Readers' Trip Reports

READERS' TRIP REPORTS HOME PAGE

2012-12-30T23:12:00.000+11:00

BOTTLE BEACH FANS - SCROLL DOWN SHORT DISTANCE FOR TRIP REPORT

Great shot from napster's Ko Kradan Trip Report.

YOU TOO CAN WRITE A TRIP REPORT!!
I’m finding it increasingly difficult to keep up to date info of all the beaches and islands in front of you guys. You can present a fresh view between my visits - and visit places without reports because I haven’t visited them (eg Pulau Belitung Report here) or haven’t visited for a long time (Pattaya Report). Plus readers never tire of looking at new photos.

So fire in a few pix and some text to lajolla22@hotmail.com - label it TRIP REPORT to distinguish from spam.
This is a great way to preserve your trip memories if you haven’t a blog or similar - and to publicise your blog if you do. I will always link your blog - plus your photo-site if you wish.

Note you don’t have to write much - I reckon one of the best presentations is a few photos with captions. I do one of BOTTLE BEACH below to give you the idea. But some are even more concise than that. Eg Rachael’s Ko Muk Trip Report. Still very useful - with nice pix: I didn’t realise what sweet looking bungalows RUBBER TREE has.
Of course if you want to write more, that is fine.

Rubber Tree, Farang (Charlie) Beach Ko Muk from Rachael

If you don’t have pix, no worries - TOM didn’t take a camera to PALAU BELITUNG but good ol’ Google comes up with plenty.

Palau Belitung - image yuvinta

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DEMO - A FEW PIX WITH CAPTIONS FORMAT

Beach Blogger's Bottle Beach Trip Report - visited June 2010

I took a 20 minute longtail ride to Bottle Beach (Had Khuad) from Had Thian on the lower east coast - saved at least 3 hours on alternative access routes. Cost 1000 bargained down from 2500. This was a Had Rin based long tail which came to pick me up - so theoretically you shouldn’t pay more than say 100 extra from there.

I jumped off the boat heading for oft praised SMILE BUNGALOWS at the western end of the beach but a guy offered me one of these beachfront fan jobs at BOTTLE BEACH ONE for 450. I knew this place has a pool so I countered at 400 which was accepted. I would normally offer at least 100 down from quote, but this was one nice bungalow, spacious, got the towel/soap/shampoo inclusions, great view. BB1 has big, scenic beachfront restaurant with budget priced food for what is mainly a midrange resort. Service mostly good, sometimes chaotic.

The western third of Bottle Beach. That’s SMILE’s funky restaurant in background closest beach. Pretty nice outfit with good looking hillside bungalows out of shot to left. Walking track to Coral Beach and Chalok Lum leaves from behind the furthest building, goes over the higher saddle behind. Swimming off the beach has no problem with rock underfoot - is shallowish lowest tide but not excessively so. Place is not known for snorkelling but there would be fringing coral and fishies along the headland. This is a nice shot to click to expand.

After weeks of basic backpacking, sinking a Chang by the pool is pretty sweet. Not real crowded in June low season - a couple of bikini babes sunning it out but I figure you guys are not all that interested. Place has dive-school which uses a section of the pool at times.

When you get sick of swimming/sunning at the beach/pool you can try trekking up to the eastern viewpoint. Leave from back of clearing behind eastern most resort. Climb is quite steep in parts, takes about 30m one way mainly thru nice rainforest.

The climb up the opposite headland also takes about 30m. Just over the summit you get this view of the western end of Chalok Lum beach. Keep going down to reach the short access tracks to nice Coral Beach (very similar to Bottle Beach but rock exposed at low tide) after 30m - another 15 or so will get you to the eastern end of Chalok Lum township.

Back to the Phangan part one and part two pages.
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So okay gang, fire in those trip reports - let's keep this site up to date!!

Ko Haa Trip Reports

2012-01-20T20:04:00.011+11:00

Visited by Boleslav January 2012

Approaching the Ko Haa group.

This group of 5 small islands to the west of Ko Lanta is famous for diving tours.We decided to organize a snorkeling trip with Freedom Adventures, very friendly operator based in Lanta's Kantiang Bay, that focuses on the small, up to only 10 guests, tours. http://www.freedom-adventures.net/local-islands/ko-haa, TB 1600 per person.

The Ko Haa group (map from Freedom Adventures)

The boat ride took an hour from the Kantiang Bay, and it was quite nice to see the Kantiang Bay from the boat.

At Ko Haa they stopped at 4 different snorkeling sites. Two stops were around Ko Haa Sam and two around Ko Haa Yai.

The Lagoon at Ko Haa Sam had very nice coral on the beach side where it is fairly shallow area in front of the beach, and an interesting rock/underwater overhang near the rocks opposite the beach.

The next stop was Cliff Jump Cove Ko Haa Sam. With several underwater entrances to the caves, this is where we saw a turtle, 3 cuttlefish and a snake.

Then a couple of stops on Ko Haa Yai where we were able to snorkel around interesting rock wall and lastly enjoyed bay of the Corral beach with tiny wooden shack on the shore and some corral in the water.
Coral Beach - Ko Haa Yai

Limestone undercut and caves - Ko Haa Yai

We liked this trip as the snorkeling was nice combination of corral, beach, little coves and caves. The trip was purely geared toward the snorkelers, which I believe that the Freedom Adventures may be the only tour operator on Ko Lanta focusing on snorkelers, not divers, therefore we were snorkeling 4 sites, when you will see only 3 sites.
They provided us with very good lunch and fruits, snorkeling gear and this operator is well organized, it is a team of Thai/English couple, Cait is the contact person and responds quickly to all the questions we had prior the trip. Her Husband, Ned, is the one who accompanies the guests on the trips.

Our boat (image Freedom Adventures)

Back to the main Ko Lanta page.

Thanks Boleslav. If any reader wants to do a trip report to keep things on the blog up to date (I'm finding it increasingly difficult to do enough trips) or to show us NEW PLACES like Ko Haa, please send a few shots and words to lajolla22@hotmail.com

wonderingstar's Kradan Trip Report

2011-10-13T21:47:00.022+11:00

(visited March 2011)

Here’s just a few notes on what I remember from 6 months ago:

Ao Niang Resort
I’m fond of this place. I like the vibe, it feels like some kind of kooky thai-style Fawlty Towers. I stayed there in Feb 2010 and March 2011 and am happy to say that during both these (high/shoulder season visits) there weren’t any of the problems tezza had in June 2010 with the path up the back to Paradise Lost being closed. Two way traffic. Both ways, no problem. Surprisingly few mozzies, too.

Ao Niang on the eastern of the 2 southern beaches. This is the beach which has the best snorkelling off the sand - the snorkelling tends to attract plenty of daytrip boats but thankfully they put in to the beach near the National Park for sand time, not Ao Niang's beach.

I am happy to say there is no logging operation going on. The owner is Mr Pramook Sataworn, a funny old 70-something ex-telecoms worker from Trang (probably the guy who shouted at Tezza on the phone). He’s actually a really sweet old guy. He and his pot belly potter around the place in high season. He can comes across as a bit withdrawn, but that’s just because he is nervous about his English. If you elbow-in on one of his evening Sam Song sessions, he will open up and you can get his full life story. Apparently, he bought the 10+ acres strip of land parallel to that southernmost beach (the title deeds & plan were kicking around in the restaurant) 20 years ago, but has only started putting huts up in the last few years to build some kinda legacy for his kids when he finally pops off.

I walked all around the grounds. Since my previous visit in Feb 2010, they have been clearing the knee-length scrub and they were burning a few of the low-level branches that had been removed, but that’s as close to you get to logging at Ao Niang resort, there’s no signs of any trees missing. Along with everyone else in the Islands, they plan to develop the area into more upscale accommodation. They have run temporary water pipes around everywhere to cultivate palm trees for shade.

Currently, they have a couple of smallish huts at 600B, most are 800 (decent sized fan rooms, bucket-flush toilet) and a couple of aircons over to the right (1200ish). They have a lone tiny-tiny squeezy bamboo that I stayed in previously for 450B, but it was occupied this time. I took a tent, right next to the beach, for 300B. Dunno what the fence is about, but there are several gaps in it, so it’s not much of an issue.

The coral and fishlife off the beach is still pretty great. I was worried that the coral might have died with the bleaching last summer (Bulon was shit, Lipe was fine – maybe it’s a depth/current thing), but in Kradan it is the same as it was 2 years ago. Kun Pramook owns one of the big snorkelling boats that brings Thais over on day trips from Trang to snorkel on it, at least he has a strong interest to preserve the reef.

Wally’s Paradise Lost
Nothing’s changed much. He’s got a huge macintosh computer and is making video blogs for youtube about local issues. Bless. He barely seems to know that Tezza exists, btw… (fair enough, I keep a low profile, won't stand out in the hundreds or more visitors Wally has each year - tezza)

National Park.
Tents at 250B, cheapest sleeps on the island, but they are pretty small. But I’d rather go with Ao Niang’s, as none of the hoards of day trippers go down there, if anyone had sticky fingers.

National Park Tents

The big National Park concretes are still undeveloped.

There were some canucks staying on the beach at the National Park (60B if you have your own tent). They store an inflatable dinghy and outboard motor in a lock-up in Trang and then drive themselves around the islands staying on beaches in tents. That’s the way to do it, eh?

Moon's
New places being built at Moon's (called new Paradise Report on tezza's page) See pics. The builders were using the old bamboos. I expect they’ll be binned at the end of it.

Moon's place - newies coming

Moon's place newies

7-Seas
I posed as a rich business man and sniffed around 7-seas resort (forgetting that earlier on I had nabbed some old, frayed nylon line off the beach for hammock stringing and it was sticking out of the top of my day-bag, like some kind of bag-lady).

7-Seas 12k beachfront - free use of umbrella

7-Seas pool

sevenseas :

16/1/11-30/04/11
Beachfront 12000B
Seaview 9600B
Deluxe Seaview 7600B
Deluxe 6600B

Includes breakfast for 2. www.sevenseasresorts.com

Kalume (the Italian place)
This was a pretty strong contender for the midrange types. IIRC the bamboos started at around 800B which aint bad as they are so close to the beach.
They are kinda packed in. If you stand on tippy toe, you can see that nice Mrs Jones from next door taking a shower. (no you can't! I tried - tezza)

The old flip-fronts have been consigned to staff-quarters out the back. There was just one near-derelict one sitting where it used to be.

New Resort
They were building a new place just north of Kalume. See pics below.

