Khao Lak, Takuapa, Chang Wat Phang-nga, Thailand
It was Monday morning again. My air conditioning was playing up and I had had a very hot and largely sleepless night. After French toast and tea for breakfast at Phukhaolak I perked up a bit and wandered over to the office.
I wanted to do some work on one of the lesson packs originally created (not very well) by Sunny. She doesn't usually get to the office early and so with a little technical assistance from Ken I managed to get it all changed before she arrived and so, hopefully, avoided hurting her feelings.
David came to the office to help tidy the lesson packs, Sunny eventually turned up and at around midday another familiar face appeared at the door - Sheila. She had been in Khao Lak over Christmas but I wasn't expecting to see her again this year as I knew she had plans to go travelling in Sri Lanka. It seems that she had indeed been to Sri Lanka but with a couple of weeks still left of the University holidays she had been able to fit in another short visit to Thailand before returning to her teaching post in Japan.
We arranged to meet later and I returned home for a lazy afternoon by the pool.
It was a nice surprise to find that I had some more company for my last 10 days in Khao Lak. Sheila and I met at 7.00pm for a beer before dinner and had a long chat and catch up. She told me all about her adventures in Sri Lanka which included bumping into Stephanie at Colombo railway station, Stephanie being another regular VTT volunteer. Neither had any idea that the other was even in the country!
We ate with Ken at Everyday, which was much quieter than it had been the previous night. Sheila was tired after the journey and so, after eating, we headed back into town for an early night. Rather predictably Sheila got a second wind on the way back and decided perhaps she could manage one more beer after all! So we ended up at Ska Bar.
There was definitely something amiss with my air conditioning despite the cleaners trying to convince me that it was working fine. On the way out to breakfast on Tuesday morning I reported it to Bom in the office.
When I got back from breakfast I found an assortment of shoes outside my bungalow. The three cleaners, Bom and the maintenance man were all seated on the floor inside, with the door closed and the air conditioning on, each with an arm raised in the air, trying to decide whether it was working or not! In a mix of English, basic Thai and sign language I think I succeeded in convincing them that there was a problem. As I left for the office they were making phone calls, to the maintenance engineer I hoped.
I finished my work on the new lesson on “Family “ and sorted out a few other worksheets. David had again come in to offer his services but was finding it a little difficult with his very limited experience of using the lessons. And the lessons he chose to check seemed always to be the complicated ones. He spent ages on a lesson which matched animals and parts of animals, such as claws, hooves, paws, wings etc. He was still looking at it and scratching his head when I left but assured me that he would soon have it all shipshape.
There was no sign of any improvement in the functioning of the air conditioning when I went home to change. I had lunch at Happy Lagoon restaurant (a first ever visit) and then went to enjoy some sea breezes on the beach.
On my return I found a truck parked in front of my bungalow. This looked promising! The engineer was just packing up and two of the cleaning girls were waiting for me with beaming faces….”Mama, cold! “ What luxury!
Since his arrival a few weeks ago David has been making fun of what he calls my posh accommodation and its adjoining “upmarket” restaurant. He by way of contrast has a cheap room in budget accommodation and eats most nights at some food stalls hidden away down an alley!
So on Tuesday night it was decided that he should put on a shirt and come and see how the other half live at Phukhaolak. We had a good meal and did a lot of reminiscing about our youth, the bands of the seventies and the scrapes we got into during our early days of travelling the world. We had to move eventually as the staff were dropping hints by starting to switch off the lights and so we joined Ken at Captains Bar for a night cap.
I had decided to have a day off on Wednesday and as I was up fairly early (having had a good cool night's sleep) I thought I would walk over to Bang Niang and spend the day on the beach there.
It was a hot walk but I stopped for breakfast on the way, this time choosing to eat at the German run Bistro in Bang Niang which advertised all sorts of homemade goodies such as bread, muesli, jam and yoghurt. I had a cup of coffee and a bowl of muesli with mixed fresh fruit, yoghurt and honey. It was good but a little on the stodgy side.
