SUNDAY 17th: Last day on Koh Wai, The edge of a tropical thunderstorm touched the island in the wee small hours with torrential rain. By the time we were out of bed, the storm was long gone and the morning sunshine was drying everything up.
Maybe I’m lucky… as I walked down from the bungalow there was an enormous BANG just behind me which made me jump. Looking behind was a freshly fallen coconut lying split open literally a step behind me. Clearly it had been loosened by the storm; problem was it was too young and green to eat. The palm trees are over 15 metres high so one of those on your bonce would be lethal.
After breakfast, Aom went on a final snorkelling sortie. I decided against going into the sea again because of my injured shin. To be honest, if the injury had occurred in UK, I would have gone for stitches, but no such luxury out here.
We’d more or less finished packing when the reception lady came over to inform us that our ferry, the High-speed Penan was not running today because of high winds and seas after the overnight storm. This prompted a re-think and aided by the resort staff a devious alternative travel arrangement was made.
The plan was to:-Board the resort supply vessel which was busy off-loading supplies on its return trip tp the neighbouring main island of Koh Chang.
From there we would get a lift from a local to the main ferry terminal on Koh Chang to the mainland.
Catch the big car-ferry over to Trat.
The trip over on the supply vessel was actually more fun than the high-speed ferry. We sat up-top on plastic beach-chairs which had merely been screwed to the wooden deck and secured further with bits of rope. Very much a working boat.
It took about 90 minutes to near Koh Chang and we sailed into the mouth of a river the banks of which were lined with working vessels, fishing boats, tatty wooden jetties and dilapidated sheds, shacks and warehouses. Eventually, we tied up alongside a jetty and made our way through an ice-making factory (don’t ask why.. it just happened that way) to the road beyond. There a pick-up truck, our lift, was waiting. There were already a few people there so Aom and I opted to climb into the pick-up’s back and sit ourselves there amongst the luggage. There was a big thick mat on the floor so it wasn’t too uncomfortable.
Here's a movie of the leaving of Koh Wai and the arrival at Koh Chang:-
