Kata 8 Years Later....

Yesterday afternoon, we left Laguna Beach and checked into our next hotel at Karon Beach. Karon Beach is relatively close to Kata Beach so the first thing we did after checking into the hotel was get a cab to take us to Kata Beach.

During college, we spent a lot of time there. Kata Pool Side Hotel & the Lobster Prawn Restuarant ("No View But Taste!") are perfect options for college students - rooms for less than $20/night including breakfast and (great!) meals for $10-$15 - including drinks! 

Our last visit to Kata or to Thailand for that matter was November 2003, which was also before the tsunami. We were anxious to see how much or how little things had changed. Some things were much the same - including some of the waitstaff who surprisingly almost 8 years later remembered us! The menu was the same and we quickly settled on Singha beer, pineapple juice and tuna pizza!

A mom & pop convenience store a few doors down from the restaurant was also the same, as was the woman who owns the store - although her child is now a teenager and is now helping run the store instead of just playing in it.

Kata is doing well, so well that aside from these few things, it  is barely the same place it was 8 years ago. The tsunami washed away much of Kata. The low infrastructure stalls have been replaced with multistory buildings and there's even a Starbucks there now. Who would have imagined that?

There are a lot more people - both locals & tourists. There are a lot more shops, restaurants and bars.

We were hoping to catch sunset on Kata Beach as that was one of our favorite things to do and we made a point to catch every sunset. A little before sunset, all the locals & the tourists would gather down at the beach and just watch the sunset and take pictures in an attempt to capture the memories.

We walked down to the beach a little before sunset yesterday and the beach was so crowded and busy and no one seemed at all to notice the sun. They were getting massages, surf lessons, drinks and henna tattoos.

We left shortly thereafter to get a cab back to Karon. We were happy to have gone back to Kata and while sad to see that some of what we loved about Kata is now gone, happy to see that more importantly, the local economy and more importantly the local people are thriving in what is clearly a successful post-tsunami Kata.

Another Kata Beach sunset with Crab Island in the background