Even pre-tsunami, budget accommodation was fairly limited at lovely Khao Lak. Rebuilding in Lak proper seems to have been confined to high end and midrange places, but it is still possible to find a cheap bungalow in the area.

I got me one in March at KHAO LAK NATURE RESORT which is high on the headland south of the beach. It is situated on the main road, highway 4, on a sweeping uphill bend just south of the National Park headquarters/Police Box and the km 57 post. This place has about 3 dozen bungalows spread up a rain-forested slope far enough from the road that noise was not an issue. Traffic noise that is. The birds, crickets and other creatures plus the plop plop of raindrops from an afternoon storm on the big banana leaves made themselves heard, but this was pleasant.
Some bungalows were aircon but I went for a fan job, which started at 400 baht and was reduced instantly to my 300 offer. This was a big, big timber bungalow in good condition, well shaded by the vegetation, good condition insect screens, king size+ bed which could sleep 3 adults without being too squeezy, large bathroom with mirror above sink, towels soap and toilet paper supplied which is not common for cheapies. It had a spacious verandah which was a nice place to hang out in that rainstorm. A broom was supplied and pathways and lighting were in good condition.
There is a sizable reception/restaurant area down beside the highway carpark, but the restaurant was not operating, maybe because only about 4 or 5 bungalows were occupied. They could sell you a drink.
Similarly, a short path leads to a clearing on what must be the highest point of the headland (must be 150+m above sea level here) where a nice little bar/snack bar was lying unused and looked like it had been for some time. This clearing has tree interrupted views of the coast northwards from Lak. I can imagine what a great late afternoon, evening meeting place it was pre tsunami when Lak attracted lots of travellers.
I noticed a path leading steeply downhill thru the jungle to the west signposted “Beach” but being late on my last day, I didn’t have a chance to check it. Google Earth shows a tiny beach half way around the headland down there.

About 400m closer to Lak on the highway is the NATIONAL PARK HEADQUARTERS and Police Box, which has 2 restaurants roadside. I ate in the one closer to Nature Resort and the food here was quite good and the usual Thai low price good value. The girl here told me she had one room for 300, and LP says the NP Headquarters also have some budget bungalows.
The only other place I saw budget rooms was down in the new town where some of the businesses were advertising upstairs rooms for 400 and 500. I don’t fancy a hot room with big trucks roaring close by all night.
However I have seen some positive posts about FATHER AND SONS (NOM'S) which is behind Nom's restaurant down in the village away fron the highway towards the sea, plus JAI, which is behind a restaurant in one of the side lanes off the highway on the inland side.

It is about a 2-3 km walk from Nature Resort down to the township and another 500m to the beach. Songthaews pass every 10-15 minutes. The walk is quite pleasant because much of it is on a newly built walkway cantilevered out over the rainforest with lovely tiles and a stainless steel handrail. There are fabulous views of the beach. Okay, maybe it is wise to separate pedestrians from evacuating vehicles in a tsunami repeat, but this walkway seemed a bit overdone. As was the new 6 lanes of highway (plus parking) thru the rebuilt township. Is this to double up as an emergency landing strip? If not, maybe our tsunami relief donations have been hijacked by vested interests.

Such interests are really getting stuck into the rebuilding of resorts. As said, all of this was high end and midrange in the areas I saw, although I think some more moderate stuff has gone in a couple of kilometers further up the coast to the north in BANG NIANG.
Quite a lot of the best new stuff is in those sections of beach closest to the southern headland. This is often referred to as SUNSET BEACH. I remember some great low cost bars and restaurants beachside in this area on my previous visit. Did the owners perish in the tsunami (Lak was the worst affected Thai location with a huge loss of life) and has there been a land grab by cashed up outside opportunists?

A lot of these new places had been operating for some time, but something which struck me was the lack of customers. On my first day I walked about 3 to 4 km of beach from the headland northwards and saw less than two dozen tourists in total. This is in March, still high /shoulder season.

Getting back to that cantilevered walkway, about half way down is a short stairway leading to a flat roofed restaurant called UNLENAT HOUSE (or similar - look for the big highway-side Thai Coca-Cola sign). This has absolutely great coastal views and nice food only 20% dearer than the bargain stuff 5 minutes further up at the National Park restaurants.

