Khanom

This weekend, Kay and I were lucky enough to be part of a wicked beach party in Khanom. Khanom is a hidden treasure about an hour and a half away from Nakhon.  Many locals and farang say that Khanom has one of the best beaches in Thailand.

Kay and I took a van out to Khanom with our new friends, Scott and Sara (from Austin).  They were the ones that actually booked our room for us.  The ride itself was pretty uneventful, the van was air conditioned so we couldn't complain. It also cost 80 baht each (~$2).

Another teacher from my office, Frankie, was able to tell our driver to drop us off at Jam Bay (the beach bar where the party would be) instead of the bus station since it would be easier for us instead of trying to find a cab from "downtown" Khanom.

When we arrived at Jam Bay, all four of us were completely blown away.  The bar was situated right up on the beach, and the main bar/restaurant was an old boat.  The property had many raised gazebos, hammocks and logs cut into benches and tables.  There were already a bunch of farang at the beach drinking and dancing (it was only noon).  We walked up with all of our gear and met some friends from Nakhon and were then introduced to Joe, the owner of Jam Bay.  Joe is a local who can speak English very well.  He was so friendly and was able to remember our names immediately.  All night and the following day, he would see me and go "hey Nick! How are you? How is Kay? Anything I can do for you?".  Joe was amazing.

The Beach!

Scott, Sarah, Kay and I hung out at the beach for an hour and a bit, swam and had an amazing lunch at the bar.  The water was honestly like a hot tub.  Not refreshing at all but really interesting nonetheless. We then decided that we would find our way to our resort which was about 10 minutes away.  We asked Joe if he could call us a cab to bring us downtown to rent a motorbike and he let us know that he actually rents bikes as well.  So we were able to rent a bike straight from Joe and then we drove to our resort.

Reception

Entrance

Hallo Resort was something I don't think any of us expected.  I hadn't even seen pictures of what it was going to be like so I was going in blind.  As we drove up on it all I could think of was how similar the main gates were to Jurassic Park.  The resort had about ten seperate "rooms" that were actually medium to large size single floor houses.  It had an awesome salt water pool and a pretty nice little cafe/restaurant.  Our room was called the Superior Room and it was awesome.  I think there are pictures on Facebook.  Once we settled in, Scott, Sarah, Kay and I hung out at the pool and drank a couple of iced coffees.

Our own bungalow!

Iced coffee in the pool :)

Once we arrived back at Jam Bay, the party had really started.  I would guess that there were probably 200 farang mixed with a couple locals who were friends with Joe.  Joe was out making sure everyone was having a great time.  A bunch of our friends wanted to go into town to an Italian restaurant for dinner but we decided on a place called CC's Bar which was a 20 minute walk down the beach.  The food at CC's was alright.  The coolest part was eating on the beach and our first rum bucket.  By the time we got back it was quite dark but Jam Bay had some torches (and people throwing torches) so we could see alright.  We played some pool, had a few drinks, and had an awesome time.  It rained on us but there was enough cover under all of the gazebos.  Plus when it's that hot you don't really care about the rain.  Joe had told us that on some nights when the plankton is in close to the beach, they go swimming with them.  The plankton glows in the water and apparently if you swim with them, you glow for a couple of seconds when you pop out of the water.  We will definitely be going back to try that (plus the caves that are around Khanom as well).

Kay and I drove back to our room around midnight and skyped with our parents.  In the morning, we had a really nice breakfast at the resort, checked out, and went and got some massages.  The massage was really interesting.  At first, I didn't think I would make it the full hour because my lady beat the shit out of me.  She twisted my arms in funny directions and got under bones and muscles I never knew could be moved.  Once I relaxed a bit, it became a lot nicer (Kay claims her lady was tougher on her).  It ended up being a full body massage. They bend you in all sorts of ways and I swear my ankle was by my head at one point.  They also hit you a lot.  I was laying on my back and I opened my eyes to see her standing over me with her hands above her head to swing down and double karate chop my thighs.  All in all, the massage was pretty awesome.

After the massages we just hung out at Jam Bay until our van arrived to bring us back to Nakhon. We had lunch, talked with Joe, and spent some time in the water until around 2:30 when the van finally showed up.

Now back to work on Monday.  This is quite the life we are living.