Our last full day in ao nang was spent island hopping around five islands to the north west of the area. We actually travelled for about 40kns on the motorbike, all behind Gerhard in his 4x4, until at last we reached the pier, a full hour later with very numb bums.
In the boat with us were only three other people, Annie from Seattle and a really friendly couple from Madrid. First up was Hong island, a beautiful island that had a secluded bay, a picture postcard Image of beauty. Although incredibly busy lending to the time of year, it was a beautiful place. Before we left that morning, Gerhard had given us a plastic bag with old chopped up banana, skin on, which we thought was slightly odd. Maybe an attempt at that whacky German 'humour'. Ironically, there is no word in German to describe sense of humour or small talk for that matter, which kind of makes sense when you meet Gerhard. Lovely but slightly robotic. Anyway bananas. We were slightly confused as to why we had been given these, maybe a snack in desperate measures if we were to be washed up on the beach? When we got to the beach, all would become clear. Hundreds of tropical fish had congregated to the right of the beach and were surrounding a group of people who were feeding them bananas, bread and beef burgers, all to the delight of the hungry and bloated fish. An awesome sight, even if they did take a good nibble out of shells legs, not that they'd get much!
From there we sailed around four more islands, all uninhabited until we reached the last one. We sailed in under a very low natural arch and into a narrow passage that had been carved through the islet. We were the only ones there and even a whisper echoed dramatically through the rocks. The scene was almost recognisable, like you'd seen it already in apocalypse now.
Back on dry land, we notched up the miles again on the return journey before riding down past the hotel and into ao nang to catch the sunset. In the end we missed it by about an hour but settled for buying yet more takeaway pizzas and beer (we aren't beasts-we promise!) and sitting on the beach. As we sat there, hundreds of lanterns were being let off around us whilst a guy at the other end of the beach played with his fire poi. To make things better, we had the iPhone speakers so spent ages passing the iPhone to each other after each song. Naturally, shell chose mostly Florence and the machine and I, The Smiths. Just so you know. Im trying to set the scene here! Pure perfection though, needed before what the next two days would bring.
The next morning we were picked up early for our three hour drive to Phuket airport for the incredibly annoying visa run, something we had been dreading for a while, more because we are stupid and passed up the opportunity to buy Thai visa outside of Thailand in any of the eight countries prior to this! We actually got to the airport at 2pm and with the flight to Kuala Lumpur not till 10pm, we had time to kill. After a brief bicker I convinced shell to follow me out of the airport (down the main concourse!) in pursuit of beach. Although we were both in foul moods given this stupid visa run, we found a killer piece of deserted beach, even here on brash Phuket, we had stumbled upon a stretch of sand, maybe 2 miles long, that had not a soul on it. We stayed there for a few hours after pleading with a woman who tried to charge us 200 baht for entering a 'national park', and succeeding. I think they saw my forehead veins.
The flight over was fine enough, we had managed to track down a small place selling brandy shots so decided to create a new mix of latte-brandy for our non sleepathon. Entering KL, we settled down in Starbucks for the night, safe in the knowledge that our next flight wasn't for another seven hours....
The flight back was fine up until we came into land, ten metres away from the runway. At that point the plane, with wheels almost touching the ground, suddenly thrust upwards as if taking off. A clearly shaken captain immediately came on the speaker to explain that air-traffic control had instructed him to abandon the landing as winds were blowing the plane viciously downwards. Now, I am a terrible flyer but to turn around to see shells panic stricken face nearly sent me over the edge, as did the deathly silence that had gripped the clearly shaken passengers. I suppose we would be very lucky to have all of our flights pass without incident this year but I hope to god that I will never feel fear in the way that I did for those brief moments again.
Anyway, the big reason for this annoying trip was yet to come, the immigration stamp for another thirty days. As the queue got shorter our anxiety stepped up a good five notches. Reaching the desk I think I may have had the appearance of an international drug smuggler. We had been frought with worry as we had only left Thailand a few hours earlier plus our original stamp didn't actually expire until the 26th. With this in mind, with the previous 24 hours firmly in mind, he couldn't have made me sweat more if he had tried. He stared at me, the clock above me, the rules and regulations behind him and then finally to the guy to his right. He knew what I wanted but he just had to make me sweat. He knew he was, in relation to our small world anyway, in complete control, and he was clearly milking his elevated position. After literally five minutes of severe procrastination he stamped the metal contraption down onto my increasingly filled passport. The sound was beautiful. Shell soon followed and we must have looked even more suspicious as we whooped and high-fived as we skipped out of the airport. Done and dusted...not exactly. After negotiating a fare to the harbour it dawned on us that another six hours awaited us for the next ferry back to Krabi. This time with no beach near us, just hoards and hoards of teenage Brits cramming themselves onto undersized boats to take them to ko phi-phi.
Eight hours later we were back in ao nang and lying on the beach, almost dead to the world through both sleep deprivation and emotional turmoil. Still...done and dusted, and despite the overall grubbiness, we were ecstatic, another uninterrupted thirty days in paradise. Bring on Christmas on Koh Lanta!!
Much love comrades, Tommo xxx
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