Loveday and Joe finally flew into Phuket about 4 hours later than planned. On their first flight a passenger came down sick and the flight was diverted from Kuala Lumpur to Dubai. Unfortunately the passenger died, which is unbelievably sad. Luckily the airline got Loveday and Joe onto the next flight from Kuala Lumpur to Phuket. We had arranged a car to collect them from the airport and then to take us all up to Khao Lak. We had 2 nights here before our liveaboard. Simon and I had made a sign for our visitors, but it turns out your not allowed them unless you are ‘official’ and we soon had some airport security and Thai army officials around us. We put the sign in the bin and they left us alone after that.  Silly really, but I guess they have more scam artists here than we do!

It was lovely to see Loveday and Joe after all this time and we spent most of the ride having a good old catch up. Loveday and Joe wanted to push through with the jetlag and after getting settled in our accommodation, where they were OBSESSED with Loveday’s name (in a nice way), we headed out for a walk. We found a bar called coconuts and enjoyed some fruit shakes at the beach. Before we knew it, it was getting late so we headed back, got changed for dinner and went to a restaurant called Spinach. Fortunately, they didn’t just sell spinach and we all had a lovely meal.

The next day we decided to take it easy as we knew that we were going to have a very busy 6 days as soon as we joined the dive boat. We had breakfast, headed to the beach and spent the day swimming and chatting. Not a bad way to spend a day. At the end of the day, we saw the weather changing. We weren’t quick enough and ended up drenched by a tropical storm that ended up lasting about 4 hours. I have to say, it was pretty impressive watching all the thunder and lightning from our balcony.

That night we took a songtaw taxi about 2km up the road. Khao Lak is the name of a 20km area so it’s hard to say exactly where you are. We were going to eat dinner and to watch Mr Moo’s Cabaret. We reserved a table in the second row at Mr Moos (we didn’t want to be picked on) and then had a leisurely dinner. The show started at 9:45pm and we enjoyed cocktails before this outside. Joe’s cocktail was a ‘pink lady’ which was served in a naked lady glass! Entrance to the show was free, and the cost of the drinks was really reasonable. The ladies looked amazing in their outfits and despite the often terrible lip syncing to Western songs we really did have a great time.

After the show we had the opportunity to take some photos with the ladies. The poses they made us do were ‘interesting’ and we got out of there pretty quickly as we felt a little uncomfortable at this stage. Despite this, it was great fun and I think we may try and watch another cabaret show before we leave Thailand. We just know that Leigh and Jamie would love it too!!

The next morning was the day we were heading onto our liveaboard for 5 nights,  but we had a little bit of time in the morning before we had to do equipment checks and paperwork. We decided to go to the Royal Thai Navy Third Fleet Turtle Nursery. The Royal Thai Navy play a very active role in turtle conservation. They often patrol beaches in the Similan and Surin islands and protect eggs laid by green and hawksbill turtles. Once the turtles are born the protection centre nurse them for 6 months before releasing them back into the wild. At this size they are large enough to defend themselves and have a much greater chance of survival.

We spent about 90 minutes walking around and looking at all the different tanks of turtles. Turtles from the age of 15 days up to 11 years call the turtle centre their home. The whole experience was heartwarming and it was great to see how much was being done to increase the population size of the green and hawksbill turtle. We even bought some cucumber and fed some of the older green turtles. Very very cute.

At the turtle sanctuary there is some information about the 2004 tsunami. We didn’t realise that Thailand was affected so badly, as we’d always heard mainly about Indonesia. In this area 3000 people were killed during the tsunami. Here is a photo of one of the Thai navy search and rescue ships.

After this we had a couple of hours just walking around Khao Lak and eating some food before our check in at the dive shop. Not surprisingly there was another massive thunderstorm and we got soaked all over again. Apparently, this is pretty unusual for this time of year, as the monsoon season isn’t meant to start until mid May.