Day 5 – Kaw Kwang, Klong Dao and Phra Ae Beach

Weather – Still a bit Cloudy

The morning was a bit cooler with the clouds still hanging around from yesterday’s monsoon. There was a slight wind blowing that made some people decide that it would be a bit too cold to get wet and opted out of a pool swim and preferred to sit wrapped in their towel . Actually in the pool felt a lot warmer than sitting outside, but who can argue.

Relaxing and getting a suntan was not really an option today and going to see the dancing baby elephants was not really something that entices us. So off along the beach again and a bit further.

Along Kaw Kwang and Klong Dao there were a few brave souls venturing into the water. Along with some Lanta fishermen casting out their nets. I did see the occasional fish jump or fly out of the water but apart from that no shoals of brightly coloured tropical fish to take pictures off. We had packed a waterproof disposable camera but just took a few shots in the surf and it never seen much use.

The sky was still cloudy but a few clear blue patches could be seen, hopefully it would brighten up in the afternoon and we could get some pictures of the sunsets.

It was off to one of our now regular haunts for food, Arnee, this time it was the daughter’s or to be more exact, daughter number one. I really should have taken more photographs to jog my memory on the food but sometimes it looks too tasty and all you want to do is eat. If I remember we had chicken soup, creamy with lots of large chunks of chicken and a nice but not overpowering bit of chilli heat.

One thing from the selection of Thai food that I have samples, is the quality of the ingredients. The meat which I am quite fussy about normally has all been cut and trimmed of excess, skin, fat, bone, gristle etc. Usually I have a pile of un-eatable on the side of my plate but here nearly all of it is eaten.

As the clouds were out and the sun wasn’t beating down on us, we walked further down “the strip” today. I don`t know where the energy came from, a short walk occasionally is really our limit, but here we seemed to walk and walk with only the slight occasional outburst of “too far”.

So passing the last “7-11” shop we would be going in to un-mapped territory and towards Phra Ae Beach or Long Beach. It`s not easy to get lost here, not many roads to travel on but not many indications of where to go. We kept looking for a “to beach” sign, they might have been in Thai, but we never seen any. In fact I would guess most roads lead off to the beach, It would have been nice to know that after we passed a few. There was the occasional “toot” of a taxi passing that wanted our custom and the temptation of some of the street side restaurants, most of these empty.

Turning off the road and heading in the direction of the beach, we pass little outlets. Like the other side streets here, you have to know those little shops, internet cafes, foot massage, designer suits and other places existed or you would never know they were there. The last place we passed was a tourist centre offering everything complete with a large “Visa Run” sign on the window.

Phra Ae Beach, Long Beach, came into view and was just a spectacular as our own, maybe better. The slope here looked much steeper and the waters edge was a bit closer. Waves were breaking as they reached the beach in a mass of white foam.

Like Kaw Kwang beach and Klong Dao beach this was quite deserted, a few people around, some locals, but no masses of holiday makers to spoil the atmosphere. Everybody can have their own 300 meter of beach to themselves. It looked like there were not as many resorts trying to grab a slice of beach here and pine forest could be seen right up to the beach with just the occasional bar and restaurant poking through.

We must have walked quite a bit as we arrived on the beach quite far down. So a leisurely stroll back up the beach with the waves washing up to our ankles. Getting off was really easy, just took any open space and eventually it would lead to the road. We had to get past a rocky headland between the beaches.