We took a tuk tuk over the hills to Ya Nui Beach. Ya Nui beach is a small beach that lies between Promthep Cape and Windmill Viewpoint. The beach is divided by a rock outcropping creating an almost mirror image. There are 2 local restaurants across from the beach but here are no lounge chairs or hawkers on this quiet and secluded beach.  If you plan poorly, as we usually do, you could end up in a pretty secluded area without transportation back to your hotel.  Lesson learned. Lol 

Our adventure begins with a beach bag of 1 towel, a fold out mat, sun block, 2 bottles of water and a screen captured photo of the beach we wanted to go to.  Off we set to get a tuk tuk.  The tuk tuk drivers knew exactly where we wanted to go and said 500batt 1 way.  Cool…we are in.  After yet another harrowing trip in a tuk tuk over hills and more hills we arrived to a lovely quiet off the beaten track beach.  I paid and the tuk tuk driver said…..”I will wait”  I was like no, “It is ok, we are spending the day” I got the look of confusion I get a lot and he said ok and left. 

We wandered out to the beach and it was beautiful….small but beautiful.  There were just a few people who were lying around on towels or sitting in the shade of the palm trees.  I mean just perfect.  We selected our spot and laid out our towel and within 5 min it started pouring down rain…lol.  So the entire beach gathered their items and dispersed mostly to scooters. We went across to one of the restaurants.  It was a delight beautiful garden atmosphere.  That is when I noticed the Black Bat Wing Orchid….casually sitting in a pot near a table.

OMG!  I was stunned.  One of my all time favorite flowers in the world is the Black Bat Wing Orchid.  It is just gorgeous.  One of the reasons you do not see very many of them is their picky nature.  The temp must be just right; the moisture level just right and if that is not enough…..they must have a consistent breeze.  Thailand is just right…and across the street from the beach even more perfect.  I began to look more closely at all of the vegetation about and found 7 potted Black Wing Orchids sitting around.  I was in heaven.  Plus the food and drinks were delicious. 

After about 45 min the sun was back out and we were back at the beach just relaxing and loving life.  Fast forward to 4pm……ummmmm how are we going to get back to Karon Beach from such a secluded location….that is when it hit me……that is why the tuk tuk driver said he could wait.

Jeff decided we could probably walk for a bit on the one road and find someone…..lol  Jeff is always optimistic with the least thought out plans. Well walking out was a bust. We walked up a hill down a hill tried to find humans with cars but to no avail.  So we walked back to the beach. There were 3 vehicles.  However I spotted the signs of a hired for the day driver. You know the look, a guy on his phone in a polo shirt leaning against a car next to a beach and looking completely out of place.

I convinced Jeff to go ask if he knew how we could get transport. Luckily he was able to call a driver who was willing to come get us, if not we might still be at that beautiful secluded beach.  Hmmmm maybe we should have just stayed.