I walked up to the most northerly group of sunbeds on Bang Niang beach and this week took one on the front row by the sea. On my last visit I had not been charged but today, almost as soon as I sat down I was approached by the owner who asked for 100 baht and presented me with a free bottle of water. I didn't mind paying as it was a lovely spot.
I had a great morning reading my book and then, to work up an appetite for lunch, I took a half hour walk north along the virtually deserted Khuk Khak beach.
The owner of the sunbeds had a small restaurant where I had felt duty bound to eat last time but feeling no such loyalty today I walked back to Nong Prew Beach bar, where I knew the food was good, for one of their egg wrapped prawn pad thai’s and a fresh lemon shake.
I dozed and read for another hour or so before setting off home. I managed to walk as far as the main road where I jumped in a taxi. It was just too hot to walk all the way.
I hadn't eaten at Khaolak Seafood Restaurant for a while and so that was where I headed on Wednesday night. I found Sheila had made the same choice and was already half way through her dinner when I arrived. She waited for me to finish my lovely fish with ginger and we then wandered down to Monkey Bar. It was the first time that Sheila had been there since Christmas and we only stayed for one drink when she discovered that they were now charging 90 baht for a small bottle of Leo. We retreated to Ska Bar, where there was the added advantage of being able to hear each other speak, and where the beer was a much more reasonable 60 baht a bottle.
I was back in the office on Thursday morning, continuing my work on the lesson packs. Sunny had been promising to take David and me on a day out to Krabi. It had been pencilled in for Friday and, as I had objected to travelling any distance in Ken's truck after the back problems which I had suffered following the last trip, Sunny had arranged for us to be driven by a friend of hers. At the last minute however, the friend decided that we weren't offering to pay her enough. So when Sunny arrived in the office she had to start from scratch with the arrangements.
David was off diving for the day and so couldn't be consulted but in his absence it was decided that we would hire a car ourselves, Sunny would drive but that the itinerary would not take us as far as Krabi. In no time at all she had been to the car hire office, sorted out a vehicle, researched the Phang Nga area on the Internet and drawn up a route and programme for the day.
After a late lunch I had a nice stroll along the beach and an hour’s reading in a shady spot under the trees.
That night I made a return visit to Forest Bar, the newly opened bar, and was pleased to see that they had quite a few customers. I retired at a reasonable hour as I had the first early start for a long while in the morning.
I was picked up at 7.45am by Sunny in a smart silver Toyota hire car. Yo was with her and we next went for David. David volunteered to share the driving providing the insurance covered him and was immediately put in the driving seat which he occupied for the rest of the day. Being only too familiar with Sunny's speedy and somewhat erratic driving I was quite pleased with this arrangement.
Sunny was a good guide though and knew the route well. We set off on the well worn road towards Phuket. At Khok Kloi we took the road towards Phang-nga, soon turning onto minor roads which wound their way through tiny Muslim villages with occasional glimpses of the turquoise waters of Phang Nga Bay with its dramatic limestone islands.
Our first stop was at the Samet Nangshe viewpoint. We drove up a very steep road to a recently constructed restaurant on a hilltop.
There we relaxed with coffees and took in the amazing panorama. There were tents arranged on the terraces available for hire to people wanting to enjoy the sunset and the sunrise over the bay. I would imagine that both can be spectacular.
As we approached Phang Nga town we passed Suwan Kuha or monkey temple. It wasn't on our itinerary for today and I had visited it several times before but it seemed a shame for David not to see it and so we had a stop there. As usual there were lots of monkeys waiting to be fed bananas by the hordes of tourists who visit every day. Amazingly we managed to avoid any coachloads of farangs and so had a pleasant half hour exploring the cave temple with its large reclining Buddha and high ceiling of stalagmites.
