February 20,

We neither one slept well. Jeff’s back has been bothering him – we think it’s the bed. My left knee was sore and restless, probably from the hiking yesterday. The joys of getting older! Anyway, we got up and about and went to breakfast. Jeff went a bit before me to cancel a kayak 0800 reservation we had made, and to return our snorkel equipment. Breakfast was same-same, and back to the mini-pancakes. When we finished we went back to our room and started packing. We leave Koh Ngai today.

By 1000 we were ready, so we relaxed for 30 minutes. Jeff went and paid our running tab of our “room & board” so to speak. At 1045, we were on the pier for supposedly 1100 speed boat. We passed the time watching little fish swarm bits of crackers that people fed them, we also talked a bit with a couple of German guys. They too are going to where we are going, but for only one night. Our boat showed up at 1135 and emptied quickly. By 1140, I was on a Bundhaya speed boat reserving us seats. Jeff came couple of minutes later. Amazingly, we were all loaded by 1145 and took off. This speed boat cost us 350 Baht each or $20.81 total.

The journey was quick. We docked at straight up 1200. Welcome to Koh Mook!!!

We exited, and found our luggage. Thankfully, we disembarked on a pier this time – no sand to worry about or having to catch a long-tail to our place! We walked down the long pier! Jeff said the pier length comprised half of the distance to our place!🤣😂 At the end of the pier we came on the main road of the island. At a corner stand a very friendly guy gave us a free map of the island. That is an entrepreneur; and it was very nice & appreciated. We found the only ATM (thanks in part to the guy’s directions) and then our place, Mookboonchu Guesthouse.

We got checked in, and went into a pre-cooled room!! It’s a great room with a little nook, having a table with two chairs and a real three foot tall frig. We can just see the ocean peeking through tree leaves from our window. But the ocean and beach are very close. We like it, and are super excited to stay here for one week. Unloaded and unpacked.

Then we set out for lunch. We stopped at Yummy Restaurant, because we’d seen they advertised pizza. We had been talking of pizza since yesterday. We had a Papaya Salad, spiced well for us; and a Panang Curry Chicken Pizza, also good flavor, but pretty sparse on the chicken topping. I had Long Island Iced Tea; Jeff had a large Chang beer. The lunch cost us 710 Baht, which is $21.11. We went to the little mart and bought a few items. Then back to our place for a siesta! It rained in small bursts during this time, but stopped around 1600.

Around 1730, we set out to walk to sunset viewpoint. Again we are on the southeast corner of the island. It’s 1.6 miles to, appropriately named, Sunset Beach. We pass by many local homes, restaurants, massage places, and cannabis shops (marijuana is legal here). The Thai town people seem friendly. When we arrived at the beach, there were a lot of people!! Probably every tourist on this island! The one main road comes to and ends here, so it’s easy to get to. We saw some Hornbills flying about. On the beach, we found a vacated coconut tree log and sat taking it all in. We had a friendly stray puppy dog come and check us out for a bit, then went to other people. The sunset was not the best as a big bank of clouds blocked it out the last 15 minutes. But it was fun.

We went back to our place along the main road, stopping at a little convenience store for water. When we came to a fork in the road, we took the other way. It is a little loop in the main road. Anyway, we found a little stand, called Forever Mango, that was selling mango sticky rice and homemade coconut ice cream. We bought one each as take away. We ate the ice cream as we walked the rest of the way back.

Once back at our place, we ate our mango sticky (blue-colored) rice. The dish and ice cream were great, and hit the spot. Our little walkabout had heated us up. Jeff said between the pier and the walkabout tonight we have pretty much walked most of the road on this island! Anyway, hope to start really exploring the island tomorrow morning when it’s cooler.