Kao Lak weekend

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After the R35 School we had a weekend in Kao Lak. Well, the people who didn't have to do the visa run had a weekend in Kao Lak. The rest of us had moments in Kao Lak and an interesting trip to Burma 😊
We stayed at the sweetest little bungalows - Ashely was my roommate. Ours was pretty much the only room that wasn't visited by some sort of large/scary creepy crawly thing at some point during the weekend. Score!
Friday afternoon we headed straight to the beach. It wasn't the typical white sand beach. there were some crazy rockage happening and the waves were intense. Ashely, Sophie and myself were body surfing and were literally getting thrown around like a ragdoll at the end of the wave and washing up on shore gasping for breath. awesome. at one point my knee introduced itself to a rock and I now sport a sweet little Thailand scar and it took a bit to be able to bend without pain. But it was so worth it.
We checked out some shops and bought girlie fruity drinks before heading out for dinner. we tried to go to this nice looking italian restaurant but it was closed (it is low season) so we wandered for ages before finding a place that had decent food and bloody amazing ice cream sundays! It was fabulous and I was happy. then we wandered into this Irish pub owned by a german who was playing Jamaican music. In thailand. Emma sang the saxaphone to inxs' never tear us apart and that song will never sound the same for me... but it was early(ish) to bed because it was freakin' early to rise.
Clare, Amy-Kate, Ashley and myself had to do the visa run. It was a 3 hour bus ride to the boat! We had a really nice customs dude as we stamped out of Thailand and climbed into my first longtail boat. There were a few weird stops to check papers and such along the way, the boat ride probably took about 45 minutes. we were told by the customs officials to put on lifejackets because it was choppy. That made amy-kate rather nervous 😊 and there were some crazy big waves! It started to storm and I thought it was fun but the others might not say the same. and as we pull up to the dock in burma... the sun comes out. no matter, we're already soaked through and through.
It was a slightly suspect border crossing. berm gave our passports to some strange man who wandered off with them and gave them to another strange man who wandered off and gave them to the guy behind the counter right beside us who took our picture. we had to give *crisp* $10 to get our visa into burma but we got our stamp and passports back and went to wander burma's market.
what tiny, twisty, dark and slightly creepy but oh-so-cool alleyways. there was stuff everywhere. and dead things. that stunk. I could have done without that. but we eventually made it to these two really cute jewelery shops. Clare and I ended up getting the same necklace, but we figured it would be okay as we live in two different countries so nobody would ever see us wearing them at the same time 😊
It was a wonderful boatride back. completely opposite to the one there: sunshine, gentle waves - no lifejacket required.
I didn't think the customs official was going to let me back into Thailand because I didn't know the address for the GVI house, but then the dude we had going out of thailand showed up and remembered us so it all worked out. on the way back to kao lak we stopped at a tsunami memorial. And yes, it gave me goosebumps. There was a little shop run by people directly affected by the tsunami. one of the ladies behind the counter had been swept out to sea with her then one-year-old daughter and they'd floated on a piece of flotsam for about seven hours before being rescued. holy mackerel.
we also stopped to see the blue angle and the red devil. They're boats - google them because I'm not typing their stories out today. and if you do google them you'll be interested to know that when we showed up there were kids playing all over and around the blue angel. there was pretty much a block party happening in it's shadow. and there was no one, absolutely no one, near the red devil.
also on the way back to kao lak we stopped at some lady's house that berm had met once and who normally had a bunch of antique beads. she had about four this time around. it was an awkward visit.
when we got back we finally had dinner in the italian restaurant, and it was gooood.
the next morning I had breakfast on the beach with ashley and we played in the waves - no body surfing. it was raining for a bit and it was lovely. we also explored the entire beach from one end to the other and found some pretty sweet shells. then we went on a girlie shopping spree and we each bought a couple of sundresses. and yes, i've worn them. a lot. it's just too hot hear for pants sometimes 😊
while a bunch of us were eating lunch in some little restaurant it started to bloody monsoon! a giant section of the roof of the restaurant started to leak like mad. eventually it was resembling an indoor waterfall. the floor was flooded almost to our ankles and everyone just kept eating and chatting. it was interesting.
Taryn and I made our way back to the ocean to watch it in the storm but by the time we got to the beach the rain had passed. we played in the waves (fully clothed!) and danced on the beach until it was time to go home.
almost everyone fell asleep on the ride back to base 😊

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Comments

[Trisha]

Happy Birhtday
Hi! So good to hear you're having such a great time. Amanda and I had lunch the other day and she mentioned your birthday was coming up; I hope it was a good one!! Take care.