We decided to head south down the west coast of the island today. There isn't really anything on the east coast, just a few bays, but it is the west of the island that is inhibited and has the three towns of the island. We started off on the main road of the island towards Chalok Baan Koa Bay- this again didn't take very long at all- about an hour.
We walked through the town, which was pretty much the same as where we were but it wasn't near the beach, it was inland. After we passed through the town, we carried on down the main road when we saw a sign for a beach. We decided to head down it and see what was there- it was Chalok Pier which had ladders going into the sea so you could swim in the bay there, but there was no beach. There were tables and cushions on the floor at the end of the pier where you could relax and sunbathe. It was a bit confusing to figure out where we were as it wasn't on the map at all! It was a really nice spot though, just at the end of the bay. We stayed here for a while but wanted to go find freedom beach and John Suean Viewpont. We could see a beach from the pier but we couldn't tell if it was part of a private resort or not.
We walked back on the main road as far as we could but the map wasn't very good at showing us where to go next and there weren't really proper signs. There was sign for freedom beach and the resort but then a sign that said private road. We decided to try it anyway and with luck it brought us down a windy road to a little beach in a bay. It was quite busy to say it was only a tiny bay.
There was a concrete winding path around the side of the rocks leading from the beach to the unknown, so we decided to see where it led. It could have been a very dangerous path if there were big waves, as it was literally over the water and rocks. The path led around the side of the island to another part of freedom beach bay.
The little bay was more secluded than the other one but it was still as busy and it was shaded by trees. There were also trees in the shore line so you had to go through them to get in the water. It would have been lovely if it wasn't so busy and we could see our bags from the sea!
We saw some steps leading up from the bay to god knows where again so we followed them up and it brought us back to the top of the other bay- in a full circle!! This was pretty stressful in the heat as well as we wanted to find the viewpoint to see if we could see shark island. Just as we were heading down the hill we saw a tiny little sign with an arrow on saying viewpoint! That was the first sign for it and it was where nobody would have seen it!!
We followed the track uphill and it soon turned into a mountainous climb through the forest! It wasn't what we expected but it was definitely more fun! There was no warning it would be a climb for your life up these rocks!! The top was more than we expected- just loads of huge rocks at the top of the hill overlooking the whole bottom of the island.
We could see Shark Island from the viewpoint (a tiny island that looks like a shark) and we could see the bottom of the island, which had the smallest width of the whole island. It was about a mile across if that. There were two bays either side of the bottom of the island too- it was the perfect picture spot!! We could have sat there all day but we were starving and we felt drops of rain so we decided to head back down the death path!
As we were heading down the monsoon rain came! It was actually very refreshing as it was still so hot!! The rain didn't last too long but it seemed that the clouds were pretty much over for the day.
It was about 1pm by this time so we decided to head back nearer us where we saw a mini golf place on the way. We had a refreshing fruit smoothie on the way, which was actually quite filling! We got to the mini golf place, which was 18 holes and had a bar and restaurant there which seemed to be English owned- they were even doing Sunday dinners!!
The golf was funny- it had some of the best holes I've seen. There was a huge castle one that you had to get to the top of and other random ones that took me forever!! Nath just won the first game- by 4- which was annoying!! You could play as many time as you wanted so we decided to go around again and play their 'goofy golf' version. There was a wheel next to each hole which each player spun before their go and it gave you directions of what to do- like stand on one foot for all your shots- or use your putter the wrong way. It was pretty funny but doing all the 18 holes again got a bit tedious and we lost concentration. We ended up coming up with stupidly high scores, especially me- Nath beat me by about 20! Ha!
After a couple of hours at golf we headed further back towards to our accommodation with the aim of getting some lunch from a street vender. We got all the way back and still didn't have anything. We were going to go to 7/11 but Nath remembered that the pancake lady also did savoury ones so we went and got one of those each. I had cheese and mushroom and Nath had ham and veg- they were gorgeous!
We went back to our room after and got showered, packed and everything sorted to leave in the morning. Nath had paid for his washing at our accommodation too so he had to collect that. I did tell him that I would hand wash it for him but he thought this would be loads better for the price. When he got it back it smelt real fresh and it was all sorted and folded up. When he got one of his Tshirts out that had a blue pocket on- he noticed that it was now brown and the Tshirt looked like it had shrunk!! It looked like he a new top to wear! Ha!
After getting sorted we went out for a couple of hours and stopped for some food at a street vender which had tables and chairs at the side of the road. I had fried noodles with prawns and Nath had pad Thai with pork. We couldn't believe how amazing the food was- to say we were sat at the side of the road outside a stall eating for just over a pound! It was literally the best Thai meal we had had since arriving! We are also getting really good at using chop sticks so we look like we know what we are doing now eating our whole meal with them.
We went down to the pier after, we were both so full we had to walk it off! We had a little walk around and then went back to the room for the night to finish sorting things out ready for an early morning!