Day 8&9: Lounging by the Pool

I just figured out why single people die younger. Whenever they're at the beach, they lack a significant other ready and eager to thoroughly massage sunscreen into their backs, and thus are more susceptible to melanoma. My general aversion to strong sunlight means I have little to fear from it, but I hate sunburn as much as the next guy so I wasn't feeling too chirpy at this point.

Luckily for me, neither was anyone else. In a rare instance of cosmic balance, those who escaped sunburn were hit especially hard with mosquito bites, and overall everyone was looking forward to a day of doing absolutely nothing, in the shade if at all possible.

With thirty hours left in the sun before heading back to the marginally cooler north, this is exactly what we did. After breakfast at 11AM we walked to the beach and found a very nice resort with an obviously guests-only swimming pool. We asked if we could use it, and to our utter surprise were told that indeed we could, and so we did.

It even had a bar, giving us the lovely opportunity to enjoy spicy salads and cocktails while sitting waist-high in crystal-clear water. The western-style all-inclusive resort has to be the shallowest and emptiest way to spend a vacation, but I'm starting to appreciate its appeal. We ended the day at the succinctly named Ga, a small restaurant with the best food, friendliest service, and cheapest prices in Khao Lak. Heartily recommended.

We enjoyed ourselves so much on that day that on the next morning we decided to do it all over again: breakfast at 11 in a german konditorei, then lounging at the Nathong Bay Resort, which was quickly becoming our very favorite place in Khao Lak. Soon after lunch, where I had an absolutely delicious steamed fish filet in plum sauce, we took a minivan to Phuket airport, where a few of us that shall remain nameless committed the unforgivable sin of eating at Burger King in Thailand. (I, of course, would never do such a thing. I had a chicken teriyaki sandwich at the Subway next door.) In the early evening we boarded a predictably late AirAsia flight to Chiang Mai, Thailand's second city.