A trip to the big city of Ranong.

Well today it was time for the trip to the big city. I walked into the village at around 7am. With all of yesterday’s rain, it was extremely humid for the walk. I gave myself plenty of extra time so that I could cool off a bit, and not be a sweaty mess when I boarded the boat. Just outside of the village is the medical clinic. They have a soccer pitch next door with a nice shady spot. So, when I arrived with 45min before the boat departed, I took a seat and recuperated a bit. The clinic must have been having a drop-in or something. There were a lot of people preparing chairs and medical supplies just prior to their 8 o’clock opening. Perhaps this is an event that takes place on Sundays, or maybe once a month, where people can come by and get a general check up, have medical concerns looked at, or get follow up treatment and/or prescriptions dispensed. Once I was cooled off and dry, I head towards the pier, bought my ticket for the boat, and waited while they loaded a few things that were being shipped back to the mainland. At times, the ferry brings food, building materials, motorbikes, ice, etc. The boats are the only way things come or go from here and are usually used to their full potential. Once all the cartage was loaded, all the passengers boarder and we were off to Ranong at 8:30am. It was a pretty uneventful trip until about 2/3 of the way when a bunch of commotion started with the crew, and the boat started to slow down. I leaned out to take a peek, and there was a small eagle flopping around in the water. The captain stepped out onto the rail, and with on quick swipe, had grabbed the bird out of the water, and brought it into the boat. Now, this was pretty cool, but also kinda sad. The bird was obviously freaked, and all the passengers started to gather around it to take photos, which only added to its stress level. Once the crowd died down, I also took a photo, but from my seat. About 5 min outside the Ranong pier, a German guy decided he needed just one more photo, and got up really close… the eagle freaked, and jumped off the bench he had been resting on. After flopping around for a few seconds, he jumped up to the rail, and sprung from the boat. He proceeded to gain altitude and we all watched him fly off and find a tree to perch in…. yes, people even clapped etc..! Haha! He seemed small compared to the other Sea Eagles I have seen, so maybe he was young, went after a fish and ended up a little water logged and could not get himself out of the water. Anyway, the captain gets some points with old Buddha for that one. I got into Ranong about 10am, and headed over to Starcrab to say hello and grab a few things that I needed from the bags they were storing for me. I was greeted with smiles and “Dave!… gin khao!”(eat food/hungry?!), so I said “gin, khap!“, sat down with them and had some nice crab for breakfast! I decided to stay a night, so after I made my first withdrawal of the trip from the bank down the road, I went to my room and had a shower before heading down to see my friends Lek and Jai at Kiwi Orchid guesthouse. At about 3pm, I felt cleaned up and cooled off, so I headed to the road and took the songtaew into the bus station where Kiwi is located. The ladies were all pretty busy doing there travel bookings, visa runs, and serving food in there restaurant, so I jumped on one of their computers to upload some photos to the blog, and wait for Lek, who kindly offered to run me up to the Tesco/Lotus that is pretty new to Ranong. When the business was done, Lek and I hoped on her motorbike and headed to Tesco, where with her help, I made short work of my shopping list include some non-perishables, refill of my favorite soap, some liquid laundry soap(yeah, that’s right. I am going to try a few loads of my own laundry the old fashioned way!), and some “Prickly Heat”… a soothing powder for heat rash. After Tesco, we headed back to Kiwi, and Lek ran some more customers to the VIP night bus, and I picked up my beer and smokes at a shop down the block. Tonight in Ranong, they closed off the main street where the market is, and had a night of children singing and dancing. Kinda like a talent showcase I guess. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera again, but it was all quite entertaining. After the show was done, we went to a local bar where I met a Swedish guy staying on Koh Chang, a Latvian couple on their way to the same Island, and a Danish guy who lives in Ranong full time. We all got rather pissed, and at the end of the night, Lek dropped me and my purchases off, safe and sound at Starcrab. I proceed to pass out into a hot, drunken slumber.