The rain late yesterday threatened to halt our morning plans but it cleared overnight and we met for another pre-breakfast boat ride out on Songkhla lake.
The village where we are staying, Baan Kho Mak, revolves around fishing, so out on the lake we see three more styles of this livelihood in action. The first two involve setting traps. A rectangular three-hooped trap covered in a net sits in the water allowing Crayfish to climb in, but not out. The fisherman checks each trap by standing neck deep in the lake and unending the cage over his boat, he can then open the closed net and release his catch.
The second involved setting two rows of sticks into the river bed with net strung between them. The gap between the two rows gets smaller until the fish are caught at the end.
The final method was to throw out from the boat a line with small hooks attached along its length and molluscs baited on the hooks. A proud fisherman hauled in a catfish as we watched.
We traveled around the lower lake for a while longer, up inlets and through marsh. Seeing more birdlife and another herd of Water Buffalo, before we returned to our homestay.
As last night the village women had prepared breakfast for us. Variations on the theme of sticky rice with different flavoured toppings wrapped in banana leaves and either steamed or barbecued, plus the salty rice porridge / soup.
After breakfast we were taken on a tour of the village. The first stop was with a lady who was harvesting palm sugar. Bamboo receptors are hung overnight to collect the sap dripping from the end of the cut pointy leaves. The sweet sap is then boiled in a cauldron over a clay oven until it reduces down to a sticky sweet syrup. It can also be used to make a potent alcohol that we would try later at lunch.
Walking through the village we saw the mornings catch drying in sun, or being sold to the wholesaler who will sell it on later in the day. It appeared to have been a pretty successful day for the fishing village.
Arriving back at the homestay, and proving I could climb a ladder up a palm tree as well the owner, we jumped in the VIP and the FBI vehicles and went to see another family who make the fishing nets. They had set up for us each to make a souvenir lobster cage. If you hang this over your door and put money inside it will attract money to it, good for businesses - but it only works if you make it yourself.
Back to the village for a final lunch. Despite our basic accommodation it was sad to say goodbye to this beautiful village, it was definitely somewhere you would want to stay longer and perhaps help a conservation project or two.
We now journeyed across the country from East to West. The scenery mid-country was stunning; proper rainforest clinging to jutting rises. The signs for the breeding and conservation centre looked interesting but there was no time to stop - on this trip.
We paused a few times along the route, predominantly it seemed to find me alcohol. We would be heading to a Muslim community and whilst beer would be obtainable in the resort it was unlikely I would find something gluten free.
Armed with two litres of rum, and three of coke for about £15 I felt I was well placed for the following two nights. But then wine was spotted in the 7-eleven (last choice shop). With a tax of over 350% on wine it is an expensive choice, red being more reasonable than white at £10 rather than £17. However, we discovered an oddity that all items for sale had to be on display; so the shop staff wouldn't sell the last bottle of any item because then there would be a gap on the shelf and the inspector might come. We ended up with one bottle of red and then two of a fizzy white at over £20.
Going against signs pointing out the Tsunami evacuation route we arrived at the end of the road, and at a little used pier. Leaving our unwanted possessions locked in the VIP bus in the care of a local family we boarded a small half covered boat and headed to sea amongst the islands.
A 20 minute crossing took us to the busy pier at Sukorn Island teeming with moped riders. The men formed a human chain to offload our bags and then we boarded three Tuk Tuks. We buzzed off with our bags following behind in a truck. Our driver soon decided he had the lightest load and overtook everyone else, causing us to close our eyes with an oncoming family filled scooter. We were soon back in third place when we stopped for fuel at the gasoline station - a table laden with empty water bottles filled with fuel.
We arrived at our beach resort in time to watch the sunset over the sea, whilst we enjoyed our complimentary grape juice. We would spend 2 nights in these bungalows overlooking beach and sea.
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