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• Kuala Lumpur

• Phnom Penh

• National Museum & Khmer silk weaving

• Fried tarantulas & centuries-old temples

• Tonle Sap Lake, stilt houses, and a scam in Siem Reap

• Big Three of Angkor- Angkor Wat, Bayon, Ta Prohm

• Male genitalia and land mines

• Chaotic border crossing

• Train ride to Bangkok

• At a resort recovering from the 2004 tsunami

• Early food reviews

• Relics of a tsunami

• Thai cooking class

• James Bond island

• A lazy last day at Khao Lak

• Nai Yang Beach & back to KL

• Staying in a kampung house

• Lunching @ Menara KL

• Last day

Saturday, 16 May, Nai yang

This place has brought us back to reality.  Not that there's anything wrong with it - it's a very pleasant resort-style hotel in a small beach-side town close to Phuket airport- but rather, reality was sort of suspended while we were at the Marriott at Khao Lak.  The Marriott was a world unto itself, and it kept the outer world where it belonged - outside its perimeter walls. 

We are here because we have an early flight to KL in the morning, and Khao Lak is 90km from the airport, so it made sense to come here the afternoon before and save ourselves the ultra-early morning trip down the coast.

We'd been told by locals in Phang Naga Bay tthe other day that Phuket attracted many Russia tourists, a claim that I found a little unbelievable - until tonight.  The restaurant where we ate dinner had a section in Cyrllic, the alphabet used in the Russian language, plus dishes with a distinctly Russian flavour. Actually, the more I look around the more I see notices and signs in Russian, as well as English and Thai.

As well as Russian signs, there are many tsunami signs - signs telling you which way to head if the tsunami alert is given. I would have thought that'd be easy.  Just as far away from the beach as possible.

Nai Yang Beach is a sort of backpacker comfort zone, and as a result, is lined with cafes all sporting "Free wifi" signs.  It's now the off-peak season, so the beach isn't too crowded, nor the shops or restaurants.  It's a bit laid back, but we'd better not get too relaxed - KL will bring us back up to full speed pretty quickly.

Sunday, 17 May, Kuala Lumpur

KL greeted us today with a heavy rain burst.  No surprise, you say - well, it was, it was mid-morning, a most unusual time for it to occur.  Normally, storm/rain activity is late afternoon/early evening, just in time to catch the peak-hour traffic.

It was a pretty rough landing for our flight.  DB and I have sometimes rated the landings on a scale of 1-10, and so this morning, I decided it was only a 4. 

"No, any landing we walk away from is at least a pass", said Dave.  OK, that makes it 5/10, and then, taking the degree of difficulty with the rain into account boosted it up to 6/10.  No too bad for a rough one.

Next: a most unusual accommodation.