It really did happen - Tsunami 2004

Tomorrow we depart the mainland and will be living on a boat for the next three days. The company we are traveling with, Wicked Diving, specializes in three day liveaboard scuba packages. Hence, we will be diving and completing our Open Water Advanced Scuba diving course. The nine dives will include deep (10o ft), night (yikes), navigation, photography, and hopefully wreck exploration - as well as four fun dives.

Since we are not leaving until tomorrow morning, we had the day in Khao Lak to explore. It was recommended to us to check out the Tsunami Memorial area (Khoa Lak was one of the hardest hit areas in Thailand) and a small beach on the opposite side of town. As you guessed, we did a lot of walking today - getting lost didn't help either.

Since arriving in Khoa Lak we, especially Sam, is having a hard time grasping the severity and damage of the 2004 Tsunami. It is so hard to imagine how it would have been for travelers and citizens. What would we have done if we were here?

The memorial site encompassed a police boat that was washed half a mile inland. The boat has been left as a reminder to all of the horrible natural disaster. The "museum" had an excellent book informing us about the specifics and photos of the event. Laying on the beach today it was hard to imagine seeing a 33 foot wave streaming towards us.


Khoa Lak was supposedly wiped clean because it is so flat and waters flooded over two miles inland. While most of it is clean and rebuilt, some areas off the beaten path are still a mess. The tsunami is considered one of the most memorable natural disasters in history and we all heard about it in 2004. We remember being in high school and having the weekly missions go towards helping Thailand. We never could have imagined being here in the presence of the actual area. Being at home and hearing it on the news causes us to not understand the true aftermath of such an event. Being here and seeing the actual site makes it so much more real. Very similar to seeing the World Trade Center site in New York.

After the memorial, we headed to a small, secluded beach on the other side of town. Even though it took us 4x longer to get there than it should have, the final destination was very rewarding...only five other people we there with us!


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Because we will be on a boat for three days and two nights we will not have access to internet. We will make sure we update you as soon as we get back. We will be diving in the Similan Islands (top 10 in the world) and plan to rent an underwater digital camera. The photos alone will be amazing!

Best,
Samantha and James