LittleSandyBeach

After the rain had calmed down our first stop was the Police Boat 813 Tsunami Memorial Park in Khao Lak. Police boat 813 was anchored one nautical mile off Khao Lak shore when the tsunami struck. It ended up 2km inland where it remains today.

There is a concrete wave which shows the average height of the tsunami at 10m, however in some places that grew to up to 30m high.

Just across the road is Bang Niang market that has over 300 different merchants mostly selling clothes but also some food stands.

The next day walking to the beach we came across a small Chinese temple with a large golden dragon wrapped around. The statue is called Ammok Kuan Yin Pudjor and is a result of Chinese settlement.

We then walked about 5km down the beach which is nice especially at this time of year when it’s quieter. We spotted a small memorial tree with the pictures of a few young tourists that died in the tsunami.

After a small wading session through a river we made it to the main Khao Lak town area.

The next morning it was time to move again, this time to Khao Sok. We waited for our bus and had forgotten about Thai time but it did show up in the end, just one hour late. After about a two hour drive we made it to the drop off point and then a very friendly local gave us a lift to our Hostel…

When we checked into our room we were blown away by the view from our balcony… so much so we’ve booked an extra two nights here!

When we were walking down the main road in the town we saw some Macaque monkeys coming from the rainforest, just make sure you don’t have any food on you!

Today we headed into Khao Sok National Park to go on a hike to see some wildlife and waterfalls. The park is the oldest evergreen rainforest in the world, estimated to be over 160 million years old and is even more diverse than the Amazon.

There are many animals to see including monkeys, snakes, wild elephants, sun bears, clouded leopards and lots of insects! It is also thought that there are Bengal Tigers but they haven’t been seen for over 20 years and are believed to live a lot deeper in the rainforest.

You can also see lots of different plants including the Rafflesia which is the world’s largest flower growing up to 90cm in diameter. Just make sure not to touch any as some are poisonous including the Elephant Nettle which can cause severe pain!

We were luckily enough to see some Spectacled Langur’s at the end of the trail near the river. They are found in Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia and are endangered.

On our walk back we suddenly came face to face with more macaques which when we noticed them were only about one metre away. Staying calm we slowly walked away then noticed more on the branches above! Luckily they were very calm and didn’t follow us.

Let’s see what else we can spot over the next few days!