Malaysia and Thailand Winter 2008-9

Jan 4 2009

Well we made it to Thailand, and are on our way to our volunteer assignment about 160 km SW of Bangkok. When there were so many problems with the Bangkok airport we decided to avoid the city altogether and fly from Borneo to Phuket. It sounded so simple. We arrive in Phuket about 1 PM, take a bus to a small town with a beach about 1 hour north of the airport and continue north first thing the next morning. Life is not simple. The first part worked. We made it to Khao Lak Beach and we found an inexpensive bamboo bungalow for the night. Then the complications began. We made inquiries about buses going north only to be told that no buses ran north towards Bangkok until late in the afternoon. The trip is about 11-12 hours to Bangkok and our destination of Cha-Am was 2-3 hours before Bangkok. That still meant an overnight bus trip - ugh. On top of that it is the end of a holiday weekend for Thais and everyone is heading back to Bangkok for school and work. Reservations are scarce. We were lucky to get a reservation on the 6:30 PM bus which would make arrival time around 4 AM - double ugh. At least we got to spend the day in Khao Lak.

Our first impression of Khao Lak was shock. Tourists outnumbered Thais 10 to 1. We had been so used to being the only European/North Americans around. Even the most popular tourist spots in Borneo are visited predominantly by Malaysians.

The town of Khao Lak is a section of the main highway lined with an infinite number of restaurants, souvenir shops and Tailor shops. Taxis and motor bike rentals take up the parking space in front of the shops. We politely refuse invitations to hire a taxi or visit their shop. At least our small hotel, which is a collection of concrete bungalows and a few bamboo bungalows around a small pool, is on a quiet side road. We did have plenty of choices for our meals and the food was pretty good.

After checking out of our hotel at 11:30 AM and leaving our big bags at the ticket office for the bus we headed down to the beach. It was about 300 M from the main road. The beach was populated with hundreds of European and Western tourists soaking up the sun. They stay in the resorts that line Khao Lak beach. Most resorts are simply a collection of bungalows around various facilities and there were plenty of them. We took off our shoes and walked the long, sandy beach.

Khao Lak Beach

Tsunami Memorial photos

Eventually we got to a section of the beach without resorts. We thought this was strange until we investigated a tree with notices posted on the trunk. It was memorials to Tsunami victims. Thai prayer beads were hung beside photos of mostly European youths and young children with sad goodbyes from their parents. It was very moving. I remembered reading in our Lonely Planet that this section of the coast was badly hit by the Tsunami on 26 Dec 2004. The bigger resorts have rebuilt, erasing signs of the disaster but smaller ones have never recovered. Apparently this stretch of the beach was less protected than the section where the bigger resorts are located. Both tourists and local resort owners lost their lives on this section of the beach and locals are loath to return to such an unlucky part of Thailand, so it remains desolate.

We turned back and returned to the resort end where we stopped to have a drink at a beach side restaurant. The water looked so inviting that I had to go for a swim. We have learned that if you act like you belong there, no will question you wandering about and using the facilities. I changed into my bathing suit in the washrooms next to the restaurant, had a good swim in the ocean and showered off in the conveniently located shower room in the restaurant. It was nice of the resort to build such nice facilities for its visitors.

We were assured we would be met at the bus, even at an ungodly hour, and taken to the Wildlife center so we boarded the overnight bus with high hopes. Our first problem was finding out from the Thai-speaking driver where to get off at Cha-am. I don’t think he understood our request as we started past the turn off marked “Cha-am” and kept on going. I rushed to the front of the bus and got the driver to stop. He pointed to a 24 hour gas station/food stall complex, the only place open at 4:15 AM. We phoned the center and were told we would be picked up at 5 AM by a taxi that would take us to the Wildlife Center, about 40 km from Cha-am. We waited but at 5 AM, no driver and taxi appeared. After more phone calls to the center, the driver found us 4 1/2 hours after we arrived. We were not at the spot where volunteers usually wait and we didn't know where we were except that we were in the Cha-am area. We should have been exhausted after a less than comfortable overnight bus trip but we were wired and anxious to see our new home. The exhaustion would come later.

We drove away from the coast, past pineapple plantations and into increasingly arid country to the small village of Kao Look Chang, Thai for Baby Elephant Mountain. You probably won't find it on any map, except the one above. This was to be our home for the next four weeks.