Thailand - Khao Lak pt.III

It might not sound like it from the earlier blogs but we did get out of the resort, and not just to ride elephants.

The main town Bang La On (which most people refer to as Khao Lak) was about 20 minutes drive from where we were staying. The roads are pretty crazy even though this area is not massively developed, there seems to be a skinny outside lane closest to the curb where all the motorcycles/scooters ride (and there are a lot of those, often with two or three people on them, sometimes with a baby up front on the drivers lap) and then all of the cars, trucks and buses use the other lane and are prone to high risk over taking. 95% of the cars on the road are pickups and that seems to be so they can double as cabs. The local cabs have a welded steel riding section with canopy screwed to the back of the pickup, so we were hanging on to the kids each time we rode in them for fear of losing them overboard - definitely a different experience.

If Scout moves to Thailand she wants a scooter in pink!

The town had some really great restaurants, a couple of 7Eleven's (where we picked up beer and snacks), a lot of shops that sold knock-off surfwear and a number of tailors and optometrists. It was really hot cruising around in the shops and after the first trip into town we decided that it was no fun for the kids so we got a sitter the next time we went in.

The second time we went in we had two objectives 1) find a tailor to copy a favourite pair of trousers of mine and a jacket of Kelly's, and 2) visit the local markets.

When the cab driver found out we were after a tailor he went on about the best tailor in the area and insisted we go there. The place was a mile and a half out of town and the driver promised that once finished someone at the tailors would give us a ride into town. Undoubtedly the driver got some form of kick back from the tailor for bringing in business and although we were aware of this we chanced it and it was a mistake. The tailor did not have great fabric so we decided to check the multiple tailor options in the town proper, but with no business there was no ride into town. With limited time and 32 degrees C temp the mile and a half walk into town was something we didn't want to face so we started walking in the opposite direction toward the local markets where we had seen some cabs (this was a bit less than a mile away). We had only just started walking along the side of the road, watching out for the scooters buzzing by us (no sidewalks here), when we saw a cobra and a cat in a stand off about 10 feet from the side of the road. We didn't care too much about the scooters at that point and found the next taxi in record time.

When we finally made it to the local markets we had a good time, again a lot of knock-off stuff but also all sorts of fruit and veg and some interesting stall food. It was a lot of fun and I guess our luck turned while we were there because no sooner had we finished with the market and were sitting down in a restaurant across the street enjoying a beverage then the heavens opened up.

Local markets

One of the highlights of our last couple of days was letting off paper lanterns on the beach at night and watching them fly off into the sky until you couldn't see them any more. All up there were probably one hundred lanterns let off in the space of 20 minutes so they made a continuous line of fire in the sky as far up as the eye could see. The kids stayed up late to do this and they loved it.

Kel & Luca waiting for the hot air to fill their lantern before release

The journey home was overnight so it was much easier on the kids who slept most of the way. It was a magic family holiday making it hard to snap out of holiday mode and get back to work. We are already planning our next Thailand visit, probably in 2013, and we are hoping that some of the family and friends in the US can join us!