Khao Lak, Takuapa, Chang Wat Phang-nga, Thailand
The week started with further disappointments. The school on Tuesday had some special activities planned and didn't need us, and my back was playing up again.
Anne, the new volunteer, who by now had moved from Walkers Inn to Phukhaolak, joined Lena and me at the office to organise the lessons for the week. I had to break the bad news to them about Tuesday but already had a plan in mind - a birthday trip to Coconut Beach. Lena and Anne were both keen to join me and so we booked a taxi for the day.
Then Sunny turned up with more bad news - the Wednesday school didn't need us either! I felt particularly sorry for Anne who had been in Khao Lak for nearly a week already, waiting to start teaching.
I spent a few hours lying on the floor to try to ease my back problems and then later in the afternoon met up with Lena and Anne again to go to Bang Niang.
Neither of them had yet been to the Police Boat Tsunami Memorial and so we started there, spending quite some time in the little museum where the horrific videos of the wave are showing. The lovely tiny Thai lady who works so hard running the museum remembered me from previous visits and was keen to show me the new exhibits which she had made recently. I felt very rude not reading them properly as I couldn't bend down to see them!
Both Lena and Anne had vivid personal recollections of the tsunami. Lena happened to be in Bangkok at the time and got involved in packing relief parcels to be sent to the affected areas.
Anne was at home in the UK but feared for the safety of her son who was then living on Koh Tao. (This island is in the Gulf of Thailand and so was not hit by the tsunami of which Nick knew nothing until he received his mother's worried phone call from the UK!)
At the market we strolled around the cooked food stalls, the fresh produce section and some of the touristy stalls before taking a break for some fruit shakes.
I took them to eat at my usual seafront restaurant, Chong Fah. It was only on arriving that I recalled our experience on the last visit, when all the seafront tables had been unoccupied but reserved for a Chinese group. The same happened again tonight and what was even more annoying was that the Chinese were served their food before us regardless of the fact that we had arrived first. The food wasn't awfully exciting either. Maybe it's time to find a new seafront eating place.
We had had high winds for a few days and as they were blowing from the north the Thais were finding it cold. Monday night was a really rough night and the gardener at Phukhaolak had a big clearing up job to do on Tuesday morning gathering up all the fallen branches.
Coconut Beach was as idyllic as ever on Tuesday and surprisingly quiet in the morning. Was it really Christmas week? There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the continuing stiff breeze kept it lovely and cool. Lena had changed her mind and gone surfing instead at Memories beach but Anne and I had a perfect day relaxing beneath the palm-trees, walking along the beach and enjoying a leisurely lunch.
The wind had still not dropped on Tuesday evening and even I was beginning to feel a bit cold (but not quite cold enough to unpack my cardigan). In birthday mood I treated myself to my favourite dish at Khao Lak Thai Foods Restaurant, squid stuffed with pork in green curry, and then went to Tarzan Bar for a couple of beers. It was good to see the big table there finally occupied by the regular high season group of German bikers, most of them now familiar faces to me. With Sue from Warrington arriving tomorrow I made the most of probably the last evening I would be able to spend on my own for a while.
It was another windy night with more clearing up to do for the gardener on Wednesday morning.
With no school again I planned to wander into town for some breakfast before deciding what to do with my day. I was perturbed and slightly puzzled to find a group of Chinese tourists posing for photos in the gardens by our restaurant. I sincerely hoped that Chim had not started offering breakfasts for Chinese tour groups! When I reached the road I was greeted by the nightmare view of dozens of coaches, parked several abreast, all disgorging Chinese tourists. What was going on? Then I caught sight of flashing lights in the distance, where the road started to climb over the mountain. There must have been a serious accident there as the traffic was at a standstill in both directions.
By the time I had polished off a bowl of delicious rice soup for breakfast, and done a little shopping the road was open again (and the Chinese had thankfully moved on). I later learned that a huge tree had fallen across the road in the high winds and brought down three massive concrete electricity pillars at the same time.
I spent the rest of the day on the beach. The weather was brilliant, I was enjoying the book I was reading and I had a lovely lunch at Green Beach Cafe (washed down with a birthday beer). The only slight downside to the day was that my back was still painful.
I met Anne for dinner later. She had had a walk to a waterfall and visited an elephant visitor centre. Sue was due to arrive from England tonight and we had arranged to meet at Everyday restaurant. When Anne and I set out to walk to the restaurant however we found major work going on to repair the damage to the electricity pillars and all the buildings on that stretch of the road, including Everyday, in darkness.
We turned back and went to eat at Khao Lak Thai Foods restaurant instead where they had lights. We then had a wander around a very windy and so quite quiet town, had a drink at the Landing Stage cafe and were on our way home when we were hailed by multiple voices from Captains Bar. There we joined Sue, Ken, Lora and “Uncle” who was Sue's landlord about whom I had heard a lot but had never met before.
There seems to be no end to the high winds and once again the grounds of Phukhaolak were strewn with fallen branches on Thursday morning. We were not starting work until midday and so I had a full breakfast, a pleasant walk along the beach and did a little shopping.
Finally Anne was going to get to do some teaching and she was a little nervous as we set out for Wat Pattikaram school. On the way we were able to see the work going on to re erect the electricity pillars on the main road.
