Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

Koh Mak is a very small island, transverseable in about 30 minutes. There are numerous fine beaches that can be great in high tide but some of them are a little difficult in low tide if you want to go snorkeling since the water level can be pretty close to the top of the coral, giving you very little space to snorkel and clear the coral.

So far I’ve stopped at two restaurants and had really excellent food. This may not be exemplary of restaurants throughout the island but I have taken up the challenge to visit other restaurants to see how they fare.

Banana Sunset Restaurant and bar

One interesting scene, repeated throughout the island, is agriculture and especially rubber trees. Below you can see rows of rubber trees, rubber coming out of the tree itself into little balls and also the rubber mats getting ready for transport.

The roads are made of cement and are generally very good but very narrow and so very slow speeds are recommended. But it doesn’t take very long to get from one place to another.

Tomorrow I will do some swimming and maybe some snorkeling though the title levels are so low during the daytime that it takes some walking to get to depth.  High tide now is about 7 PM. The low tide is very very low.

I decided to stay a few more nights in the Sea View Resort. It is one of the least expensive places to stay but I have found the facilities to be remarkably well-maintained and the quality of fixtures and service is really extremely good.  The couple managing the Resort bungalows is Luca and his wife. Luca has traveled the world, extensively in South America, and has very interesting perspectives on travel and quality lifestyles.  Being Italian, of course, he has very excellent perspective and taste in food so I follow his recommendations on where to eat.

https://seaviewresortkohmak.wordpress.com/

Tomorrow, day 3. 

There are very few boats now going even from the mainland to Koh Mak and a private speedboat from Koh Chang to Koh Mak is very expensive so I decided to go diving with BB Divers on their trip to Koh Mak with the proviso they drop me off at a hotel pier.

The Koh Mak Cococabana was in need of maintenance as are almost all tourist hotels in Thailand since there are almost no tourists and no money coming in to do the maintenance. It was a pleasant place and the food was OK but it was not inexpensive.  

I booked this hotel because it has a drop off pier for the dive boat skiff and I knew I would be fairly tired from the amount of time in the sun and rain and the two dives. The diving was fairly good and the coral is in fairly good shape and lots of fish.  

I booked the less expensive room knowing it was in front of a large pond. My experience is these ponds, especially when there are not an abundance of fish in the pond, tend to be mosquito breeding grounds. My concerns were well-founded but I was prepared for this and spent the evening resting inside the room and enjoying a movie, the French Exit.  

One dog was very clean and friendly and the other dog, the black one, was not very clean and was too shy to approach me.  And all I saw of customers was one couple.  It’s impossible to run a business with this little amount of tourist traffic. It’s a very sad situation for most of the tourist business here in Thailand during the Covid crisis.  

The next morning the hotel provided free transport to my next bungalow, the Sea View Resort, but I gave a tip to the driver knowing the difficult financial situation everyone faces. Then begins my second day on Koh Mak.