Four Go RTW

The day after we got back from the Simians’ was Songkran – the Thai New Year’s Day. Chris had gone out for a day’s diving in the lovely islands we had just left, but the girls and I stayed behind and joined in the celebrations a little. Songkran is all about WATER. There are Buddhist rituals involving water and cleansing in the temples, but mostly the country turns into a big water fight – no bad thing considering day-time temperatures are pushing 40 degrees at this time of year. In Khao Lak it wasn’t as crazy as Chiang Mai or Bangkok, but there were still plenty of pick-ups driving around with big drums of water and buckets, Super-Soakers and anything else to bail with. So we ventured out armed to the teeth (read ‘with one little water pistol and the beach bucket’) and got wet. Not as wet as Chris though, returning from diving a few hours later when hostilities had clearly stepped up a gear, completely drenched!

Khao Lak is a laid back little settlement gradually healing itself from a terrible tragedy. Three + years ago on Dec 26th 2004, without any warning at all, an 11 metre high tsunami slammed into the three beaches that make up Khao Lak killing over 4000 people. The Phang Nga province in which the resort sits was by far the worst affected area in Thailand (by comparison, on Ko Phi Phi 2000 souls were lost and on Phuket 900 were recorded dead or missing) and the beachfront was obliterated. If you're in any doubt about what the power of a wave can do, take a look at the pictures on the website of the Cousin Resort, where we stayed in Khao Lak (just click on the link in red below):

Cousin Resort 'before' and 'after' pictures.

Most of the homes and businesses damaged in the tsunami were unable to claim any insurance payouts, as although they were covered for fire and flood, very few were covered for earthquake (not being in an area where damage is caused by them), which is what the tsunami was ruled as, and so all rebuilding has all been with volunteer help, or by loans. Some places were simply abandoned which is quite spooky, seeing shells of buildings and empty levelled plots of land with tiled swimming pools still hollowed out. The day after New Year it was time to leave Khao Lak and on our way out of town we stopped at the Police Boat – a symbol of remembrance and memorial since it was washed ashore by the wave, the captain miraculously managing to keep it upright as it came to rest about 2kms from the beach. (We tried to imagine that conversation: 'what's your position, over'/ 'currently just behind the 7-Eleven, over.) There’s a little stall there with pictures and stories which was enough for Fin (who knows all about the tsunami having watched the story unfold on the BBC in Nana’s sitting room one Boxing Day) to understand that it had actually happened where she was standing.

Khao Lak Police Boat:

We liked Khao Lak and its quiet sleepy atmosphere, its lovely uncrowded beaches and its great Italian restaurant down the street, plus those lovely little islands just off-shore.
See ya
All love CRFS xxxx