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Published: March 5th 2008
Hello everyone...
We are finally back to civilisation and have had an amazing time since I last wrote... Last time I wrote we were still on Ko Pha-ngan... and getting to Khao Lak was not without its funny moments (this is Thailand!!). We stayed overnight in Thong Sala, and got the 7am ferry (choosing the Raja car ferry as its BIG).. The crossing was not too bad, but by the time we reached Surat Thani it was pelting down rain... quite funny seeing us bolt off an unsteady boat in the pouring rain with 20+ kilos on our backs for a bus! Once settled on the bus we had the 'same same' experience of them trying to sell us tickets to Khao Lak on 'their VIP bus' but we were determined to get the public bus... its amazing the amount of people trying to rip you off... once off the bus we made a mad dash to the public bus station and had at least 3 people approach us (in a 5 minute walk) trying to sell us bus tickets.. one even claimed that he could sell us bus tickets for the public bus... luckily through experience we knew better,
but god some of them are SO convincing!!
We got to the bus, grabbed some food and settled in for a 3-4 hour bus journey... being the local bus it made many stops along the way and we didn't end up in Khao Lak until almost 5pm. At one point the driver decided to put some music on and almost burst our eardrums... now anyone that knows me, knows I love my music loud (am going a little deaf!) but seriously, even my ears were almost bleeding! It didn't help that it was cheesy Thai pop tunes!! LOL.
Once at Khao Lak we were dumped on the side of the road (NOT where we were supposed to be)... no matter how much I told the bus boy that we needed to keep going another 10 km he insisted we had to get off... so it then cost us another 250 baht to get a taxi to take us to the resort... so much for saving money (YES Dad I really do need you to send me some more!!!).
Upon arrival we were dying for a hot shower and were dismayed to find that our bungalow only had
cold water! What the! We paid 800 baht for a small (read: tiny) room with a bed, and a small bathroom (read: even tinier) that had a toilet and the shower over the top of the toilet!! A total ripoff! I went to complain about the cold water only to realise that NONE of their bungalows had hot water! Dammit! No shower later we had some dinner and went to bed, excited to be leaving in the morning on our 3 day snorkeling tour of the Similan Islands.
The Similan Islands are a Marine National Park about 70 kms offshore from Khao Lak on the west coast of Thailand and they are stunning! We boarded the boat and met the other 14 people we were to spend the next 3 days with.. an ok crowd, mainly Swedish people with a couple of American lawyers and us! Our guide , Anna was from Sweden too and was completely gorgeous and lovely....
The next 3 days (including my birthday) were spent relaxing on board our boat, being fed gorgeous food, drinking beers, snorkeling, swimming, and not much else!! It was great! We got to snorkel at 6 of the 9
islands that make up the Similan Islands... and on day 1, climbed to a viewpoint in one of the bays to watch the sunset (even had beers!!).
On my birthday after dinner, Anna bought out a birthday cake that the cook had made for me.. it was made out of pancakes and strawberry jam! Very sweet.. and then I was embarrassed as everyone stood up and sang Happy Birthday! A nice end to the day was a lightening storm (or fireworks for me as someone described it!!) and a storm to rock us all to sleep!!
At the end of day 3 we were driven back to the resort, gathered up our backpacks (which are SO bloody heavy!!) and then we were jumped on the main road to Phuket where we waited for the next bus... while we were waiting we had 2 taxis pull up and try charge us 2000 baht to drive us (it ended up costing us 180 baht!)... and then a guy in a police uniform pulled up and said he was a cop and was going that way and said he would take us for free... I hesitated and my gut feeling said
it probably wasn't a great idea... Rinna was all for it... but I overruled and said no! Yes we might have gotten a great deal with a free ride with a police officer however I wasnt ready to accept a lift with a stranger.. especially one with a loaded gun! LOL! Call me silly but my mother always told me to never talk to strangers! :-)
We arrived in Phuket Town around 7pm off the bus, walked around in circles for about an hour trying to find a place that had HOT showers... having not had a hot shower since Thursday morning (and it was now Sunday night... in fact having not had ANY shower since Thursday morning...) we were determined to find one... Ended up at a hotel paying 1200 baht (including breakfast), then the following day we moved over to Patong Beach to the Holiday Inn and some luxury!!!! We are almost ready to leave for Chiang Mai but will do a seperate blog on Patong.. I hated Patong last time but this time will be sad to leave.. the shopping is AMAZING and weather fantastic...
Anyway this one was short and sweet.. hope you have
the patience to view all the photos (3 pages of them!!) .. I hope I did some justice to the amazing Similan Islands... (just looked at them and dont think they do it justice.. one of the most beautiful places I have seen...)
Love to you all
Reet & Rinna xxxx
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Rene
non-member comment
Beautiful photo's
Hi Reet and Rinna, been hanging for the next update, what a beautiful area the Similian Islands are. Loved the photo's. A late "happy birthday" Reet, such a lovely place to spend a birthday. Keep up the good work, loving these blogs..Rene