you get is a collection of observations from our time on Koh Wai.
Day Trippers: Most people who come to Koh Wai stay only for the day.
Normal boats and speed boats start arriving around 9:30 and come and
go through out the day. It is hard to see the pier from our porch, but
you will know when a boat is coming to pick people up because there
will be an exodus of sunbathers in that direction. Or you will hear
the loud diesel engine. Regardless of when they arrived, everyone will
clear out by 4pm at the latest and we will regain dictatorship of our
slice of paradise. Once the day trippers leave, the teenage staff of
Paradise will hit the beach to swim, play soccer or volleyball, and
occasionally chase an unlucky dog until they catch him, forcing him
into a salty bath. The mornings and evenings when our beach is empty
are the most enjoyable. In the evenings, the tide drops considerably
exposing a wide swath of sand, but this only happens after all the
beach goers have been carried away. During the day when the tide is
high, I enjoy watching them lay out their beach blankets amidst the
palm trees for want of a proper beach.
Final day tripper observation - lunch time. Day trippers only eat at
one resort on the beach: Paradise. This is the resort where we rented
our bungalow, but not the best food nor the cheapest, which can be
found at Good Feeling Resort. I couldn't understand why not one of the
day trippers was curious about the other nearby restaurant, the one
they had to practically walk through when going from pier to beach,
until yesterday. Our own lunch (always taken at Good Feeling) was
delayed a bit by an emergency rendezvous with the squatter and I
noticed: a water bottle and fruit plate on every table of Paradise.
Then, a silent lunch bell rang and all the day trippers migrated from
beach to restaurant for their package lunch! Mystery solved. A package
tour keeps one resort in the money, while the superior restaurant must
rely on repeat customers, of which it has aplenty.
Snorkeling: Koh Wai is known as an excellent place to go snorkeling
right off the beach because the reef is so close. It did not
disappoint. We brought our own gear because that's how we roll, no
need to rent a mask here. Dad, I dug out my mask and snorkel from days
of old they still work like a charm - thanks! The first time we went
out we were uncertain. What do we do? Just swim away from the beach?
Yep, easy as pie. There is coral and all sorts of fish to see, the
colors are not spectacular, but perfectly adequate for a snorkeling
novice like myself. Initially most notable were the giant spiny sea
urchins (identified using a poster at Good Feeling). They are giant!
They have a serious amount of long, thin black spines and are tucked
into crevices all over. Robert and I both were terrified when swimming
over them, certain one ill-placed kick would impale an offending foot.
We had feet to spare though, so no impaled feet to report.
My favorite fish had to be the big, multi-colored ones with yellow
wing flippers. Their faces were decorated with mazes of thick black
lines that made me think of avatar for some reason. I liked them
because they were so noticeable with their yellow wing flippers. Even
when my shadow scared them off, I could follow them for quite a ways
because the bright yellow wings shone through the murk (visibility was
crap).
My favorite sound was the pluck-pluck of fish eating. I didn't
understand it the first time I heard it until I looked around and
spotted a frenzy of fish eating from the top of a coral- pluck pluck
pluck, like birds, but they are finicky as fashionistas: this coral is
hot and they all want a piece, then it falls from grace and they
reconvene on the next "in" coral.
One last observation to share about snorkeling... The joy of giant
clams and other scare-able underwater creatures. Swim swim swimming
along and then, whoosh- something changes on the coral beneath you.
What was it? No clue, it must be gone now. Swim swim swim some more,
then woosh. Eventually, I was quick enough to spy the perpetrators:
Giant clams and things i don't have a name for, giant barnacles? They
would squeeze shut and pull back into crevices, completely concealing
themselves, in the blink of an eye. The giant clams though couldn't
completely hide because they were outrageous colors - green, purple
and all sorts of fluorescents. A fun time had by all.
Wind and bugs: Today we had a bug scare. The ferocious winds, equally
loved and hated, died down today turning the ocean to glass and
allowing bugs once again to pepper the skies. Koh Wai is known not
only for it's snorkeling, also for the size of its aggressive
mosquitos (and countless other nameless bugs). We have been spared
because we are at the turn of the season, with the winds persisting,
but today we got a taste of full summer here on Koh Wai. It was awful.
We broke out the bug spray (30% deet) and hoisted our own mosquito
netting, leaving the provided (holy) netting floating above our own
like an odd blue apparition. Thankfully, the winds picked up during
dinner as a fog rolled in, we shall escape malaria for one more night.
Books: Each resort has it's own library of books to browse or borrow
(or buy? - I haven't inquired). I got excited when I saw how full the
shelves around here were. We allowed ourselves only three communal
books on the trip, soon to be pared down to one apiece. We have Into
the Wild, The Tourist and The Lacuna. If you need a book to read, pick
up Lacuna or any other Kingsolver book, her prose is delightful. I
finished it today and when I trade her in, i will be sad to see my
friend go. Anyways, the point is I'm on the prowl for a new read,
BUT...95% of the books here are not written in English. So they do
make non-english type writers! It is depressing, however, on two
fronts: 1) slim pickings 2) few English reading travelers. It floors
me that the rest of the world is curious to visit Koh Wai, but Us and
England are not. (or perhaps only the illiterate travel?)
Language: The woman who always takes our order at Good Feeling asked
me where I was from. It took a lot of explaining until she finally
claimed understanding - United States didn't ring a bell. I won her
over after adding "america" (even though that is a misnomer) and then
"texas." Ahhh, yes, okay! You are from the same place as them?
(indicating an English couple by my ear, but not by hers). Of course
she can't tell the difference, I can't parcel out German from Austrian
or Swiss. Robert and I play the expected game of Name That Language. I
only ever name German. He picks out Russians. To us, you are one or
the other, to our waitress, we are all from Texas it seems. I love
that Texas has a reputation bigger than the United States (in one
woman's ears at least).
Resorts: Don't be deceived by Paradise. Eat at Good Feeling for better
food and half the price. Literally. They have the same menu, verbatim
almost, but prices are doubled at Paradise. If you want a newer
bungalow next to the best remaining sandy beach, you should, however,
stay at Paradise. Pakarang (coral) is a joke - they have shoddy,
overpriced rooms, leafy beaches (despite their constant sweeping), and
an inferior restaurant by the looks of it. The only thing they have
going for them is that they seem to run their generators for longer
than the others and they have a tenuous Internet connection, for use
of which they charge handsomely. And yet, they currently have a crowd
of three or four large parties staying there! I wanted to pull them
aside to inform them of their blunder, but I refrained and pitied them
silently.
That's all I can think of for now. Tomorrow we leave this Eden to
perhaps stay at a place called Little Eden in Lonely Beach, where we
found cheap rooms, Internet and a loveably crazy Brit named David, who
by some trick of fate runs the place despite his farang (foreigner)
status. I will sign off while the generators are still running, why
I'm not sure - it is 9:42pm currently and 12 min past curfew.
Goodnight!
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