S'Tune Province (A.K.A. The Rebellious South)

Over our March school holiday in 2007 my good buddy Eric and I decided to go check out less touristy area of Southern Thailand. I have visited a good amount of the southern Thai islands, but I had never been down to the Satun (S'tune) region that borders Malaysia.
Boy am I glad we went and checked this area out. Our first legitimate stop was Koh Tarutao. Back in the late 1930's it was used as both a criminal and political prison. It is a big island and far away from the mainland. The prisoners were usually left on the island to die from
Malaria. All the prisoners were told that there were gigantic sharks in the waters surrounding this beautiful island. Only the brave tried to escape. That news didn't stop me from hopping in for a dip. This was the view from one of the many white sand beaches on Koh Tarutao. If you look closely you can see a planet in the sky, we couldn't figure out which one. My guess was Saturn or Mars. I should of payed more attention in Astronomy class.

These next pictures our from our long adventurous hike on Taruatao. We literally didn't see anyone while on this hike, well except for monkeys, birds, and a wild boar that decided to make his presents felt. We ended up kind of stumbling upon this mile long white sand beach. It wasn't marked and we were the only ones leaving our footprints in the white sand.

Eric is capturing me taking a picture of the deserted white sand beach. I think I know where I'll be spending my honeymoon.

After our 10k hike in the blazing heat we were exhausted, but what better than a beer and a cold bottle of water.

Fortunately, we made it back to our bungalow just in the nick of time. As you can see in the picture a big storm was coming to give everything in its path a refreshing monsoonal shower. You'll have to forgive me; I wasn't going to stick around for the action shot of the eye of the storm. I was more like "Run for Shelter!"

After 3 days on Koh Tarutao it was time to move on to Koh Lip-eh. Eric and I are two young dudes that like a little nightlife from time to time. The electricity would shut down at 10:30 pm every night, which was not conducive to our holiday lifestyle. Plus it was hot in our rooms. I slept with the door open every night. Not real smart to do on an island where they filmed a series of Survivor. I woke up in the middle of the night to the smell of guano. I am very hospitable to visitors, but when a giant bat decides to come set up shop in my room I get a little inhospitable. After about a 20 minute battle I was finally able to get the bat out the door. It's real hard to show a flying blind bat the door.

Who Let the Bums onto Lip-eh?

I'm sitting on the Koh Tarutao pier with a case of Leo waiting for the speed boat to Koh Lipe (Lip-eh). Let me remind you all that we were traveling in predominately Muslim areas. We realized this and thought beer might be hard to come by. We weren't going to take any chances and went to the supermarket and picked up our own supplies. After all, a sunset is not a sunset unless a frosty alcoholic beverage is being enjoyed.

Before we arrived on Koh Lipe (Lipe-eh). I had heard Lipe was super touristy and overdeveloped. In my sub-conscious travel book that means a place might not be worth seeing. In Lipe's case, "Yeah Right!" I hope only my friends and family read this because it's better if Lipe is kept a secret. There is one part of the island that is very developed, which is called Pattaya beach. I talked to a couple of people who were staying on that side of the island and they weren't to impressed. We stayed at the mountain resort on the beach pictured to the left. This is one of the many breathtaking views from the restaurant (taken by Mr Eric Haeg).

Our days consisted of maxin' out on the beach and snorkeling. Snorkeling was usually our most ambitious activity of the day. We'd just walk a few hundred feet and hop in the crystal clear water. The coral wasn't magnificent, but it was still top notch. Clear water and lots of tropical fish; what more could I ask for!The pictures below are of the Karma bar and the view from the Karma bar. This is where we spent all of our time. Believe it or not but the place was too relaxing even to read a book. That sounds impossible, but I'm telling the truth. The first picture is of Eric talking to the bartender and the second is the view from the Karma Bar. I could of laid on those cushions for three weeks straight and looked out at the crystal clear Andaman Sea.

At night we were a little more ambitious. We'd hike over the hill to Pattaya beach where there was more nightlife. This hike is not advised without a GOOD flash light. There are different trails leading to who knows where and we ended up lost a few times. Walking around lost in the dark with things rustling in the bushes can be a little unsettling. However, the trips over to Pattaya beach were worth it. We met some great people and visited some real cool bars. My favorites were Pooh's Bar, Beachside Bar and The Jungle Bar. The picture below is of some spectacular tandem fire dancing outside the Beachside Bar. These guys were super cool and we had a great time speaking Thai to them (or what we thought was Thai).

I thought I had died and gone to heaven . This place was paradise and I could of stayed here much longer than 4 days. The only problem was something called "money". Being bums, we never thought about whether or not there would be an ATM on Koh Lipe. FYI, there is no ATM on Koh Lipe, which left us with two choice. Sit on a boat for 5 hours, while we headed to and from the mainland or move on. We very hesitantly chose the latter and took our show to Koh Yao Noi.

Koh Yao Noi (long and little island)

After living the high life on Koh Lipe; we took our show to Koh Yao Noi. Koh Yao in a small island situated in Phang Nga bay. The beaches on the island aren't anything special but the people who live on the island make-up for that. Everyone is super welcoming and helpful. There aren't many places like Koh Yao Noi left in Thailand. The picture to the right is of the place where we stayed. The name of it is Pasai Cottage and you can see Eric walking out to beach, which is an excellent place for a game of botchie ball.

The picture below is from the beach around the corner from Pasai Cottage. Pictured is Eric getting dominated by a tight rope. I got on the thing as well and "oh man, it ain't easy!" It gave me a whole new found respect for carnies.

As you can see in the picture below, I can't even balance myself on the thick rice field retaining walls. That might be a good indication that I should probably stick with my day job and forget about becoming a carny.

Unfortunately, I was only able to spend a couple days on Koh Yao Noi. However, on my last full day on Koh Yao our friend named Gai (pictured to the left) showed us a new extreme sport that can be played in the rice patties. We never came up with a name
for it, but an appropriate name could be "Cacti Javelin." Pictured to the right you can see the innovation Gai has made. He has shaved off all the spines on the outside and made two incisions. He's pulled back the incisions and created a handle. The middle part is left alone and can now be referred to as the javelin part of the cacti. In case you can't tell from the pic. javelin is light, but extremely durable. The idea is to hold the handle and chuck this Cacti leaf as far as possible. The two sides will then rip sending the arrow-dynamic javelin Cacti soaring through the air. When I say soaring I mean it, we were chucking these things about 70 yards through the fresh island air.

These two pictures are of us chucking the cacti javelins. Actually, I failed on my first attempt, but when I tried again I chucked one about 60 yards and the thing stuck straight into the ground. It was pretty cool. After all, not many people can say they've tossed a cacti 60 yards. The picture to the right is of Gai showing off a monster toss. Click on the picture and look at the flying spec sailing through the sky. It will give you a good idea of how far we could bomb these cacti javelins.

After our sheer amazement over the crazy new sport we had learned we headed out further into the rice patties. Gai is an excellent tour guide. He explains everything and loves to talk. Further back in the rice fields we stumbled into some farmers who Gai knew. They were in the middle of building a well for the buffalo that roam the rice patties. I never thought watching a well being built could be so entertaining. For that matter, I had know idea how people built wells. However, if you asked me to build a well, I could probably do it. I might not have a future in the circus as a tightrope walker but building wells could be an option. Anyway, this was one of the most interesting and action packed days we had on our vacation. I enjoyed every second of it and learned a lot. Being outside with all the birds, plants, buffalo for entire day was a great and peaceful ending to my vacation. A day like the one we had on Koh Yao Noi really made me realize the simplicities of life should never be taken for granted.