After a stop at the adjoining cafe by the river for cold drinks we continued on our way to the town of Phang Nga. There we visited Ruesi Sawan park. There were even fewer people here and we enjoyed following the pathways that wound around the park regularly passing under natural limestone arches and through caves.
Sunny educated us on the various flowering trees and shrubs that abounded. At the river we stopped to talk to a lady and her daughter who were shoulder deep in the water collecting shell fish. Both were fully clothed and the lady was even wearing jewellery. Some folk spend their days in strange ways!
We stopped for lunch at a local Thai eating place on the town’s main street. I chose rice with stir fried pork and kale and a fried egg and very good it was too.
Then it was on to the next place on the itinerary, Wat Bang Riang in Tappud. The road twisted and turned as it crossed the lush green mountains. We happened upon another viewpoint. The first one had been new and recently constructed. This one was a simple series of platforms linked by wooden staircases. It too did not look very old but was clearly not being maintained and there were missing planks in the platform and stairways, and David alarmed us by leaning on one of the vertical wooden supports at the top and causing the whole structure to sway!
Wat Bang Riang is a very colourful temple on the summit of a mountain.
An inner courtyard houses sixty statues of Buddha. The huge figures of warriors and legendary creatures are reminiscent of those in the Royal Palace in Bangkok and in the inner sanctum a casket is reputed to hold a tooth of Buddha.
From a shady terrace there were splendid views of the surrounding mountains and, in the forest beneath Wat Bang Riang, of two enormous statues, one a golden Buddha, the other a goddess of Chinese origin. We descended the steep steps for a closer look. The golden Buddha was having a lick of paint and workmen busied themselves with noxious smelling cans of paint. The nagas surrounding Buddha's head had recently been painted too but already there were huge bees nests hanging from many of them.
After an ice cream we were ready for the drive to our last port of call, the hot springs at Kapong. Again it was a winding road. Most traffic took the longer but straighter route, Sunny told us. I was quite glad when the road finally straightened out and we arrived at the small country town of Kapong.
We had a brief stop at the 7 Eleven to purchase eggs to cook in the hot springs and then drove the final 5 miles.
There were just a handful of Thai families there. By the river side there was one bubbling and slightly smelly hot pool. It was here that we cooked our eggs in a bamboo basket suspended from a bamboo pole balanced on a couple of rocks. The temperature is a constant 67°. Some of the hot water drains into the river resulting in warm pools in which most of the Thais were lounging.
It was getting late and there were some ominous looking black clouds building up. We still had a long drive ahead of us and so we waited somewhat impatiently for our eggs to cook. In the end we pulled them out slightly before the recommended 15 minutes was up and, not surprisingly, found them not quite cooked when we peeled them!
It was starting to rain as we left and very soon it was dark. Now I was really glad that David, and not Sunny, was driving. It was quite a tense drive back as we negotiated unlit winding country roads in rain that it was beyond the power of the windscreen wipers to deal with and every so often hitting patches of flooding.
During his stay in Khao Lak David had explored the area quite extensively on a scooter. He surprised us all, about half way through the journey, by turning off the road, swinging the car around a small track looping through the jungle and bringing it to a halt in front of a little general store, the only building in the vicinity showing lights. It seemed that he had visited the store on a couple of occasions and had been befriended by the lady owner who spoke surprisingly good English as she was married to a Londoner. The husband wasn’t there but the lady made us all welcome, putting out seats for us to shelter from the rain and have a drink and a chat with her.
There was one last hairy section to survive where the road was being resurfaced and cones and branches placed down the middle of the road but without any indication as to which side of the cones or branches you were supposed to drive. Eventually we reached the main north south highway, the going got easier and just after 8.00 pm we finally rolled back into Khao Lak.
It had been a long but fun day.
Saturday was going to be David’s last day and we had arranged to take a taxi to Coconut Beach. I awoke however, to a rather unusual phenomenon here, a grey sky! The forecast was for rain later in the day and so, somewhat reluctantly, we cancelled our plans. I spent a relaxed morning pottering around, writing some emails and editing my photos from the previous day’s excursion.
