Showing posts with label Tsunami. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tsunami. Show all posts

Thursday, 10 February 2011

A Time to Remember in Khao Lak Day 6

Another beautiful day and the idea of monsoon rains spoiling the fun felt far away. This morning would be like yesterday and taking up position on the beach for some of the warm rays.
Khao Lak Beach
We had nothing planned out we were just drawn out on to the sand and it was really too enjoyable to miss. Watching the elephants dancing can wait for another trip.

The waves here and in Nai Yang seemed to be constant, I guess there was a strong wind out there in the ocean keeping them rolling in.  Much to my enjoyment but the Other Half found them to be just a little bit too strong,

Where did the day go, time seemed to go fast while we were on the sand. I guess its not everyday you can wake up and just step out on to a tropical beach. I still find it strange how quiet our holidays have been. It is still the same beautiful stretches of beach at low season and why do people not come to enjoy it.
Suwan Palm Swimming Pool
Anyway, their loss and our gain, so to say. The afternoon sees the sun heading out over the Andaman Sea and at the hotel this cast a cooling shade over the pool.  It felt like a nice change floating calmed after the rush of the waves.

A plan for the rest of the day was hatched and after a quick late lunch we would head over to see the Tsunami Museum.
Police Boat 813 Khao Lak
These places are really worth a look if only to really get an idea of the forces involved on that day. The most striking is the Police Boat 813 tossed 2 kilometers inland . Across the road is the Tsunami Museum. Tucked away is the “Stabile” sculpture, it wasn’t very well signposted and we nearly missed it.

Our last night here and we just had to round it off with a last taste of the food at “Ga”.  Pizza, Pasta Steak and other non Thai foods were on offer in other restaurants but we can get that back home. Ga”s was a good find for us and the food was just to addictive not to go back for more.

Khao Lak was very enjoyable , the days seemed to pass quick and maybe we should have spent a little bit more time here. Tomorrow would be an early start. We had arranged a minivan to take us to Ao Nang over in Krabi Provence.

Monday, 2 November 2009

Day 4 – Koh Lanta, Thailand Sunshine and Monsoon

Weather – Another Beautiful Day

Kaw Kwang Sea View Wakening up to another beautiful sunny day in Koh Lanta helps to forget that the world outside is not so nice. The peacefulness of sitting on the balcony and taking in the views and sounds of the morning is something you`d want to happen everyday for the rest of your life.

The sun brings out a little more activity around the resort. Here, like the other places along the beach are getting a clean up and makeover. So the quietness did not last long, the occasional sound of hammering around Kaw Kwang gives us an excuse to depart. But only a few steps to the pool side to admire more of the beautiful views and take in a bit of the sun.

Kaw Kwang Beach It wasn't long before the heat was starting to take its effect and the water of the pool was a convenient place to get back to a more comfortable temperature. Kaw Kwang Pool Side

Kaw Kwang Pool The sea was just as inviting but as the tide seemed to be out and when it goes out it really goes out, the short walk seemed just too long at that moment.Kaw Kwang Swimmers

Koh Lanta Clouds

Weather - Looking a Bit Cloudy

We seem to enjoy the long walks to get anywhere, here. Even with the warm weather the distance didn`t seem too much with the scenery to look at. Along the coast road to Saladan was today’s afternoon walk. Suitable supplies of water carried and off we went.

The Scenery, with the sea to the north and to the south the Jungle that looked much tamer during the day. There are not many signs of civilization here, just the occasional building until we get closer to Saladan Town.

Koh Lanta Tsunami Sign1 Koh Lanta Tsunam Sign2

A few road signs popped up and gave a little reminder of what happened a few years ago. It`s a reminding thought that it is unlikely to happen again and disasters could erupt in any part of the world, even your own back garden.

Koh Lanta Bull The local wildlife did not seem to care and bulls could be seen grazing along the road side.

Soon Saladan was in view and the restaurants started to appear, quite a few of the shops were still closed here with a few “for sale” or “or rent” signs of businesses that didn`t quite make it. The town is really quite small, but has most things you would need. Bank, Supermarket, Tourist Centres ( well every hotel could really sort out your tickets no matter what you wanted to do or go)

Koh Lanta Saladan Stopped for food in a restaurant, can`t remember its name but it was next to the aptly named Barr-acuda, Beer, large, and 2 glasses, the food samples was pizza, Thai style, along with a tasty array of stomach filling goodies. The price, including the beer, was under 400THB. All reasonably priced but I’m not sure the pizza will be on order again. But we did come back. Apart from ourselves the place was deserted until a Korean couple popped in, had a cooling drink and then departed on their moped. Oh dear, they should have sipped slower…

Weather - Looking a bit Cloudy

Koh Lanta Saladan WestKoh Lanta Saladan EastThe weather quickly changed with the wind gusting a little and Monsoon downpour starting so we decided to stick around under cover for a little bit. I managed to snap a few pictures before the heavy rains and where a few minutes earlier the town was reasonably busy with people passing by but now completed deserted. I guess the lesson here is when the people of Koh Lanta take cover, you should too.

