Thursday, June 2, 2011

weekend trip to khanom

let the sunshine in

Although I already put up photos from our trip to Khanom this past weekend, I thought I would write it up a bit as well. Khanom is a beach town about an hour and a half east from Surat Thani on the Gulf of Thailand. We left on Friday after Brian got off of work, and I hurriedly purchased a swimsuit. The sun sets around 6:30, so the goal was to make it down there before sunset.

On the way we were treated to some light rain and rainbows, and we rolled into town proper just after sunset. We ended up getting a room at the Rabingsa Resort - which is owned by the brother of Brian's bosses wife - so this incurred a slight discount on our room.

live together, die alone (#148)

As one of the less expensive rooms, there was no view of the beach, but we did get a nice sized room, with a bathroom and air conditioning. There is also a resort restaurant with free wifi - making me endlessly happy - and an amazing green curry dish.

smile baby

Saturday morning we went on a motorbike ride to track down a 7-Eleven and some sunblock. Then time for a swim. To someone used to swimming in the Atlantic ocean (if at all) I was amazed at how warm the water was, which makes sense seeing how it's warm here constantly. Both days we were there we went exploring and had lunch at other resorts up the road. One where I had an awesome Pad Thai, and one where we had dubious burgers and onion rings.

pad thai

Both mornings we also had free coupons for an "American Breakfast" at the resort restaurant. Coffee, eggs, toast, ham slices and tiny hot dogs. The second morning we were able to convey our desire to have the eggs scrambled. (Sometimes it's the little things).

beach dog

The resort also seemed home to a variety of beach dogs. There are street dogs everywhere in Thailand. There's one that lives on Brian's street that they feed occasionally. Still petting the dogs is not encouraged, as they are probably home to a fair amount of diseases or bugs. And as the girl who constantly approaches dogs on the street, a dog lover to heart, seeing but not being able to touch or really feed the dogs breaks my heart. At the resort it was pretty clear these dogs were fed leftovers from the restaurant daily, and perhaps from frequent romps in the ocean they seemed fairly clean. Saturday night I finally gave in and fed some of our green curry to one of the dogs. The next morning at breakfast she definitely remembered me as soon as we sat down to eat. I figured there was no risk of attachment since we were leaving that afternoon.

remains of the beach (#149)

So after some reading and a nap on the beach, we packed up the motorbike for a windy ride back to Surat. Because it wasn't a holiday weekend, Khanom and the resort were pretty much deserted. The only other people there were a few Thai families. It was beautiful and peaceful. Awesome.

No comments:

Post a Comment