Thai Holiday Over Christmas and New Years
Hi all. I'm finally starting my thread on our great trip to Thailand. We spent one day under four weeks there from mid December to January 9th. I have loads of pics, but I'll post them in groups of 4 or 5 to make them easier to view and (hopefully) enjoy.
OK, we arrived in BKK on the morning of Dec 14th. The weather was nice and clear for our landing.
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I went to our local market to pick up brekkie.
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This was a Friday and that night we met some friends for dinner at The Waterside Restaurant.
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Rudolph wasn't there yet
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Promthep Cape and Naiharn Beach
Khao Lak and Baan Nam Khem
On Friday the 28th we drove up to Khao Lak area where my sister in law and her family are. This is at the top of Phuket just before the bridge. It's a nice big restaurant / pee stop. They so kindly have two types of toilets with signs to indicate which ones they are.
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I much prefer this one
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A tsunami memorial on the bridge
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The first beach on the mainland. Nobody was on it.
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Driving to Khao Sok National Park
I have to say that Khao Sok National Park is absolutely stunning! I had heard about it from other posters on here and after that I've always wanted to go there. Just a bit of background so you know what's going on here.
Hubby is from Phuket and his parents have a house there. MIL is from Surat Thani and FIL works for a gypsum company in ST. When we drove to ST from Phuket, we took my MIL with us to take her home.
As we were going to the area where they live, I spotted signs for Khao Sok National Park and Rajaprappa Dam. I asked if we could take that route so I could see it and we did. I was amazed at all the great scenery in that area.
During all of this travelling, we just winged it. We didn't prebook any places to stay, so while we were at Khao Sok, we asked about accomodations. Now this is December 29th and we needed somewhere to stay for NYE.
As to be expected, all the cabins were full but there was available space for camping, for, get this, 40 baht per night. :) So that's what we did. Anyway, here are some pics from our drive through there.
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A viewpoint on the way
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On the road again
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Near the entrance to the park
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New Years Morning Hike to the Rafflesia
We found out that Khao Sok National Park is the only place in Thailand that has the rafflesia flower. You have to go with a guide and the hike to get there is a bit hard core. We went with two other people and we left at around 9:00 am. We were back by noon, in time for lunch. We certainly worked up an appetite.
A nice aerial shot with the waterways highlighted.
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Info on the rafflesia
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There's a really nice viewpoint about 20 minutes into the hike
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You can see the palm oil and rubber plantations down below
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