I was provided with some unexpected entertainment when the coconut pickers turned up. Sadly they did not have the monkeys with them on this occasion but instead shinned up the trees themselves. I had never seen them do this before. With just a band stretched between the ankles and a machete tucked in the belt, they wrapped their arms around the trunk and up they went. It was amazing to watch particularly for someone like me who freezes three foot up a ladder.
I bumped into Sheila in Go Pong Restaurant at lunchtime. After a chat and some food we wandered around the shops for a while and then went our separate ways.
It was hot and humid but had still not rained. I was feeling a little guilty about cancelling the Coconut Beach trip and so went to join David who was by now on Nang Thong beach. He was happily listening to music and didn't seem too disappointed not to have made it to Coconut Beach.
Later we met up at Khao Lak Seafood Restaurant for David's last night. Sunny and Yo were already there. The food as always was very good and the portions generous.
I wasn't able to finish my massaman chicken curry but David persevered manfully with his whole red snapper in Thai curry, pausing only occasionally to wipe the sweat from his brow and blow his nose.
Then it was on to Monkey Bar for a lively and, by my standards, late night. Everybody had a lot to drink, particularly Sunny who was celebrating the discovery that it was much more economical to buy large bottles of Chang rather than the small ones, but who seemed not to appreciate that this was only the case if you actually drank fewer large bottles than you would have done small ones!
Part way through the evening, when the free peanuts had run out, she shot off to 7 Eleven and returned with “snacks”. The vacuum packed mango slices were on the sour side but the abiding memory of the evening for me will be the olives. I have got used to the Thais’ obsession with anything sugary, but olives…………..? They were sickly sweet and thoroughly disgusting!
The blue sky was back on Sunday morning and so after a sausage bap and a mug of builder's tea at Walker's Inn I wandered down to the beach with my book.
It was a page turner and so I continued reading it over lunch at Green Beach and then for an hour or two by the pool in the afternoon.
Sunny had invited me to her home on Sunday evening and was going to cook a Thai meal for me. She lives in Bang Niang, on a winding country lane behind the Tsunami Memorial in a house owned by our trusty school driver Kobin. Kobin lives nearby and when I asked her for the address so that I could tell my taxi driver where to go she said that they didn't work with addresses but if I just said “Kobin house” they would all know where I wanted to go. I wasn't convinced of this and had persuaded her to write it in Thai so I had some back up but in fact she was right. “Kobin house” was immediately understood by the taxi driver I approached and off we went.
It was a lovely evening and Sunny was the perfect hostess. We opened a couple of the beers I had brought and sat on her terrace for a while chatting and playing with her two cats. Then she gave me a guided tour of her kitchen, naming all the spices and sauces in the larder before starting cooking.
She had the rice already on the go in the electric rice cooker and had prepared all the other ingredients for the two dishes she was going to cook, sweet and sour chicken and green curry with fish.
I was allowed to watch and give things the occasional stir but didn't really pick up any tips for my own attempts at cooking Thai food back at home. What I had hoped to learn was how the green curry paste was made but Sunny had bought this ready made from a lady in the market!
When everything was ready the dishes were laid out on a low bamboo table which was carried into the living area. Yo, who had until now been watching TV, joined us and we ate sitting on mats on the floor. Needless to say it was delicious. There was fresh fruit to follow and then Yo was left to do the washing up while Sunny and I adjourned to the terrace again to polish off what remained of the beer.
Sunny had told Kobin that I was visiting that evening and he had offered to drive me back. I had thought I’d done my last trip for this year in the familiar blue taxi but at about 10 o'clock I heard the unmistakable chug of his very old taxi approaching out of the darkness. He took me back home and very sweetly wouldn't take any payment.
I shall be on my way back to the UK very soon now. How I shall miss these lovely people!
2025-03-20