Have We Found Heaven on Earth?

We spent an incredible week at the Thai beaches of Kamala Beach, on the island of Phuket, and Khao Lak.  We had picnics on the beach, swam in the ocean every morning, and made time for our refreshing afternoon “coconut o’clock.”  It was heaven.  We have to mention that on Khao Lak we stayed at the beautiful J.W. Marriott.  We stayed on points, got an upgrade to a suite, and generally pampered ourselves.  (Not that that’s saying much after four months in SE Asia — “Soft bed!”  “Two pillows!”  “A working toilet!”)  It’s a fantastic deal for points — a giant breakfast is included and Jordan’s status got us free happy hours and discounts on food and other stuff.  If you have Marriott points and time to go to Thailand, we highly recommend this place!

For those with a memory for detail, Khao Lak was one of the areas heaviest hit by the 2004 tsunami.  The recently released film The Impossible, starring Ewan MacGregor, documents a real-life family’s story that survived the tsunami in Khao Lak. We heard some scenes from the film were shot on location on the beach.  Scary to think about.

Here are some of our favorite pictures of our week on the Thai beaches: