Koh Payam - Paraaaaaadissssse

Hi everyone...

first a quick reply to your questions:

hila is NOT writing a blog... She says she doesn't have the time...
yes we are sooooo busy :) :)

We didn't want to do any diving off of Koh Payam (or Koh chang for that matter) we just wanted a nice tranquil island to relax on... we heard about koh chang on the net and from other people before leaving israel... but in bangkok we met someone who recommended Koh Payam as it was a bit more developed than koh chang and had nicer beaches (she had seen both) - so we changed our minds... the same boat reaches both islands so we thought we could easily change our minds if we wanted to...

Koh Payam is a very quiet island with 2-3 lovely beaches.. we stayed on the big one - Aow Yai... a long beach with a very very wide stretch of sand... the beach is swarming with white brown crabs that are very cute and give endless hours of fun just sitting and watching them run around on the sand.. :) - as you can see we were verrrry busy :)
we spent 7 days on the island laying around on the beach or in our hammocks.. we rented motor bikes and did a tour of the other beaches and sites on the island and played volleyball on the beach with the other tourists (mainly Swiss, dutch and british) and drank lots of beer in the sun... :) <-- constant smiling
to our surprise there were a lot of families on the island and even a lot of pensioners - mom dad start getting used to lonely beaches and cold showers.. ;)

yes the bungalows had only cold water (hila is still in truama) and only had electricity from 18:00-22:00 - so she could only use the silk-epil in the dark (not very effective) :)).
The beach we stayed on was around an hour walk to the pier - which was the only place that had internet and cellular ability - thats why we didnt email... and it was expensive - so we didnt use it too often.

The was a nice bar on the island that featured a live Thai band!! and they played blues music (b.b. king etc..) they we a lot of fun especcially after every song the singer went - KaPun Kap! with a throaty blues voice.. :)

all in all Koh Payam is indeed a island paradise - lovely beaches, while the interior is jungle-like vegitiation, the people are sweet and freindly and there arnt a lot of tourists, but the place is on the build - new bungalow operations are sprouting everywhere and the island is going to be in the next lonely planet so it will surely be highly developed in the next couple of years - so if anyone is interested to visit maybe one of the last quiet island left in thailand - you need to hurrry!!!

but alas the time had come for us to move on... :(..
we have now arrived in Kao Sok natural park - a lovely jungly place - staying in a nice guest house and will be doing a 2 day "trek" in the forest tomorow.. i will tell you all about it in our next post...

Pictures will be added once we get them developed (i think we have 3-4 allready awaiting).

please post more comments!!! even if you dont have anything smart to say.. just to know that you are reading :)

love to you all...

the one the only Morphhh Sleazy.

The way to Koh Payam...

Hi everyone!

this is a bit of an experiment so I'm not promising anything really thrilling.. Just a place for me to write some of our experiences during our trip, and maybe if you want to read, share with you all....

so .. Here we go... To everyone, anyone - enjoy.

We started off in Bangkok - the closest place to hell... Weather wise... and as though this is the dry season (indeed no rain) and well its December... it is hot as hell...

like I wrote in my first email we did the usual, the grand palace, and what phra kao and what poh, went to the MBK and the siam square area...
(and couldn't find the Cinabonn.. they must have closed it :(... ) and to lumphini park...

I found it relatively easy to get used to the thai way of speaking english and to the food and feeling a bit like your getting ripped off all the time but.. well. all in all.. bangkok being bangkok was pretty much ok... no major criseses... hila was a bit stressed but I think she got used to it pretty fast...

we ordered tickets to India (madras) and to our surprise there were barely any seats left to the 5th of Jan.!!! I guess a lot of indians are flying around the new years.. !?!?!?! and we tried a lot of places for tickets and got such a diversity of prices that when we finally got a relatively cheap one we thought we were being ripped off... well.. especially since the next day when we came to pay he added another 1500 baht to the price under some weird combination of tax and it being the high season... dunno... you never get the the full assurance that you understand them completely...

this guy we bought the tickets from was called.. no other then "Mr. Thai"... and he had a few fingers missing... all in all he could count to six.. :)... (using his fingers I mean). I guess he pissed someone off or had an accident..!?!? we decided to go for it. he promised the tickets the next day.. and guess what ? he didn't have them the next day and we wanted to go down to the islands that same day...?!?!?!
he said something like "oh.. I'm sorry.. but its a holiday...the ticket office closed... so sorry.." like the crap the tuktuk drivers give you when you go to the grand palace... but he assured us that the tickets were ok and he promised to scan them the next day and send us the ticket scans by email... after much deliberations we decided to settle with it..(especially after we left a 1000 baht deposit the day before).. well.. after getting to the islands and waiting a day.. we got the ticket info and confirmed it with Air India.. (his scanner broke down so he typed the ticket info by hand..) so we have tickets on the 5th of Jan. mom & dad - you can write that down in the itinerary :).

(for any future reference - BKK -> MAA is 240$ - but I bet its lower when your not so close to the new years..)

well.. what can I say.. we are down in the islands now.. Koh Payam... the trip down here was ok.. the thai VIP busses are comfy and pampering (they hand out all sorts of food and wet wipers and shit..) (450 baht to ranong though we found out we could by them direct from the bus company for around 380.. )

after around 8 hrs bus drive we arrived in ranong at 5:30 am and the boat was sched. to 9:30... so we spent 4 hours with 2 auzies and a swiss guy obsessed with death, prostitutes, god and his ex wife... oh and about a million mosquitoes... then a 2 hrs boat ride to the island...

and now we are here.. on koh payam... its just.. paradise...

ill write about the island in my next post and pics will be added when we get to a place we can develop them...

please add posts !! I really want to hear your comments!!

catch ya l8r ...

love to you all

the one the only Morphhh Sleazy.