South Thailand
4- Quite a bit, and a piece of the coastline in the Khao Lak region
Khao Lak, beaches, sand powder
and sea kettle ...
On the coast of Khao Lak, around our hotel a little north of the village, the lazy beaches stretch for a long time. The release of a brook widens and digs a narrow course in the fine sand.
The harmony of the clear sand cut by lagoons retained by a fine cord on the intense blue of the ocean, a stump uprooted coconut palms or a lying trunk, the play of light on the mud where two or three fishing boats, in the distance the gentle curve of a large cove, such is the charm of this beautiful coast.
For Marlène, the other irresistible attraction of the ocean is the temperature of the water: a real bathtub, perhaps at 33 ° C? An unprecedented sensation never before felt in other tropics.
Others will seek a little cooler in the currents by swimming further offshore. less scorching just a little deeper.
For Marlène, it is happiness. Do not disturb, do not deny ... Carpe Diem, since tomorrow will necessarily be worse.
Some blush in the full and very hot sun, in an unbearable self-browning, - "put meat on high heat or at high temperature to brown the surface ... " - from where you can almost hear the fat sizzling. Others streamline cooking: 5 minutes in the bath, 5 minutes on the face and 5 minutes on the spot, until the golden brown is perfect; and never let it sit.
There alone, the result can be spectacular.
For we more wisely, who are not followers of Egyptian or Inca solar torments, a little bath, then shade; there is much better to do.
Khao Lak, strange works on the sand ...
An observation more attentive shows that each is centered on a sand hole a few millimeters in diameter. Small, fast, transparent crabs, so fast that you think you see a light fog blown by the wind on the sand.
They are the artists.
The low tide leaves on the sand strange and fascinating designs in concentric circles divided into sectors, which modulate endlessly, sometimes even, extraordinary coincidence, like a palm tree.
But what can create such spontaneous works, obviously on the firm part of the sand which has just been released by the tide? ?
Elusive in the production of their creation, by sinking into the sand and clearing their hole, they expel very regular grains of sand very formatted (the largest crabs expel coarser, less aesthetic grains) which are organized in variations of remarkable figures according to the burial works of the artist.
Juxtapose the artists, and the beach itself becomes a precious, very ephemeral work of art.
The same artist crabs transported on a Breton beach would they draw not palm trees but whelks?
South of Koh Yao Noi island, at low tide, we could also see a very long cohort of crabs migrating, transhuming along a thin strip of white sand.
By the hundreds, they were heading towards a mysterious, compelling and perhaps futile (but nothing is futile in animals) destination, skirting a translucent bluish jellyfish, dead in the sun, in their path.
The end of the tombolo leads to this end of the island of idleness and calm, where all you can do is pass.
Elsewhere in Khao Lak, pebble games ...
On the bay to the north of our hotel, magnificent gray-blue rocks, others lighter, sometimes veined, polished or hollowed out, form ridges or parallel ridges, seem ready to leap like a dolphin out of the water, draw kinds of spontaneous sculptures on the sand slope which rests on a front of dense forest emerald on the back.
Of course, it is not the extraordinary chaos of the polished rocks of the Seychelles, over there at the other end of the Indian Ocean. But failing that ...
The fine sand takes on an almost pink color.
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On the other hand, the strings of shells and pebbles which try to decorate a few trees on the beach or large stumps which have been abandoned there have a rather unpleasant, distorting and artificial forced effect.
Another huge bare strain alone is another more remarkable spontaneous work.
However, it is the hotels that believe thus enhancing their stretch of beach, while the natural environment is largely sufficient on its own. Pretty ridiculous and clumsy...
A small gray monitor lizard - still a meter long perhaps, agile and slow, looks for insects and worms in trees.
Even domesticated and fed by the waste gathered here and there that tourists leave around their lounge chairs, it offers more interest and does not fail to arouse when you see it in the shadows, confused with the color of the trees. trunks.
Or this lizard with clawed paws which prowls around small tables on dead corals, or even this hermit crab which crawls quickly on coarse sand ...
The beautiful trees with the tortured and often oblique trunk which shade the beach, broad and thick varnished leaves (who knows which tree is it?) , take on magnificent blooms, delicate bouquets of white filaments which turn red at their very end.
Previously they were big white pimples, in a hurry to explode.
Once open, they fall to the ground, carried away by the breeze, sometimes leaving a sort of very long pistil.
What appears to be the fruit is shaped like a large, upturned pear. Once fallen, it turns brown as it dries. The lower part is a kind of beak, mocking like a dodo's beak.
Elsewhere other heady flowers, and blooming still discreet of flamboyant.
Khao Lak, discreet and hardworking fishermen
Towards a small cape to the south, few visitors in the paths shaded by tall and royal rows of palm trees.
A small welcoming bar just at the end of the path, two or three walkers; after a cold drink under a straw hut, we return, this time walking along the beach.
Reasoned tourism development strategy, late effect of the destruction of the 2004 tsunami?
In any case, the coast north of the town of Bang Niang is sparsely constructed, in places still deserted by tourists, and even occupied by fishermen repainting their boats or maintaining their nets or their large cylindrical traps.
Further north, a small road zigzags back, which is also one of the paths to reach a refuge in the event of a tsunami alarm.
It runs along natural basins giving by channels on the sea, and in which the palm trees are mirrored. ; shade is welcome under the harsh sun.
Everywhere lavish, tropical flora is invasive.
Each house is in fact protected with a miniature temple, a model temple built at its entrance, in bright colors, and which always has two parts, with a small scale to go from the lowest to the higher.
Symbolism of the progressive elevation of the soul in Buddhist thought?
Maybe, but it's a fact the " house of the spirits ", which allows to relocate the spirit of the land, which was disturbed and disturbed when the house was built. The offerings made here help to calm the spirits and find peace.
Small colorful Buddhist altars are placed in front of the few houses; one of them, quite pretentious in its representation, protects intruders with two statues of threatening tigers.
Further on, a rustic light cart with side benches, under a shelter which appears to be a workshop storing wood, is perhaps used for ceremonies if we believe the way it is nicely decorated.