Kradan Island Resort
- is the other refuge for us cheapskates. Apparently it hasn’t changed hands and the people who work there are hired help and not the owners.
When I was there, there was a friendly American guy visiting (without his Thai wife) casing the joint as he was negotiating a 20 year lease on the place. He’s had a place in Phuket for ages, but doesn’t like the overdevelopment there, so is looking for somewhere quieter. If he gets it, he would keep the tone of the place the same (i.e. basic, cheap).

I’m pretty sure the single bamboos are 500B. The double is 600B for the same thing with another single mattress crammed in. There were bigger bamboos up to the North (800B maybe). Some people who stayed there mentioned unidentified beasties scratching around underneath the huts and on top of the roofs at night. Little lizards, I’d guess. The price of nature!

Kradan Island Resort single - bathroom access is from outside.

Kradan Island Resort single inside

Apparently no-one is allowed to develop north of Kradan Island Resort.

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There are a couple of public transport options for getting off the Island:

450B boat and minibus package to Trang Departs 0900hrs & 1300 at Kradan Beach Resort.
I got a 0830hrs boat from Ao Niang Resort. I don't think this is the 0900 KBR boat mentioned above. Mine departed on time and called in and picked someone up from Kalume (and some people on Muk).
I think that Ao Niang Resort also have a 1330hrs departure.
There's a photo of the noticeboard at Kradan Island Resort (attached) saying they have boats at 0830hrs and 1330hrs, I guess they are the same boat as the Ao Niang.

I’m sure that they are similar boats in the other direction, so you don’t have to bugger about booking nights in expensive places. Sorry, didn’t get any details. The Kradan Island Resort sign talks about a 2-way trip from Kradan, so I’m sure they would know if anyone is already out there.

Kradan Island Resort tours etc

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Thanks wonderingstar - very useful update. Seems like Kradan is changing all the time. And seems like I was wrong about Ao Niang Resort and Moon's. I might try to stay at Ao Niang next visit - tezza.

Readers will find more good Thailand and SE Asia stuff wwonderingstars's own pleasenotanothertravelblog.

Other Trip Reports on Kradan can be found here.

Plus lots more info and pix etc on the main Kradan blog page.

wonderinstar's Ko Lipe Trip Report

2011-10-10T21:12:00.013+11:00

visited December 2010

Ko Lipe (mid Dec 2010). In Lipe, there continues to be development in progress where-ever there's a road with a space by it . On south Sunrise, the little track that led to the beach near Viewpoint Resort has been sold and is getting a swanky new resort put on it.
New resort under construction between Sunrise Beach and Viewpoint's beaches.

I stayed in Viewpoint for a second year. They have a shiny new restaurant.
Viewpoint's redone restaurant

Viewpoint have also built some midrange concrete huts at beach level (2 overlooking the beach, another 3 next door, looking North East).
New Viewpoint midrangers - these two right on the nicer (southern) of Viewpoint's 2 beaches

That means last year's front rows are now 2nd-class second rows. My beloved Bamboos in the row behind are falling/being pulled down. There were 6 there last year and 3 are now just bathroom floors (see pic below - Tezza’s old dunnie!). I'm hoping that they'll hang on to the others as it's the only place I can afford to stay on Lipe (400B peak season)! They said that they will keep some bamboos there in the future. There is now electricity 24/7 at Viewpoint.
Tezza's old dunnie - looks like these huts will be redeveloped using the old bathrooms.

Right next to Viewpoint Resort (just South of it, crawling up the side of the hill) is a veerry swanky new Boutique resort - Serendipity. Run by an English guy and his very well-spoken Thai wife, this is the sort of place you see in the Sunday glossy magazines. Beautifully designed and appointed wooden huts with panoramic glass doors all across the front side. I didn't have the guts to ask the price there.

There's big wooden staircase from the Sunrise South beach up to the Serendipity restaurant and all the cabanas. This is also handy if you want to get into town without walking along the beach - you can join the track which goes up over the hill and eventually joins the cross-ilsand track at the Sunsrise end of Walking Street. (I got an ankle sprain, so it was nice and easy to hop up over the back of the hill).
The new Serendipity. This is the same south beach as the pix two above. Lower walkway can be seen far right.

There's a little Reggae bar started-up just as you head past the rocks from Sunrise Beach into the two Viewpoint/Serendipity beachlets. It doesn't do much business, but the owner is renting out tents for 150B, which at least provides an option for backpackers rolling up to a full-up island on December 23rd. There are also tents for hire at Porn Resort over on Sunset Beach for 200B.
New Reggae Bar far south end of Sunrise Beach. One of the tents can be seen behind structure at left.

There are no other new resorts on Lipe. Sita Resort on Pattaya Beach has built right up the hill until they reach the track that goes behind Sunset beach and a couple of the existing resorts on Pattaya beach are growing taller and breaking cover of the trees. Yuk.

Apparently, the folks who lease the Porn resort don't expect to be there much longer as the owners of the land have their beady eyes on revenue from developing a more upmarket resort on the site.

Last year's recycling bins have disappeared from the streets to be replaced by signs saying, please don't dump your trash here. Which, of course, everybody does. So local waste-collection still seems to be a problem. Apparently, next year there is going to be some kind of organised cost-share arrangement between local businesses to have it collected regularly.

Honourable mention to the new restaurant at the bottom of the hill next to the mosque (I forget what it’s called). It’s new independent venture by the folks who used to do the cooking at Coconuts resort. Although the view is rubbish, it has great food, an extensive menu (at better prices than most places) and very friendly service. Worth a try.

Snorkelling between the two islands off Sunrise Beach is still good (as good as it was last year). That is to say the coral has not been affected by the rise in water temperature in late 2010.

Where walking street ends in a T-junction (furthest away from the Pattaya end) is now a crossroads - they have paved the track that goes straight ahead towards Sunrise beach. There are a couple of cheap-eats places on this spur (notably the unadvertised Chao Leh lady - last on the right - 50B for fried noodles/rice - yes, please :) There's also a small 'buy anything' market store down there bringing some much wanted competition in the local-grocery-store stakes. You can finally buy 20l bottles of water on Lipe instead of dozens of little ones. It’s 100B refundable deposit on the big container and 80B for the water.

Internet’s mostly 3B a minute now. There’s one place in the lock-ups on the Sunrise road that still has it for 2B.

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Thanks wonderinstar. Readers will find more good Thailand and SE Asia stuff ws's own pleasenotanothertravelblog.

There are also Lipe Trip Reports from Julie and Ruben which can be accessed via the link list top right of page.

Plus lots more info and pix on the main Lipe blog page.

Ruben's Lipe Trip Report

2011-02-24T20:43:00.025+11:00

Ruben's lipe report.
nick: headji
Visited february 2011.

We took the speedboat to Koh Lipe (from Ko Muk), I've heard so much nice about it so I wanted to have our last week there. As our vacation only was 17days. First sight of Lipe were amazing and truly beautiful.
We ended up staying at Lipe Beach Resort at Sunrise Beach. 3rd row bungalow at the beach for 600 baht. Not bad. We met up with my mother and little sister the last days there.
In front of our bungalow

We spent one week here. Basic bamboo huts, but very nice. The staff here was friendly too. You can rent canoe for free. If you like to play with dogs, they have many. From Pitbull to Chihuahua....

...Or you can play with this dead pufferfish we found at the sunrise beach.
"Look, he's smiling" my little sister said.

Our bungalow from behind. There is no roof over the bathroom. Tanning while showering isn't that bad

The shower.

Inside our bungalow

The bathroom. Dont be surprise if you get a cute frog visit or two in the evening...

...Lovely

..The brother from another mother.

We just relaxed for one week ...except the hike up to the 3rd viewpoint at Adang. But wow, that was worth the walk/climb!!

Viewpoint 2, Koh Adang (View over Lipe)

Viewpoint 3, Koh Adang (View over Lipe)

Some Other Shots

The sandsplit at Sunrise Beach Shot taken from Mountain Resort.

Sunrise Beach

Sunrise beach
Swim/kayak to the small island for good snorkeling.

The sunset at sunset beach

Our way back to bangkok went like this: Speedboat to Pakbara - minivan from Pakbara to Trang - night-train from Trang to Bangkok. The last day there we did some shopping at the MBK Center and drank some beers at Khao San Road before we took the flight home 03:30 in the morning.

I will probably make a video with pictures and stuff like i did from my last year trip and put it on youtube.

Me, chilling in the hammock outside our bungalow.

Ruben's video is here

Lots more info and pix on the main Lipe blog page.

Also see Julie and wonderingstar's Lipe trip reports via the index top right of this page.

Readers' Trip Reports - KO YAO YAI

2011-01-17T08:27:00.013+11:00

John Bassett's Yao Yai Report - visited January 2011

Loh Paret Beach - home of Yao Yai Beach Resort.

Ko Yao Yai is another quieter island yet to have mass tourist development, although being so close to Phuket you feel it’s only a matter of time. The locals apparently are averse to major development and have managed to veto a proposed 500 bungalow resort on the island's most northerly pristine beach. Former Prime Minister Thaksin bought up huge tracts on Yao Yai. There are very few good beaches on Yao Yai.

We set off from Ko Bulon Le back north to Koh Yao Yai via Ao Nang and Krabi Town. Krabi Town is nothing special but it has a night market and a very good Italian restaurant ‘Viva’ where we ate to have a rest from Thai food.

The following day we took the speedboat direct to Koh Yao Yai via Yao Noi direct from Ao Nang with ‘Green Planet’ ferries. It’s very quick and we were there in no time at Yao Yai Klong Hier pier where it’s about a half hour taxi ride south to Yao Yai Beach Resort.

Yao Yai Beach Resort is the best positioned resort and on a beautiful westerly facing beach (Loh Paret), perfect for Sunset drinks.

We spotted monkeys at the end of the beach the first day. Note the sand flies here can almost be bad enough to make you love mosquitoes. The resort has a tricky way of juggling you out of your aircon accom into a standard deluxe fan room so new guests initially get the aircon room. The food at Yao Yai resort is average and the inclusive breakfast is loveless. They do serve good chips.

The only other eating option is Heimat Gardens restaurant about 400 metres up the road. The food is excellent here especially the Green Papaya salad with crispy anchovies and the whole bbq fish with special sauce. Yamalia spent time living in Italy so the pasta dishes are good too. It’s a pity about the atmosphere of the restaurant which is kind of stark and uncosy.

We hired motorbikes and checked out some of the other accom on the island. Elixir Resort further south is pseudo posh on a very ordinary beach.

Twison Resort on the northern tip has very good accom but with hardly any beach, the east facing views over the monolithic karsts rising from the sea towards Krabi province are stunning.
Wet sand right up to the sea-wall at low-tide Twison Resort's beach.

