Page 102 - quebec
P. 102
Dear Ron,
We drove around the island today. Most people
rent motorbikes, we rented a car. Well, not
exactly a car. More like an overgrown golf cart.
No sides, aluminum roof. Thank god it’s not
rainy season. Of course there’s the problem of
driving on the wrong side of the road. And the
steering wheel’s on the wrong side, too.
The central part of the island is mountainous
and wooded. So the paved roads mostly hug the
coast. We drove past banana groves and rubber
tree plantations -- little cups stuck on the
trunks catching rubber sap. Mangrove swamps
fringe much of the island as do the villages of
fisherfolk, who’ve built their tin-roofed homes
on stilts out over the water. Aground in tidal
flats, long-tails wait for high tide, their bows
draped with brightly colored scarves. Every so
often we pass a sign pointing out the tsunami
evacuation route.
In the afternoon we trekked to Had Yao Beach.
We say “trekked” because there’s no paved road. a guy was selling bottled water and soft drinks. Two hundred yards
There’s hardly a road at all. More like a mountain bike trail. After up the beach, a young couple was sunbathing nude. There wasn’t
winding through the jungle for a half hour we reached a steep, rut- anybody else
ted stretch that disappeared over a rise ahead of us. We looked at the
ruts. We looked at the big golf cart. We parked and started walking. Love
Amazingly, Had Yao Beach was just over the rise. In 10 minutes we John and Jody
were swimming in the crystalline water. Behind us, amid palm trees,
Hong island we spotted a guy camped out in an island cave about
30 feet above the water. Don said that he’s harvesting the nests of
the Swiftlet, a bird that roosts in caves and makes a home from its
own saliva. The dried bird spit is the key ingredient in “Bird’s Nest
Soup.”
We hung out in Lah Ding for an hour, snorkeling with schools of
brightly striped Siamese Tiger Fish. We were trying to keep ahead
of sightseeing crowds so when a long-tail load of Chinese tourists
arrived Don took us to Nok Island for lunch and a surprise.
Nok Island is just a tiny bump in the Bay. But hidden on a be-jun-
gled slope is a trail to the top. “Steep” doesn’t do the trail justice.
For most of the way we pulled ourselves up on ropes. We reached
the top sweating and shaking 30 minutes later. Don walked up
the rocky trail barefoot, smiling. By himself, he can climb it in 10
minutes.
Dear Ron, Our last stop was Yao Noi’s big-sister island of Yao Yai. The long
white-sand beach at Hua Lam Haad is less than 2 miles from Yao
We spent the day exploring those magical islands we’d zipped past Noi but there’s even less development here.
on our first boat ride. Our captain-guide was a Thai local with one
of those mile-long unpronounceable Thai names. “Just call me Don,” For nearly an hour we had the place to ourselves until another
he said gang of Chinese arrived and it was time to go. In 20 minutes Don
motored us up to Villaguna. It was high tide; he ran right up to the
We got on his long-tail at 8:00 in the morning and didn’t get back beach not 30 yards from our front porch. Just in time to idle by the
until 4:00. In between we visited Hong, Lah Ding and Nok islands pool.
and circled Pah Bea Yai and Pah Bea Noi, two massive chunks of
rock that jut up out of the water like tree-covered skyscrapers. Love
These limestone formations hollow out easily and on the way to John and Jody
102 Wine Dine & Travel Summer 2014

