Blogs from Khao Lak, South-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 3

The school and university years had ended so we set off for a two week jaunt in Thailand. We landed in Phuket and were driven an hour or so north to the small beachside town of Khao Lak. The coastal area around the town had been hit harder than any other parts of Thailand in the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. The official death toll was around 4,000, but the ever reliable Wikipedia reports that due to lack of reliable census data and the large numbers of undocumented Burmese immigrants it could have been as high as 10,000. There was no shortage of reminders of what had happened here - a tsunami museum, and a brand new early warning system complete with sirens and signs directing people where to go to get to high ground in the ... read more

THIS IS ONE OF THOSE BIG MOMENTS. Those moments when you know you are at a crossroads.You don’t know what lies ahead, but you know that whatever it is, it is different from where you just came. We just reached our hotel in Khao Lak, Thailand and for the first time in several months we have almost no decisions to make. We don’t have to figure out how to get anywhere, where we are going to sleep tonight, what time the bus or train leaves, or where we will go next. We are staying at a 5 star Marriott resort for the next five days, using up the last of Travis’ hotel points that he accumulated over the last few years through traveling. We walked into the spacious lobby adorned with chandeliers and regal statues ... read more

17th-20th Khao Lak and Similan Islands Oh night buses, what a joy! This was Helen’s first Asian night bus experience and she was in for a treat. Nice karaoke style programme on the TV, until lights and TV were all turned off at 8pm and the snoring started. She also had the added pleasure of sitting next to a woman who had a child on her lap. Luckily she was a nice lady and a pretty well behaved child. We were woken up half way through the night for a compulsory pit stop, everyone off, “no you cannot stay on the bus and yes you must take your complimentary smelly milk drink things, all three of them.” After a confused half an hour or so Helen decided she would buy a neck pillow to help her ... 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

Time for our visa run as our Thai tourist visa is only valid for 4 weeks - and believe it or not, we have already been away for 4 weeks now. So from Khao Sok we get on the bus to Takua Pa and then on another bus to Ranong, a city of around 30.000 people right at the Thai/Burmese border. As a typical border city there is all sort of trade (legal and illegal) going on here... As we get off the bus we follow one girl advertising a place called Palmy House and as we have no clue where to go (did I mention that we travel without travel guide this time -which does make the whole trip a little more exciting but sometimes also a little more chaotic) we follow her. The guesthouse ... read more