First off all, get yourself a cuppa and a comfy seat - this is a biggy, even by my standards…..
Back in Khao Lak, I swapped hotels after 2 nights of splashing out, and ended up staying at ‘Khao Lak seafood family house’. Oh the irony. This place was a much more reasonable £10 per night for which I got my own bungalow which was lovely. This was in an area of Khao Lak that was a little more lively - the previous evening I’d walked into a restaurant full of loving couples who all stared at me in disgust. I stayed there, undeterred, but the music they were playing was of the ‘songs to slit your wrists to’ variety. Now, there’s only so much Celine Dion a girl can take, and when they played Eric Clapton’s ‘Tears in Heaven’, I knew it was time to leave……
I had a really lovely 3 days on the beach in Khao Lak, and then decided that I really ought to do something other than laze about.
So off I trotted on a local bus up to Khao Sok National Park. This is the largest national park in Thailand and is made up of 165 million year old forest. I had booked into a place that sounded really good - it was recommended by lonely planet as really environmentally friendly - they have their own elephant that they take care of etc, so I went for it.
But it really wasn’t very nice, and there was no sign of the elephant, and I couldn’t lock the door to my hut from the inside, so I very radically, and un-Britishly, decided to change hotels. You see - I CAN follow my instincts & go off-spreadsheet!
So I ended up in another resort - it was a £5 a night place, and not very glamorous, but it was fine.
I treated myself to a Thai Massage to recover from the trauma of diverting from The Plan - and this lady was seriously professional - she disconcerted me slightly by putting on a face mask (I later discovered this was for all customers, not just me) and some type of woollen headscarf thing, and said a prayer.
I wondered what I’d let myself in for.…..
The massage was fantastic - so so good, and once again, only £5 for an hour.
I ended up chatting to some German guests (Me! Talking! Clearly they started the conversation though) who were lovely. I booked to go on a day trip to a lake within the national park and ended up with 5 more Germans and a French Guy (literally - his name was Guy). It was a very long day - we had a 4 hour trek through the jungle - scrambling over rocks, walking through rivers, jumping over fallen trees etc. It was great fun, and I didn’t injure myself too badly jut a few scratches which I think is a great success.
However having switched on my phone at the end of the trip, I had a text from Jules saying that she was having to cancel her trip L but when I called her back, Lufthansa had managed to get her on a flight - Yay!!
The following morning I decided to go for a stroll through the rainforest local to the lodge - I walked for 2 hours and it was absolutely baking!! I felt very energetic as it was climbing up hills all the time. I only walked for about 4 miles, but felt good for it. Then I had another massage (to soothe my aching limbs) then headed off to the bus back down to Phuket to meet Jules. I got talking to a Danish family waiting for the bus - apparently in Denmark, before your eldest child is 9, you get 8 weeks paid leave to go travelling - how brilliant.
The bus journey was 4 hours, with pretty heavy air-conditioning, so I was freezing. On the bus was a Buddhist Nun, who managed to meditate for most of the journey, despite the incessant beeping of the horn! At one stop, outside the hospital, it must have been the weekly ante- and post-natal clinic as about 4 or 5 brand new babies came on with their mothers, and lots of pregnant ladies too. Bizarrely all the women were wearing night dresses.
Back to the hostel, I plumped for an air-con dorm to save a bit of cash ready for the splurge when Jules arrived.
Thursday morning I headed onto a local bus to go to the beach for the day AND (drum roll please) I started a conversation with a Finnish guy on the bus, and then a Swiss girl - Sarah. Sarah and I ended up spending the day on the beach together. I hope you’re very impressed.
When I got back to the hostel, some very friendly English boys - Ben & Olly, in my dorm arranged for a big crowd of us to go for dinner which was really nice. Especially as I needed cheering up: Jules called to tell me that Lufthansa had messed up her booking and she couldn’t come any more L
Which was gutting, to say the least. I have just about stopped sulking.
This meant that I had to go OFF SPREADSHEET. I hope you’re proud of me….
So I went to Lanta, as I’d planned with Jules, but instead of Jules, I went with a girl called Roxane, who was one of the girls from the hostel. We’re staying in a real hippy resort which is brilliant - we’re in a bamboo hut on the beach, with an outdoor bathroom and a hammock (from where I’m writing this, and no, I haven’t fallen out). They serve great food here - loads of vegetarian Indian food, and best of all, they do yoga in the mornings on a platform overlooking the beach which is heaven - I did the best I’ve EVER done at yoga AND I did a headstand! (Mel, are you impressed?!)
Unfortunately, the weather pattern of 1 week good, 1 week horrible has continued, so for the past 2 days there’s been no sunbathing - I think Lanta is sulking at Jules’ non-arrival. But it’s probably a good thing - on Friday when I was leaving the hostel, I felt something twang in my left knee - I’ve torn a ligament again, and so I’m wearing a very attractive surgical bandage and stink of Tiger Balm - it’s so attractive, especially in a bikini. The barefoot doctor style treatment plus the yoga seems to be working though, so I think just one more day of the bandage will do.
So I’m going off spreadsheet big time – Tomorrow I fly up to Chiang Mai in the North of Thailand, with my first stop being the Elephant Conservation Centre, where I’m going to spend 3 days learning to be a Mahout (Elephant handler), which is so so SO exciting. And for Christmas, I’m hoping to be in Angkor Wat, with hopefully some of the girls from the hostel joining me which would be really fun.
