Thread: Khao Lak thoughts

It is amazing what nature can be capable of:-

I have some photographs showing injured people and many showing the high levels of death, the bodies, due to the effect of the sea water, injuries sustained and the heat, are not suitable to be shown on a public forum.

Hence I am sticking to a few with simple but effective proof of the power of those waves.

It is quite amazing when you look at the state of things shown by the above photographs, I saw a great deal of damage on a personal basis shortly after The Tsunami, and I must say that the rebuilding etc has been carried out in many places, fat quicker than I would have thought possible.

Khaolak has advanced from an insider tip for backpackers to one of the most popular tourist attractions in Thailand.

It has a long beach front on which Gerd and Noi's has quite a prime position which assures relaxation in an uncrowded tropical environment.

The hills behind offer water falls and lush rain forest, the people are as yet unaffected by the trappings of tourism.

There is a viewpoint with a spectacular view all over Khaolak Beach which can be easily reached by car, motorcycle, taxi, bus or a good walk if you feel like exercise.

(See photograph below)

Several waterfalls, temples, rivers, lagoons and the nearby Khaosok national park invite for adventurous outdoor activities. One of the world's Top 10 dive destinations, the famous Similan Islands, are in easy reach and can be visited daily using one of the local diving schools.

The restaurants in Khaolak, serve excellent fresh seafood, traditional Thai and European dishes.

There are a few mini marts, souvenir stores and the usual bars but no signs of dancing girls, my two grandson's both heavily complained!

The bungalows, whilst simply basic, were clean and well presented.

Although we had the vehicle shops, restaurants in addition to the beach front restaurant at Gerd and Noi's were within easy walking distance.

We were quite looking forward to spending Christmas here!




Well it was quite interesting to see a Tiger Shark fished up in the mangrove swamp!

Just remember if you go into one of those places, it pays not to go paddling or swimming, you never know what might be there to greet you.

Added to that the vicious snake in the tree branches overhead, taking a siesta could be quite a handful if he fell or simply dropped down into your lap.




This is the scenic view from the highway a short drive out of town.

Yes, it is indeed a beautiful place, but what was wrong?

Well we were there for enjoyment, looking forward to a good Christmas etc (with two teenage lads) and everybody else was there to mourn!

It was a mass gathering of relatives of those who had lost their lives in The Tsunami!

Nobody was partying or having a laugh!

We may as well have been holidaying in a gigantic funeral parlour!

OK fair enough, I respect there right to mourn, but I rather think we should have been told this was the norm as it has been each Christmas since the Tsunami disaster, when we booked direct with G & N !

So I wanted to get the lads away from the sadness, and occupy them in a manner which took them away from the scenario in general.

I hired a couple of motorcycles and commenced teaching them how to ride them. That's what granddads do isn't it! Simple Honda rev and go, it was good fun, at the end of the first day they were both riding quite well.

Christmas Eve morning I hired an additional bike, they had one each, me and granny were on the other, it's good fun. The lads, really loved it, it was new to them both and we had a great couple of days!

(Mathos on Rev and Go.)

I can't say the evenings, especially Christmas Eve and Christmas day night were anything to write about, except that is to say the total resort, town, restaurants and shops were worse than ever in their gigantic mourning session.

Boxing day was awful, we got up quite early to go out on the bikes; They were all over the place, dressed in black, carrying big wreaths of flowers to the beach, and standing there crying, sobbing etc. etc. I hadn't come or brought my wife and the lads for this.

It was awful.

OK Mathos, time to move out of here!

I'd paid to the 2nd of January for both rooms at the time of booking.

No way were they prepared to give me a refund!


So we packed up a ruck sack each, left the main luggage in our rooms, and we left on the motorcycles for Khaosak National Park !

It was getting the lads out of the area, and the motorcycle ride was great, we left the Chrysler at the resort.

We had a couple of great days at The Park and Lake, the lads enjoyed riding a bike each for the lengthy distance and we were more than glad to be away from KhaoLak to be 100% honest with you.




The lake is absolutely mind blowing, if you have never visited the same and the opportunity arises, don't miss out on this!

We took accommodation at KhoSak Tree House Resort by the national park, it was excellent.

