Day 8: Khao Lak

I had a terrible sleep last night, which is not the way it’s supposed to work on holidays.

I felt like I was cooking in my own juices.

Because I woke and went back to sleep again so many times, I actually have no idea what time I eventually got up … but I assume it was our normal time … whatever that is.

We showered and got dressed for breakfast, and looked out another load of washing that needed to be done.

I thought I’d check the air-conditioning settings, because it felt way too hot in our room.

It turns out that someone must have changed the settings on the air-conditioner, because rather than being set to cool, 23 degrees, it was set to vent.

I’m not entirely sure what “vent” means, but I think that it is designed to draw the hot and humid air in from outside, and push all of the nice cool air out of the room.

Which explains the hot flushes I was having last night. I’m blaming the guy who turns down our bed each night.

The heat and humidity here means that you sweat through your clothes pretty quickly, so it’s hard to get more than a day out of a shirt or shorts. So after breakfast we went out for a wander to drop some clothes off for washing at a different place just outside the resort.

Just to clarify, there is no direct relationship between the cannabis place in the picture above, and getting our clothes washed … other than the fact that they were in close proximity to each other.

They will be ready for collection 6.00pm tomorrow night.

Our clean clothes, not our take-home cannabis.

The guy in the tailor shop (it’s a front for a Chinese laundry, I think …) was determined to measure me up for some nice shirts and a suit.

Top marks for effort and enthusiasm, but it was never going to happen, sorry.

Back to our room to get into our swimmers, apply sunscreen, and hit the pool.

Here is a quick quiz: what’s wrong with the photo below?

Answer: normal pH range is 7.2 to 7.8 and the Ramada pool is sitting at 8.2 today.

I wish I’d paid more attention in high school chemistry 😗

The morning was a rinse and repeat of previous mornings. Pool, read, swim, read, swim and back to our room about 12.30.

Another spectacular day in paradise, and the grounds and gardens are all very green, lush, and tropical. Here is a quick tour of the resort and gardens.

We had overheard some people in the pool talking about a nearby restaurant called Mali, so we thought we’d wander up there for a light lunch before heading to the markets to get some last minute gifts for the grandies.

The sky was looking very dark, so we took our umbrellas, and wore appropriate footwear for a change because we had a bit of walking to do.

So much for a light lunch … MBW had the duck with mango, while I had chicken massamen curry … and we gave the waitress strict instructions: “Mị̀ p̄hĕd” (not too spicy).

The food was excellent. Those two meals, plus rice to share, plus 2 bottles of water, plus a deep fried icecream for dessert and it cost us 559 baht (about AUD$24).

I don’t know how these people survive when every second or third shop is another restaurant.

Lunch consumed and it was only about 2.20pm. We were heading to the markets which don’t open until 3.00, so we have some time to kill … and then it started to rain.

We looked at a few souvenir shops on the way and made our way out onto the main drag heading back to Phuket.

You start to get a bit tired of saying “sawadeeka” (pronounced “sa-wad-dee-car” and meaning “hello”), but with it being low season here, and so many shops trying to separate you from your cash, they have to do something to generate business.

In the end we just decided to go into the markets early to see if they were open early … only to find that they don’t open at all on Sunday.

Bugger.

The rain caused the humidity to soar, and it became very unpleasant outside, very quickly. So we hussled back to our room to shelter in the air-conditioning … but we saw some interesting things on the way …

4.00pm is time for cocktails. And we don’t want to miss cocktails.

Although I may have made a tactical error this afternoon and accidentally ordered a second cocktail after my first one, so let’s just say that I wasn’t my best self by 5.15 😞

I needed to go back to our room for a rest in the air-conditioning.

So, how do you close off a day where you have eaten too much, and done too little activity?

You go to dinner. We broke the poor waiter’s heart tonight because we didn’t bother ordering entrees or desserts. Just mains … and we both only ate half of that.

Another magnificent sunset, and we retired to our room to hibernate.

We got back to our room to find that our anonymous friend who turns our bed down every night while we are at dinner left us some (I assume) sweets that we can’t quite identify …

… and …

… some wisdom.

I’m not sure that a good laugh and a long sleep are going to cure overindulgence.

We are going for our massage tomorrow, then our cooking class on Tuesday. Then Wednesday we head back to Singapore for a night, then home.

But that is still a few days away.

Ciao

#Thailand2024