Pad Thai again so could make a direct comparison. We spent a few minutes enjoying the best rope swing in the world before calling it.
Pool Time at Sivalai Beach Resort
We returned to the resort pool after our snorkel trip and spent a couple hours there. The kids were happy and quickly made friends with some European children. They played fetch the coins and were thoroughly entertained.
Resort Spa
At 5:00 we hit the spa where we enjoyed a 60 minute Swedish massage and a 30 minute foot massage for a whopping $45 per person. It was heavenly.
Dinner at the Resort
Afterwards we cleaned up and headed to dinner at our resort. Grilled tiger prawns was the special of the night and they were very good. The resort doesn’t want shoes worn into the buildings – bungalows, the spa and even the restaurant. I thought it was odd at breakfast, but for some reason it hit me as even stranger at dinner. Opposite of the US where shoes are required in restaurants. Kind of makes you feel like you are living dangerously… ok, not really.
We still have much to look forward to on this trip. I hope you will stop back in to read about our other adventures. Day 1 of our adventures was a pretty great start to the trip!
