We decided to get our clothes washed so we put them in first thing and headed off into the town to replace our flip flops. We hadn't had chance to replace the ones stolen in Koh Tao. I'd brought a just in case pair but Lee had been walking bare foot or his trainers since.
Khoa Lak has some lovely restaurants and quite a few tourist shops selling the same t'shirt, vest tops, flip flops, board shorts and bikinis as well as the souvenir shops. The souvenir shops were the most impressive they had some gorgeous ornaments and paintings. Bangkok has been the cheapest place so far. I would have thought it would be the most expensive being the capital but nope. We booked a snorkelling trip for the following day then we headed back to the guesthouse to hire a scooter.
We were told to go and see the boat carried by the tsunami a little further up the road along with other remembrance things so we headed in that direction on the scooter. Sure enough there is a huge police boat sitting 100 yards from the road. When the tsunami hit in 2004 it carried the boat from the sea to its new location. We didn't fully appreciate the distance until we drove to the coastline. We stood on the shore, looking out to the sea and tried to imagine what people must have saw, thought, felt that day the tsunami hit. All the way through Khoa Lak your reminded of the tsunami threat by posts detailing tsunami risk level and signs pointing out the evacuation route. We drove to a little parking area for bikes on the coast and saw a sign saying ring the bell for service. A man pulled a hand made raft across shallow water to pick us up and take us across to a beach bar. We had a couple of drinks then headed off for more exploring. We drove to the evacuation point, at the top of the hill, then pulled in at a restaurant over looking the coast. After we'd eat we went back to the guesthouse, gave back the bike and went down into the town.