Unfortunately the beach at Loh Paret is polluted, that’s no different to anywhere else in Thailand except we continually picked up lethal shards of glass from the shoreline.

We would go back to Yao Yai Resort in spite of its short comings. The accom is a getting a bit old now and it is in need of some upgrading in the rooms. It is a bit exxy for what you get but it’s very layed back with cool esoteric music, hammocks and sun lounges. They have internet but Wi fi would be good if you need to stay connected with the outside world…but hey, Han the owner is a kind of latter day hippie living the dream and he inspires you to live it too.
Some of Yao Yai Beach Resort's bungalows.

Yao Yai Beach Resort’s location is hard to beat… in that respect you are a million miles away from the dross of Phuket (less than 1 hour away) gazing over an emerald sea sipping a sunset drink.
Loh Paret sunset over Phuket - image Heimet Gardens

I modified this Google Earth image to show the places John mentions. Might be clearer if you click to expand - Tezza

If you want to do a Trip Report on Ko Yao Yai or any other place, please send any text and pix to lajolla22@hotmail.com - label Trip Report to separate from spam. If you have no pix, no problem - I can usually find some.

Back to the main Ko Yao Yai page.

Readers' Trip Reports - KO YAO NOI

2011-01-14T21:00:00.001+11:00

Boleslav's Trip Report to Kho Yao Noi - Visited early Dec 2010

The islands of PHANG NGA BAY EAST from Tabeak Bungalows on Ko Yao Noi. The west Krabi mainland is in the background.

We flew to Phuket with Air Asia at midnight, were picked up free of charge by a driver from our accommodation, Wonglee Bungalows, located 5 minutes from the airport.
They have several bungalows, 1300TB per night incl. hearty breakfast of eggs, bread with cheese, tea/coffee and fresh fruit. The cheaper options are the rooms in the main house. The bungalows were fine for 1 night, clean with own bathroom.

In the morning we were given a ride to the Bang Rong pier, TB 500, same price as if we were going from the airport, the ride took 20 minutes.

There are several boats a day departing from Bang Rong to Ko Yao Noi; it was difficult to obtain an accurate information about the departure times as every source we asked provided us with different information.
One of the sources is http://koyaonoi.com/Ferries.html listing all departures between Ko Yao Noi and Phuket, Krabi, Ao Nang, Phang Nga

The cost for the long boat ride is 120TB and speedboat 200TB.
Upon arrival to the Manok pier on Ko Yao Noi, there are trucks waiting and gave us a ride for 80TB per person to our accommodation.
The population on the island is Muslim, therefore there are no bars in the village itself, the resorts have restaurants and bars. The locals are friendly and the island has the feel of unspoiled peaceful place. It is not a place for the party goers.

There are two ATMs in the village and a bank which can provide a foreign exchange. On the road from the village to the Manok pier there is a visitor information office providing basic maps, ferry schedules etc.
Ko Yao Noi - the village.

When trying to find various information about the area and the activities we discovered an agency which replies within few hours, info@easydaythailand.com
A web site providing some information about the island is: http://koyaonoi.com/Koh_Yao_Noi_Directory.html

TABEAK BUNGALOWS
We had decided to stay at Tabeak Bungalows, recommended by Travelfish as they were supposed to have nice views of the Phang Nga Bay.
The accommodation was better than we expected, there are 2 rows of 4 bungalows each, built on the slope overlooking the sea. The bungalows in the upper row have showers with cold water, TB 700 per night, and the views from the upper row are better. The bungalow number 4 may be the best as it is the last in the row away from the restaurant. Each bungalow has toilet, shower, large bed with mosquito net,double doors opening to the verandah out of which one can enjoy stunning views of the Bay and private sunsets in the Phang Nga Bay .

Tabeak bungalow inside.

The Tabeak owners are friendly, speak English and are committed to make your stay pleasant. They can organize various trips like kayaking, sea fishing, snorkeling etc. You can rent bikes (250 per day) and motorcycles (350TB) from them, which is great way to explore the island.
Their web site is http://www.kohyaotabeak.com/

The food at Tabeak is priced reasonably 50-60TB for a breakfast, 90-180 lunch/dinner, the menu is quite large. Tabeak provides free tea and coffee to its guests all day.

The view from Tabeak's restaurant.

If staying at Tabeak for 4 or more days, Pramot, the owner, provides a free BBQ on the nearby island’s deserted beach.

KAYAKING
Interesting formations while kayaking.

We wanted to explore the surrounding islands by kayaks. There are couple of options to do this, either organized with a guide, there are two companies providing this, www.paddleasia.com or www.seacanoe.net, the former one prides itself on visiting the uncrowded islands, the latter one visits several islands incl. the Hong island, known as James Bond island.
The cost of the day trips with both companies is roughly $140 per day incl. the transportation, kayak rents, food, guide.
Another option is to rent sea kayak on the Ko Yao Noi from the local company run by Kitty from Scotland and Zach, Thai. Kitty is very friendly and can provide lots of suggestions on what to do on the island as well where to kayak. Majority of their customers rent the kayaks for several days and tour the neighboring islands, sleep on the islands.

We chose to rent the sea kayaks from Kitty for 2 day trips. First trip was to the Ko Kudu and Ko Roi Islands, two lovely Karst islands with nice sand beaches. We spent several hours kayaking around the islands, exploring their coves and various entryways, hidden Hong. During this time we met only 2 other groups of people.
Kitty organized a longboat, 2000TB for a day, which rode us to the islands and back to Ko Yao Noi.

The second trip was to Pak Bhia group of several islands, Ko Hong (there are 2 Ko Hongs in the Phang Nga Bay, this one is less visited that it’s more famous cousin) and Ko Lading.

Kayaking daytrip Ko Lading.

The beaches of these islands were more crowded, but since we were on kayaks we were circling around several islands and landing on deserted beaches.
The water around the islands is not very clear; the snorkeling would not be something we would try here.

Kayaking daytrip Pak Bhia.

BIKING
Biking on Ko Yao Noi Can be organized through an agency http://amazingbiketoursthailand.asia/kohyao.php Or one can rent a bike from the place where he’s staying and just bike around, enjoying the variety of fishing village, rice paddies, fields, rubber trees.

OTHER ACTIVITIES
Each resort can organized various activities, beside those, there is an agency providing rock climbing on Ko Yao Noi: Mark and Heather MinerBThe Mountain Shop Adventures Co., Ltd. www.themountainshop.org.

We were quite happy with the meals at Tabeak, but if one wishes, there are several restaurants nearby, we tried only Teupee Pata (on the road between Tabeak and Coconut corner, nice bar, very good seafood dishes, open 10am till 10 pm), local market sells meat skewers, fruit, and other meals.

ONWARDS
From Ko Yao Noi we continued to Krabi, Thalen pier, the boat ride takes approx. 50 minutes, 120 TB per person.

Kayaking daytrip Pak Bhia.

Back to the main Yao Noi page.

PHUKET TRIP REPORTS

2011-01-12T22:31:00.029+11:00

BeachBlogger's Trip Report on Mai Khao Beach - visited early Dec 2010

10+ km of golden sand backed by casuarinas immediately north of the airport.

Mai Khao is the longest, least developed and one of the nicest beaches on Phuket. There are only about half a dozen resorts along here and the Sirinath National Park bans even sunlounges within about 30m of the sand so that develpment is unobtrusive.
The above pic is looking south towards the airport - the beach past the runway becomes Nai Yang Beach and goes another 4km - that is the headland between Nai Yang and Nai Thon far background. There is a similar amount of Mai Khao Beach behind camera.

Mai Khao beach from the north-north-west. I modified this GOOGLE EARTH image to show the major features mentioned on this report. I measured 10km of beachfront from the airport runway to the turn of the coast near bottom of image, but some websites talk of 14, even 17. I suppose if you go from that minor headland SOUTH of the runway which separates Nai Yang, to the bridge to the mainland, you would be around 14km at least.
Near section of beach-hinterland looks developed but this is GE's overlapping images - if you go to the site and enlarge you'll see it is pretty rural.
I've seen the northern most (closest in image) part of Mai Khao referred to as Sai Khao.
Details might be clearer if you click image to expand.

Most of the resorts are midrange to high-end, but there are a couple of budget places.I stayed at one of the budget places, SEASIDE COTTAGES AND RESTAURANT about half way along the beach. People are always asking for beach bungalows on Phuket. Apart from its near neighbour (down page) thes are the only the budget ones I know of.

That's my closest-to the-beach (30m) traditional thatched bamboo bungalow far left - 500 baht with outside bathroom in high season 2010. I think this is a bit dear but the fact is the Andaman is getting expensive and Phuket is not being left behind. Tents were set up for some late arriving guests who requested them.
My bungalow was clean, just big enough for 2 people and their gear, with a comfy bed and pillows. Outside bathrooms were 30m away behind the restaurant containing good cold water showers and western toilets. Very clean.

Rather good seaside restaurant presided over by relaxed host Malcolm and his Thai family.

Food and beer were 10-50% higher than typical budget bungalow restaurants. Quality and size of portions were very good and service excellent. User reviews on the web are very complimentary here and the place got a steady stream of customers from other resorts. I am usually price sensitive but despite cheaper food 150m away I ate all my meals here.
That's one of the 3 aircon bungalows to the right - 1800 baht when I visited. Shot may be worth clicking to expand.

These are the slightly bigger, more expensive (600baht) outside bathroom bungalows built behind the restaurant. A bigger bathroom block was at the end of the walkway behind camera.

Taking it easy at Seaside Cottages

Immediately south (airport side) of Seaside Cottages is a newly opened medium sized midrange plus place Piraya Resort which seemed to be running at about 2% occupancy in early Dec. Next to it was Mai Khao's other budget property MAIKHAO BEACH BUNGALOWS seen above.

Pictured are their least expensive fan bungalows with bathroom at 900baht Dec 2010 - they had similar with aircon for 1200 - and a few bigger aircon rooms with hot water for 1500. Their restaurant prices were maybe 20% lower than Seaside Cottages but didn't seem to attract the same number of diners.

On the southern side of Maikhao Beach Bungalows this huge development was going in. Malcolm told me it was the new HOLIDAY INN. He seemed underwhelmed that his quiet little location might become too busy - but the fact is there is a heap of beach around here - the next 1 km south is undeveloped. And National Parks will ensure no rows of beach lounges.

After at least a km of deserted sand backed by casuarina trees further south I came to this new place which seemed 85% finished - it is the beach wing of MAIKHAO DREAM. I had a wander around - those buildings seemed to be very nice private pool villas.

