As you might be able to tell from the less than friendly sky in the picture above, Thailand is done with its dry season this year. Songkran, the Thai new year, marked the transition into the rainy season, which means there's a good chance of a rain-shower every day, even if only for a half hour or so.
Koh Mook (also spelled Koh Muk) is one of the Trang Islands. Which I find a bit of a misnomer, because Trang Town is actually about an hour from the coast. But if you're going by province name instead of city name, I guess it works. I stayed in Koh Mook for a week, mostly to avoid the Songkran furor--which might seem silly, since it's a big festival and I don't foresee being in Thailand to experience it a second time, but I just wasn't in the mood for crowds. It was nice to have a week in which to swim, read, and chill out on the beach. It wasn't quite as nice as the place Rachael and I stayed on Koh Chang, but I suppose part of traveling is the risk that each new place won't always top the last. But it was a nice beach to swim at--which doesn't always happen--and it was as far from crowded as I could imagine a tourist destination to be. The worst bit was probably the mosquitos that hurried to greet me at the door of my bungalow. I did get to have the experience of sleeping under a mosquito net, however--which was quite fun, actually--and I can at least say that I didn't get a single mosquito bite while I slept. On the downside, the running water in the bungalow bathroom smelled strongly of rust and didn't look the clearest when you got a sink full of it. Sometimes I find it so strange that I used to be able to drink water from the tap in America.
Trang town was more a transition than anything else--a place to regroup and decide where to go next. I stayed at a nice little hotel and thoroughly enjoyed the flushing toilet, air conditioning, lack of mosquitos, and available wifi in the room. Other than that, my two nights there were unremarkable. I did go to a street market while there, which had amazing food (one booth sold fresh-tasting chocolate chip cookies, which was a real nostalgia punch) and really excellent orange slushie-type drinks made from fresh-squeezed orange juice (or possibly tangerine?). The town itself was fairly standard, as Thai towns go, not much remarkable except a main street that boasted a center divid with Christmas lights (I suppose I should just call them twinkle lights since they're not associated with Christmas here?), and decorative street lights:
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