They had one absolutely fabulous tree house (picture below) which I referred to as The Penthouse! Once the lads, (these soldiers of fortune, schoolboy champion boxers saw the real jungle, complete with a few snakes, large insects, frogs, large geckos and monkey's! They didn't want the standard tree house at Baht 500 per night, and granny said they had to have the Penthouse, (she ruins them).

It kicked off at Baht 2500 per night, but he dropped it to Baht 1500.



The unmistakable difference is evident to see in the adjoining photograph of ours!




Another nice snap from the lake here, I thought I'd put that in too.

Later... Man U playing soon, can't miss that!

Glad to say those cockney's have been thrashed!


Man U 2 Cockney's 1

We rode back to Khao Lak, handed in the motorcycles, packed up, emptied our rooms, and checked out! Still no refund on the remaining days paid for and we had paid premium price for the high season/pool side rooms etc. About Baht 2800 per night per room from memory!

We drove to Phuket and managed to get accommodation at Patong Beach in a couple of bungalows, it was much better indeed.

We had Jet Ski's on the beach for the afternoon and following day, a couple of good nights in town (the lads loved that, more girls to ogle) and changed our flights to go back to Bangkok for New Years Eve, they were made up at this!

We couldn't get in at The Landmark so we managed a couple of rooms at the Amari Boulevard (across the road from Landmark) and flew into Bangkok late afternoon on December 31st.

We had a cracking night, did a great tour of Bangkok and finished up back poolside at The Amari about 2am New Years Day with champagne and a bit of a buffet. All in all the lads were on top of the world.

We took them all over the place the remaining four days and nights that they had in Thailand. Their return flight to the UK was booked for Saturday 5th January.

I had them at a gun club shooting all sorts of mean and wonderful weapons from 45 caliber hand revolvers, through rifles, twelve bores to AK47's. They loved it.

All in all with the motorcycles, the guns and the jet ski's I would be getting a real ear bashing off their mum's!

Thursday night 3rd January we had been out until about midnight came back to the hotel and went to our respective rooms.

Granny's like mothers become instinctive! I don't know what it is they just do women are like that.

"I'm going to check on the lads," she says!

"Why?" I reply.

"Just want to, won't be a minute,"

They are one floor down and she's back in a few minutes.

You guessed, they've done one! It's what lads do, perfectly normal, dangerous at their age I know but totally understandable.

Well Granny is having kitten's. I get dressed, to go and look for them!

Granny is waiting at the hotel. She phones their mobiles, both phones are in the room playing silly tunes one after the other, which doesn't help.

I'm doing Nana, Cowboys, Patpong, Tin Can Alley, The Gardens of Babylon and any other dive I can think of!

No chance.

Three o'clock and Granny walks around Sukhumvit, (she's had enough of waiting) and they walk round the corner!

Shit, can you imagine that.

The doorman at The Amari, told me he never saw anything like it in his life.

Them two went in like shit off a shovel and Granny was close behind going to rip their ******* heads off...

Isn't life grand!

Anyhow they were safe, that is all that matters.

I laughed, I thought it quite normal, but I explained the dangers to them.

Granny wanted to know where the F*** have you been till this time?

They still remark on that, they never heard Granny swear in their lives before.

They didn't tell her though!

They told me.

Shit I'd have gone with 'em if I'd known.

Well we took them to the airport on Saturday 5th January, school was beckoning for Monday morning the 7th they would land in Manchester UK at about 6.30 am on the 6th.

Daughters and their husbands would be waiting for them at the airport. We just wanted to know they made it home safe and sound.

They did of course, they landed in Abu Dhabi with Etihad they were well looked after too. Taken to a private lounge, and monitored, thank goodness. Put on the plane for the second and final stage of their journey.


We felt great relief to know they got home safe and sound, but in total honesty as the days wore on, we really found ourselves missing them.

It had been great fun having them, we showed them a lot they had a great deal of fun too.

I laughed again, when I checked the room bill for extras, I had paid for them:- four porno films !

Lads .............

We weren't leaving BKK until Monday morning when we would be making our way to Chiang Mai... Just the two of us now for the next 12 weeks or so.


We met Sharon from Teak Door on the Sunday night, had a bite to eat with her in Gulliver's.

A really nice young lady, very attractive too.

You were nice company Sharon.

I'm running behind to-day, life is like that at times, I'll catch up tomorrow (hopefully) but thought i would stick this one on!

I'd never seen cattle with up-side down horns before!