Arrived in Khoa Lak on the West coast yesterday having said our goodbyes at Koh Tao. It is quite a nice chilled out place with beautiful long white beaches. The Andaman Sea feels slightly warmer than the Gulf of Thailand on the East Coast! I was completely cooked on the beach yesterday after only one hour in the sun while Neil suffered a Thai massage in a shady Sala on the beach.

We took a bike out for the day on Friday to explore the local area. The coast is gorgeous and you can see blue sea inviting you in at every turn of the coast road. We stopped at a sandy headland for a swim and the place was just beautiful. There was a small restaurant where we had lunch right on the beach and then walked it off on a deserted beach where two sand bars met. I can only think that it was the extreme heat that was keeping everyone else away.

On the way back we stopped in the town to visit the memorial to the victims of the 2005 tsunami and to see the police boat that had been swept 2Km inland by the water. Quite sobering.