My list of unique eating places

A chance question on Facebook recently asking about my favourite restaurant got me thinking - do I have a favourite eating place? On reflection I realised I don't as there are too many to choose from. There are many restaurants I've enjoyed for different reasons, depending on whether I was looking for relaxation, luxury or a fantastic view. So here are some of my favourites:

• Most 'desert island' - during one of my trips to the Maldives in 2005 I stayed on board the Four Seasons Explorer. One evening we were taken to a deserted island where the crew dug seating into the sand. When we arrived back on the ship later the remaining crew members played us music on local instruments. A truly magical evening.

• Most 'spiritual' - when we lived in South Korea we spent a weekend in a Buddhist temple, and on another occasion we also participated in a day of temple food cooking. Korean temple cuisine is vegetarian and generally avoids garlic, onions, leeks, wild chives or shallots due to their pungency.

Eating temple food at Gilsangsa, Seoul

• Most 'axis of evil' - any of the meals I had while visiting North Korea!

one of the dinners I had in North Korea

one of my lunches in North Korea

• Most northerly - lunch in the Icelandic town of Akureyri which is 65°N. We had spent the day diving in the nearby fjord.

• Highest altitude (on land) - any of the meals we had in Tibet which has an average elevation exceeding 4,500 metres (14,800 ft).

• Most 'chillax' - at a hammock restaurant in Cambodia somewhere on the road between Tonle Sap and Siem Reap.

hammock restaurant near Tonle Sap, Cambodia

• Highest above ground - in April 2011 we were lucky enough to spend two nights in what was then the world's tallest hotel above ground - the Shanghai Park Hyatt. Our room was on the 81st floor and meals were in the restaurants on the 87th and 91st floors - almost 400 metres above ground.

• Highest on a building roof - in 2009 we were in Bangkok on my birthday and to celebrate we had dinner at the open-air Vertigo restaurant of the Banyan Tree Hotel, located on the hotel's 61st floor.

a vertigo-inducing dinner?

• Favourite dessert - at the Bistrot de la Porte des Lilas here in Reunion Island they have my all-time favourite dessert: discs of chocolate interspersed with raspberries and fresh cream :-)

my favourite dessert

What about you? Do you have any unique eating places to share?

Thailand - The Andaman Coast

For our second trip to Thailand we flew directly to Phuket from Seoul. As this was to be a diving trip, we then headed about an hour up the coast to Khao Lak, in Phang Nga Province.  We were staying for a week, and we'd be taking a 3-day liveaboard to the Similan Islands with Wicked Diving.

our accommodation in Khao Lak

However the weather decided differently. Normally the rainy season is finished by late October, and this was early November. However a bad weather system blew in, and our liveaboard had to be cancelled. You can see from the photos that the weather was quite cloudy (when it wasn't rainy).

fishing boat coming back to port because of the storm

We actually got to embark on our liveaboard, but as the authorities had closed the Similan Islands and the fishing boats were coming back to port because the weather was so bad it was decided to cancel our trip for obvious reasons. 

fishing boats, Khao Lak port

beach, Khao Lak

So we visited the surrounding area, including a waterfall near Khao Lak where I got bitten by leeches for the first (and hopefully last?) time in my life!

waterfall, near Khao Lak

We also visited a rubber plantation. Rubber is harvested mainly in the form of latex.

a plantation of rubber trees

The sticky, milky latex is drawn off by making incisions into the bark and collecting the fluid in vessels. This process is called "tapping". The latex then is refined into rubber ready for commercial processing.

collecting the latex from a rubber tree

When the 2004 tsunami struck South Asia, the Khao Lak region was the hardest-hit area in Thailand with over 4,000 deaths, more than 3,000 who were never accounted for, and thousands who were injured. It has since made an impressive recovery and is once again a popular tourist destination.

shrine

this little fellow looks like he's wearing a bow tie!

To compensate for not diving the Similan Islands, Wicked Diving suggested going to  Chiaw Lan Lake in Khao Sok National Park for two days diving.

'Unique diving in a jungle paradise' - Khao Lak (source)

This was only the second time I'd dived in fresh water - the first time was in Lake Baikal in Siberia.

source

At 739 km2, Khao Sok NP is Thailand's largest protected area. It comprises the largest area of virgin forest in Southern Thailand and is a remnant of rainforest which is older and more diverse than the Amazon Rainforest.

limestone cliffs at Khao Sok

The park is famous for having the enormous Rafflesia flower, but unfortunately none were flowering while we were there.

limestone cliffs, Khao Sok

Chiaw Lan is in fact an enormous man-made reservoir and diving there is a very eerie experience - visibility is low (you need a torch even in broad daylight) and you can suddenly find yourself face to face with submerged tree branches with little warning.

decorations on long-tail boats

Our transport across and round the lake was by long-tail boat, which gets its name from the trailing drive shaft and propeller at the back. The garlands and scarves that decorate the bow are there to provide good luck and protection - we had to be careful not to step on them or it would offend the spirits.

decorations on long-tail boats

We did three dives (at Peter Pan Cave, Catfish Cave and another spot with no name), at an average depth of 12-13 metres, although the lake is at least 60 metres deep. Wildlife underwater was fairly limited - we mainly saw catfish.

Our accommodation was at a floating village on the lake, from where we could hear gibbons.

The final day of our trip was spent exploring Phuket before our late evening flight. Phuket is Thailand's largest island, and is connected to the mainland by road bridges. Some of the resorts have the reputation as party centres - a very different atmosphere from the quieter Khao Lak.

temple, Phuket

We finished the day with cocktails at the Evason Phuket, which I was curious to visit as I've stayed in two of their sister resorts (Soneva Fushi and Soneva Gili) in the Maldives.

sunset at the infinity pool, Evason Phuket

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• Birthday in Bangkok - our first trip to Thailand.

Birthday in Bangkok

We spent four days in Bangkok at the end of June because of my husband's work, and this trip coincided with my birthday.

I started exploring the city while he was working. First stop was Jim Thompson's house. Jim Thompson was an American former CIA operative who spent 22 years in Thailand rebuilding the silk industry, before mysteriously disappearing in the Cameron Highlands in 1967. His house has now been turned into a museum.

in the garden, Jim Thompson house

The house is beautifully and tastefully decorated.

On the night of my birthday we had dinner at the Banyan Tree hotel at their open air Vertigo restaurant on the 61st floor.

view from Vertigo

The next day my husband wasn't working, and we took the Chao Phraya express boat along the river of the same name:

Next we visited the spectacular Grand Palace. This has to be one of the most richly decorated royal palaces I've even seen.

The statues of mythological giants are known as yaksha.

The nearby Wat Pho temple houses Thailand's largest reclining Buddha :

The Giant Swing, known as Sao Ching Cha in Thai, is a religious structure originally constructed in 18th century.

Giant Swing, near Wat Suthat temple

candles on sale

Democracy monument

Lastly, to head back to our hotel we took one of the river taxis that ply the klorng (canals) of Bangkok. They go very fast and don't stop for very long, so you have to be ready to jump out or in as soon as they do stop.

In a four day visit we could only scratch the surface of Bangkok, but it gave us a good first-time view of the city, and we'd love to go back some time soon.  In any case, it was very different to our following trip, only a few days after we'd got back to Seoul : the Trans-Siberian train across Russia.

If you enjoyed this post you might also like:

• Thailand - the Andaman Coast - our second trip to Thailand

Suggested reading:

• Lonely Planet Thailand (Country Travel Guide)
• Bangkok: Lonely Planet Citiescape (Lonely Planet Citiescape Bangkok)