khao lak - and home

Such a good place to end our tour, just lazing about in the pools or long walks along the beach.   

Behind our hotel the jungle rises up, a great green wall of pristine forest, from which a continuous range of sounds emanates, changing with each hour of the day.  Now the sound of doves, now an upwelling of chirruping insects.  At half past four on the dot every day, the evening shift starts up with what sounds like a hundred circular saws, provided by the crickets.  Then as darkness falls, it’s the frogs’ turn – redoubled if there’s a rain shower. As soon as the sky darkens, a waxing moon appears, dappling the still water with a trail of light.  The tide recedes, leaving a wide glistening strand of firm sand, onto which the crabs emerge for a busy few hours of feeding and arm wrestling.

Just north is Bang Sak Bay, an even more pristine stretch of white coral stand, with big shady pine trees at the back, and a lambent green sea.

We also took a day trip to Khao Sok National Park about 60km NE.  This is virgin forest, well protected it seems, draped across a mountainous landscape.  Said to be the oldest rainforest in the world (though this is also a claim made by areas of Malaysia and Queensland), it is well worth a visit. 

So I’ve had almost ten weeks away from home, and it begins to feel like travelling is my life.  I will be glad to be back for Christmas, but this has been the most varied and rewarding trip for me for a long time – meeting many very different people, visiting varied and stunning countryside and cultures.  I am more and more comfortable with the scenery and the leisurely rural walks, and less and less interested in the cities as I get older. In Asia the cities mostly are unthinking, badly planned, polluted and traffic-jammed, and the cultural offerings – at least those accessible to a foreigner – thin on the ground.   

London for me is everything that a city should be, and nothing compares.  I look forward to getting back to the theatres and pubs, to long walks along the river or through the parks – though not to the weather and getting dark by half-past four!