Life in Thailand: Tony's Trip to Thailand

Reunion at Suvarnabhumi Airport Bangkok 24.03.10

Our old friend Tony flew in from the winter of my hometown Glasgow on 24th March 2010. We go back many years once being volunteer workers with The Edinburgh Cyrenians. One of the great things about having a friend/guest is it gets us out and about visiting places we wouldn't normally stop at. So we headed on Tony's arrival to Bang Pu on the eastern side of Bangkok at the top of the Inner Gulf and had a memorable lunch in one of the eateries on the pier....... beautiful crab. Of course we were surrounded by flocks of wintering brown-headed gulls and the gentle sea breeze provided near perfect air conditionsing.

Our plan was to head south to Ko Libong and assist with some bird banding. Sadly this didn't quite work out as we finally arrived at the point at which the last birds were being released into freedom! We had a long and interesting drive south which included an over night stop in a brothel and a very pleasant evening in the town of Trang, deep in the south of Thailand. I must say I slept very well in the brothel but Tony bore the brunt if the noise arising from the ins and outs!!!! Terrible pun! After Trang we headed to Had Yao to board our boat to take us to the Ko Libong Nature Beach Resort. The drive south was just over 900 kilometres.

I will not add a link to Ko Libong Nature Beach Resort. It should be avoided at all costs. Before you read my jaundiced account here is one from ww.tripadvisor.com. So if you have googled the resort and you end up here take your custom somewhere else. There are actually homestays available in the village and I am sure you would be able to negotiate a pretty good deal for a room in someone's house. The locals know the word "homestay"!

I made a major mistake and booked and paid in advance for 7 nights accommodation in order to secure a 20% discount. The simple advice is this: don't go near this place, as it is vastly overpriced and poor quality accommodation. I also paid more for an air-conditioned room. What was provided was an electric air-conditioning machine that plugged in. This came with a big outlet hose for the hot air produced by the compressor. The only way to use this outlet pipe, other than to let it pump hot air into the room thus negating the meagre cooling effect of these inadequate machines, was to open a door and in so doing allow mosquitoes and other lovelies unbridled access to the room and us. Excuse me I am not taking that risk with a nine month old baby! Moreover the electricity supply was restricted so it was pretty useless.

I thought about asking for money back or even leaving and we discussed these possibilities. I had no doubt we would get palmed off with some degrading explanation which would be an insult to our judgement and intelligence. I also reckoned this would cause me more and further aggravation than it would be worth. So we just decided to stay and make the most of it and then resort to the process of review,comment and opinion available online to advise others. Now if money is not an issue for you then feel free to spray your cash around here. The likelihood is however you will get considerably better quality and value in the other resorts nearby. In the end we curtailed our trip by one day.

Sure it was peaceful, because nobody stays more than one night, and the resident manager and her staff are actually very good and helpful. However they are managed by ruthless owners whose only interest is your money. They also charge for transfer on a per head basis which means that transfer becomes very expensive if there are a few of you travelling. I think the boats from public pier charge 200 baht per person. All the resort's bumf is about protecting the environment etc....... let me assure you the only interest of the owner is your money. The food is edible but coming in at 200 baht per main dish is very expensive. The day trips offered are likewise hugely overpriced. I am not surprised the place is virtually empty, it is simply bad and bad for your soul to know you are being ripped off. I will not be back to this place and I suspect I will not being paying in advance for this type of accommodation. Unfortunately this is the norm in much of southern Thailand with an awful lot of tourist services. Be warned! And I post this warning on the basis of living in Thailand and having a keen sense of what the true cost of these types of services actually is.

That apart we had a great time, very restful and the resort was very quiet and peaceful with not a strain of Bob Marley to be heard...... except someone was in the habit of driving a very loud motor bike into the grounds about 4:30 am and would leave the engine running as they did whatever they did. A little irritating!

The island itself is really undeveloped, a number of fishing villages, minimal road transportation and lots of deserted beaches, mangroves, real forests and lots of sea! We just took it very easy. The joy was walking into the local fishing village where we were regaled and the locals took an instant liking to our wee smasher. We ate there and I organised boat trips there which were much better value and on one of these trips I managed to sight Asian dowitchers on tidal flats. See botab.blogspot.com for more information. There was an abundance of whimbrels and other birds around the resort and brahminy kites would stalk the rocks at low tide. I also got into sunset photography and a few of my pictures are below. Ah the joys of using a tripod!