Hi from Turatao

Just one day away from Telaga Harbor (Langkawi, Malaysia) we are anchored at Turatao, a quiet and almost deserted state park. already mentioned in earlier blog. Still the occasional long tail which we can never get away from.  We made it here just under 10 hours leaving from Ko muk around 6am.

The last two days were probably the closest I came to relaxing on this trip while with Ken and Ed.  Both Kantiang Bay and Ko Muk were much less populated islands, smaller villages and less tourists. Ed has always forced us to be on the move so it was nice to have an extra day in Ko Muk to lie on the beach and get some alone time. Being able to swim to shore from the boat helped facilitate that.

After Phuket we anchored at a bay called Riley because I requested a more remote place to anchor. Turns out we were anchored on a motorboat highway! The long tails shuttled tourists late into the night and early in the morning before 6 am. We then sailed to Krabi. Pulled into the quite modern and new River Boat Lagoon. Was kind of fun driving the boat through the narrow river channels.

At this point I had decided to leave Sade and didn’t want to leave them with all the cleaning so I scrubbed the bathroom and my room. Took a cab into Krabi town. Ken and I had picked out a random hotel from the website, turned out to be ok. Krabi in my opinion, is just another Thai city, but as usual, people are friendly and the food is good. Found a western style cafe across the street called May and Marks and went there in the mornings for coffee and food.

Immigration Problem: I had already checked out of Thailand in Phuket and they wouldn't let me check back in so it was decided I would rejoin Sade in a few days in  ko lanta.

Ed and Ken left in the morning and I stayed another day in Krabi. My first day completely alone I spent it mostly in my room just relaxing, enjoying the feeling of not being on the go and watching Downton abbey and drinking gin. Ok just a small amount of gin.

The following day took a near death taxi ride to ko lanta packed to gills with tourists. Managed to get to my hotel  and spent two nights there. Dinner with Romanian woman as previously mentioned. Not any desire to shop, Enjoying the quiet time.

I enjoyed two quiet days to myself in ko lanta.  It was much needed alone time to reset and recharge. Saturday morning the plan was for me to rejoin Sade. Had a morning coconut and tea, a bland omelet stuffed with kraft cheese, then checked out of my room at noon. Took an overpriced cab to the southern part of the island Kantiang Bay. One of the first beaches that isn’t too crowded and waited for Ed and Ken to arrive around 3pm.

Spirits were much better when we reunited and Ed seemed less controlling and I was even relieved to have company again.

We met an Australian ex pat who built a house in kantiang bay. Foreigners are not allowed to own land in Thailand, you can only lease is. Same for owning a business must be 51% owned by a thai national and for each foreign owner they must employ 4 thais.

Went out for dinner in Kantiang as was the usual plan and departed the next day for ko muk. Ko muk, even smaller, spent a day and a half there. As I mentioned those 2 days were the only 2 days that Ed slowed the pace down. Got another and much better massage in ko muk.

At Turataro, Ed and ken went ashore on the dinghy and I stayed aboard to get some alone time. Ed quibbled about paying the 200 bhat ($6) to the forest service (or whatever the thai version is called haha) and I told him it supported a good cause, stop being cheap and I'd pay for his and Kens fee.

Turns out my boat name is Skippy, which is an affectionate name for a kangaroo I'm told and there may be something about having the body of a kangaroo but I'm choosing to ignore that (Ken says only because I have ran marathons). Ed's boat name is 005 because its part of his wifi password so I thought 005 because he wants to be James bond but didn't quite make the cut. Ken is Indiana since he looks like the current version of Harrison Ford.

Looking forward to being back in Langkawi tomorrow. Will try to post pics soon.