“Wo bin ich?” or “If you could hie to Khao Lak…”

Where is Khao Lak? It’s one thing to be in a place you’ve never been to before, but I felt like I was literally off the map. It turns out this very nearly became a reality, as the 2004 tsunami hit this area of Thailand hardest and Khao Lak was, indeed, almost wiped off the map. Nearly five years later, you’d hardly recognize anything had ever happened. In fact, I’d say there were only three signs of this tragedy: the trees along the beach are younger (but still tall), the power lines were completely replaced and look western in their neatness rather than the typical jumbled mess, and the police boat they’ve left as a memorial. The night of the tsunami, one of the king’s grandsons was staying at a resort in Khao Lak and they had a 60-foot police boat patrolling 1 km offshore. The tsunami picked up this large metal ship and deposited it in the middle of a field nearly 2 km inland. The sight of this boat put the strength of the storm into perspective, but it still didn’t seem real.

Khao Lak is one of many small resort towns on the western coast of Southern Thailand, about 80 km north of Phuket, and it turns out they’ve all found their niche by catering to different languages. They all have signs in English and English-speakers, but I was told one town caters to Russians, another to Norwegians, etc. Wouldn’t you know, we ended up in the German town? I hadn’t heard this much German spoken since studying in Austria and naturally I was excited to hear it again, but this was a little disorienting. For example, one restaurant sold Tom Yum soup with pork knuckles? And Khao Lak was littered with tailor shops like every other tourist stop, but these had dirndls in the window right next to the Chinese dresses and modern suits. It also catered to a different demographic than the usual backpacker beach resort: families and retirees were everywhere. This left a nightlife that was lacking, but made me feel safer to walk around alone at night.