Actually the above is an extension to the existing village wing of MAIKHAO DREAM which is some 400m up a side road which runs from the beach right of the shot above to Ban Mai Khao.
You can see the existing wing in the shot below. This extends beachward down the side road about 150m - but it seems the whole 400m belongs to this outfit and the new development was taking this whole section - not just the beachfront zone.

Ban Mai Khao - that's the established part of MAIKHAO DREAM at left, side road to the beach takes off to the left front. Not much else here apart from a pretty good general store, a dozen or so houses and a school. Um, I think there was a dive shop - doesn't strike me as prime dive country. You can get to Seaside Cottages and neighbours by following that road for about a km and turning left. Nice rural countryside around here - mainly fruit trees, vegetables, some rubber, grazing - but not intensively farmed. There is an historic Wat somewhere close, but I'm not big on temples.

Back on the beach, there is no development on the NORTHERN side of Mai Khao Cottages for a km or so and then you come to the very swish ANANTARA - at 22k odd it ought to be swish.

I was unaware of this place until almost on top of it because once again there were no beach sun lounges. I could see a couple of small catamaran sailing skiffs on the sand a few hundred meters further on which I took to be outside another top end joint JW MARRIOT. There are another 3 or 4 kms to the north end of the beach and island with another 2 expensive places - SALA and RENAISSANCE.

THATCHATCHAI NATURE BOARDWALK

I borrowed Malcolm's bicycle and fanged about 7km north to the boardwalk which is part of Sirinath National Park.

This is about 1km past the big SECURITY CHECKPOINT which all vehicles entering and leaving Phuket on the main road must pass thru. Continue on the outward lanes past the beachside seafood restaurants and turn right at the sign about 400m on.
There is a visitors' centre with lots of info and a restaurant - the boardwalk with educational signs runs for about 600m thru the mangroves. While I was there a Farang girl was helping to complete website additions about the kayak routes which they plan to introduce soon.

Between the SECURITY CHECKPOINT and the BOARDWALK the main road comes very close to Mai Khao beach (sometimes this section is referred to as Sai Khao) and there is a line of at least half a dozen local seafood restaurants which are very popular with locals on weekends. The beach and island ends at the mainland side at the top of this shot - well actually the beach curves to the right around to the bridges which carry the main highways off Phuket island.

MOTOR BIKE EXCURSION
I also hired a moped from Seaside Cottages for 300b and cruised the coast south of the airport - a whole bunch of beaches including Nai Yang, Nai Thon, Surin, Laem Singh and Kamala. This is a pretty relaxed bit of coast, some nice beaches largely separated by steep hilly headlands. The coastal road isn't too hard to follow apart from a section north of Surin - maybe take a map which I didn't. Duh.

One of the highlights of my excursion was a session of pier-launch surfing at Surin Beach.

Unusually for high season Andaman there was a bit of swell running (a nice little storm the night before) so I walked out to the appropriate spot on the floating pontoon pier and dived onto passing waves. This proved trickier than I thought and only worked about 3 in 8 attempts. The idea is to WAIT LONGER than my surfers' experience suggested and then dive SHALLOW. Much easier just swimming onto the wave - 100% success rate. That separate pontoon a bit further out contained slippery dips and other kids' attractions - I had a ball.

At Leam Singh I did a typical tezza freeload on glamour-shoot.

Then the sweetie took her top off. I'd like to say I respected her privacy by taking no further pix, but the truth is I got distracted by a genuine 1972 Dewie Weber malibu the local life guard rode into the beach at that moment. You have to trust me on this.

GETTING THERE

FROM THE AIRPORT - Seaside Cottage has a local driver will pick you up for 400. This is about the same as the airport "limos" to Nai Thon, a similar distance the other side of the airport. I'm thinking an airport taxi might be about 250, but finding the joint might be a trick. Seaside Cottage's webiste has instructions in Thai script you can copy for your taxi. I used SC's driver to go to the airport around 2000 for a departing flight - careful local lady in late model aircon Toyota.

FROM PHUKET TOWN AND FROM THE MAINLAND - there are a few songthaews to Ban Mai Khao from Phuket town but the 40km has gotta take 90 minutes+ and probably there are not many services after early afternoon. The best bet is to jump on any bus leaving the island and hop off where route 3016 leaves the highway between distance markers 36km and 37km (look at the 100m SMALL markers on highway dividing strip). This intersection is on a major right angle bend with a big sign for Priyaya Resort on the highway - so difficult to miss even I didn't.

Hard to miss turn off - that's the run-off lane stretching away from camera - you have 4 lanes of divided highway to the right. I pinched this shot off Seaside Cottage's website. If coming from the mainland it's slighty less than 3km from the SECURITY CHECKPOINT.

I jumped off a bus from Phang Nga (I think it originated at Trang) and started trudging along the sealed 3016. After about 2km an old dude on a bike picked me up - we turned at the sign for SEASIDE COTTAGES at the right-angle intersection about 2.5km in and followed the road another 2km to it's very end. Near the end it zags around the new developments and turns into a dirt track the last 200m. I gave the old bloke 50baht for a Pepsi or 3 (mostly Muslims up here).
I now notice SC's website is showing the short-cut along the dirt track. Malcolm described this to me as the "track thru the jungle", but it looks okay on GOOGLE EARTH. Maybe Malcolm has put up a sign at the turn into this track - it saves about 2km. I didn't notice any sign when I came thru. Then again I'm not noted for my keen observational skills - apart from bikini babes.

Nice end of the day shot for end of the Trip Report.

BACK TO THE PHUKET MAIN PAGE

Ko Panyee/Panyi

2010-12-23T22:37:00.032+11:00

Visited by BeachBlogger - early December 2010

Approaching Ko Panyee, the "floating" Muslim fishing village in Phang Nga Bay. I did a daytrip with Mr Kean Tour from the Phang Nga town bus station compound - was dropped at the islands around 1430. This shot is worth expanding by clicking.

My first tour of the bay in the 90s involved a slap-up buffet meal at one of the big restaurants on Ko Panyee. I later learned it is possible to stay overnight on the island and have wanted to do this since. I got a chance in early December 2010.

The village does not really float, but is built on piers and is attached to a towering karst stack islet. This far northern section is close to the islet as is the next 200m but the village extends a good 400m away from it to the south.

The structure above is my guest house for the night - Panyee Bungalows. Big restaurant for daytrippers at the front - kitchens, bathrooms and guest rooms at back. This is a pretty new section of the village - is not in the Google overhead image above (it's adjacent the boat top-right of image).
I paid an extra 250 baht to stay on the island which got me a fan room plus dinner and breakfast. The room was a spotless 4x3m box with two firm single matresses on the floor, a clothes stand but no chairs or other furniture, quiet fan, towel supplied. Guests use the big spotless bathroom area of the restaurant.

The restaurant area is huge, could probably seat 500 people. By late afternoon it was virtually deserted but I have seen how busy these places are in the middle of the day when the daytrip boats come in. Poor light and rain drizzle outside has robbed the shot of colour, but posts/rails/table wood is shiny polished stuff, quite attractive.
If you expand this shot you can better see the fish pens floating outside - your meal is going to be pretty fresh here and at the other restaurants. In background is the public pier behind which is another half dozen or more similar restaurants. Panyee is called a Muslim fishing village but I think the restaurant industry is maybe more important.

After exploring the vilage I sat with a good book at one of the restaurant tables, looking up frequently to check the comings and goings of craft on the water outside. Around 1800 a woman brought to the table a big tray with 3 huge dishes. One contained a spicy vegetable soup which turned out to also have a heap of seafood. There was a big flat omelette on another dish. The third was a huge plate of rice. I heaped the seafood, vegetables and omelette onto the rice with an occasional spoonful of soup to rev it up and had me one of the best meals of this particular Thailand visit. This was totally unexpected. I thought my 250 got me just the room. I was preparing to go to one of the elcheapo locals' restaurants I'd spotted on my island walk (I'd checked my joint's seafood menu - looked great but a bit expensive for me) when my meal arrived.
Breakfast was about 6 bits of toast, a fried egg and two cups of coffee. Simple but adequate.

These local guys were fanging around the island in their dragon boat - seemed to be training for some upcoming event. Were into the interval training routine - go like hell for a minute, rest a minute, go like hell for a minute, rest a .......

While I was eating dinner, 3 German yachties cruised in and tied up to our pier. They went off and wandered the village and later had a really lengthy seafood meal in our restaurant. Dudes were still boozing along around 2330. They stayed the night on their boat at the pier.

There was quite a lot of late afternoon boat traffic. Afternoon half-day bay trips are popular, there are some sunset tours and of course quite a lot of local fishing people and others making their way back to the island or to Phang Nga town and other places on the mainland.

The main island walkway runs the full 600m from north to south. Most of it looks like the above - dozens of shops selling stuff to the daytrippers plus the occasional restaurant as at front-left for the locals.

Despite few visitors after mid afternoon the tourist-stuff places remained open to at least 1730. Once closed it was apparent that many were in fact the vestibules of houses behind. At night locals sat around on the stoop jawing or eating in the small restaurants. Kids ran around, sound of TV sets from open doors. Real village atmosphere.

This is the quadrangle of the island school. Island must have several thousand people, fair number of kids.

I got up next morning to catch sun-rise but unfortunately the cloud and drizzle were still around.

I got a surprise when finishing breakfast around 0830. The waitress told me my boat back to Phang Nga town left in 2 minutes! Whoa - I was thinking I'd spend the day on the island and be picked up by Mr. Kean's boat when it called in that afternoon (you can see I didn't exactly research this visit). On reflection I can see why this would not always work well, whereas there would always be a local boat heading back to town in the morning - maybe earlier than usual this particular morning.
I was a bit disappointed I did not get to see/take shots of the busy lunch-time period or from the viewpoint the guys on my previous day's boat told me was up a short path to the island generator on the karst stack (they had 45 minutes to explore the island. I didn't go to the viewpoint the previous day because of the drizzle).
Nevertheless I thoroughly enjoyed my short visit to Ko Panyee, one of the best uses of 250 baht I've had in recent trips.

GETTING THERE
As said, I did an extension on Mr Kean's full daytrip from his agency in the Phang Nga town bus station compound, but you can do this from half day trips too. Sayan Tour in the same compound can also orgainise these. I think most trip desks and agencies from Phuket to Krabi could also arrange a stay, not to mention hotels and guest houses in Phang Nga town. No doubt you could also arrange your own transport out to the island and stay independently.

The page on Mr Keans daytrip can be found HERE.

