Standing on the beach, peering through a break in the jungle, there is this old shack, (wooden house), this is where uncle Jack lives. (no not Jack Daniels....jeez..whats wrong with you people?)
This is Jack's pad, this is where Jack lives, and Jack is the reason my family came to visit the island of Koh Kood in Thailand, near the Cambodian Border. (that aint Jack, that's my daughter, and I swear I never wore that pink motorcycle helmet....nobody saw me)
This is Jack, and he is the MAN!
39 years ago, on Pattaya beach, back when it also had clear clean water and jungle to the waters edge. Back when tigers would come down to catch fish, and if you took a water buffalo into the ocean, clouds of fish would immediately swarm around to feed on its droppings.
40 years ago, my wife, taught a much younger version of Jack how to windsurf. They were part of cool gang discovering the joy and freedom of flying over the waves in 1978. The weather has changed and the tall buildings mess up the air currents, but out at sea there is still good winds to be found. I digress..
Jack was a dude, even back then, he loved his freedom. He travelled the world, working as a chef. His mum was the village doctor, so he already knew about herbs. 30 years ago he discovered the simple island life on Koh Kood and began making bungalows, cooking and taking care of people on the island.
Jack left the big smoke
For some reason he thought this looked more like his scene. At one time he was running 25 bungalows on this beach, but in a twist of fate he ended up back on the simple path of spearing his own fish, giving away what he could not eat and living a minimalist life again.
What he did keep, was a lot of great friendships.
We ate at this restaurant, made from an old Fishermans house, what I love about this place is, (unlike nearly all the other places I saw), it kept the trees and built around them. As land prices go up, people think they need to use every square meter of land, to "monetise it" to achieve Return on Investment, and I guess they do. It might also work if there were policies that stated 30% of each property had to be native plants and 30% of that had to be for grey water wetland recycling. Oh dear, am I digressing..again..
This river runs behind the "Neverland resort" where we were well taken care of. This resort is built under the canopy of the old Coconut plantation, it is generously spacious and in low season you can get an air-condition room for about 2,000THB/night (60USD). There are cheaper places further from the beach, but this place was stunning in its natural beauty. Most of the photos in the previous blogs were taken from the beach there.
most of the resort is open space, under a mix of coconut trees, native species and Casuarina.
This coffee shop/bar on the beach at the Neverland resort had real fresh strong arabica coffee. Nature with modern luxuries is truly a wondrous blend.
This old dis-used bungalow had bats flying out of it. I wonder If I could clean it out and rent it for an SUP, )(stand up paddle-board) base camp? I'll have check with Jack...
=8-P