Ranong Mangrove Preserve
Ranong is a bustling city with a vibrant market, tons of restaurants, and some beautiful natural attractions. There are a number of national parks around the village, which is bordered by beaches and mangroves to the west and dramatic mountains, rainforest, and waterfalls to the east. On our way to the hotel last night we stopped at a big mangrove park (30,000 hectares!) where Chris did some of his Peace Corps work ten years ago. We walked over the mangroves along raised platforms and climbed high into a rickety observation tower to observe the coastline and mangrove canopy. Most of the mangroves here are the product of restoration planting projects that started in the 1970s. We saw at least 5 species of crabs, including tree-climbing crabs (and the crab-eating McCacque monkeys scavenging for them). Additionally we saw huge (2 meter tall) dirt mounds created by some kind of burrowing lobster.
Ranong is a bustling city with a vibrant market, tons of restaurants, and some beautiful natural attractions. There are a number of national parks around the village, which is bordered by beaches and mangroves to the west and dramatic mountains, rainforest, and waterfalls to the east. On our way to the hotel last night we stopped at a big mangrove park (30,000 hectares!) where Chris did some of his Peace Corps work ten years ago. We walked over the mangroves along raised platforms and climbed high into a rickety observation tower to observe the coastline and mangrove canopy. Most of the mangroves here are the product of restoration planting projects that started in the 1970s. We saw at least 5 species of crabs, including tree-climbing crabs (and the crab-eating McCacque monkeys scavenging for them). Additionally we saw huge (2 meter tall) dirt mounds created by some kind of burrowing lobster.
Mangroves with lobster burrows
We drove into Ranong and made a quick stop to see the public hot springs. Local Thais and some tourists bathed in huge ceramic pools encrusted with colorful mineral deposits. I hadn’t seen any other farangs (white westerners) aside from Kevin and Chris for a few days and the hippies and spandex-clad Germans provided a source of mild entertainment. I guess this is a popular destination for tourists looking to extend their visas since they can hop a boat over the border to Burma and then re-enter Thailand with a new visa. The most amusing feature of the hot springs garden was a giant concrete slab – placed above the springs to absorb and convey heat - where people were lounging and taking naps in the already 90 F degree late afternoon. I stood there sweating, unable to comprehend this desire to be any hotter. People here have an entirely different sense of heat tolerance!
Natural hot springs in Ranong and geothermic lounging slabs
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