Khao Lak and Phuket

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Hi Everyone,

Well computer access has been a bit of a problem over the last few days in Khao Lak so I haven’t had a chance to put down an entry. All is well though - lots of beach time and a few tours.

Khao Lak was the place the worst hit by the Tsunami a few years ago. When you drive through town there is a police patrol boat that is sitting aground beside all the buildings. The locals say that it is about 2 Km from the ocean. Pretty scary stuff. But everything looks pretty much recovered now. All the buildings are rebuilt, and there’s no visible damage on the trees. Hearing the local’s stories was pretty interesting though.

Anyways, we stayed in a super nice resort in Khao Lak thanks to Sheena’s discount. It was pretty relaxing, though it was far enough out of town that we were sort of trapped there. Luckily, there were a few huts on the beach where you could get food and beer, and a Thai massage for $9/hour. Sweet.

From there we did go into town once and did an elephant trek up to a little waterfall and pond where we did a bit of swimming. The elephant sort of freaked me out when we went up and down the hills, but Sheena was having a great time - and spent the whole way back on the elephant’s neck.

We had planned to go to the Similian islands too, but unfortunately the seas got too rough, and they had to cancel everything. So we spent the next day on the beach and in the beer huts.

Two days ago we came to our Phuket resort, which is just outside the town of Patong or the most popular beach in Phuket. An interesting town that is… I’ve never seen so many… well… boy-girls and prostitutes. Gross! Patong is a bit of a nasty tourist trap, but it was entertaining walking around. We found a nicer place and I had lots of Thai whiskey (surprisingly good) and a cigar.

Yesterday since the seas were too rough to go to Kho Phi Phi, we decided to take a kayaking trip up to the Adaman Islands (James Bond Island). Where we did kayaking through a bunch of caves and into amazing lagoons. It was awesome, the caves were so small that we had to lie down in the boat and we still almost touched the roof. But then, you come out of these little caves, and you’re in a completely sealed lagoon. It was like untouched rainforest, and we even had a family of macaque monkeys come and swim up to our kayak for a banana. Super cool.

Today is our last day in Thailand so we’re just going to chill out on the beach again I think. Tomorrow we fly back to Hong Kong, and then on Monday we fly back to Calgary. We look forward to seeing you all!

See you soon,
Ryan

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Photos

Riding the Elephant
Sheena is the brave one on the elephants neck.

Beer Hut
Best curry we've had so far.

Thai Whiskey
I don't remember that....

Kayaking in the cave
How the @#$! are we going to fit through that!!!! (But we did)

Pretty people in a pretty lagoon
I pretend like I kayaked through those caves... but I didn't.

Evening cocktails
Sheena is wearing all Thailand clothes and pearls