It was a long winter season here, and more than often I was thinking back on my travels from that period. I visited a lot of island while heading up more north over the Andaman sea.
One of the island that I have already written more about was just sticking with me because it felt a bit more here like time had stood still over the years.
No cars, only motorscooters with an option to tag along in. No fancy restaurants, just more beach side hanging places. No grumpy faces, just a really chill vibe where no one was rushing and everyone was very much in lounge modus not worrying about anything.
So many sunsets over here, again another angle
Maybe this was a bit like the Thai islands used to be years ago. Maybe this is more of the vibe that we are looking for where everything is just a bit more easy going and less hussle and bussle.
To set things straight here
Not all is all fun and games especially when you are somewhere where rainy season is just ending. That means business is also not up to speed and that the island is a lot more calm that for instance in high season.
I know some friends of mine were looking to head towards Koh Mook in February and it was a disaster in terms of places where to stay and the prices that also come with that.
I can imagine that the more crowded it gets over here, the more friendly the vibe also becomes. But this is just an assumption.
What a sunset!!
At this point every day I went walking over the big pier (the only access point towards the island) which is gigantic long because of how brutal the difference between high tide and low tide is. I was doing this to catch a glimpse of the infamous 'Dugong', which is a sea animal that can turn into 4 meters long and swims here in the area around sunrise and sunset times eating the sea grass from the bottom.
Those ones are very rare to spot and I also didn't sea any. there are some organized tours where you have a better chance of spotting them, but I am not happy with the idea of chasing down an animal in the water just to see it. So no Dugongs for me! The sunset didn't hurt at all in this.
What I also loved to see were these orange types of fruit hanging in the trees, and the trees were just standing along side of beach. Apparently these fruits are called 'pandanus' trees and you can pull the parts loose from each other and eat them.
I didn't try that because I don't want to be plucking stuff from trees at random and also some of the versions of these fruits can give a lot of irritation while eating.
Thanks but no thanks. Looks pretty though!
You critters!
One of the things that the beaches of Koh Mook are also (in)famous for are the amount of sand flies that can harass you. And boy, I got the bigger picture of this one.
Because after going for a swim at the Sivalai resort (you can just walk in, get a drink and go to the beach over there) which apparently is well known for the amount of sand flies which I didn't know at that time the day afterwards I was covered in little red dots on my skin and they were itchy for like a week.
It was kind a naive of me as well in there. Around sunset time I was literally sitting in the sand in the water enjoying a drink, and that is the time where they strike.
One of the many whacked mozzies from this whole trip
And those sandflies were not the only critters I ran into. Throughout this whole end of rainy season trip it also meant that there were a lot of mosquitos filling themselves up with my blood as you can see in how thick this one is.
I took a picture every time in combination with the location to see if these were Dengue prone regions and mosquitos. The white and black stripes on the rear legs indicatie that this is an 'Aedes' mosquito which is able to carry Dengue, so that is something to be aware of if there would be symptoms weeks later.
Luckily the critters didn't spoil the fun here in Koh Mook, but I can imagine this is as issue sometimes. For transportation sometimes I used a tuktuk which all have a fixed price per ride, so no issues ever with that and sometimes I rented a scooter from a lady which was about the same price daily as 1 tuktuk ride.
Everything here was just easy going and I can imagine this is an island that would be neat to spend a couple of winter weeks longer on to escape the European winter. Can't wait to head back out there.