Now, we all know I'm 8 months late to the party with finishing my blog recounting of Thailand, but I still have a week's worth of cool photos and memories to capture, even if they're a bit out of order from my goldfish memory. But in an effort to still be able to remember in ten years' time...
Our hotel in Khao Lak was a vast, vast improvement over the terrible place Matty booked in Phi Phi. We arrived, I went straight to the nearly empty swimming pool to read and decompress, and felt grateful that we were somewhere with a pool that wasn't green (from algae). When I got chilly, I went to our room and read on the porch and made a new friend:
 |
| Mien, our cat friend who would visit each day |
We put Matt in charge of finding transportation for us, and then spent the rest of the week exploring Khao Lak!
 |
We had a beautiful hike on an overcast day through Khao Lak National Park
|
 |
| Small Sandy Beach, in Thai Script... |
 |
| ... and in English on the reverse side! |
The day we arrived in Khao Lak, we passed a sign on the main road through town that immediately caught my eye. A marquee sign for the Moo Moo Cabaret! I was intrigued, but it wasn't until we had lunch a few days in at a little restaurant a few doors down called the Rusty Pelican that I began making plans to go.
The Rusty Pelican, to begin, had some of the best Mexican/American food I've had in years. We ended up eating there three times during the week we spent in Khao Lak. The owner, Mo, was just the coolest guy. An American expat from LA, he worked with the Thai government to establish the first avocado farms in the country so he could source them locally (and be sure to always have a ready supply). He and his wife have owned the place for 15+ years, the family got it through Covid, and business was only just starting to get back to pre-covid normal when we visited. We had the best time chatting with him over the week, talking diving, USA, music, expat life, and just generally enjoying his company. The American burgers and beers just made it all the sweeter. I would go back JUST to eat there.
Friday night rolled around, though, and it was Moo Moo Cabaret night!!! Now, many of my dedicated readers will be aware that I love a good drag show. The energy, the costumes, the performers giving it their all; I just love it. Moo Moo was no exception. My cheeks were sore by the end of the night from smiling and laughing and cheering, and while it wasn't a Broadway show, it was so full of joy and enthusiasm that I couldn't have stopped myself from loving it if I'd tried. It was one of my highlights of the whole trip.
Returning to our lodging meant returning to the ever-growing group of cats who were calling in for visits and snuggles throughout the day. My allergies were not thrilled about my snuffling my nose in their little cat faces, but life is too short to not accept a stuffy nose in exchange for cuddles with sweet kittens. I think so, anyway.
 |
| Tabitha |
 |
| BlackCat and Mien |
 |
| The hotel's beachfront restaurant where we had brekkie every day |
One of the reasons I've always wanted to travel to Thailand is to visit the elephants. The country has been trying to overhaul its image by working to eliminate the elephant logging operations that have been going for decades, and many of those former companies have realized there's more money to be made doing eco-tourism work anyway. So a longtime dream of mine came true when we visited the Elephant Sanctuary Khao Lak and got to spend the morning with some retired logging elephants.
 |
| Bath time |
 |
| Hello, may I please have another? |
 |
| Banana Brekkie |
I was so overwhelmed when we walked in that I immediately started crying. We got to feed them, bathe them, and then just hang around watching them. Elephants! The place was so neat, I felt so much joy, and it was honest to goodness a dream come true.
In the neighborhood was a night market with dozens of stalls. Food, clothing, tourist gimmick souveniers, the lot. We went for dinner one evening and tried some of the more novel local cuisine...
One of our primary reasons for going to Khao Lak was the diving. It's the mainland departure point for dive trips to the Similan Islands, so we did a day trip to Koh Bon! Most folks will do liveaboard trips so that you don't waste time going back and forth to the mainland when you could be diving. The way we did it, we took essentially a speed boat ferry out to one of the liveaboards and did the mid-day dives that the people staying on board did, then took a speed boat ferry back. That way, people can come and go on the liveaboards at any time without the whole big boat going back to shore. Staffing changes for days off, customers coming and going, plus day-trippers like Matty and me can all travel on the same ferry. Really practical.
It was really beautiful, but I definitely would love to go back and do 2 or 3 days of staying on the liveaboard so that we could do the morning and night dives. Our guide was lovely and super supportive when I told him after dive #1 that I would be sharing air with Matt to prolong dive #2 when his supply got low. Gotta teach that boy to breathe less...
 |
| Koh Bon |
My dream stuff to do was elephant visiting and scuba diving, but turns out Matty loves learning about a good disaster. So we spent a whole afternoon driving our scooter around visiting a few different memorials that commemorated the Christmas tsunami of 2004. The tsunami hit on Boxing Day that year, but it was Christmas Day on the east coast of the US when it landed. I remember hearing about it on KYW News Radio back home. Khao Lak was nearly wiped off the map. Phi Phi harbor came out of it with a different shape. So both of the places we spent most of our trip were deeply impacted by the disaster, with thousands of casualties and billions of dollars of rebuilding over the ensuing years. The memorials were really moving, and the testimonials of people who lived through it were devastating. One of the biggest museums dedicated to the events was closed when we visited, so we're just going to have to go back to do more learning (and more diving!).
 |
| Two boats that were washed inland during the tsunami are now part of a memorial |
 |
| This police boat was guarding a member of the Royal family when the tsunami hit... it washed 2km inland on a wave |
 |
| One memorial |
 |
| The top of the spire represents the height of the tallest wave as it passed this point on the mainland - nearly 1km inland. |
The whole trip was a whirlwind. Lots of time hanging out and doing little, but lots of time exploring and seeing totally new things. A perfect mix. Before we knew it, we were flying back to Bangkok and making our way home.
