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Published: April 2nd 2014
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Crossing The Straits of Malacca
The journey from Ko Lanta to Ao Nang was one of the smoother ones and even allowed time to sunbathe on deck. There are, dare I admit this, some very striking lady boys out here. I don’t really understand them, far less the men who are attracted to them (if you like very beautiful, highly manicured feminine creatures why not go for, say, an actual women?). Anyway, each to their own, live and let live and all that – it is a really interesting and widely accepted part of Thai culture.
The lady boy who checked us in to our hotel in Ao Nang definitely did not fall into the “beautiful” category and was significantly more Alf Roberts than Julia Roberts. I found eye contact with him her (?) difficult as she sported a moustache that Ned Flanders would die for and a voice that made Barry White sound like a soprano. No matter, he she did a great job and had upgraded us to a top floor room with a huge balcony and views out over Ao Nang bay with its many tall, impressive islands.
The transfer from Ko Lanta to the Thai mainland had, for once, gone smoothly with everything happening exactly as planned. An additional bonus of the journey was the stunning two hour ferry crossing of the
Ao Nang Ladyboys
These ones were definitely easier on the eye than Alf Roberts on Reception but they're still a mystery to me. Straits of Malacca which was sandwiched in between the minivan hotel pick up drop offs. We sunbathed out on the boat’s top deck, enjoying the cooling sea breezes whilst marvelling at the scenery as we passed. Huge, jungle clad limestone islands jut out of the water and stretch imposingly skywards. Their colours and shapes make for impressive viewing and they appear as locations in many films, notably the Bond classic, The Man With The Golden Gun.
We’ve been lucky enough to visit Thailand on several occasions before and our fondness for it grows each time. Well named as The Land of Smiles, its people are generally very friendly with a grin quick to their faces; this is especially the case when we use our extremely limited Thai vocabulary which often leads to them breaking out into fits of giggles.
A good example of this friendliness happened a few days when we had just finished a long, hot walk along the beach and bought a chilled coconut from a roadside stall. Whilst cooling down, we shared a shaded beach-side bench with a mum and her beautiful two year old daughter. We were thirstily drinking our coconut water whilst the
The Islands of the Andaman
The numerous long tail boats and limestone islands provide some excellent scenery and have made dramatic locations for several films. little girl consumed some of an ice cream (most of it was smeared across her face and up to the elbow of the arm holding it). Warily, she kept a beady eye on me but, when I smiled and said “Sawadee” (“hello” in Thai), her arm shot out, offering me the last mouthful of her soggy, fast disappearing cornet. My heart melted nearly as much as her ice cream but it showed, even at such a young age, how lovely the people are here (and, no, I didn’t eat it!!).
We had a few days of relaxation and exploration in Ao Nang before heading further north and up to the mountainous coastline of Khao Lak. Wherever possible we’ve tried to use public buses to transfer as, not only are they cheap, they are also fun and can be an adventure in themselves. We decided it made sense to use a private taxi when leaving Ao Nang though as the bus agent wanted to charge us 400 baht each and then an extra 400 baht to seat our suitcases!!
The ACDC World Tour “travel advisor” (aka Angela) has been doing a brilliant job of arranging these onward journeys as
Temple of Doom
It was for Angela anyway......she may be the brains and looks of our partnership but there's no doubt who's the undisputed king of crazy golf.
Our match up on this course built around an abandoned temple saw me come away with a comfortable 3 and 1 victory.
And around 23 mosquito bites.......... it always proves difficult. The tour operators that line every street will tell you absolutely anything to get your business and, as we’ve found out to our cost, what they sell and what you get are rarely the same thing. The best way around this is to confirm any proposed itinerary in at least five different shops and you may have a chance of it actually happening the way it is described.
There’s no denying the fact that Angela is actually both the brains
and looks of this partnership. She’s one of life’s great thinkers and I’ve nominated her as a potential Mayor of every town or city visited since we’ve been away. Whilst I’ll just be musing “blimey, the traffic’s bad here”, she’ll have mentally rescheduled the entire public transport system, put in one way streets and banned on street parking on market days. More often than not she’s spot on but, on very rare occasions, she does come out with a cracker.
By way of an example, I asked her if she’d seen the wifi password for our Khao Lak accommodation knocking around the room anywhere; she answered with a emphatic “no”. Eventually I located a
26.12.04
This police boat was grounded a mile and a half inland by the terrible tsunami. It forms the focal point for the simple but moving memorial site.
230,000 people were killed by this tragedy and it's truly remarkable how well the area has re-established itself. small card with the necessary code on it – “Koalhcak”. When I mentioned this she replied “Oh yes, I saw that but thought it was the maid’s name”!!
On a more sombre note, yesterday we visited the memorial to the terrible tsunami which devastated this area on Boxing Day 2004 (indeed Khao Lak is the setting for the moving film about it, The Impossible with Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts). Over 230,000 people were killed by the disaster, the waves reaching heights of over 30 metres. You get some idea of how terrifying and powerful it must have been as the memorial site itself is based around a huge police ship that was washed ashore. Before the storm hit, it had been anchored a mile out to sea yet was finally grounded around a mile and a half inland.
The before and after pictures at the site are truly shocking and it’s a tribute to the courageous people here that the area has recovered so quickly and to such a great extent. (As an aside, it also shows a lot about the Thai’s bravery that it is the only country in South East Asia to have never been
The Khao Lak Ferry
Possibly the worst value 40p you'll ever spend. There's a kiosk where you pay 20 baht to drag yourself across this trickle using the platform on the left.
We used to get black looks off the money collector when we took our flip flops off and waded across.
You only need to do that twice a day and you save enough for two ice cold Singhas - get in!! conquered by a European power).
Our time in Khao Lak passed quickly and, to a large extent, enjoyably. During our stay there were, however, close calls with a fearsome looking puffer fish, a market stall serving fried caterpillars, crickets and locusts and, worst of all, what has become infamously known as the “massive scary spider incident”.
We’d been on our terrace to get close to one of the occasional violent monsoon storms you get out here. We marvelled at the power of the rain and at how nice it was that it cleared the air so quickly, steam rising off the hot earth. This marvelling soon stopped when I went back into our bungalow to find Angela frozen stiff, standing on the toilet seat with eyes like saucers. To continue the crockery metaphor, I slowly followed her gaze and see a evil looking spider the size of a small dinner plate (honestly, it was!!) pinning us both in the bathroom. It had obviously decided to take shelter from the downpour and it took me some time to work up the bravery to “deal with it”. Suffice to say we slept nervously that night and have vowed to never speak of this awful giant arachnid ever again.
Today we make the long journey from the west coast of Thailand over to the east. This involves two taxis, a four and a half hour public bus ride and another ferry in the middle. All with two big suitcases and a heavy rucksack.
Wish us luck………………
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Ed
non-member comment
Angela, please tell me.........
David did not play crazy golf wearing sandals with red socks........ and then he wonders why the locals keep grinning at him