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IF YOU HAVE MORE INFO OR SEE MISTAKES, PLEASE POST BELOW. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS PLEASE ASK THE ON THE FORUM WHICH CAN BE ACCESSED VIA THE INDEX LINK OF THE MAIN BEACHES AND ISLANDS SITE, TOP RIGHT OF THIS PAGE.

Julie's Khao Lak trip report - late Nov 2010

2010-12-22T14:40:00.016+11:00

The southern headland of the main Khao Lak beach strip. This section is known as Sunset Beach. Our Baan Krating resort has a sun-deck at the end of the beach with bungalows aligned to the right progressively higher up the headland. If you click this image you will see these more clearly.

We reached Khao Lak at the end of a long day after flying into Phuket from Sydney. The one advantage of arriving late was the absence of traffic on the roads - the transfer from the airport by car from limo counter only took one hour - cost 1500Bt bargained down from list 2000. Note that if returning from Khao Lak to Phuket airport, a driver on the main street advertises a fare of 1000Bt, a good discount on the going rate.

Bungalows in steep hillside rainforest.

Our hotel, the Baan Krating, is perched on a steep hill on the sea side of the main road at the far southern end of Khao Lak beach. These days we seem to choose elevated accommodation quite often, partly because we need the exercise of climbing hundreds of stairs a day, and our family likes to know we can't be swept away in our beds in the event of another tsunami, but mainly because the Beach Blogger is crazy about panoramic views.

Chez Julie at Baan Krating

This place didn't disappoint, with over 160 steps from our door up and down an undulating path to the sand, and maybe 80 or so up to reception in the other direction. The steepness of the site guaranteed the second tier bungalows like ours had great views above the front rowers down below. No bungalow would be without views.

Tree filtered views of Sunset and the other Khao Lak beaches progressively north. More expensive bungalows closer the beach have more open but not as lofty views.

This hotel is oceanfront, but the beach doesn't start till the end of the path at the far northern corner. There's an infinity pool below reception in the other direction, but it's no problem walking through the rainforest grounds down to the sand. I enjoyed swimming here at all tide levels - no waves, clean, warm water.
There is also a shorter steepish boardwalk down to a rock beach more or less directly below the pool. This beach is a bit tricky for swimming, but would be okay for a careful entry to water by snorkellers.

Elevated infinity pool from near reception.

We lost the first day with all the travelling, but there's not much to do at Khao Lak except relax, and three nights/2 days were enough. We walked into town and back on both full days, checking out the length of the beach one way and the street front on the way back. Basically it is a ribbon of expensive looking resorts side by side, with just one rather sad three storey block which hasn't been fixed after the tsunami.

Restaurants in town were surprisingly expensive, it turned out that our hotel's 2nd restaurant, the Muan Lai (also open to the public with easy access from the main road) was better value. This restaurant is really elevated with a fantastic view, and seemed popular with Thai diners, which generally moderates menu prices.

Great views, nice food and very competitive prices from Baan Krating's Muan Lai restaurant which is adjacent the main road maybe 200m down hill from the main entrance to the resort.

Not far from the entrance to our hotel in the opposite direction to Khao Lak town is the National Park, and its restaurant was one of the cheapest I've encountered in Thailand. If you fancy a change from swimming at Khao Lak beach, there is a 2 km rainforest track through the National Park to a small white sand beach. Stick to the track rather than taking a short cut through the jungle as Beach Blogger did, managing to be gone 2 hours longer than anticipated. Though it seems that if you can still see/hear the ocean, technically you aren't lost. Glad I chose to sleep off the jet lag rather than go with him on this little jaunt.

National Park white sand beach at low tide - Beach Blogger tells me there is plenty of sand left at full tide.

Back to the main Khao Lak page.

Krabi Trip Reports

2010-12-20T10:49:00.050+11:00

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Julie's Railay Trip Report - late November 2010

Our transfer from Ao Nang to Krabi was hassle free - no waiting for the longtail (80 bt p/p one way), smooth, dry ride, great photos along the way, and fullish tide on arrival showcasing the beach at West Railay at its bright and clean best. Bingo, this is the sort of place I like.
Corner of West Railay in front of Railay Village Resort's pool - longtails are kept to a buoyed enclosure to right of frame. Further past here is a big no-boat swimming area.

I knew we were staying "on the other side", and was prepared for a bit of a walk with the luggage, but these days I'm fit and like a bit of exercise to burn off all the beer and buffet breakfasts. However, by the time we were shown our room at Diamond Private Resort maybe 20 minutes of hard, hot slog later, my upbeat mood was gone. And judging from the pissed off faces on guests newly arrived at reception during our stay, I would say this is a common feeling.
Trek through the mangroves - this section is ankle deep at high tide.

So, after the long walk dragging the bags on concrete paths (not bad), then lumping them along the sodden sand in the mangroves (disgusting), after which a staff member intercepted us at the sister property Diamond Cave Resort and took my bag for the last leg (thank God), a cool drink would have been just the thing as a reward for successfully climbing the 80 breakneck steps to check-in. If only.
Killer stairs not so great for the less-fit. That is reception at top. The pool deck sun-deck is on top of this. More steps to most rooms.

Up more steps to our booked room, not a cheapie either (1600 bt/night with breakfast), and I took one look and sat on the only chair on the dirty balcony while Beach Blogger went to talk upgrade.

This room, booked as a Mountain View aircon Bungalow was cramped, dank, dark and bearing no resemblance to any rooms featured on the website. They at least cleaned the balcony of junk by the time we took this shot.

Note we checked other rooms of this type. Up the other end of this block was another similar room. The rooms above seemed much more outward looking. There were other bungalows further up track that similarly did not look like converted former store-rooms. Our advice - be careful booking the cheaper aircon offerings at Diamond Private.

For an extra 800 bt over 3 nights, we were moved up, in all senses of the word, (83 steps further from reception) to a great room, a Private Mountain View bungalow - spacious, carpeted, panoramic views.

Our upgraded bungalow (centre) shot from pool level. Limited sea views and a great outlook over the high valley behind East Railay and of towering karst cliffs.

After that inauspicious start, our stay on Railay was great. Even the return trip to the longtail with luggage was a breeze, the very helpful manager had one of his boys put our gear on a cart and we had to power walk to keep up with this kid on the return leg.

The upgraded accommodation. Big balcony, views, fridge, aircon, TV with lots of channels, bathroom, basic toiletries, 2 decent sized bottles of water, fresh towels and linen daily. Good pool above reception with fantastic view, breakfast (rather ordinary) served at the sister property, Diamond Cave, a few minutes down the waterfront. The only negative was the very dangerous steps, both up from the street and up to the room, slippery paths and tiles. We had rain which caused some close calls, despite taking all care.

Nice pool area has sundeck with pretty good bay views. East Railay looks okay even at lower tides from on high because of the surrounding karst cliffs.

The location of our resort was not a problem once you got there. Right at the entrance were some very good value restaurants, and back along the path to the beaches were several 7 eleven type stores, internet places, travel operators, climbing specialists and more bars and restaurants. You could swim at Phra Nang beach, passing the rock climbers and walking under the dripping limestone, closely watched by groups of monkeys sitting on the fence. This beach is paradise, unfortunately the whole world seems to know about it and finding a square of shade on the strip of sand means sitting almost on top of others.
This is the less busy part of Phra Nang hidden from the entrance path by the reverse curve in the beach. The first section nearer the cliffs has a big swimming enclosure, some trees for shade and was really crowded even in late November which is not really high season let alone peak.

Or you could cut back to West Railay and swim there - not a bad walk without heavy bags. Plenty more space, no need to cramp anyone's style. Beach Blogger even continued over to Ton Sai, but the tide was up preventing a wade across, and I didn't fancy the jungle walk over the top in poor footwear.

The longtail enclosure on West Railay. On the far side is at least 300m for boat-free swimming - on the camera side around 150m of the same.

We had a few options for our departure from Railay and return to Phuket, but chose the ferry. This avoided the return to Krabi bus station by longtail and songthaew and hours on the bus. With a 1530 departure it allowed us to spend the best part of the day on Railay. With free minibus transfers from the Phuket pier to all hotels and even the airport, the fare of 600 bt each for a safe, comfortable trip was worth it.

Note that unlike longtails from Ao Nang which arrive at West Railay, the longtails from Krabi arrive at East Railay. This is a longer trip and may be unpleasant in poor weather, but it does get you much closer to accommodation on the east side. Some lucky guests were carried across the mudflats in a tractor pulled wagon, very handy at low tide.

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BeachBlogger's Trip Report to Ao Muang/Tubkaak - late November 2010
This area may not be the best budget location, but there are some fine midrange and better places - this is one of the pool areas of the Sheraton on Klong Muang South.

This is the region you could call Krabi's south-western or western beaches. It is south west of Krabi town (starting 23km by road) and west to north west of Ao Nang/Railay (13km). If you look at the map on the main Krabi page you will get a good idea of location within the district. The modified Google image below shows the layout of the beaches.
The Klong Muang-Tubkaak strip. Main access-exit road is at right of image - turn right half way up for Ao Nang - right further up near the K in MAK for Krabi town and the airport. There are 2 main village areas in the beach strip - Ban Kwang is around the place-marker for Ko Kwang Resort - Ban Klong Muang is above the KLONG for Klong Muang South. Details may be clearer if you click to expand.

NOT SO HOT FOR BUDGET TRAVELLERS - Although it is a fine midrange or better area, I don't consider it all that great for budget travellers. Access and getting around is expensive (few songthaews to Krabi town, none to Railay - taxis 400 or more to each) - there is not a lot of budget accommodation and none right on the beach - and the beaches themselves tend to suffer the low tide blues.

BUT NOT BAD AT ALL FOR MIDRANGE UP - For midrange or better the situation is different. The hotels are better than West Railay's. Most of the hotels are right on the beaches which aint the case for most Ao Nang/Noppharet Thara hotels. Although the beaches are not as good as West Railay/Phra Nang or Ao Phai Plong they are as good or better than other Krabi area beaches.
If I had the money I'd pick Centara Grand on Ao Phai Plong or Rayavadee on Phra Nang - but the only way you can get your luggage into those is by boat which turns off some visitors.

THE BEACHES

Starting in the south is what I consider the area's nicest beach - I call it Klong Muang South. This is shot near full tide - at low tide a lot of sand is exposed but no mud or rocks - and the water is still okay for swimming by wading out a bit further. One hotel, the very expansive and nice Sheraton, is located behind the casuarina trees. Although an access road arrives mid bay the main road is a good 10 minutes walk behind the beach. It took us about 15 minutes to walk down here from our relatively budget Ko Kwang Resort.
I have different shots of all these beaches starting about 20% down the main Krabi page.

