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| Koh Kradan, Thailand |
We just got back from Koh Kradan. This remote island is just off the coast of Trang, south of Phuket on the Andaman Sea. There is only one hotel on the island. Even so, we still chose to stay there (anyone done Landmark?). Our beach bungalow had air conditioning, but only from 6pm to 6am, when the electricity was activated. The island had almost nothing to do (the point of going there), and I was thankful for my magazines and iPod. I am nearly done rating my entire 7000 song collection. What can I say, it has kept me busy. Hopefully it proves as useful as I currently anticipate in my free-time-having mind.
Kradan was all about the snorkeling, the sole activity offered. Tour boats showed up every day to our beach with people from other islands – a testament to how good the snorkeling was. It was the best snorkeling Kelly or I have ever done. There was a reef that ran the length of the beach, about 150 yards from shore. This reef was teeming with all kinds of colorful fish, eels, starfish, coral, and sea cucumbers. We must have seen between 70 to 100 unique types of fish. Unlike many other places, the fish here were all extremely colorful. My favorites were the parrotfish (rainbow colored) and the clown fish, which is what Nemo is. The orange and white wavy striped pattern on these fish make them my absolute favorite. The clown fish would take refuge in a flowing anemone (or maybe it was moving coral), exactly like they do at the start of the Disney movie. They have the curiosity and grace of cats and the friendliness of dogs. I would swim down and extend my hand, and they would swim out from their sanctuary to investigate it. They lacked the personal buffer space of many other fish, fearlessly tracing different paths around my hand.
What weren't my favorite were the fish that were friendlier than the clown fish. During one outing, I was nibbled by an aggressive school. Kelly had the best explanation for why they were trying to eat me. I had earlier fed them from my hand a banana I found floating in the water. Kelly theorized that the stupid fish probably don't understand the banana as a separate entity from the person feeding them. So they just keep nipping hoping something else breaks off, or perhaps once I stop moving, all of me must be edible. The nipping didn't hurt, but I was surrounded by them and it freaked me out. I was on the shore in seconds.
The beach was blanketed with crabs, and by crabs I mean styrofoam. No, actually, these were real crabs. They each had dug a hole, some impressively deep, which they would retreat to as we walked by. I have decided crabs are the fastest land animal, once you normalize for step size. Each movement of a crab’s legs is a few millimeters, but they absolutely haul ass. Sometimes they couldn’t make it back to their holes and would retreat into the ocean as a last resort. One time I chased a whole beach full of them into the water, flailing my arms around and yelling to impress Kelly. The only ones I impressed, however, were the laughing Thais in the boats just offshore I hadn’t seen.
The amount of water shift from high to low tide was lunacrous. To show the difference, I took a Low Tide and a High Tide photo (labeled in the photo section) from the exact same place on the beach. A good 150 yards of beach was exposed during the afternoon and then submerged by nighttime. In the afternoon, we could walk all the way out to the reef, suck in our guts, and plot a careful course over the reef to avoid getting poked by the giant sea urchins. During high tide we couldn’t have even stood up in that same spot.
Feeling blue? Allow me to recommend a book I read called “The Damage Done”. This book is not very well written, yet provides a horrifically detailed account of an Australian’s 11-year stay at Bangkok’s Bang Kwang prison (his crime was trafficking heroine). Sweet mother of mercy, the Thai prison system is one of the harshest environments imaginable. If you ever are having trouble remembering how good you have it in life, I recommend you give this book a read.
Kelly and I are off to Chiang Mai now. Our trip is almost done. When I get some time I’ll comment on that.
