Almost in Burma!

Current Position: North 09*43'654 East 098*23'061 - Anchored off Ao Yai Beach on Ko Phayam island - 10 miles south of the Burmese Boarder.

In the past ten days we've slowly made our way up the west coast of Thailand stopping at some fantastic bays and only once seeing other cruisers. The scenery is beautiful with miles of white sandy beaches fringed by thick green jungle and inhabited by local sea Gypsy villages. The weather has been pretty good although it's supposed to be the North East season and the wind continues to blow from the North West making some of the anchorages a little rolly and the odd afternoon thunderstorm bringing a deluge of rain. Temperatures have been up around 35*C/95*F everyday making a walk on the beach feel like your walking in an oven...even the water temperature is so warm that going for a swim doesn't really help to cool off!
For the past two days we've been anchored off a beautiful island called Ko Phayam and a little piece of heaven just 10 miles south of the Burmese boarder, There's a 3km-long sandy beach scattered with a number of eclectic beach bungalows each with their own bar and restaurant. It has a much more laid back atmosphere here compared to the hustle and bustle of some of the more touristy islands further south but still has enough going on to keep us entertained! Yesterday we hiked the concrete moped 'highway' that crosses the island through cashew nut plantations to have lunch at the 'main' village, named this as it has the only dock that services the island, a beautiful walk shaded by the lush vegetation with some great little restaurants along the way to stop and cool off.
With the full moon the tides here are huge at the moment and yesterday we made the mistake of leaving the dingy at the top of the beach at high so when we returned we had to drag her 300 feet along the beach in the heat of the day - it took us over half an hour and we could barely breath by the time we finally got to the water. We won't be doing that again so today we'll blow up the inflatable kayaks which will be much easier to carry then rent a moped to explore some more and keeping a little cooler!!

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