A very pleasant surprise on Klong Muang south is Ruean Siam restaurant. Prices here were very reasonable - only 20% more than bottom budget restaurants, with pretty good food to boot. Must blow the nearby Sheraton guests away who pay more western prices there. Structure to right is associated massage place -similarly cut rate.

Immediately north of Klong Muang South is a small bay I'm going to call Ko Kwang Bay because the small islet of Ko Kwang is immediately offshore - and landlocked at low tide. This is shot not too far off high tide. At full tide there is no sand at all, but I easily waded across to Klong Muang South - I don't think the water got beyond knee deep. There is virtually no water at low tide.

The bay has a couple of real nice flash resorts and although it doesn't look much at low tide I reckon I would not eliminate these joints because nice Klong Muang South is 3 minutes walk away, there are pretty nice offshore views from these absolutely seafront resorts, and out front is the main road with a selection of restaurants, shops and other services.

This is what I call Klong Muang North - immediately north of the previous shot. I just realised this pic is nearly identical to the one on the main Krabi page, except it was taken on Lady Tezza's camera - but with my slow net connection it is extremely time-consuming to upload pix (I gotta actually email them to myself to cut down the pixels - this is the great thing about any Trip Reports you guys send: the pix upload without timing-out) so this is all you are gonna get.

Although it looks nice enough in this shot it is nowhere near as attractve as Klong Muang South for reasons I point out on the main Krabi page (20% down).

Okay, I had to email some more shots later for another page, so I did a couple more for here. This is taken from exactly the same spot/time as the previous pic - looking the other way. That's Ko Kwang islet to the right. I'm kinda annoyed I didn't get any low tide pix of this beach - is more than a bit daggy (Google "dag Australia").

This is the southern end of Tubkaak Beach (aka Tubkaek - Tupkaek etc) - the northern most of this coastal strip. You can see it suffers the low tide blues.

However some of the Krabi area's finest hotels are on this beach. Plus they have very nice views of the offshore karst stack islands of East Phang Nga Bay (a bit to the right of this shot) fabulous sunsets and to get your nice-beach fix when you tire of hanging by the pool with the highball glass you'd simply pile into the speedboat for Phang Nga - or Ko Hong and neighbours just offshore. There is no township up here - I think there was one independent beach restaurant when I called in but it was threatenig to t-storm on me for the second time that day, so I took a few pix and split.

KO KWANG RESORT

Ko Kwang resort is in the village of Ban Kwang which starts just before the road from Krabi town hits the coast and continues around that corner in background in the direction of camera another 300 odd meters in back of the beach.

This is a typical small Thai coastal village - a few restaurants, general stores, travel agents, an internet place, a couple of small accommodation places, bike repair etc.

The entrance to Ko Kwang Resort is pretty modest. Reception is behind the travel agency. Flash buildings at left are demo-condos of huge new development next door.

From reception/restaurant the driveway goes up a gentle slope in nicely landscaped grounds with neat little bungalows.

One of KKR's neat little garden bungalows.
However, despite both Agoda's and KKR's own websites inferring the cheaper aircon and fan rooms were in separate bungalows we found our abode was in this 60's motel-like block at the top of the garden.

A couple of other points were a bit misleading. You get the impression from the websites this place is seafront. In fact it is on the inland side of the main road and there are buildings etc on the other side fronting the sea. There are a couple of vacant blocks you can walk thru to the beach, but I'm not sure what the scene will be if they are built on in the future.
The Agoda website also indicated each room had a hot water jug - not the cheaper ones at least. This is mass drama for Lady Tezza who aint worth 20c before she gets here wake-up cuppa. No worries - I wandered down to the kitchen where they smilingly filled a couple of cups each morning.

Nevertheless we ended up quite satisfied with our aircon room and stay at KKR.

The room was easily big enough for 2 and their gear. Clean. Comfy bed. TV, aircon, fan, refig. Spacious bathroom with okay hot water. Quiet this far from the road and despite the place being pretty full (a Thai film crew was staying and the joint seems popular with other middle-class Thais) noise transmission was not bad. Overall the room and resort were quite reasonable for $us27 including breakfast for 2.
That brekky was a pretty ordinary American or Thai offering - which along with the cramped appearance of the restaurant area had us eating dinner out the first 2 nights. Big mistake - rain forced us to eat at KKR the last night and the food and pricing were very good, better than our two outside joints - a locals' joint about 3 doors up and a Thai-German place closer the corner in the road.
The English host and his Thai family gave good service although when the boss and his wife were elsewhere the understanding of English was a bit chaotic in the restaurant. The boss/wife made a point of checking all orders at dinner. The boss tended to give very patient and detailed advice to guests re the area's attractions.

DISTRICT ATTRACTIONS
All the krabi district attractions can be done out of this area - the 5 islands trips, Phi Phi daytrip, Ko Hong trip, kayaking, Tiger Temple and hot springs yada. A couple of girls from my home town (unusual - my home town has only 5000 people) were even talking with the host about a Similans Islands diving excursion. That'a a looong way to go. The good thing about all these organised activities is that complementary shuttle vans pick you up, so the area's relatively expensive transport does not figure.
Lady Tezza and I hired a motorcycle from KKR and fanged off to check Ao Nang/Ao Phai Plong. Predictably she forgot to remind me where to turn on the way back and we ended up halfway to Phuket - my fault apparently - just because I've been to Krabi a dozen times (her first visit) I'm supposed to know my way around.

Another place I didn't know about suggested by the host was Mount Ngork Mak.
Some of the 270 degree outlook from the 500m high viewpoint top of Khao Ngork Mak. Headland at left separates the southern beaches (Ao Nang-Noppharet Thara-Ton Son to the left) from the south-western beaches. The Thai princess has a massive holiday house high up on that peninsula. Klong Muang South beach is about half way across image - if you click to expand you will see more clearly Ko Kwang islet towards the right. Klong Muang North beach extends out of picture to right.

The viewpoint is in a free-entry National Park area a short distance north of Tubkaak Beach. It's about an 8km return rainforest walk to the summit with only a few short very steep areas.

The previous viewpoint shot was close to due north. This one is more due west. Not particlularly prime viewing conditions post thunderstorm. Next day from Ao Nang the peak and surrounds were in clear clear air.

At the start of the climb are some nice swimming holes. Raining here which it did all the way to the summit, sometimes very hard.

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Sessa's Krabi Trip Report - January 2010

Ao Nang early morning.
After 11 hour flight we ended early in bed, but woke up early approximately 04:00. What to do? . Found out that sunrise would soon be around the corner so passed down to the beach.

Railay Beach
We ordered trip to Raily, about 10 minutes by boat from Ao Nang. Prices here were exotic in relation to what we were accustomed to.

Railay Viewpoint.
The next day we climbed to the viewpoint and had an absolutely beautiful view of the east side of Railay.

The Lagoon
The climb took just under an hour up and down.It was heavenly beautiful, but low tide when we arriwed around 13:00

Tiger Cave Temple
1237 steps - I thought a that I would die! After 45 minutes I planted my feet on the last stair. What a view and really worth the effort.

Waterfall.
This is not far from Walther Spring and the hot springs mentioned below.

Walther Spring
This was just gorgeous, but signs warn against swimming here.

Not so the nearby hot springs - the heat source kept it at 46 degrees ... Wow! Delicious. It felt like I got a new skin.

On the way to the lagoon and viewpoint, Railay.

My son Ruben (headji) on the climb to the Tiger Cave Temple (Wat Tham Sua).

Sessa has a blog with more info and pix HERE

You can return to the main Krabi page HERE.

PHI PHI TRIP REPORTS

2010-07-29T16:06:00.056+10:00

Beach Blogger's Phi Phi Whistle-Stop - visited June 2010

Beachfront bungalows at oft-praised Relax Beach Resort on the less-visited east coast of Ko Phi Phi

Whoa! It isn’t there!
I’ve just jumped off the ferry, and turned hard left towards the far western end of Ton Sai beach for Rock Climbing Bungalows - a simple trad-style place which appeared beachside not too long after the tsumami. But the joint is gone! There are now about 4 outfits down near the cliffs, mostly flashpacker. I ask around for cheap rooms and they direct me back 100m to the first joint Phi Phi Sand Sea View Resort which has some budget bungalows back from the beach.

The nice western end of Ton Sai beach - Sand Sea View is the joint with the blue roof. Beach is very good here - water relatively clean and deep all tides.

Sand Sea View front rowers - these are lower midrange but there are about 4 rows behind with fairly closely packed flash-packer and budget rooms. I got one of the latter at 400b (800 high season) - big spacious very well built (which is often not the case even into mid-range) and well provisioned. Fan only but hot water. Slightly more exxy rooms have fridge and TV. The place was less than a year old and paths and landscaping needed to be put in. The seafront restaurant (background-right) with nice views has good food at average budget restaurant prices, is bigger than number of bungalows would suggest - maybe they expect a fair crowd of visitors from other areas in high season. This was certainly the case for this part of the beach in the old days.

They have some sun lounges and umbrellas out front on the beach.

I stow my gear, have a quick swim and take off to get myself up to date on the island for all you blog-reading dudes.
I walk across to Loh Dalum - the sand spit which makes up Ton Sai-Loh Dalum is at its widest at this western end - probably about 400m across. About 100m in I see someone has rebuilt old budget favourite Chong Khao Bungalows in roughly the same position as the original. There are a fair few other changes from 07, mainly new locals’ housing, but this western end if far from built out.

Loh Dalum where you first hit it on the western end. This part is not crowded in high season but I have never seen so few people on the beach even in the busier areas towards the central and far end. That’s Viewpoint Resort far left side on the lower hillside, best seen if you click to expand.

So I walk down to Viewpoint Resort - ask lowest bungalow price (600 - not bad but remember this is low-low season) and snap shot. The beach and pool for you guys, the cutie for me. Gotta remember just about all the water in this shot is bare sand lowest tide. Nevertheless, I reckon if I wanted to stay flashpacker/lower midrange, ol' Viewpoint would be hard to beat. Quiet, real scenic, but close to the action of town.

After that I wander inland from the beach and find the town/bay to viewpoint path - this leads up thru the higher parts of town with quite a few good budget places to stay and then gets REAL steep with multiple steps.

I hit the first viewpoint in maybe 10 minutes - nice little restaurant here, but the panoramic views you see in shots like this are from the second viewpoint which is maybe another 10 not so steep minutes away.

