Coming to Kamala...with a Cold ;-(

Phuket, Thailand
Flew from Indonesia via Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Phuket, Thailand. Love these Southeast Asian airlines - I have always heard that their service was the best, even back in the day of real service, but in this day and age of cattle-call, bus-route airlines, the kindness and caring of Southeast Asian customer service is a pleasure.

Phuket was as crowded and touristy as I had heard, in fact I generally have no concept of how intense crowded can be in Asia, but it was also awesomely beautiful and I picked well in choosing Kamala which has the most gorgeous beach, a funky beach town sensibility and unfortunately everyone in Europe seems to know it. I haven't met an American in days, but there must be lots direct flights from Germany and France to Thailand. I have, in fact, had very few conversations in days, there are not very many solo travelers in these romantic places. And of course there is that thing with older men and Thai girls - you always hear about it but you have to see it in action to truly appreciate the distasteful absurdity of pudgy, past-their-prime foreign sugar daddies with their nubile Thai girlfriends. 

Thailand was immediately disorienting because they have their own alphabet that is totally indecipherable, many times it seems there are no spaces at all between words, and there are only a few signs translated into English so you can only imagine what all the others say (Americans eat poo, we overcharge you for everything..., just kidding...)
My "boutique" hotel was a narrow alley with well-appointed rooms off of it, two feet from the happening main street in one direction and two feet from the beach in the other. Exhausted from the day of travel, I found a restaurant where I  bought one giant barbecued prawn for dinner (the biggest I have ever seen in my life). 
Woke up the next morning with a torrential cold out of nowhere. Having a cold in a country like this is no fun - tissues are unheard of, toilet paper is like cardboard and I ended up using a 300 thread count cotton sateen pillowcase as a handkerchief for the last two days ( what could be softer? Thank you, Garnet Hill!).  It was gross having my nose run all over Kamala and at this point I have taken all 3 doses of Daytime Cold Medicine I brought with me so it better just stop.

The most notable thing about Kamala is that it was the site of the worst devasation during the tsunami (it's the place that movie was made about) but you wouldn't know it if you didn't know. I am asuming that is why my hotel seemed so new and perfectly outfitted.

The only attraction in Kamala (and most people don't know about it) is the Buddhist temple which was incredibly cool and almost no one goes there.
The beach is beyond spectacular, with high green cliffs dropping down to powder white sand and baby bath crystal turquoise waters. Too bad it is covered with beach chairs and umbrellas, European style. I rented one to camp out in for the day, ate barbecued corn for lunch and convalesced on the beach. 

Thai people seem to love reggae music - old reggae music, it is everywhere, not sure what that stems from, but I have a pretty good idea...
Cee (See?), the woman who ran the hotel (and I just realizing now that the guy who runs this place in Koh Lanta is "A" - maybe everyone's nickname is a letter? - Cee said she could set up my ticket for taxi and ferry to Koh Lanta and wrote me out a handwritten receipt for $900 baht that said" O/W to Koh Lanta." I was more than a little suspicious that this would work as a ticket. But of course it did.

Saw what may have been the #1 sunset of my life over the Andaman Sea.