Yesterday (Saturday) was our last full day in Thailand.  So we made it a lazy one.  A slow, late breakfast, followed by a DVD in the room (Monsters University) while I did some admin then read some more.  It poured again for a short while in the morning.

But just as quickly as the rain arrives, it vanishes again. And as always, it didn’t stop the kids from swimming. Lunch was at the hotel, I read yet more of my book, Clare played on her iPod, and Stella played with a new friend after a little bit of cross-balcony chat.

In the late afternoon we headed up to the road to the Saturday market, first stopping to visit the Boat 813 Tsunami memorial. This area of coast was one of the hardest hit during the 2004 Tsunami, with casualties in Thailand registered as 8212 deaths, 2817 missing, 8457 injured and 7000 people displaced.  Absolutely horrific.  The police boat 813 was washed 2 kilometres inland to where it can be found today.  The memorial is still being established but even in this simple form it is a poignant reminder of the people whose lives were lost and of the phenomenal and unpredictable power of nature.  Our resort has tsunami evacuation signs around it to direct us to relative safety should anything similar happen.  I found the memorial and the makeshift memorials on trees around the beach to be incredibly moving and sad.

It was rather incongruous to then simply cross the road to the market.  This market is held three times a week, and is a cross between a local market with food stalls down the centre – both cooked food and fresh ingredients – and tourist clothing and knick-knack stalls down the sides.  All fruit, vegetables and meats are on display, often without any obvious form of refrigeration.  Clearly things are bought super fresh then cooked pretty much immediately.

Then it was back into a taxi to the resort for our final sleep in Thailand.  Sunday is packing and transit day.  My next blog post summing up our holiday will be written back home in Australia.  I’m ready to leave the resort, and Clare in particular is looking forward to seeing her friends again, but we’re still sad to be finishing up what has been a wonderful holiday.  More later!