Three Days in Khao Lak
Despite my best intentions, I have to confess that I haven’t been exactly keeping up in real-time here. To my credit, I was pretty much caught up when we arrived here in Khao Lak, but since have been falling further and further behind. The silver lining is that we have slowed down our schedule a lot since Chiang Mai, so there hasn’t actually been a whole lot to report. As such, I have convinced myself I am not really taking the easy road by condensing multiple days into a single post 🙂
We start our first day in Khao Lak pretty groggy, given our late arrival and need to make it out of the room for the breakfast that ends at 10:00. Nick just makes a few grunting sounds and pulls the covers over his head, so Angela (yes, she is up) and I head down without him.
In the daylight, we get our first glimpse of Khao Lak, and are duly impressed. This was one of the worst hit areas from the Tsunami that hit in 2004, but you’d never really know by how things look today. It is a much quieter place than other beach destinations we have been in Thailand, but the location is idyllic, with palm trees, powdery beaches, and water so warm it is like walking into a bathtub.
Over the next few days, we manage to do a whole lot of nothing beyond swimming, laying on the beach, and walking down for the occasional massage. Nick plays for hours in the sand, and in the process manages to pick up his first good sunburn. It’s the first time we wonder if he would have more fun if his brothers were with him, but while he misses them, he says he is perfectly happy having the time to himself. I get a jumbo arm bruise from shooting a bow and arrow, but am telling people it is from a bar fight as that sounds less pathetic.
When planning our schedule (as much as you can call what we do planning), one of the big reasons we decided to spend time in Khao Lak was its proximity to the Similan Islands. The islands are one of the best dive spots in Thailand, but are quite a ways offshore, so Khao Lak makes for the shortest boat trip to get there. However, when we stop buy the dive shop in the hotel to get more information, the news is not good. There are day trips out, but by the time they add on rental equipment, park fees, and the dedicated dive guide they want Nick to have (since he is only junior certified), the cost is creeping up in $500 for just two of us (in retrospect, we probably could have found a much better deal had we gone to the dive shops in town, but that isn’t as obvious to us at the time). Knowing that for the same amount we can dive at least 2 days (if not more) in Phuket or Koh Phi Phi, it seems we are better off waiting Besides, my beach chair looks lonely without me.
As we finish up our three days in Khao Lak, I am a both ready to go and sad that we are leaving. There really isn’t a whole lot to do here, so in that context, three days was enough to chill out for a few days and recharge before heading south the Phuket. At the same time, this is definitely the kind of place where you could just slip into a some pretty deep relaxation and then wonder how 10 days passed you by. What it has done for us is reinforce that we are water people at heart. We did end up loving Chiang Mai, and without a doubt would recommend it to anyone visiting Thailand. However, we are a different kind of happy being here on the beach, validating our choice to spend the bulk of our time in the south.
Tomorrow we are off to Phuket.