I also took a trip back to my old favourite POSEIDON BUNGALOWS http://www.similantour.nu/, about 5-6 km south of Lak. Regular songthaews now run along the road, although the walk over the headland is pretty pleasant. Poseidon is about 800m down a signposted side road and is located on a lovely little river estuary with nice views of the coastline to the south. Despite the fact that its bungalows were located quite high above the creek, quite a few were badly damaged by the wave, and the restaurant built down over the creek was destroyed. Fortunately no-one was lost. The new restauant is now high up with great views and there are also new bungalows higher than before. Naturally this has cost money with the cheapest bungalows now 800 and aircon ones starting at 1400. Still a lovely place, with a very nice deserted ocean beach about 200m to the west. Plus nice sections of beach appearing on the estuary shores as the tide drops. Poseidon runs live-aboard snorkeling trips out to the Similan Islands in high season which TT posters rave about but which unfortunately I have never been able to afford. A small point - Poseidon’s restaurant prices are about 30 to 50% higher than the average bungalow restaurant level. Still good value by western standards of course.

If you walk northwards along Poseidon’s nice ocean beach and cross the low headland you come to another nice beach where the old KHAO LAK MERLIN was located. Okay, the remains are still there, but the wave smashed this big high-end place badly. There is roof damage above the 3 story levels of wings furthest from the beach. Some near-beach sections are just foundations (as was the case still in large areas back at Lak beach proper). There seems to have been a start at rebuilding, but the whole Merlin complex was abandoned when I visited.
Yet adjacent were 3 new and very nice high end places, and there were nearly as many people on this 800m beach as on all of the 3-4km Lak beach proper when I walked it mid afternoon the day before.
The Khao Lak website link below says Khao Lak Merlin is in full swing whereas I talk about the place in ruins. Looks like one of those "adjacent new and very nice high end places" is the new Merlin because the address is still the same beach. I saw no name signs from the beach side when I checked this area out.

By the way, this beach area to the south of the big National Park headland containing Merlin, 2 other newies and extending to Poseidon is the true Khao Lak Beach. The beaches north of the headland which we all think of as Khao Lak proper start with Sunset Beach in the corner up against the headland, then heading north Nan Thong, Bang Niang, Khuk Khan and finally about 10 km from the headland and around the cape, Pakweeb where the praised Similana is located.
Check these out at http://khaolaklovers.com/khao_lak_map.htm
If you scroll down from the map there is a good aerial photo. The NP headland where Nature Resort is located is very close to bottom. You can even see that small beach I mentioned part way around the headland.

If you scroll down the page from here http://www.khaolak.de/khaolakbeach/eKhaolakSouth.htm there is a map which shows Merlin, Poseidon and Nature Resort. It also gives km marker positions on the highway which is handy for finding a place when arriving. There are maps on other pages of the area north of the headland too, and lots of info about different hotels and bungalows. Pretty good site, although Nature Resort's price is way overstated.

My report is biased towards budget places. One mid range place quite a few posters praise is SIMILANA RESORT. khaolaklovers.com/ website above includes Similana.




GETTING TO LAK

From PHUKET, any Takua Pa and Ranong bus passes Lak. Some if not all Surathani bound public buses also pass. Note these Surathani buses also continue on to pass Khao Sok National Park about 90-120 minutes up the road.
I also noticed quite a few Bangkok bound buses passing - I assume these are Phuket-Bangkok.
Access from Phuket AIRPORT is a bit tricky. No problems for upmarket travelers with heaps of taxis - I think you would be looking at 1300baht or so. Lots of the costlier accommodation in Lak have a pick-up service. But for budget travelers the Phuket bus station is about an hour in the opposite direction to Lak, which wastes a lot of time and some money. No problems. TT poster Tagemi said he got a motorbike taxi from the airport out the few km to the main road bus stop - there is a food stall there and the vendors were happy to put him on the right bus (he was going to Krabi, but the Lak bound buses use the same road). It would be good politics to buy something from the stallholders to start with of course.

Lots of people travel up from KRABI to Lak. Using public buses sees an indirect main road route and a need to change buses. Good news is that a minibus goes a direct shorter route using good county back-roads, starting abt 1100 and taking about 3 hours including one rest/eats stop. Cost in March was 300 baht and any guesthouse or travel agent in Krabi town can book you on, with a pick up shuttle to the depot where you wait around for 10-30 minutes while they organize things. You can also be picked up at the new Krabi pier if you have come off a PP or Lanta ferry. I’m not sure if they send a connecting shuttle out to Ao Nang for pick ups.