January 28th, 2013 - Ao Yon Waterfall in Panwa

We moved into our new place and--excluding all the spiders and other creepy-crawlies--it's awesome!

Admittedly, that takes a lot of excluding, but the sea view is great. When I'm not twitching because my hair is touching me and it feels like bugs, I'm having a great time!

But, having cleaned (possibly excessively) for three days in a row, we decided to go on an exploratory mission. We knew there was a beach--possibly many beaches--located to the south-east of us, and we were going to find it!

Found it!

Our new apartment is located in Panwa Cape. It's a bit of a hike down--we're on the ninth floor, and the place has clearly been built in stages with minimal consideration to logic. It's fun, but the handicap accessibility is unbelievably crappy.

Anyway, we walked down to street-level and turned to the hill. It's a big hill. Steep. Worse, though, is that it's one of many. Phuket is a hilly place. Makes me really wish that those scooters weren't so scary, or that taxis weren't so expensive, but I suppose all the walking is good for us.

It was about a two and a half kilometre walk. There's a big, rusting sign with most of the letters worn off to direct you to the waterfall at the beginning of the road, and then you get to figure out the rest yourself.

You have to look very carefully, but yes. That does say waterfall. In English, even.

The road to Ao Yan Waterfall is flat, and very peaceful. There's only one branching road, and it heads across a bridge. Don't go on it unless you want to climb a super tall hill and go through some pretty solid jungle to reach a view point. At some point I'll probably trick Lucky into doing it with me, but today was not that day.

People waved at us and shouted hello as we went past their houses (which will probably never lose its novelty), and there were farms with chickens and cows. Chickens are pretty standard in Phuket--they're everywhere. The cows were new, though. They're scary skinny, but I think that's just a breed thing. There weren't any fences, and the cows were kept from wandering by ropes that pierced their noses.

Skinny cows! They watch you walk by, but not as intently as llamas do.

It seemed a bit cruel at first, but at least it isn't a feed lot. And cows, well, these ones looked massively uninterested in roaming wild and free. I think they're cool with it.

Another cow and a pretty white crane!

At the end of the road, it looks like there's nothing there.

End of the road. It ends rather abruptly.

The road stops, and there's a bit of stream. You need to go up stream, following it through the forest for a bit until you reach either a trickle of water pouring down a massive formation of rocks, or a massive torrent of water coursing down some rocks. Your experience will very much depend on the season that you visit it in.

It IS a waterfall. You cannot deny that there is water falling...but we'll definitely be visiting again once it is rainier!

Hiking up to the waterfall, we met three Thai guys who'd ridden there on bikes. They were super friendly! I still get confused by friendliness... We had an excellent conversation with them about places that are great to visit--one had been a former tour guide--and then quickly found out that they work at the Regent Hotel in Panwa, which opens on February 3rd. At the time, we weren't that impressed, but looking it up online? That place is nice. Like, I-want-to-sneak-into-it-and-roll-around-on-their-interior-decorating nice. Way, way too rich for our budget though. :(

The waterfall was pretty, for all that it was small and a bit stagnant.

I climbed to the top of the waterfall to explore it a bit. It's not a hard climb, seeing how some kind soul carved stairs into the rocks, but it would have been far harder if they'd been slippery.

The path is literally carved in stone. It's pretty hard to get lost.

At the top of the waterfall, there's a rocky stream heading back into the forest. Since LuckyStar hadn't joined me at the top, I didn't go exploring, but it was an easy enough path, even if there were a disturbing amount of freshwater snails in the water (schistosomiasis sucks--don't go playing with the freshwater snails!).

I also found a gecko up there, but he was much larger than the ones I've caught before, so I admired his beauty from a distance.

Returning to the main road was a simple matter of retracing our steps. Once back, we decided to try out the Secret Cove for the first time, and we're very glad that we did! It's such a pretty restaurant, and it has really good food, too.

It also has these two gorgeous labs. I spent a lot of time petting their dogs...

And taking pictures of their dogs...

It's retrieving a coconut! Isn't that adorable?

And it caught the coconut!

It's so CUTE!

And staring at their dogs longingly, wishing I had a dog...

Puppy...

Anyway! We had pancakes and pretty coloured drinks, and enjoyed both immensely.

Mine is the green one!

We walked along the Ao Yon Bay beach for a while after. It's a really cool beach, absolutely covered with shells and broken pieces of coral. It's quiet there, not many people at all, and the waves are very small and gentle. There're jellyfish and pretty snails and hermit crabs to catch at low tide, too. Not that we spend an unreasonable amount of time hunting down tiny animals to pick them up and take pictures of them.

It has nice sunsets, too.

This is jellyfish that I picked up using a seashell. I tell you this because I don't think it's the kind of thing you would guess on your own.

A self-portrait of LuckyStar, and illustration to how neat the beach is--so many things to look at!

Broken bits of coral and shells.

Eventually we came to a more or less mutual decision to walk home, on account of us being rather tired, and my purse being filled with seashells.

It was another great day to be in Thailand!

-Geogirl