Not too many people make it to the highest viewpoint - keep walking up the track and start to follow signs for TOP VIEW RESTAURANT/BAR. There are 360 degree views here and a nice little raised timber deck place to have a snack or drink (and from memory they have some rooms - hell of a place to lug some bags!)
They are working on some repairs when I call in so I don‘t interrupt their efforts. Like a dope I don’t take any pix of the joint itself but heaps of the views which because of the distances involved don’t turn out too mind-blowing. That’s the northern outlook towards Phuket and Ko Yao Yai which might be a bit clearer if you expand the shot.

So now something new. I’ve walked down to Ao Toh Koh before but never taken the rainforest track down the steep eastern side of the island to Ao Phak Nam/Relax Bay. So I retrace the Top Viewpoint track about 500m to where there is kinda an intersection - the track back to the second viewpoint and town to the right (west) - straight ahead is the unsignposted track* down to the dam area and eventually Long Beach (and a more important branch back to town) - and 3 SIGNPOSTED tracks branching off to the left - to Ao Toh Koh, Ao Ranteee and Relax Bay. This may be clearer if you check the first map below.
* this is more a narrow road - the locals living up here (there are a few places with crops, pigs and chickens) have motorcycles but I’ve never seen anything bigger away from the new dam when it was under construction a few years ago. Interestingly you never see motorcycles in town - so there must be some sort of ban. I also saw about 2 motorcycles on the far western end of the town spit too near Sand Sea View.

Relax Bay is a sweet beach with a nice resort although they ignore me when I go in the restaurant. Serves me right for looking like a bum. So I head on northwards. I have rock-hopped along the shore to Loh Bakeo before and it’s a fair distance so I’m happy to spot a track heading up into the bush which kinda cuts across the revers L shape of the coast.

Loh Bakeao is probably the nicest beach on the island and is dominated by the luxury Phi Phi Island Village. But there are a few budget-oriented places on its northern fringe although the price of beer in one of their restaurants makes me think they are pricing for the rich tourist walk-ins from the flash resort rather than their budget guests.

There is actually a road runs along the coast from Loh Bakeo to Laem Tong maybe 3km north. It’s pretty hot going so so I head for the cool elevated headland bar at the far northern end where there is a live singer doing some bluesy stuff. But the beers are a bit exxy so I retreat to the little shop run by the locals on the beach where I raid the cooler for a reasonable priced Chang. Followed by a nice swim. And another Chang.

Fans of Laem Tong reckon it's a better beach than Loh Bakeo. Certainly got more life with a small local village and several resorts. I heard the villagers have recently put in a few reasonably priced huts, but I forget to check these out. Duh.

I’ve walked approx 4 hours by this stage and my knees, never too good after overtraining in my triathlon days, are feeling a bit dicky. They particularly dislike steep descents - and there are several hundred super-steep steps going down into Ton Sai from the viewpoints. So I try to bargain a long tail with the local longtail mafia.
900 baht!! - tell them they’re dreaming. It becomes 700 which I later find is standard price - I wave 300 at them (show ‘em the money!!), tell them that’s all I have. They wave me (away). So I walk. After 100m they call me back.
Now this turns out to be one long trip - the equal to which I take several times at other islands this trip at 700 or near. I reckon this guy must have wanted to get some beer in town and figures my 300 would help.

It’s 1630 when I get back to Sand Sea View and realising I haven’t eaten I grab a Massaman curry - all these places down here are Muslim so a good Massaman is guaranteed. After this I grab a beer (like a lot of Muslim joints, the restaurant does not sell it, but the guy in the little reception booth adjacent does) and go 15m to the beach, have a swim, sun it out on the deck chairs with the umrellas which you can see just past the kayaks if you click to expand.
Sweet.

Day one journey in yellow - I just realised it's hard to get any two resorts further apart on PP than Sand Seaview and PP Natural. You can click this one to expand. BTW - north is to the right on this tilted Google Earth image.

I get a bit hungry again around 2100 so I walk up town, find a food hawker on the beach path over the small headland to the east and have a real nice chicken-rice sitting on the sea wall listening to cool music from one of those little beach bars with the candles in the sand.

DAY 2
Next day it’s raining steadily. Got a few places I haven’t checked so I grab my $2 Chinese made honcho which covers everything including my small back-pack and set off along the coastal track for Long Beach.

Second day trek - probably just as long without any boat rides home. Labels are a bit small, maybe click to expand. Image from Google Earth.

Approaching the little cove where Maphrao used to be I notice about 20 very nice new-to-me bungalows along the path - these belong to Viking which took-over Maphrao a few years back, and the low season price of 600 is way better than the 1000 they told me their smaller originals were a few Augusts back. Viking has done up Maphrao’s old beach restaurant but it is nowhere near as nice or funky as their own ioriginal n a separate nicer cove a hundred meters further east.
It’s raining so hard I’m not prepared to pull my camera out of my pack for any shots. The steep track across to Long Beach looks real muddy so I rock-hop around the headland which isn’t too hard at half-tide.

Still raining hard at Long Beach (not like the above which is from August 07) so the sand is deserted. Biggest change is the new compact beachfront restaurant Paradise Resort has built, right in front of my August 07 bungalow (from memory #4) so this view which I shot out the front folding doors of the bungalow doesn’t exist. All the other beachfront shacks are not affected.

I want to check Loh Modee to see if the new development has progressed. It takes 15 minutes of steep up-down to cross to the east coast and NOPE - the only new building on Modee is a couple of locals' huts in the bush at the far northern headland. Still way too much rain for any pix.

Only place left to check is my favourite Ao Toh Koh. Dilemma - I know rock hopping along the shore is difficult above half tide from previous trips, but it’s a long and very possibly real muddy walk up past the dam, along the eastern spine and then down the super steep jungle track to the beach.
So rock-hopping I go. This becomes so difficult that I’m forced to go up into the bush lining the rocks which all my Aussie experience tells me is snake city - so down into the water where I manage to wade knee to waist deep. All the while the downpour continues.
When I reach Ao Toh Koh I cut up thru the ruins of about 5 National Park Bungalows at the south end - these were almost completed in August 07. What is it with Thai National Parks? I see similar ruins of almost completed joints on Ko Kradan this trip. Is this outfit the most incompetent in Thailand?

It’s still pouring outside in this shot at Toh Koh Resort’s beachfront restaurant. I’m sitting up the back downing a red curry and a beer, soaking wet. Those people in background have just come in off a long tail from the pier and are even wetter. Lovely host Pon has given them towels. Pon remembers my ugly face and asks about Lady Tezza. Biggest changes here - the aircon bungalow has been completed and the steep rainforest track up the hill which I take on leaving seems less distinct off the beach.

So it’s back to town but instead of taking the short (maybe 50 minutes) way via the viewpoints I decide to check the new dam which was unfinished last trip. I’m surprised it is only 5% full and that the adjacent new local housing apartments built after the tsunami still have about a 20% vacancy.
I take the wrong track away from the dam and instead of going back to town via the high ground-old dam route I end up back down on Long Beach - which adds another 15 minutes to my trudge.
At least the rain has stopped which allows me to repeat my swim- beers-sun lounge thing back at home base, and later my chicken-rice with cool music around 9pm.

Next morning I’m on the early ferry for Krabi. Okay, 48 hours only on Phi Phi, but the idea was a whistle-stop tour to see and snap the changes. As I later do for Ao Nang/Ton Sai/Railay, Ko Muk and Ko Kradan. It’s only when I hit the nicer weather on the southern Gulf side I slow down and spend more time on each island.

OTHER CHANGES
- The new second pier has at last been built - it is closer to the main pier than pre-tsunami - virtually adjacent and joined by a dogleg so that all arrivals hit land at the start of the main pier where the porters, longtail drivers and touts from the resorts are waiting.

- There is now a rubbish levy for incoming visitors. This is payable at the pier, forget how much but pretty reasonable. I got the impression day-trippers were not paying it but I may be wrong. Question is - if not, WHY NOT?

- No cake shop! Hey, big change in town - the old Phi Phi Cake Shop which has been there since very early days has gone! Dunno what has replaced it because I can’t remember exactly where it was.

- Lower ferry prices. Travel forums were talking of 500-600b from Phuket just before I left Oz. I got a combined van shuttle to Phuket pier (normal) plus ferry ticket from Phuket Backpackers' for 400. Gets better - despite news-forums reporting govt approval of PP-Krabi fares going to 400 at least 2 years ago, I got a 250b fare from one of the places along the main drag in Ton Sai town. Other places were 300-350 as were afternoon transfers and Ao Nang/Railay trips at the place I used. Competition or impact of low season/economic-political crises?

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Sessa's Phi Phi Day-Trips Report - January 2010

Bamboo Island off north-east Phi Phi Don

We leased a Thai man with a longtail boat to drive us around. We traveled to Maya Bay first early in the morning, a peaceful sight, almost no people to see in the island.

- and then the Viking Cave above.

The next day we made plans to travel to Bamboo island. Good Lord what a beautiful place!

We stayed in a tent on Bamboo and got a sunset that just completely took my breath away.

Another shot of the Viking Cave.

My son Ruben short-cutting a cliff descent near the Viking Cave.

Sessa has more pix and information on her blog here.

UPDATE - Sessa called by Phi Phi again in Jan Feb 2011 and has some stuff on her Multi-Island trip report Jan-Feb 2011 HERE

BACK TO MAIN PHI PHI PAGE

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IF YOU WANT TO DO A TRIP REPORT ON PHI PHI OR ANY OTHER LOCATION, FIRE IN A FEW PIX AND CAPTIONS TO lajolla22@hotmail.com. NOTE IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE A MULTI-SHOT MULTI-WORD EFFORT - A FEW PIX AND CAPTIONS LIKE SESSA'S ABOVE IS FINE.

PULAU BELITUNG TRIP REPORTS

2010-05-02T19:27:00.016+10:00

TOM'S TRIP REPORT ON PULAU BELITUNG - visited April 2010

Pulau Belitung - image maninerror (hanif)

When Tom fired in his Nusa Lembongan trip report a few months back he said he was next visiting Belitung, which he reckoned was way more attractive. So I asked him to do a trip report if he had time. Belitung may seem off the beaten track, but for travellers going thru Jakarta it is not too much a reach at all (see map below)
Tom is like me in my early trips, travels light without a camera, but good old Google Images came thru with some beauties - click on hanif's and yuvinta's links for a porfolio of Belitung shots taken by excellent photographers. The Trip Advisor shot link leads to their usual good coverage of a destination - Tezza

Belitung is between Sumatra and Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo) and not too far from Java - image Google.

