Blogs from Khao Lak, South-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia

Vanuit Ko Lanta naar Phucket City gegaan om een Dive Liveaboard te zoeken (voor de mensen die niet weten wat het is, je gaat dan voor een aantal dagen op een boot en duikt 4keer per dag!) Ik ben 1 nachtje in Phuket city gebleven en toen naar Patong Beach gegaan omdat daar de duikshop zat waar ik de Duik safari kan boeken. Helemaal top want kon meteen de volgende dag mee met "Similan Dive safari" voor 4 dagen en 4 nachten! Volgende dag naar Khao Lak gegaan waarvan de boot vertrok. De tocht was vanaf Khao Lak naar de Similan eilanden en Surin eilanden. Erg gaaf vier duiken per dag! Wat is duiken toch gaaf, voel mij zo super relax onder water! Mijn duikhorloge bevalt perfect en was erg blij dat ik die heb aangeschaft ... read more

Non-stop adventure! What a day! We got up at 6.30, went down for breakfast at 7, and were picked up at 7.45. Early start and we didn’t get home until 6 pm, so we’re all pretty beat by now. Our tour guide was a Thai cowboy – leather boots, denim jeans, big show-off belt buckle. Funny guy, very nice.He told us about Thailand, their culture, and language while we drove to the first place: a palace with monkeys you could feed by hand. The pictures pretty much say it all! We bought some food to feed them and Kaja and Kia especially got in close contact with some of the monkeys. After the monkeys, we went to a mini zoo. As a member of WSPA, it hurt really bad to watch all the animals in tiny ... read more

The dive live-a-board was fabulous!!!!! It was 5 nights and 4 days of dive/eat/sleep over & over again! I would definately recommend it to anyone! We meet some wonderful people from all over the world and possibly some new friends to visit/travel with again! The diving was amazing and the most amazing thing was a 15 foot manta ray!!!! Jeff has possted some pics on facebook. After the diving trip we went to Khoa Lak to relax for 2 days. It rained both afternoons so we took advantage of some down time. I even napped in the afternoon which was heaven. We are now in Bangkok for 2 nights and one day so will do some touring around and maybe some shopping. On Friday we start the long flight home and will get into Calgary on ... read more

We skipped Bangkok rush hour by leaving for the airport at 6am, and by 1030am we had landed in Phuket. We were whisked away by our private driver who we booked through Boss Cheaper Than Taxis. For only 1000thb ($33) we were dropped off in front of our hostel in Khao Lak. This was definitely worth the cost, as we will explain in the next blog! We pre booked Seaweed Hostel as it is #1 rated on TripAdvisor so we didnt want to risk it being full. For only 650thb we had a private bungalow with air conditioning and wifi. The hostel is on the main strip on town in Khao Lak and the bungalows are set back from the street in the middle of a mini-jungle! The birds, monkeys and crickets were so loud that ... read more

Be warned: This is quite long and you most likely won't find it as interesting as I did. Not much happened yesterday, I just made my way to Khao Lak and spent the afternoon there before leaving for the Similan islands that night. Despite only spending about 5 or so hours there, I already managed to become a regular at the best restaurant in town. I am sitting on the upper deck of the Andaman, having completed my first dive of the season. We dove just of the 5th Similan Islands(Ko Ha). Before we even got in the water there were luminescing jelly fish floating past! Such a brilliant blue. The most amazing thing was that it was about 7am and the sun was already up. Anything that glows is instantly a favourite. Dive 1- Ko ... read more

Day 2 of Liveaboard Dive 5- Three Tree(off 9th Island) Brilliant violet crown of thorns An octopus hiding in a rock prawns A small lobster Was cleaned by a cleaner wrasse! Bluespotted stingrays Squirrelfish Violet fusiliers Grouper(Blue-lined, Peacock and Coral Fairy Basslet(Jewel and Redstripe) Trevally Mackerel A lone blackfin barracuda Angelfish(Emperor, Royal) Butterflyfish(Big long-nose, Saddleback, threadfin) Triggerfish(Titan, Circled-spine) Surgeonfish(palelipped, Parrotfish(Indian, Blue humphead) Dive 6- Koh Bon So the same chick who freaked out yesterday did it again in record time today. We had to exit the dive after 12 minutes. I tried my best to be understanding and it wasn't too bad as the rest of us got to go back down. Once we got back to the boat however, I felt very ... read more

We arrived at Khao Lak no problems and were pleased to see our hotel wasn't too far from the bus stop. The hotel was beautiful, definitely the best hotel I have ever stayed in. This week was the last week of the low season so we got a great deal, pretty much got 5 nights for the price of one. Our room was enormous with a gigantic bed. I could actually live in that room. The staff were so polite and treated us like royalty. The best thing was this hotel had a pool. Thank goodness because I seem to develop a bit of a sweat problem in hot climates and just sweat profusely from the face area. So now I have a pool to hide in, great! We went straight down to the pool which ... read more

Hello! I know it's been ages since my first blog but i'm finding it hard to find a long stretch of time in which I can sit and collect thoughts...lazy day at the beach today so here is blog number two! Since last writing I've travelled down from Bangkok to Khao Lak where I'm due to start as a volunteer english teacher, both at primary school and an orphanage. I'll probably stay here for another week (although as it's low season the evenings are pure boredom. Thank God for BBC World News! After moving over to Khao San Road, I ended up at Rainbow 'hotel'- basically an Indian restaurant with 'rooms' upstairs, which turned out to be some of the grimmest rooms I've ever stayed in, but for 3 quid a night, can I complain? 3 ... read more