8 May

We're up early, on our way to the North of the island for the sensational snorkeling that awaits us. We eat our breakfast and enjoy some fruit before packing for the trip North. Along the way we made a few stops - we were told that there is a waterfall definitely worth visiting and also that one can photograph the elephants along the way without having to pay the operators.

The total distance to the north is 15km, after 5km the waterfall sign come up and we turn off the concrete road onto gravel, not so nice with a scooter but I'm driving very slowly. On our left we see some elephant operators preparing for a trek through the jungle. Deciding to kill two flies with one swat we stop to take some pics. The operator is very friendly, having no problem with us taking pictures, we even get to pat the animals. We end up succumbing to the operators and purchase a basket of mini bananas to feed the elephants, R10 for the experience is really not too much. Hands dripping with elephant saliva, but happy, I head over to a cute monkey with a rope around its neck tied to a tree.

It appears quite docile and even stretches out its hands folding them around my finger. My attention is drawn to one of the guides trying to explain something in hand gestures, attention diverted and still facing the guide, I'm completely taken aback when the monkey lunges at my face. Reaction takes over and I stumble backwards rapidly only feeling its finger strafe my cheeks. But its not the monkey who injures me, on my retreat I recklessly kicked back with my sandals with such vigor that I broke the nail of my big toe somewhere in the middle and cut open the front part of my toe. Nothing serious but very unnecessary, at least the leash was short enough causing it to have an abrupt stop in midair.

We headed onwards to the waterfall and upon arrival were informed that it's a 30 minute hike one way, not a problem but already having fallen to often for the "big waterfall" tourist attraction, we were cautious, also taking into account that the guide told us there was very little water we gave it a skip and headed for the road.

We drove further until we came to the end of the concrete road and had to make do with a very dusty gravel portion. Another waterfall passed us, this time we decided to drive as far as we could and hike the rest. The road up was very steep knowing it was easier to drive up than down, already in pain and not wanting to fall with the bike, we ditched it next to the bushes and headed up the STEEP road, you really need 4x4 for this gradient! On top a little restaurant was near where we passed for the waterfall, noticing that there was almost no water in the river and making our own deductions we abandoned our search and headed for the restaurant were the owner informed us it hadn't rained for the past 7 months! I'm so glad we didn't hike up to the other one, I would not have been able to restrain myself having known that the guards could have informed us and saved us the time.

We headed on and followed the road around the Northern border now turning West. Excited at what we would see on our snorkeling expedition we turned into the resort nestled near an Island connected with a small sand bank with the main island during low tide, but becoming cutoff during the high tides. We walked to the beach and our hearts sank as we felt the strong onshore wind and seeing what may just as well have been the Strand in Cape Town with a moderate SE clearly identifiable by its hundreds of see horses/little waves. A couple was returning from their snorkeling session, although communicating was difficult he didn't hesitate to tell me that it wasn't worth it. We headed down the beach walking some way along the sand bank before returning and spotting two hornbills, only 4m away!

We headed for the 7/11 to stock up on water, coffee, yogurt and a type of cinnabun (Thailand has got loads of repacked pastry type foods, especially in their 7/11's. It was the first time we decided to try one of their delicasies - not worth it J Back at the beach there had been a massage hut right on the beach and we had decided to go for some stress relief. Leanne opted for an oil massage, while I opted for a combination of 30 minutes of Thai massage and 30 minutes of oil massage. Within 10 minutes I changed that to Thai massage for the full duration! Oil massage generally is softer and more relaxing while the Thai massage is hard as they push and stretch your joints, I loved it. One hour of full body massage for two people only R 110 for both of us, unbelievable!

We started heading back to the Southern part but took some detours to find a beach where we could swim, Koh Phangn only has one beach where one can swim and the rest of them are all shallow and I mean shallow. You have to walk for 500m before coming to torso level. Having asked a few locals and a tourist we headed to a resort which according to the tourist "looks residential but you can swim there." By our count it didn't look like we could swim there, it was a beautiful resort but that there were almost no guests was blatantly obvious. We parked the bike and headed down to the beach (as always just acting like we belong..), quickly changing into swim gear, and chose a nice shady area to lay down. Heading to the water surrounded by 5 Europeans we were the only ones in the water.

Outside we lay for some time reading and lounging so that we could continue due South. Along the way we stopped for some local food and Leanne bought cookies which I swear contains only crystallized sugar.

Back home we sat on our porch reading and sharing the quiet evening with our friends the blood sucking mozies. We headed for dinner after which we searched through almost 100 DVD's to find one we wanted to watch and headed to the bungalow to enjoy it on the laptop.