Arroyo's: Khao Lak and Phi Phi Islands

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Hello friends and family,

Khao Lak was amazing and wonderful and serene and everything we had hoped for. The computers were all broken, there was no phone in the room and no televisions, which turned out to be good because we really just relaxed, ate, slept, ate, played in the sand, ate, shopped, ate, shopped, ate, shopped and did I say eat.

We fly into Khao Lak airport. There is this little taxi booth to the right of the entrance and taxi's all over the place. I remember someone saying to go to the taxi booth and we did. It was a 30-minute wait for a taxi which was a bummer so we walked for a second and ended up making a deal with another driver for 200 baht less then the little station.

It took about an hour to drive from the airport to Khao Lak. It was a lovely drive though along the coast and amonst the trees, so it wasn't bad. We get to Gerd and Noi and couldn't have been happier. It is a quaint little spot right on the beach with all the amenities that you could need. It is not a resort but it was really perfect for us. Now note, we had a beach front bungalow. We were the closest bungalow to the beach but there were amenities between the beach and ourselves so we couldn't see the beach from our room, but we could walk 20 feet and be right there. Well, back to our adventure. So we loved this place.

First day we spent mostly on the beach playing or in the pool. We walked down this road this first night to the italian style restaurant. It was ok, the service was slow, but there were tons of super nice German's there with children. That was great.

The next day we did more of the same but ventured out a bit more and found this wonderful little Irish Pub. They make a mean Mojito, which I enjoyed multiple times. Oh, I did find my new favorite drink. It's called a Shanghi Sling. Fruity and sparkly and yummy. Can't seem to find one in the states. I am actually heading out with the girls next week and plan to find the recipe online and take it with me. I digress... So we loved the pub and frequented there multiple times.

On the third day we got on a cattle boat for the Phi Phi (pronounced Pee Pee, Sophia still loves that) islands. We were loaded on like sardines and the boat went so bloody fast, I was sure we were going to flip over. The islands were beautiful though and although I wish we could have stayed for longer I am glad we visited them. Most of these islands were devistated by the tsunami and it's amazing to me how fast they came back. Snorkling on the island was really interesting. There were tons of fish and I saw a baracuda too. One of the things that came to mind though was how broken up the coral was. I immediatly thought it was from people stepping on it and messing with it. I then realized that it was from the tsunami. So sad...

The next morning we visited the Tsunami memorial which was humbling and the police boat that was a mile in. There was a family there selling wares, really sweet people. I bought tons of stuff there. That afternoon, Eddie rented a motorscooter and went around town. We all warned him to wear his helmet. Did he.... that would be NO and YES, he got a ticket.

I think the best parts of this leg of the trip for me was walking along the beach at sunset, looking for sea shells with the girls and getting up every morning and getting a message with Sophia. That was our routine and it was wonderful.

Oh, I have to tell you the funniest thing, speaking of sea shells. So we had this routine. We would go out in the evening, on our way to find a place for dinner and look for sea shells. We picked them together and Sophia was responsible for looking inside for crabs before I put them in my pocket. She was so cute. She would hold them up, look at them and say, "is anyone in there?". Loved it. Anyway, that was our routine. Well we walk, we get shellls, we make it to the restaurant and the girls are starting to get antsy waiting for dinner. So I have the bright idea to take out the shells and look at them to kill time. So I stand up and start unloading these shells onto the table. Well, one get's up and starts walking, well running across the table. I literally scream and say, " oh crap, there's a crab in my pocket". Well needless to say, the restaurant goes silent and my white trash butt sits back down and pretends nothing happened. We named the crab Harvey, put him in a togo box and took him back to the ocean for a goodbye ceremony after dinner. It was great!!!
And the rest of the sea shells, well I picked up a shadow box at the craft store, covered the back in fabric and Sophia and I arranged them into the most beautiful piece of artwork that I look at everyday and smile at. Out of all of the items I purchased, and there was a lot, a whole large suitcase full, that is my favorite thing!!

We have now been back for 3-months. We think about our adventure everyday. In fact, today Sophia and I were talking about these amazing sticky rice, coconut milk and red bean treats that Sergeant Kai shared with us, gosh we miss him, and remembering how wonderful the trip was.

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Photos

Sophia with braided hair
She spent 1.5 hours getting this done and it was out within the same amount of time. She felt like a rock star for a little while though

Me holding up the boat
Yeah, like that picture hasn't been taken before.