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Cheers,
Peggy and Corey

As most of you know, Corey spends most of his time in Thailand and I spend much of my time traveling in SE Asia and living between Singapore and Thailand.  On a recent weekend spent together we adventured out from our place in Phuket, north to Khao Lak.  Two friends of ours, Paul and Mon, tagged along and together we had a grand time.  Keep in mind that we are now into rainy season in this part of the world.  In the tropics when it rains, it absolutely pours!  At least for a few minutes or so at a time.  That said, we took this jaunt on motor scooters.  Not sure if we should be considered brave, or silly!  Turns out either way- we were quite lucky!

This picture is of a beach we stopped at on the way to Khao Lak.  It was part of a huge resort that seemed all but closed. It was absolutely gorgeous!  Since we were on our motor scooter we took a lot of breaks.  Any sign that we could read or any suggestion of something interesting took us on a side trip.  This beach was a reward for following our whimsy that day.  Khao Lak is about a 3 or 4 hour motorbike ride north of Phuket.  It can be done much more quickly, and comfortably in a car, but hey, where's the adventure in that?  Right?

Above are some pictures from our way up the coast towards Khao Lak.  There were some beautiful beaches and we stopped at the Hot Springs Resort, looking for the hot springs.  We didn't find the hot springs.  As I mentioned the resort was all but closed.  It is slow season, but really?  I was so surprised as I would certainly recommend it if someone wants a gorgeous get away.  The downside was that is was quite far from anything to do but relax... is that a problem?  
Elephant rides are offered in many places in Thailand.  I personally am not a fan of this attraction and don't plan to ever partake but the owner of the Full Moon Bar, whose beach we hung out on, said that the elephants used for this local attraction are free ranging at night.  That made me feel a little better.  They were a great photo opp.
We ultimately stayed at a resort called Brisas in Khao Lak.  It was beautiful and since it is low season we got a killer deal.  Corey, Paul, Mon and I went for a swim in some pretty significant surf, then relaxed in the pool with drinks before going out for a tasty Thai meal.  Such a nice little get away!  
Our visit to Khao Lak falls almost 10 years after the huge tsunami that wiped out much of this region and beyond.  The SE Asian tsunami struck after a very large earthquake on December 26th, 2004.  For Corey and I, it visiting the memorial was a sober reminder that you never know when your time on this earth may come to an end.  Not only because of what happened where we now call home, but also because we were supposed to be in Phuket that day years ago. Some of our family and friends may remember hearing about the event from thousands of miles away and becoming very worried about us.  Corey's work had taken us to China and we had plans which included a stop over during Christmas for a few days in Phuket.  Phuket was hit very hard by the tsunami and no doubt we'd have been staying at the beach.  Instead, Corey's project was delayed, and we made a detour to Hong Kong instead, but did not tell anyone about our last minute change.  I don't know how many of you watched 'The Impossible'- a movie about a family staying at a beach resort in Khao Lak.  While living in Australia I watched this movie alone.  It was intense, and I knew it would be very hard to watch realizing we could easily have been there.  I cried and thanked God for our timely detour and the chance to do more things on this earth to hopefully make it a better place.  

On our way back from Khao Lak, we did hit some rain.  We had little rain overcoats in the motor scooter that we put on, and took off... and put on.  It was quite funny as it seemed that every time we put them on, the rain stopped.  In Thailand, it is very humid even when it's not raining- and hot!  The discomfort of sweating in a plastic cover was not appealing and the flapping sounds the jackets made was quite annoying.  I'm happy to say our use of the jackets was quite minimal and overall we had a pretty dry trip!  Following the "stop when we see something interesting" principle found us at a waterfall, a cute coffee shop, and a lovely temple.  Such a great way to travel.  

I'm back in Singapore now as this little jaunt was a few weeks ago.  Stay tuned, I have one more little side trip to share!