Lena and I had warned Anne that the school was likely to be hot and noisy. Actually it wasn’t too hot but the second class, as usual, were rather boisterous. We’re getting to know the characters at this school now, of which there are many, and this makes the lessons more interesting. There are some very bright children in each class, even among the very noisy and inattentive groups.
At Home and Life we chatted with Ali over banana muffins while waiting for the children to get home from school. They weren’t particularly responsive today, tired probably at the end of their day at school. There are discussions underway as to whether the volunteers should continue with the weekly English class here. All the volunteers love to visit the orphanage but there is a feeling that the staff are no longer appreciative of our services and the time could perhaps be better spent somewhere else.
It was good to have a chat with Sue on Thursday evening. We met for an early beer at Nature Bar and then went to Sue’s favourite place for dinner, Khao Lak Seafood Restaurant.
Anne tagged along too but she doesn't drink and doesn't eat very much either. It wasn't a late night as Sue was getting an early bus in the morning to go up north to Koh Phayyam for a few days to visit some friends.
As usual we were teaching at Koh Nok school on Friday morning. My back seemed worse than ever and I was tempted to cry off for the day. I went along however and it eased slightly during the morning. The children were as lovely as ever and Anne and Lena both had a great time.
We had to change our teaching position slightly as half the floorspace in the hall was occupied by dozens of opaque white, stoppered bottle shaped containers. Mystified by these we asked what they were and the children told us “mushroom”. We sought clarification from the teachers who confirmed that they were growing oyster mushrooms and they would be ready in 2 weeks!
I needed to do something about my back and so decided to try a massage on Friday afternoon. I explained the issue to the masseuse and she set to work, in no time at all locating the exact position of the problem, and kneading and probing, put me through considerable pain! It felt good however and I was optimistic that it would have done some good.
I then continued my productive afternoon by going for a haircut.
After our aborted visit to Everyday restaurant on Wednesday when the electricity was off, Anne and I decided to give it another go on Friday. As always seems to happen when I take someone new there, the restaurant was a big hit with Anne who declared the meal to be the best she had had yet in Thailand.
After a stroll around town Anne and I stopped at Ska Bar to watch the world go by and were joined later by Ken and a Swiss friend, Raymond, whom I had met on previous visits.
As usual I was stiff and in pain when I got up on Saturday morning. I struggled through my usual morning exercises, rubbed some of the green balm recommended by Anne into my back and amazingly, five minutes later, felt my back relaxing and the pain reducing. Rather excited by this improvement I said a mental thank you to the lady who had done the massage the previous day and continued on my way to breakfast.
I had a relaxing day planned. It was overcast but I decided to go to the beach anyway.
There seemed to be a lot of new arrivals, white bodies fresh off the plane in abundance. The wind seemed finally to have dropped but there were still plenty of white horses on the sea.
Whilst not 100% my back was definitely better and I decided to walk to the market in Bang Niang. There I bought a new dress and some sunglasses to replace those I had broken earlier on the beach and bumped into Anne. She must have thought me rather antisocial as I had made no suggestions for meeting up over the weekend but now that I was feeling a bit better I was pleased to see her.
After recent disappointing experiences at Chong Fah Restaurant I needed to recce some more beachfront eating establishments and so dragged Anne all the way down to Nong Prew beach bar. There was a lovely atmosphere there with just enough customers (many Thai), reasonable food and of course the mesmerising sound of the sea. It might well be somewhere to take newcomers in future but getting there for most would probably involve a taxi ride.
Anne was a walker and so happy to stroll all the way back through Bang Niang where we stopped to share a banana pancake.
Back in Khao Lak we found that Phukhaolak Restaurant had quite a lot of Christmas revellers in and so I expected to find Sakai Bar packed out when I went there later. It was after all Saturday night and two days before Christmas. In fact it was very quiet.
By Sunday, however, which was Christmas Eve, Phukhaolak, until recently so tranquil and deserted, was packed out. It looked as if every room was taken and, horror of horrors, there were noisy children splashing about in the pool!
Some of my Scandinavian neighbours, for whom of course today was Christmas Day, were already tossing back shots of aquavit at nine o'clock in the morning.
The weather was perfect and so after breakfast I made for the beach. My back was still not completely right but better than it had been and I had a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas Eve, relaxing with a book and later enjoying lunch (with a Christmas Eve beer) at Green Beach Cafe.
Sue had arrived back from Koh Phayyam by Sunday evening but had had an eventful journey. Her bus had been stopped at a military checkpoint and Sue had been detained as she was not carrying her passport! Off went the bus and she was left trying to communicate with the senior guard whose English was little better than Sue’s Thai. Trying not to panic Sue remembered that she had Sunny’s number in her phone. Luckily Sunny answered, spoke to the Thai soldiers and, from records held in the office, was able to give them Sue’s passport number. Sue was then photographed several times and after a few phone calls a copy of her passport was emailed from the immigration authorities and she was free to go. She had a long wait for the next bus but eventually arrived back in Khao Lak safe and sound.
Most of the big hotels have Christmas parties on Christmas Eve and so there were just a handful of us eating at Everyday. Our Christmas would be celebrated tomorrow.
2025-03-21