The beach at Khao Lak

We arrived in Khao Lak tuesday of this week.  The trip from Phuket to our hotel was of the "fast and furious" type.  Cab drivers like to get to all their destinations as-soon-as-possible. So the trip went quickly. Let me just say that all Thailand cab drivers are sort of a cross between Dale Earnhart, Jr. and Evil Knevil.  It makes for a high sphincter level and little beads of sweat popping out on your forehead when the driver decides to pass while theres a car coming the other direction.....right at us...but that car moves to the left a little more and everything works out.  Maybe a little, "Oh God, folks, hold on, this is goin' be tight"....or maybe a little, "sorry about that" kind of explanation....but it never happened.  Just normal driving.

Khao Lak is a lazy strip of beach north of Phuket about 90 kilometers.  The beaches are beautiful, the mood casual and the water is both a strikingly tourquois and warm....it's a good place to be lazy and not have to feel bad about it....when one is used to being productive....it takes awhile to get over the guilt...but we both managed that problem.   Ocean on one side....jungle on the other.  We attempted to find a waterfall which ended with our turning around when the road became much like those that you see on TV when watching an enduro motocylcle race.  But we were far into the jungle by then....some of the leaves of some kind of plant bigger than Moon or me.  Tropical smell, lovely flowers.....oh, and rubber tree farms all over the place.

Anyway, Khao Lak consists, primarily, of hotels of all shapes, sizes, and prices...right on the beach.  It's nightlife is calm so the backpackers don't make this their number one destination.  That's OK with Moon and I.  We're usually in the sack by 8:00.  The humidty and heat can get to you.  Late night partying for us, sans table dancing, ended at 8:45.

There is a great market 3 days a week.  It has everything.  The food is delicious.  You want deep fried crickets?.....grasshoppers?....and these white larvae about an inch long, moving and pulsing around with it's head coming out of one end periodically....it looked very much like what the "Wrath of Kahn's" Recardo Montoban placed on Mr. Checkov's neck.....then we all looked on in horror as it crawled into his ear....that still gives me the heebie jeebies.  Anyway......the food was great.  Seafood, pork....(whole pig heads)...chicken cooked with the heads on......duck....head on.  Everything deep fried or cooked on the grill with every type of tasty sauce poured over it......I'm hungry.  More later.