Photo Trip Report: Sojourn across Southern Thailand

[dtaai-maai]

Fortunately, mrs buksi is far more diplomatic and ignored this asshat...

Did she also ignore the ass-hat in 497 or was she blissfully unaware...?

[buksida]

Did she also ignore the ass-hat in 497 or was she blissfully unaware...?

This ass-hat?

Blissfully unaware of course!

[migrant]

Why do you all keep talking about a hat? What hat, oh........., never mind

[buksida]

Back in the boat and around the headland for our final stop, Railey Beach. This was an even bigger circus with more of the same. Probably the most tourists I’d seen on the whole trip – they were all here! It was time to get back to the hotel and spend the afternoon in the pool, the road north beckoned tomorrow.

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More to follow ...

[Nereus]

I see that you are still maintaining your interest in hats! (678)

[buksida]

That new lens seems to be attracted to them ...

[buksida]

Leaving Ao Nang we took a detour to the ‘Susan Hoi’, or shell cemetery. Finding another brown national park sign there and more farang tax I didn’t bother since I’d already seen it years ago. It is a criminal offense in Thailand to take shells or corals from protected beaches, but apparently this does not apply to the shops that were openly selling them. I wonder how many farangs had been fined at the airport for trying to take one of these monster shells out of the country.

We took the extremely twisty and picturesque section of highway 4 over the mountains rather than driving through Phang Nga town. Stopped for a shot of the viewpoint and motored on to our sixth destination on the trip, Khao Lak as the afternoon rain came down.

The hotel here was excellent value at about a thousand baht a night for the four star Leaf on the Sands Resort. It looked familiar until I realized we had stayed here before when it was previously known as the Andaburi Resort, the bar in the pool stuck in memory!

There isn’t a great deal to do in Khao Lak aside from the beach which isn’t as nice as those in Krabi. Nearing the end of the trip we decided to take advantage of the pool and hotel facilities. The kids wanted to go on a quad tour though so we took them the following day. More double pricing here, a thousand baht for farangs, 500 for Thais, it is pretty much endemic in these touristy places. (Most of these taken on a phone also).

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Final thoughts to follow ...

[Big Boy]

What are the Farang photos on the tree please? I guess there's a story behind them.

[buksida]

Its a tsunami memorial. Very sad to see so many kids pictures.

[Big Boy]

Thank you - time is a great healer. Although deep in the back of everybody's mind, it didn't occur to me that this might be a Tsunami memorial.

Yes, I've just put one of the names into Google, and there it is. Almost 14 years ago - incredible.

[buksida]

Final sunset in Ranong

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Deciding to break the six hour drive home up with another night on the road we headed north to Ranong and made it in good time on mostly empty roads. This enabled us to stop at Porn Rang hot spring and have a float in the hot tubs. My Thai ID card worked for the 20 baht entrance fee here so no more farang tax out of me. A nice meal at a Chinese restaurant in town that evening rounded off the trip. Most things in Ranong were closed due to some Chinese vegetarian festival thing that was going on that weekend.

We’d come to the end, six provinces in ten days. The highlight for me was the boat trip over Thale Noi in Phattalung. The Andaman waters are still stunning but Ao Nang and Khao Lak are just too touristy for me, and not really what I would consider 'Thailand'. Additionally the constant dual pricing is tiresome and the inflated costs for pretty much everything in these areas cant’t really be justified when you live here, for a two week holiday, yes.


Thanks for reading, the whole trip report can be found on www.ontheroadasia.com

Accommodation with Google map links, plus my star rating:

Khanom -Talkoo Resort (not recommended) *
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Talko ... d99.874582

Phattalung - Lan Bua, Thale Noi ***
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ban+L ... 00.1227688

Trang – Rimnatee Resort ****
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Rimna ... 99.6512452

Ao Nang – All Seasons Beach Resort ****
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Aonan ... 98.8161528

Khao Lak – The Leaf On The Sands *****
https://www.google.com/maps/place/The+L ... 98.2518435

[caller]

Great report and info Buksi, thanks again.

[Chazz14]

Beautiful photos - maybe TAT should employ you!