Tourist attraction
MaTaLay
Named for the phrase “come to the sea,” Matalay is a coastal community taking shape around Memories Beach in Khao Lak, where a surf village, beach bar and elephant home already operate.
The story
Memories Surf Village is the part of Matalay already open. Memories Beach Bar is a barefoot bar on the sand, easygoing by day with live music at night; Memories Surf House runs an ISA-accredited school, board hire and coaching clinics from a bamboo house shaped like a breaking wave. At Khao Lak Elephant Home, encounters with the resident herd follow their daily walk to bathe, ending at the beach. The land, once tied to southern Thailand's tin mining, has been cared for by a local family for about four decades. A Gensler masterplan adds hotels, homes and the Green Spine, a park linking mountains to sea, beside the existing JW Marriott. Goya Tower, a landmark by Boonserm Premthada, is built from handcrafted bricks made partly with elephant dung, some of it from the herd here.