Day #6 (25/6/2020)
Distance travelled: 188.4 km
Camping on Phuket’s Ya Nui Beach
At around 3 am, I felt Dimi jumping up and scrambling out of the tent, still half-asleep, to pull the rain cover over the tent. It had started raining and was getting gradually heavier, thunder and lightning rumbled on overhead.
I woke up early, after hearing a man repeatedly calling out a name, which I assumed belonged to a dog. It was a dog, and it was nice to see a collar around his neck, meaning he was under somebody’s care. He sure was happy playing fetch. We packed away the tent quickly and made for the sea for a rejuvenating morning swim. Unfortunately, there was much rubbish, mainly plastic, floating around. I wonder what the fishermen made of all the litter, let alone the fish… Then it was coffee time!
Eureka! (from the Ancient Greek word εὕρηκα-heúrēka, meaning “I have found”). Dimi spotted the most, perfect coffee place, Greze Greek Café & Kitchen, after noticing Greek letters on the outside sign. He enquired if they served Greek frappé, and they did. So we ran in and ordered two. We also ordered two bowls of yoghurt-and-honey and licked the bowls clean. It tasted so fresh. This certainly got us excited for Greece in the next few weeks!
Phuket Big Buddha
After doing a few hours of work and having a sneaky peek at our road-trip pictures so far, we planned to visit the Big Buddha statue high up on Phuket’s highest mountain. Up we travelled, making sure to put the car into L (low) gear, as some parts were mighty steep. To be allowed access, we had to wear our face masks, walk through a metal-detector type of machine to be sprayed with disinfectant, and have our temperature checked. As with most places of worship, we were encouraged to dress appropriately by covering knees and shoulders. However, the knee part mostly applies to women. Big Buddha was impressive, and so was the panoramic view of Phuket with its tropical waters. Macaques, fortunately, kept their distance in the treetops down below. It was fun to see them jump from branch to branch and making the trees sway. Not too far away from the entrance, we drove past an elephant camp with many elephants, including a singled baby being thrown food by a lady.
Back down, we spotted a board advertising cheap Thai food at a cute place called KK’s restaurant and stopped there for lunch. The owner, a Thai girl, told us a little about life after lockdown and advised us to have our masks handy, as people without one were being stopped and fined by the police. Still unbeknown to me at this point, while I was busy with taking pictures of a mother hen and her many fluffy chicks, I had forgotten my mask on a bench back by Big Buddha.
Phuket Old Town
Before leaving Phuket, we visited the old town area for a short walk around its charming streets; full of colour, quaint buildings, and artworks. There were many quirky cafes, shops, and hotels making it a pleasant change from the seedy, touristy streets we drove through yesterday. This is a must-stop for anyone visiting Phuket.
Driving from Phuket and camping near Krabi
The road to Krabi was a long and scenic one; mosques of different colours and sizes were scattered amongst the dense vegetation as tall limestone cliffs towered above all that lay down below. As we approached a village in search of a 7/11 for tea, the sun was fast approaching the horizon, meaning we would be searching in the dark for our sleeping place.
We ended up at Ban Din Daeng village, a short distance away from Krabi. Soon after we passed through it, rain clouds suddenly formed and pelted the ground with such force and volume that the roads flooded alarmingly fast. A few scooters had pulled over to take cover and wait it out, others carried on driving in their plastic ponchos at a snail pace. We carefully drove the car through numerous pools of muddy water, so to not splash the scooter drivers or ruin the car. When we eventually made it to the coast, we were surprised to see it occupied by fishermen huts and boats… we wouldn’t be camping there tonight.
The storm still raged overhead, making visibility poor, so we remained snug in the car and enjoyed the weather chaos outside. After tea, and while sipping our beer, Dimi got a delightful e-mail to say part of our homeward flight had been cancelled. This didn’t come as a complete surprise; we both said, while booking the flights, there could be a chance of a cancellation, given the current circumstances. We had heard many stories of people’s flights being cancelled and fighting for their money back, but nevertheless, the news smacked us right in the face and left us feeling deflated. The storm certainly matched our mood now. This called for a ciggie for Dimi, so we braved the weather and dove into a kiosk located beside our car.
Once the storm had cleared, we drove a little further down the road and onto a dirt track, trying to access a more suitable place to camp by the coast. We got to a point where we decided it’s best to just pull over, as the condition of the path got a lot worse for our car to handle. As the rain had cooled the air outside, the temperature inside the car felt comfortable enough and suggested we’d have a decent night’s sleep… Did we?
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