A trip to Khao Lak - Day 3

Not sure whether is it due to us still clocking Singapore time or we'd slept too much the night before, we were ready for breakfast by 7am (8am Singapore time).

We strolled to the restaurant and noticed that we were the first guest(s) to arrive.
A bit embarrasing as we looked like 2 hungry people hunting for our breakfast.
The breakfast selection was adequate and yummy. But mind their orange juice. It's super duper sweet. Like an orange squash concentrate.





After breakfast, we went for a stroll at the beach. The beach was quiet with no one except us and a dog. I don't think we can ever find this kind of tranquil moment in Singapore.






Soon after, we went to the poolside to "rot", read our books and magazines. This is around 830am when other guests start to stream into the restaurant for their breakfast.
The view from the deck chairs was spectecular. The resort had spent much effort on their landscaping and that seems to blend in with the blue skies and beach.




We went for our massage (included in our package) at 1030am. The spa was made up of 3rooms. The receptionist did not know about our bookings but we were eventually served. The corridoor along the spa treatment rooms were infested with mosquitos and I got bitten while doing the foot wash along the corridoor.
The 1hr massage was average and gave our weary bodies a temporary boost.


After the massage, it's time for us to pack up as we need to check out and move to our next hotel - Le Meridien Khao Lak.


We reached Le Meridien before 2pm. The hotel is simply huge. They even have deers in their gardens near the main entrance. From the main entrance to the lobby, it's about 4 mins drive.


The check-in at Le Meridien was a long wait. We waited and waited (not knowing what we're waiting).




After near 45 mins, we were then brought to our room (at the Family Wing).
We'd requested for a high floor room and am glad to get a 3rd floor room (highest).
The rooms were tastefully done up and has a view of the pool area.








Having done some research on tripadvisor, we know that there's a beach side restaurant that offers cheaper food than the hotel restaurants. It's less than 200m walk along the beach on the left hand side of Le Meridien. We also spotted many guests from the hotel walking to the eatry for their lunch.

By the time we're done with our lunch, it's almost 330pm. We walked to the hotel lobby to book for the shuttle to the town. It cost THB100/person/way. We then explored around the vast grounds of Le Meridien, taking note of the various pools and facilities available.


At around 6pm, we took the shuttle and reached the town of Khao Lak. It's a pretty small town, lined with shops,eatries and restaurants on both sides of the roads. We walked around and bought some cheap tshirt and bermudas after much haggling.

We saw many locals and tourists queuing up for fried mee and rice from a stall that operates near the supermarket and decided to try it for dinner. I myself had fried mee while my partner had the fried rice. Each cost THB50. Also, tried the pancakes from another roadside stall. There's a wide variety of fillings you can choose from. I chose my favourite: Nutella. Cost me THB35.



After pigging out, we went to the supermarket to stock up our food. Bought chips, beer, soft drinks (FANTA my favourite) and some local snacks to bring back to Singapore. One small bottle of Chang beer cost less than THB25 and softdrinks less than THB15! Many tourists do the same thing as we saw many of them stock up on beer and other forms of alochol.


We loither around for around 1/2 hr more before our shuttle's scheduled time.

By 10pm, we're back to Le Meridien with loads of goodies to last us for the last 2 days of our trip.

A trip to Khao Lak - Day 2

By 630am (730am SG time), we were up and getting ready for our day trip to Similan island.
The dive shop we'd booked the trip with had informed us that they will pick us up from our resort at 7am.

The staff at the hotel was really nice and packed us a breakfast box (knowing that we will miss our buffet breakfast).

At 7am sharp, the rep from Similan Diving Safari picked us up and drove us to their shop where we made our payment, collected our snorkel equipments. Simple breakfast (bread, jam, coffee, tea) was also provided at the shop.

We idled around and wait for the rest of the group to show up at the shop. We were then brought to the jetty. Off we go to Similan Island!


The speedboat ride was around 45 mins to 1hr from the jetty. Our 1st stop was at the west of Island No. 7. It was an open bay where we jump into the sea to snorkel. The water here is crystal blue clear and we managed to see lots of corals and different types of fishes. We even saw a huge sea turtle in the water!
Divers on the same trip were brought to the deeper seas for their dives.

After 1 hr of snorkeling, we were called back up to the boat, and went around "collecting" the divers before heading to Island No. 4.

Island No. 4 has beaches for us to laze around and we had our lunch there. Simple meals were provided (Thai curry chicken + rice or minced meat pasta).




The guide brought us to walk through the small trek to show us the beautiful beach on the other side of the island. We were simply awed by the beauty of this place.







After this, the group departed to Island No. 7 western bay for more snorkeling and diving. We opted to stay around on the beach to soak in the nice beach scenery. We also snorkeled off the beach and saw a variety of fishes as well.


After 2 hrs, the boat is back and ferried us back to Khao Lak. By then, many of the people in the group were tired and dozing off on the return leg.


By 5pm, we were brought back to our resort. We cleaned up ourselves and went around the resort to take a look and sat around the beach chairs in the resort. Then we walked to the beach and saw the beautiful sunset. The beach was almost isolated and we almost had the whole beach to ourselves!





After soaking in the beautiful sunset, we made our way to have our set dinner (included in our package). We selected 1 Thai set dinner and 1 European set dinner. Here's what we had:

Thai set dinner:

Tom Yum Goong
Satay (they gave us 2 sets)
Thai Green Curry + Rice
Banana dessert (that's warm)

European set dinner:
Salad
Baked prawn with cheese and rice served in a pineapple
Ice cream





After the sumptuous meal, we went back to our room (did some reading, played cards). Before I knew it, I was dozing off ......ZZZZZ

A trip to Khao Lak - Day 1

When I announce to my friends that I'm going Khao Lak, the first response I'd gotten is blank stares. Then this is followed "Where's Khao Lak?".

From Singapore, we fly in to Phuket and take a 1 hr ride up north to reach Khao Lak.
It was an area badly hit by Tsunami few years ago.
But after years of restoration, it'd become a nice little town, believed to be the next big place after Phuket.


We touched down at around 8pm at Phuket airport and met up with the driver from the Khao Lak Orchid resort. We stayed in this resort for 2 nights at THB4999 nett for 2. The package includes 2 nights stay in their Garden view room + 1 set dinner + 1 hr massage for 2.

Within an hour, we reached the resort. It's well hidden off the main road (at least 20mins walk) and has direct beach access.
Check in was a breeze here.
After confirming when we will be having our dinner and massage, we were brought into our room promptly.

We stayed at room 126. The room was big and spacious. However, some of the furniture looks abit tired (e.g. one of the handles of the wardrobe is missing).
Not sure is it due to non-occupancy of the room for a long period, there was a musky/damp smell in the room whenever we enter the room. Beds are comfortable but were seperate.
From our balcony, we can see a little view of the beach and pool, which is nice.

As it's already night time and there's nothing much to us to explore/see, we decided to head to the bed straight after our showers as we'd booked a snorkel day trip to Similan Island (not very nice name if you speak it in Hokkien) and need to wake up early.