Lauren and Bet left me in Khao Lak while they went SCUBA diving in the Similan Islands. The diving there is world famous, so they're probably having a blast. Khao Lak was a sleepy town with a kick-ass beach. I hadn't been body surfing, or even swimming in the ocean, in over two years so I loved that beach. My bed however was hard as a rock and after three nights I was ready to move on. So, I walked along the beach this morning until I came to the next little town, Bang Niang. I walked up off the beach through a medium sized resort and found an Irish guy who owns a mini mart and rents the rooms above the mini mart for 500 baht (about $15). It's the most I've paid for a room, but it's also the nicest room I've had. I have a king size bed (not hard as a rock), a nice bathroom, a big balcony with a view of the ocean (looking between two resorts that are on the ocean), a mini fridge, and a great location. The resort is large enough that they don't notice me using their beach side showers when I want to get all the sand off my feet or their towel service when I want to get their shower water off my body or their lounge chairs when I want to get my body off my feet. So today I went for a jog and a swim, had dinner for 25 baht - yellow noodle and pork soup - my local favorite, and then went back to that resort's lounge chairs to listen to the waves and watch the lightening in the distance over the ocean.
A random note on the food. Yes, it's very good, though the Pad Thai sauce isn't as thick as ours. The dishes that we order in American Thai restaurants do exist in very close (much spicier) parallel, but these do not appear to be the dishes the average Thai eats on the average night. Our Thai dishes are the ...haute couture... of thai food. For local Thais it's often a basic noodle soup with a little meat or tofu, maybe some rice with the soup, usually ordered from a stand/cart with some plastic chairs and tables. At these establishments there is a very basic broth to the soup, not the coconut sauce we think of, and the spice - the red pepper - is added by the customer at his or her table.
Take care everyone.
