Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I am sitting here on Wednesday in the rain on Jum. The second half of yesterday and the journey to Jum turned into a saga, I will take up the story from Bangkok airport. But first some dramatic personne:
Edd, is a lady who comes from Hat Yai province and works on Jum at Woodland Lodge, it is one of the few bungalows that stay open all year. Edd is perhaps 55-60 and has a dodgy leg which means she has to go to the clinic on the mainland once a week to have treatment. Dave and I know her from eating at Woodland over the years.
Somtai, is a 20 something girl who works at the clinic on Jum, she has very long nails for a medical professional .
Keow, is a Jum taxi driver, for taxi read motorbike and sidecar, for sidecar read a small bench and a roof.
So I left Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport at 13.50 on a nice Thai A330. I had booked the flight with my Thai reward miles and as it was almost the same mileage, I booked business class. I arrived at the plane and walked into an empty cabin. A steward welcomed me aboard and said: "Today, you buy one, you get 20 free" I was the only passenger in the cabin of 42 seats. This doesn't happen very often, but when it does it's quite pleasant. A small meal, plenty of chats with the bored cabin crew and soon we were descending into Krabi airport. We banked out over the sea and there was a glorious view of the islands, Phi Phi, Yao, Jum and Lanta as we made our final approach.
I had arranged a transfer to Joy bungalow last week with Paul Burus at their Bangkok office via email. As happened once before it didn't happen, no one was there to meet me and so after a lot of waiting around looking hopefully for someone with my name on a bit of paper, I found a helpful Thai guy, a rep from the Sheriton, Ao Nang, who helped me by phoning Joy Bungalow. They had no record of me, so said I should get a taxi to Luam Kruad, the closest point on the mainland to Jum and they would send a longtail at 5pm to pick me up. So, off I went in to taxi down to Lam Kruad, past palm oil plantations and rice fields and by 4.30 I was in the small, scruffy village.
Now in Luam Kruad there are a few shops, a couple of restaurants, a lot of longtail boats and a very long concrete pier that no one seems to use. From here there are public longtails that make the journey across to Ko Jum, to Ko Siboya and to some of the other smaller islands around the coast. They all leave from different places and at different times, no one speaks english and there are no signs, was I deterred...? Slightly!
In the taxi on the way down I had a call from Joy bungalow to my Thai sim card phone and they said they couldn't send a boat so just get the public boat at 5.30 to Jum and take the taxi to Joy. So resolved to the wait I went to sit in one of the two downbeat restaurants overlooking the water and ordered a bottle of water, seemed the safest bet. The ramp alongside had a reassuring number of longtails boats waiting.
Now, the first, but probably only, piece of luck happened next. I looked up and across the tables and I saw someone I knew. Edd, as already described had just come into the place to wait for the ferry too. I went over to see her and say hello and after much surprise on her part we sat down together to catch up on the news from Jum and wait for the boat.
She seemed as uncertain about which boat was going to Jum as me, but at 5.30 we went to sit in the most obvious longtail with a small covered section and on the open deck, a motorbike and other bits and pieces. I tried to pay the 50B fare (£1) but was waved away, "pay later" is that ever a good sign I wondered? Anyway, 5.30 came and went as did other longtails. 5.45, a passing football squad in blue shirts came on the back of two pickups and went. 6 came and went, just like the daylight. And finally, at 6.05 a pickup pulled up and a long propeller was taken off the back and loaded into the boat, a few more people got on and we were off.
Edd said that Keow would be waiting where the boat docked on Jum and would take us, me, Edd and Somtai to where we needed to go on the island.
The boats to Ko Jum go to three different parts of the island. Ban Ko Pu village in the north, Mu Tu in the middle and Ban Ko Jum village in the south. This boat would go to the middle of the three.
We set off on the hour long journey to Jum, the light fading, the sun setting on the other side of the now silhouetted shapes of Ko Siboya and Ko Pu, the loud "put put" of the big diesel engine echoing across the water. The sky was smattered with clouds and the water beneath us turned slowly grey as the last bits of light dripped onto the sea. We made out way out into the channel between the mainland and Siboya and eventually made a stop at a passing island to drop a passenger off, then in the darkness pulled away and continued to Jum.
At 7.05 we finally enter the channel that leads to Jum and I could see the lights of the small village across the last stretch of water. Docking on the beach in total darkness, Keow is there and points his headlight across the rocky shoreline to help the unloading, a wooden ramp is dropped from the boat onto the beach and the motor bike is driven off, followed by the rest of us.
The three of us, Edd, Somtai and me plus my luggage and bags from the market are stuffed in to small sidecar. I am told to sit on the pillon seat of the bike facing Edd who is on the bench seat across from me and Somtai who is in front of Edd. Now simple physics should have told us something, as there is a steep hill on the first stretch of road away from the shore, perhaps 100 metres of bumpy, pitted unmetalled road... we didn't make it! The small bike struggled against the incline and our imbalance and, after deciding that there was much more weight at the back that at the front, gave up the struggle and tipped over backwards. Edd, me and her yellow umbrella were dumped unceremoniously onto the red clay of the road and there was silence... it took twenty seconds to realise that everyone and the bike had survived this unexpected event and then the loudest laughter broke out, everyone was in fits of giggles, tears streaming down their faces. Edd and I picked ourselves back off the road and after rearranging the sidecar it carried on up the hill leaving Edd and me to walk up behind, still laughing all the way.
We rejoined at the top and this time, I am at the front, Edd next to me and the lightest, Somtai at the back and with this new more balanced arrangement we continue our lengthy journey around the island with laughter still filling the air.
It has been wet in Thailand this year and the rains stayed late and have been heavy. There has been a lot of flooding in the north, northwest and the far south. Here on Jum, the unpaved roads are pitted and rutted from the rains and muddy puddles still abound. We drop Somtai off first at her house near Golden Pearl beach, then back track and head down the uneven and flooded track to Woodland Lodge where Edd lives. Then Keow and I head all the way back to the main road and journey towards Ban Ko Jum in the south and Joy Bungalow. At 8.15 we finally arrive and relieved and tired, I pay him 150B for the journey. So instead of the easy and seamless private transfer for 1800B I had the not so seamless, not so easy transfer for 750B... so I save 1050B, but fun, well that's priceless.
More on Joy Bungalow tomorrow.
- comments