Day 15 - Paradise Found

We kicked of our day by searching for some new accommodation. Although the place we stayed the previous night was right on the beach, it was bit more than we liked to pay for a room. We managed to find a place for half the price but it was about a 200 metre walk from the beach.

Koh Mook is a really small island, there are no cars and most transport is done on shanks pony (i.e. on foot) or on a scooter. There is a couple accommodation options and most come with an attached restaurant. The beach is really nice as there are never to many people on it and only a couple noisy long tails come in during the day. The sand is fine an powder like and the water, as usual, is crystal clear and luke warm. We spent our morning lazing on the beach, having a swim and lazing some more. We bought some tuna and mayonnaise (pre mixed in a can) and had that on some bread for lunch. Because of the strenuous morning we had we spent the afternoon in our room sleeping - it's a tough life!

Later in the afternoon when the sun was not as fierce we decided to take a walk to the other side of the island and check out the local village. The dirt path that made up the main road turned into a small concrete path and after about 20 minutes we came to the village. What a contrast to the other side of the island - all the houses were raised on stilts and built over what looked like a semi dry swamp with raised wooden walk ways connecting them. You could see there was a lot of poverty yet everybody had smiles on there faces and seemed to be quite content. It was a surprisingly big village and I assume that most people work in the tourist industry or on the rubber plantation on the island. By now the sun was beginning to set and my stomach was grumbling so we headed back for some dinner. We headed to Rubber Tree restaurant aptly named because it's set in the middle of the rubber plantation, and ordered 2 curries. They were seriously good but the one I ordered left me with tears in my eyes and suckling on a big bottle of water. Luisa, who eats peri peri on most meals, gave me "shame, are you ok?". All I could do was nod my head.

Phil