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Published: January 18th 2008
beach huts
complete with spiders and large flying bugsSo we headed from Chiang Mai to Khao Lak. This is on the Anadman coast - about 90 minutes drive north of Phuket. We flew to Phuket from Chiang Mai and all went remarkably smoothly. We flew "Nok" airlines - one of the Thai budget airlines, complete with a talking fortune cookie on the tail of the plane -(well this was Heathers initial impression, but she eventually decided it was a bird's beak). In amongst the Thai employees was a very fair, rather camp Glaswegian air steward - very bizzare!
We reached out to our jungle cabin with ocean view. It was cute - set on stilts in front of the ocean. A view of the gorgeous sand and then the Indian Ocean. It was a little weird looking out to the calm ocean. Just over 3 years ago the ocean rose up and destroyed most of Khao Lak. Although most of the press was in Phuket, more damage ocurred up the coast here. There are still approximately 700 unclaimed bodies from the Tsunami. The papers had a lot of stories in them as the 3 year anniversary was while we were in Thailand. The NGO's are still around Khao
Lak rebuilding the locals houses. The resorts however are all back in force - in fact the development is larger than first time around. There is a lot of unease with the "early warning system" that has been installed. The warning system is suposedly not audible from all the beaches. There were arrows to help you run in the right direction if you were to come upon a Tsunami!
The beach was gorgeous although it was difficult not to think about was happened 3 years ago. We had a quick jump into the ocean before heading back into town to sort out our diving trips. We discovered that our town was full of Swedes. There were Swedish flags above many of the stores. We were told that around 400,000 Swedes head to Thailand on vacation every year. Its the number 1 destination for Swedish tourists! Our dive shop was owned by a Swede (wicked diving). Of course Heather is part Swedish, but didn't get the tanned skin gene. So between the 2 of us we were probably the whitest people around -the situation wa not helped by Heather's factor 45 sun tan lotion.
The next morning we got
picked up by our first dive from our hotel. We had a 90 minute drive before a 90 minute boat ride to get to our dive site - Richelieu Rock. This is one of the premier dive sites in Asia. We had recently done a refresher dive back in Calgary, bu hadn't been in open water for a while so we were a little nervous as this site is known for its currents. It was fine though and there were fish everywhere. Didn't see any whale sharks unfortuantely, but lots of different types of fish - fusilleers, jack, huge moray eel, lion fish, clown fish etc. It was a lot of fun.
We were shattered by the time we got back to our hotel. It was a long day. We decided to have our first Western food for dinner. We were disappointed with the food and swore to return to Thai food for the rest of the trip.
For our next dive trip we headed out to the Similan islands. This was another long speedboat ride. Another great couple of dives, together with a great lunch eaen on the white sandy beach. We were pretty happy with today
- although again with a 7am start we were exhausted by the time we reached the resort. We were supposed to have a new years eve banquet dinner, but unfortunately I had some travellers stomach and didn't have much of an appetite so we headed into town for some great but cheap food. Heather ordered 4 main dishes and tried hard to finish them all. Being party animals' we were in bed by 9.30pm on New year's eve...I woke up with fireworks at midnight, said "happy new year" and went back to sleep.
The 1st of January was a rest day for diving - sensible really since most people (other than us) would have been out late drinking. Not a good combination with diving. It was nice to chill out - lounging on the beach, swimming in the ocean, lounging on our balcony, drinking a little bit on Singha....maybe some more singha....and lots of chilling. Was a good day. We found an amazing restraunt for dinner - our more expensive of the trip (mostly due to the $10 each belinis). The food was awesome though...ah Thai food someof the best in the world. To get to it w walked
Donald duck bay
The rock actually does look like Donald ducks head...This was one of my favourite spots on the trip...white sand, blue water.... by flashlight along the beach. I had the head lamp - that Heather refuses to publically wear, but it is amazingly practical!
On the 2nd we had our last 2 dives. Today was really rough and amazingly half the boat was vomiting and I wasn't. Unheard of for me! We had to do different dives than were originally planned due to the waves. Lunch was especially good with the owners wife making Thai food up for lunch. We sat looking at Donald duck rock for lunch. One of the most beutiful places i've ever been. On the second dive we had to get under straight away as i thought i would vomit with the waves. We saw less fishes than on the previous dives, but the coral was stil beautiful. I especially liked the brain coral. The reefs managed to survive the tsunami, with an estimated 10% damaged. The West coast of the Similans got the majority of the damage, but not as bad a many people had feared. This was awesome diving and well worth a visit.
So after a last morning on the beach - complete with coconut juice and a banana shake, we headed back
to Phuket to fly to Bangkok. Ready for the last leg of our trip.
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