KATA & PHUKET

20th - 29th June 2015

After a couple of days climbing in Ton Sai I realised that I'm not really much of a climber due to being afraid of heights, so after a quick Google I found out not only is there surf in Thailand, the main time to surf is roughly now and the best place to go was a two hour boat ride away. I booked a ticket for the following afternoon and spent my last day exploring Railay beach next to Ton Sai. Before I left I really wanted to hike to the lagoon near by. Helen opted to sleep on the beach so I set off on my own. The climb up was pretty tough, I thought it was going to be a hard walk but this was a ridiculously steep climb, there was even a knotted rope to help you climb. It probably would have been a lot easier had I not been wearing flip flops. In the end I took them off as the climb became quite hard and left them on a rock. 

After a quick look over the bay from a view point at the top of the climb I then had to climb down an even steeper route to get to the lagoon. It was pretty sketchy, but after descending three near vertical drops with the help of my new friend knotted rope I was at the edge of the lagoon. It was completely surrounded by rock and tropical greenery. You had to swim out into the middle if you wanted to see the sky. It was truly magnificent and worth the struggle.

I joined H on the beach an hour later for lunch, then it was time to catch a speed boat out of the bay. I felt a little nervous and sad as I left Helen on the beach. This will be the longest we have been apart in three and a half months, we are a team and now I have no team mate.

The boat sped off pretty quick and soon Helen was a tiny dot in the distance, saying that she is normally a tiny dot when she's near by. The speedboat bounced through the waves and eventually slowed next to a bobbing ferry in the open water. With carful timing I hoped over to the ferry, bag and all, then we set off for the island of Phuket. Two hours and a shuttle bus later I was on the west coast in a beach town called Kata. It was pretty touristy, but just out of town up the hill I found Kata Beach Homestay above a little shop.

I checked in and straight away went off to check the surf on Kata beach. It didn't look that bad and a local guy said there was an even better break just round the headland called Kata Naoi, away from the tourist beach. This sounded marvellous. Back at the homestay in the dorm was a lad from Japan called Miki and a German called Pascal. Various other people came and went throughout the week, but these guys were hanging around for a while. Miki was a surfer and was half way through his two month stay. Pascal was coming to the end of his travels and whiling away his last few weeks here before returning to the real world. A nice French couple called Max and Marion joined us a few days in. They were staying in one of the rooms on the floor below. Max was a keen surfer making our little surf club three, unfortunately we only had two bikes to get to the beach.

The following morning I rented a fat little 6 foot board and got a lift on the back of the owners scooter (board in hand) round the headland to Kata Naoi. The scenery reminded me of Tracy Island (Thunderbirds) and I kept expecting Thunderbird Two to appear from behind the palms. Head high waves were slowly pealing away from the rocks on the north end of the beach, then were turning very heavy and fast in the shallows. It looked fun and I paddled out to find Miki in the water. I didn't expect the waves to be so heavy and ended the session by snapping my leash. Later in the week Miki was thrown head first into the sand bank, splitting open the fibreglass on the nose of his board and splitting open the skin round his left eye. The following day he too snapped his leash so decided it was time for a few rest days.

I have never really understood the term 'homestay', traditionally I think it's when you stay with a family in a spare room, however a lot of places use it as a way to make hotels and guest houses sound more interesting. I think this might be the case here but I love it. The owner called Chart is such a lovely man and goes out of his way to make sure everyone is happy. He even once drove a guest all the way to Burma so they could renew their visa then drove them back. A couple of times when me and Miki got back from surfing, Mo (the mum of the place) cooked us both lunch on the house, and the following evening she cooked everyone dinner. Every now and then around breakfast time we would find Chart had been to the local market and picked up a big bag of fruit or pastries for people to have with their morning coffee. It really was a lovely place and felt very homely. On the morning I checked out he even slept in the office and got up at half five in the morning to give me a lift on his scooter to the bus station, what a lovely guy.

Chart showed me this little restaurant just up the hill, a short walk from the homestay. The little lady there is super nice and smiley and charges local price (practically nothing) for a big plate of food. I ate there every evening, it was so nice and far away from all the over priced tourist bars and restaurants along Kata beach. 

I decided I would use this week to write the copy for my website as I have some new work to add and need to get it in ship shape for Oz. I walked along the sands of Kata looking for a nice spot with good wifi. I found this great little reggae bar squashed onto the crooked rocks at the south end of the beach. This was my new studio and I spent a lot of time there. The only problem was it was such a nice setting it was hard to concentrate on copywriting.

Most days followed the same pattern, me and Miki would creep out at sun rise for a morning surf. A few hours later we would cycle back and I'd go to the studio for a few hours. Then we would meet up again for a late afternoon / evening surf depending on the tides, this would be followed by a few beers with whoever was at the homestay and then bed. It was a very lovely pace of life.

After surfing one evening, Miki realised a crab had hitched a lift from the beach to the homestay in his shorts pocket. We left him crawling around the bathroom for a while then Miki took him back to the ocean. We caught another trying to do the same thing the following day whilst in the water.  I guess crabs just have a thing for Miki.

Mid way through the week we decided to rent a car and drive up the coast in search of bigger waves. In Thailand they drive on the left so I was nominated to be the driver. However I had never driven an automatic before so I had to learn fast, it's weird without a clutch. We checked three or four beaches heading north for about an hour along the coastal road. Even though the swell size was predicted to be bigger, the waves looked smaller and smaller and the wind was getting stronger and stronger. In the end we called it off and decided to go wake boarding. After successfully navigating our way to the middle of the island we found the wake park, it was closed for refurbishment. So after calling that off we settled for a wonder up a nearby waterfall. It was pretty small and underwhelming so we hopped back in the car and headed back south. Ironically the best waves of the day and maybe the week were breaking at our local break. I guess this goes to show if it ain't broke, don't fix it. (And don't trust magicseaweed.com)

On another of the many evening surfs, I had the water completely to myself, or so I thought. A sneaky jelly fish sauntered over and joined me in the line up. Then when I wasn't looking he crept onto my surfboard and stung my inner thigh, cheeky bastard. Depending on the tide, the water here can be clear and blue or full of trash. It's such a shame. Unfortunately this particular session was a trashy one and everything that brushed past my leg I assumed was another jelly fish and I kept freaking out and falling off my board. I'm glad no one was around to see. 

My Sunday lunch surf on my final afternoon was by far the best. Crystal clean slightly overhead waves were breaking far and fast. There was only a handful of people in the water and I could practically get any wave I wanted. The atmosphere was great, on quite a big wave I heard cheers and whoops from the others in the water and as other guys caught nice waves the shouts, cheers and smiles continued. It was a great session to end my time in Kata. I road my last wave all the way to the beach and slowly walked back to the homestay exhausted but happy.

I don't think I would come and stay in Kata for a holiday, it's pretty pricey and touristy along the main street and on Kata Beach, you can even by a T-shirts which says in big letters "I DONT WANT A FUCKING SUIT OR A MASSAGE". However staying just out of town up the hill with use of a free bike, home cooked food and nice people I think I found my little niche here, and would definitely return again for the surf season.