Koh Mak

 Boat transfer from Chang to Mak.

 The pier at the Makathanee Resort and...

 the resort from the pier.

 Shops on the local street.

 The end of the beach.

 A pier at a different resort.

 And another.

 And another.

One of the smaller roads.

Going out fishing.

A shop/house.

Another nice beach, but the bottom was better at the one I stayed at.

Monday, April 30^th.

It rained really hard during the night, high winds, and lots of thunder. I wonder if this is what the monsoon sounds like. Funny thought, I have been carrying around a full rain suit which I have used only once briefly. I left it in Bangkok in my big bag. Is this the result of the maxim ‘carry a rain suit and you won’t need it and don’t bring it and you will?’ It finally let up at dawn and I headed down for the breakfast, again avoiding the eggs and ketchup which seem to have lost their appeal. Then I packed up and checked out.

My transfer vehicle showed up on time and we drove south on the island picking up a couple of other groups of people until we were packed. We drove to the same pier I discovered yesterday and boarded a speed boat with twin 250 Mercury motors for the trip to Koh Mak. It is funny that when I tried to book this a month or so ago, they told me that the boats would probably not be running after April 30^th because it was the low season. However, the boat was packed. The ride took about an hour and my pick up was there to get me at the dock. He drove me for about 10 minutes to my new hotel, the Makathanee Resort. Again the rooms are clean, the grounds quite nice with a good pool and they have a restaurant with a bar on the roof. This time the beach is much improved and it is long enough to go for a decent walk and swim.

I explored the beach from one end to the other and found a beautiful palm tree leaning out over the beach as you see in every picture in the Caribbean. Back at the hotel I was looking through a large book exchange collection that was mostly in German or French, when I came across an autobiography of Bob Dylan in English. I decided to take it. I learned to listen to him on my Australian west coast trip with Damien, so I figured it might be a good book to learn more about him.

The afternoon past at a leisurely pace as I spent a couple of hours in the very warm water, spent some time reading and just relaxing. I had dinner in the hotel restaurant. They had a bbq dinner, so I had a cob of corn, a baked potato and a skewer of chicken, peppers, onion and pineapple. Then I went up to the rooftop bar hoping to meet some western tourists, but the only people there were young Thai couples. So I had one beer and read the Dylan book then called it a night. 

Tuesday, May 1^st.

After breakfast I rented a scooter from the hotel for the day at 250 Bhat, or $10. I spent most of the day riding around this 16 square kilometre island exploring all the roads. This is a flat island compared to Koh Chang. There are only 450 inhabits apparently, and most of them work for the tourist trade or as farmers. Much of the island has been turned over to rubber plantations.

I checked out other resorts and hotels and didn’t find many better than where I was staying, and I only found one other beach that was comparable, but its bottom was not as sandy as the one I was staying on. It was at the pier where I landed yesterday.  So, this time I think I booked the best place available. However, I stayed there for a couple of hours soaking in the shallow warm water. Today I wore my Easter Island hat and a t-shirt as I got too much sun yesterday.

Later in the day, I rode back to my hotel and hung out on the beach there. The water there is rougher than on the other side of the island where it was very calm.

There is not much on the island other than a couple of beaches, some hotels and a few shops and restaurants. I can’t imagine who would eat the at the local restaurants, certainly not western tourists. This island has mostly Thai tourists and the hotel I am staying at has a pier where there are two boats with 3 x 250 horsepower boats that take tourists back and forth to the mainland.

I enjoyed a nice dinner and a beer and then headed off to my room to finish reading Gut and continue reading Bob Dylan.