Sea Gypsy Village Secrets

Right outside of Tapdawan Village, where we do many Step Ahead projects, there is a brillant beach with NO TOURIST TRAFFIC. After helping other volunteers attach an extra nozzle to the source for water to our Seed Project, we met them at the beach, which you can only get to by a very narrow and bumpy road by motorcycle. There is an abandoned resort there from when the tsunami hit in 2004, and Derek explored inside.

We walked to the sand and discovered immediately that the tsunami had also dumped tons and tons of broken coral and beautiful shells on the beach. The tide continues to bring in incredible specimens, the likes of which I have only ever seen in pictures. We rooted around for the best ones, but there were so many, it was hard to be selective.

I had something like "beach burnout" with the shells - if you've seen a hundred perfect shells, the next perfect one doesn't seem like that big of a deal. So, we had a field day and stuffed my cotton pants full of delicate treasures. What Derek's mom would give to see this place (she is a big "shell" fan)! We had to be careful not to step on them, but they were everywhere, all the way up and down the shore.

This is a little-traveled portion of Bang Sak Beach (view video on our Shutterfly site), and though there were some fishing boats parked off the shore on this side, on the other side, there is nothing but beach and silence, as far as the eye can see.