Weather – Monsoon

Koh Lanta Saladan Monsoon The rains did not last long, but this would be the last of the sun for today. Clouds took over, at least it was a bit cooler. Heading away from Saladan we had a stroll down “the strip” we came across the “German Bakery”. We were both tempted here, the O.H could hardly hold herself back at the thought of some thick creamy fruit gateau and I was tempted by the idea of Coffee.

German Bakery Koh Lanta German Bakery Koy Lanta With my normal consumption of caffeine and the lack of any intake for the past few days, I should have been climbing the walls with withdrawal symptoms. The island itself must have been looking out for me, but I wasn`t Lost!

There were a few people here, I guess mostly German, tempted by the cakes and deserts along with us. Although we never talked to our host, we made eye contact and were noticed. A few days later ,in Slaladan, we were greeted with a friendly shout from a German lady as she sped passed us on her moped. It`s nice to be remembered.

There seemed to be an evening market but the rain was starting to come down again, light but enough to make things a bit uncomfortable, we had a quick look around and decided to head back to the hotel at Kaw Kwang.

Road to Kaw Kwang Koh Lanta I should point out here that we only had one umbrella and from this picture you can see I wasn`t holding it.

The rest of the evening was spent around the hotel, the threat of more rain kept us close to shelter. Frogs on the other hand seemed to enjoy the weather and quite often they could be heard calling followed with replies erupting from all around before all going quiet again. One was close and with the help of the flash on the camera his or her little eyes shown out. Location revealed I managed to get a little close up.

FrogKaw Kwang Relaxing Evening A few hours relaxing, it`s sometimes really nice just to do nothing. The night was ended with a last look over Kaw Kwang beach and trying to take some pictures.

I propped up my Canon G10 on the beach wall and set it off for a long exposure. If I really knew what I was doing I might have managed some better photographs.

Klong Dao Beach Night Koh Lanta

Klong Dao Beach Night2 Koh Lanta It was a nice day, even if cut short by the rains. But already the strength of the sun is starting to show. For one of us at least is turning a little bit red and needing a bit of a shave.

Koh Lanta Sunburn

Saturday, 24 October 2009

Lanta, Kbrabi – Lead up to the Holiday

It was vacation time again and the Other Half and I getting itchy. The thoughts of previous holiday locations seemed like distant memories even although they were only months ago. In reality I think we just need to justify an excuse to be lazy for a few days.

Gates of Ko Lanta

Where do we go? It`s usually a long process of the O.H. checking flights, hotels and beaches trying to narrow down a location which can last for days and usually ends up with more options than before we started. I just leave Her to it and pretend I have something more important to do, like watching a program on television.

Somehow Koh Lanta in Krabi, Thailand seemed to be at the head of the queue and that is where we decided to go. The big world wide web was full of links but most of them were for hotels and resorts. Information on the actual place was quite limited. So we really never knew what to expect, just that it was full of long sandy beaches, dirt roads and motorcycles.

We knew how to get there but were just not sure on the connection times so we played safe and made bookings for hotels and flights leaving enough time to work out any connection problems as they arrived. This actually turned out to be much easier than we had expected due to the kindness and helpful people of Krabi.

Our search process includes looking for other people holiday snaps on Flickr and Picasso, thinking that will be us soon, along with a delve in to YouTube.

Warning, video may contain strong language and scenes that may distress.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNR5zacQihU

This is where we found a few videos of the Tsunami of 2004, waves rolling into the beach we were going to stay on. The day it happened, I had noticed the report of an earthquake on the BBC news website in the morning before we headed out for the day. When we came back the news was reporting the catastrophe that had just happened. Our daytrip was at sea, but fortunately we were not affected by the wave.

Not put off, we looked forward to the date of departure and tried to ignore the weather reports of Monsoon rain and hoping typhoon Parma would not come close to cause any delays.

Typhoon Parma Closing In

In the following blog posts, I will try to describe our trip and the wonderful area of Krabi and the Island of Koh Lanta full of very amateurish photographs that I happen to take. The friendly people we met (and named in our own particular style), the tasty food (which we love) and the beach we walked on (a lot) and a few little unexpected events that took place.

Comments are most welcome if you have been there, planning to go or know of any other similar paradises in South-East Asia.