We’ve just finished up our 8 night stay at Mai Khao Lak resort.  We are now in Koh Samui for another 8 nights.  A whole new batch of pools to explore and breakfast buffets to devour.  I thought I should post some pictures of our adventures at the Khao Lak resort.  My parents had been to this resort before and had recommended to pool access room. Aside from it being mildly terrifying having your small children being able to walk straight from the room into the pool, it was fabulous being able to get into and out of the pool directly from our balcony and about 5 steps from our bedroom.  We did have to keep the balcony doors double latched at all times to stop wandering Soren’s but it was definitely worthwhile.

Here is the view from our room.  It was very nice being able to walk out straight into the water. Oh and that swim up bar was a lazy 20m swim away…..

The kids had a whale of a time swimming and we spent hours a day in the pool. The pool was actually enormous, probably a couple of hundred metres from end to end. All the ground level rooms wrapped around it and you could go for a really long swim from one end to the other if you wanted. We mostly hung outside our rooms where there was a nice flat shelf for the kids to play on or the 1.3m deep area between our room, the bar and the bridge. We often went for swims to ‘the edge’ to look at the infinity edge, which Soren was always keen to climb over.  There was also a huge area of very shallow water we could play in with the kids, which they loved.

We had buffet breakfast included every morning and there was a very impressive range of food. All the usual pancakes, waffles, french toast, any variety of eggs, breads, pastries, salads, fruit and a range of hot dishes including rice and noodles. There was even an icecream station for the kids (which we kept them away from until a treat on the last day).  There was even a kids breakfast station, with sandwiches, hot food and special plastic plates and cutlery.  It was extremely well set up for kids, with good access to highchairs and booster stools. Our kids enjoyed the breakfasts (at least on the days they weren’t sick). We won’t talk about Astrid discovering the maple syrup and dipping everything in it (yes, even her eggs).  Soren was just happy to have unfettered access to eggs and watermelon, his two favourite foods.

The restaurants offered a variety of lunch options but most days after a big breakfast we weren’t that hungry. The kids needed feeding though. We sometimes got them a snack at the pool bar, they did hot food as well as milkshakes and icecreams (the kids faves). Most days though we bought a few extra bits and pieces back from breaky like cheese, eggs, fruit and pastries and had a verandah picnic. One day we got take away Thai pancakes (like crepes) from the beach, which were also a hit. The adults may have had one or two drinks once it hit afternoon!

We did a few different things for dinners. We had a couple of vouchers for dinners from the resort, so we used them on two nights. One for a Thai buffet and the other a BBQ/seafood buffet.  Both were held outside near the playground and had entertainment and were quite pleasant….. except they were quite late in starting and our kids were over it and not at their best. The food was plentiful and quite acceptable (there was limited vegetarian unless I wanted salad or dessert, both of which I don’t mind luckily) but the others didn’t starve.  It was also well set up for kids.

We preferred to head down to the beach restaurants as it was quieter, cheaper and a nicer atmosphere. I’ll post about our beach adventures separately.  I didn’t take photos of the resort dinners but I did take a couple at night and looking back over the outdoor buffet area from near our room. It was very pleasant at night and we would probably have sat outside or swam at night a little if we weren’t wrangling small people off to bed.

We spent most of our days playing in and around the pool. The resort was set-up well for kids though. Two kids clubs (one was for the Scandinavian kids, and one for other kids) but we didn’t get around to booking Astrid in for any activities as we were busy swimming. There were also 2 separate playgrounds.  One was huge and covered in shade sails and really good except it was always so hot we didn’t play there for long (and I never got around to taking photos). The other playground was down near the childrens pool and the activities pool and the kids had a good play there too.  As it was quite hot we didn’t spend too much time there (the pool and beach won out) but they were certainly used well by some families.

 

Since that is enough photos for one post, I’ll finish up our Khao Lak adventures over the next couple of days. There was elephant trekking, massages, Thai cooking classes and lots of sunset beach dinners.  Plenty more photos to come when bed isn’t calling…..  Astrid and I are a bit under the weather today so hopefully a good nights sleep will have everyone feeling chipper tomorrow.