The Pines & Ko Jaan

The sun is searingly hot at three in the afternoon. We have left the stifling 36 degree heat in our room – despite two fans, no clothes and lying perfectly still we pour sweat at any point that touches the mattress! We find out way down onto the beach, a good sixty feet away. Looking far out east from a white-sanded beach into the Gulf of Siam, we watch the rain drift down in huge gray-white, shifting curtains from huge cumulo-nimbus clouds onto the turquoise sea. Forked lightning dances within the dark, brooding masses. Minutes later the sound waves racing across the sea make land-fall and we hear the crack and rumble of thunder. Two rocky, jagged islands a few kilometers off the coast are picked out by rays of sun and enclosed in an iridescent arc of rainbow, touching the sea, arching up high over their irregular, saw-bladed ridges to touch down on the sea on the other side.

Unconcerned, a local fisherman and her young son patiently work in the sea, waist deep in the waves and covered from head to foot against the fierce sun. Coke and Pepsi, the “Pines” dogs saunter past us down to the waters edge and casually walk into the surf to cool off. We’re here at Prajuab in southern Thailand for a snatched week of family holiday at the OMF holiday home, “The Pines”. This is the narrowest part of Thailand, only 16 kilometres across from the sea to the Burmese border marked by tall, majestic peaks marching off into the blue horizon. Travelling here involved a 4:00 am start, a ride on the budget airline Tiger Airways, another taxi ride across the murderous, fume-laden, choking, heaving Bangkok traffic to the Southern Bus Station, a five hour bus ride south depositing us unceremoniously on the street in a small, sleepy Thai town. A short search turned up two motorcycle/side cars which chugged noisily along for twenty minutes to the gate of “The Pines”. We drop our cases and rush onto the beach – what relief!

“The Pines” has around 12 simple rooms, right on the beach. It is pretty full right now with a wide range of OMFers from Germany, Switzerland, Texas, Taiwan, Australia working across South East Asia, but presently all on holiday. We try and slow Aimee and Joshua down by offering them 2 baht holiday money for each length of the pool they do. They promptly rattle off 100 lengths each – more than a kilometer and earn themselves 2.50! We gulp, pay up and the next day offer only 1 baht per length. They respond by swimming 200 lengths!

We hire a boat locally and ask to be taken early the next morning to Ko Jaan, an island on the distant horizon. Our friends, Jannie and Marna who hail from Cape Town and have lived in Thailand for many years come along with Nerina and Kobus their children. Ko Jaan is a bird sanctuary – although birds nests are harvested there by small teams of men who live on the island for months at a time. Everything is brought out to them by small boat – even their drinking water. Birds nest is a Chinese delicacy used in making soup with supposed health benefits – certain swifts construct their nests, cementing them with saliva. These shallow cups are found high up on the walls of caves. One kilo of white swifts nest costs USD2, 000.00 and the red swifts nest can go up to USD10, 000.00! A lucrative business indeed. We arrive at the low point of a spring tide and our boatman initially can’t find a way through the ring of coral reef around the island. Cutting the engine and raising the motor, we manoeuver slowly with oars until it is shallow enough for us to leap off the boat and wade ashore, our gear held high. The boatman anchors offshore while we pick our way delicately through the clear water, exclaiming at the glories of exotic fish and corals we can see through the clear water while strenuously avoiding the wickedly spike-laden sea urchins. There is a small, brilliant, white-sanded beach surrounded by black and grey volcanic rock. The huts of the nesters cling precariously to the rock. Two pass us, with a heavy basket of freshly caught fish slung between them on a bamboo pole. Nerina skips over with Aimee to see what they have and chats away in Thai. The fishermen tolerantly laugh and chat back. As they prepare to go on, one generously hands over a gift of two fish half the size of Nerina! As we swim about with masks clamped to our faces, what we see is incredible – angel fish, brain coral, giant clams, clown fish, sea slugs, cowries bigger than my fist – the glory and massive diversity of creation is staggering. God is good!

With our love

Steve, Anna, Josh and Aimee