I just got back from 5 days in Pulau Belitung after a 3 years interval.
I think that besides Pulau Kei, Belitung has the best beaches in Indonesia.
Pantai Tinggi is Belitungs’ most popular and beautiful beach due to its amazing rock formation and granite boulders (some 20 m high) on both sides of the bay ....although it was heavily littered on this visit due to the shooting of 2 blockbuster movies.

Pantai Tinggi - image yuvinta

The other great beach Pantai Kelayang was much cleaner as my resort was cleaning the beach daily. Kelayang is much quieter than Pantai Tinggi. The only negative this time were the sand flies. The manager of Kelayang Cottages where I stayed told me it is a seasonal thing. Kelayang Cottages is a great place with rooms 200-300 K, and cheap food - website kelayangcottages.com.

Kelayang beach - image tripadvisor

Both towns of Manggar and Tanjun Pandan have cheap hotels and losmen (100-150000) but both are far from the beach (25 km)so you need to rent either car or bike as public transport is almost non existent, Roads are now paved all around and great for renting a motorbike (40000 rp /day). It takes bout 7 hours to drive around and see the main sights.

The highlight of a Belitung trip are the two offshore islands of Pulau Burung....Palau Barung - image maninerror (hanif)

....and Pulau Lengkuas which has the wonderful Lighthouse Beach.
View from the light house - Palau Lengkuas (image yuvinta)

Both lengkuas and Belitung have incredible beaches, arguably better than Kei but its tough as they are so different - think Seychelles on a budget as the rock formations and boulders are similar. Snorkelling is not good, it’s the natural setting of those beaches with their granite boulders that makes it such a special paradise, particularly for photographers.

Pulau Lengkuas beach from the light house - image yuvinta

There is no accommodation on these islands. The only way to get there is part of a 4 island tour - theboat is 300000 for 8 hours but worth any cent. If you stay in Kelayang Cottages it’s very easy to find other people for the trip particularly on weekends when it tends to be booked out. All the boat tours leave from Kelayan Cottages.

Both Sri Wijaya and Batavia have daily flights from Jakarta( 40 min 300-700000 one way). Book ahead at weekends for both flights and accommodation as they are often fully booked with local tourists, particularly after the impact of those 2 blockbuster movies

KO SAMET TRIP REPORTS

2010-04-14T09:42:00.025+10:00

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JULIE'S TRIP REPORT KO SAMET, VISITED MARCH 2010.

Late afternoon sports and sun worshippers on Ao Phai - click image to expand.

After 3 nights in Bangkok we headed out for a week on Ko Samet. Cherdchai Tours has express buses from Bangkok's Ekkamai Bus Station to the town of Ban Phe, where boats leave for Ko Samet. The bus trip took 4 hours, no rest-stops, and cost Bt 157 each. The attendant handed out a bottle of water and a sweet bun as we pulled out from the station, and the trip was much more comfortable and safer than subsequent long mini-bus rides, though a fair bit slower.
The Cherdchai bus terminal at Ban Phe is across the road from Nuanthip pier (there are others), from where large blue ferries make the short crossing to Samet, Bt 50 per person. The next boat won't leave until 20 passengers have bought tickets, which at first was a worry as only 7 of us came across from the bus to this pier. There's an inexpensive restaurant and toilet facilities available, and it turned out to be no hardship to wait a half hour or so for the next trip. By the time our ferry actually finished loading, lots of late-comers had filled it, which meant the songthaews on the Samet side had plenty of passengers and could charge the minimum fare per person, which for us was Bt 30 to Ao Vong Duern. The songthaews stop just beyond the port for the National Parks officers to collect their Bt 200 entry fee from foreigners, money which is obviously not spent on the dirt tracks which pass as the road system on the island.

Entrance to Vong Duern Villa's second eating place - the Rockside Restaurant with nice views across the bay.

Vong Duern beach has a number of bungalow resorts, we had tried to book Vong Duern Villa (at the far southern end) over the net, but only phone bookings are possible. So we chanced a walk-in, and were immediately offered a discount of Bt 200 on the website price of Bt 1200 a night, because we were prepared to stay 3 nights. Overall, still not value for money.

Our duplex bungalow was "rockside", close to the water and the restaurant. Noise wasn't a problem, except from the chorus of bullfrogs in the various water features about the property. On the plus side our room had a nice verandah with drying rails, aircon, hot water, a bathroom big enough so that the shower didn't soak everything else, fresh towels, water and toiletries daily, and a TV. On the down side, the bathroom didn't have a door, just a shower curtain, the aircon was noisy and dripped cold water on the floor, the bed was the hardest I've ever encountered anywhere in Asia, and breakfast was not included. The ceiling had strips of paint peeling off, and the woodwork showed signs of termite trails. The mosquitoes were fierce here and everywhere else I went on Samet, but after we taped the gaps around the windows and plugged the drainage holes in the bathroom, only opening one when showering, we kept things under control with our can of insecticide.
Our bungalow was much smaller, less attractive and well finished than the "rockside standards" on the website.
The resort had other more spacious and better presented bungalows, prices on the website.

Our rockside bungalow

Some of the nicer bungalows. These were in the "beachside" area - no beachside bungalow was actually fronting the sand which was taken by the slightly tatty beachfront restaurant and reception, a massage area, a new paved performance area and a snacks/drink cafe region - although some beachfront rooms are closer the sand than these. The "cliffside" bungalows were in a higher steeper area and similar in appearance. All bungalows seemed to have tree-filtered views of the ocean. There are bigger family size places.

The water at Vong Duern beach wasn't as clear as other parts of Ko Samet, but the swimming was pleasant and I had no fear of stepping on sharp coral or broken glass, which infests other places I've been to in Thailand (hello Ko Lipe). A few minutes walk either north to Ao Cho or south to Ao Thian found very nice swimming conditions as well. There are plenty of places to eat, my favourite was Vong Deuan Resort (various spellings abound for this area) which served its tea and coffee in large mugs, or a pot even, and whose prices were on a par with everywhere else, even though its accommodation was luxurious and expensive. A few mosquito coils under the tables in the evening would be the only improvement I would suggest; this was the first time I've ever seen a mosquito biting me through my clothing.

View from our rockside bungalow verandah.

Ao Phai. For the second part of our week on Ko Samet, we decided to go upmarket to Samed Villa, a short songthaew ride north from Ao Vong Duern. Having only a short distance to travel, we arrived too early for check-in, but our luggage was stored for us in a room with safe deposit boxes for our use, and we were offered towels and toiletries and the use of the facilities behind reception. This is a busy beach with lots of boat activity, but a safe swimming area is cordoned off right out front. The sea here was wonderfully clear and warm, with no nasties to tread on and decent depth not too far out.

Safe swimming

Samed Villa had plenty of sun lounges and umbrellas to use on the sand, and also lots of padded lounges under the trees around the rocks on the way to Ao Pudsa/Tubtim. This area was well served by massage/manicure ladies and wandering food vendors selling fresh fruit or more substantial meals. The volley ball net came out at low tide, and attracted quite a crowd of players and onlookers each afternoon we were there, as can be seen in the opening photograph. Tables, seating and fairy lights were set up in the evening for the beach barbeque, with food in all prices ranges. So good we had dinner here 3 nights in a row.

Our room at Samed Villa

Our room was the cheapest available, up the back, Bt 1600/night, with breakfast. This meant we were far from all the night life noise from neighbouring properties, but still only a minute's walk through the lush grounds to the sea. Our room was beautifully appointed and had none of the shoddy workmanship of lots of Thai building construction. The bed and pillows were divine, the big overhead fan was sometimes all we needed, though the aircon was efficient and silent, and as a tea addict, the water boiler, cups and refrigerator were much appreciated. All of the windows were screened, with an internal fly-screen door at the entrance, and the room had plenty of good lighting, a TV, safe, mini-bar supplies, and lots of towels. The front verandah was nice but a bit useless except for drying towels etc as there was only a bush view and the mosquitoes were bad, day or night.

Our room, back row.

The tariff included a generous buffet breakfast; there was a charge for in room wi-fi (Bt 0.5/minute), or for people like us without a laptop, the internet cafe was Bt 2/ minute, or Bt50/half hour. We charged our dinners to our room, and there was no fee for using the Visa card to settle our account on departure.

A few metres from our room was the boundary with Pudsa Bungalows. It was just as quick for us to go to the beach there as to the beach in front of our resort, making a nice change of scene. The first restaurant you come to has the usual fare at the usual cheap prices. In the opposite direction, our beach joined Ao Hin Kok and then the long White Sand Beach, with just a couple of small rock outcrops to walk around. Great way to walk off a bit of that buffet breakfast and see the many other (mainly Thai) holidaymakers. If you walk far enough, you can reach restaurants with shops behind. Goods had price tags and I found the sarongs at Bt100 cheaper than at places like Ko Phangan or Ko Samui.

Landscaped grounds of Samed Villa. Bullfrog heaven.

We left Samet via speedboat. Trying to get an inexpensive ride on a songthaew when there are only 2 of you is next to impossible, so it wasn't worth it to try to get back up to the cheap ferry when speedboats left from right in front of our resort for Bt 200 each. The trip was short and comfortable, not like some I've encountered elsewhere in Thailand.

Departing Ko Samet.

Back to the main Ko Samet page.

Trip Reports - KO CHANG (eastern Gulf)

2010-04-12T19:59:00.043+10:00

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BeachBloggers Trip Report on GRAND LAGOONA AND SOUTHERN KO CHANG - visited early April 2010

Part of the lagoon at Grand Lagoona. Has a number of boat chalets, a few of them non-floating which would appeal to families with non-swimming kids, and a floating hotel- plus some river-side bungalows and very flash and expensive sea-side chalets. This is shot from the roof of the mini-cruise liner.

I was looking for a midrange place for our second destination on Chang to compensate my Lady for our backpacker style place on White Sand Beach (see below) - there are a heap of appealing joints in the 1500b area but none on the sparsely settled south coast which I hadn't visited before. The Grand Lagoona there tends to run at higher prices - except on Sawadee.com which was offering the least expensive rooms at 1200 including breakfast. Crikey, that was the same as the website price for our underwhelming Vong Duern Villa room on Samet and that didn't one include brekka. So I grabbed one.

The least expensive rooms are in the floating hotel, the Galaxy. Except they upgraded us. It seemed the hotel was in limited use - only its entry deck was in operation. The rooms seemed pretty good if a bit small - something like a Japanese business hotel. Or an ocean cruise liner I suppose - I've never done a cruise.

We got upgraded to this Boat Chalet, centre. There are actually 4 spacious rooms on each boat (in our type at least - some more expensive boats seemed to have fewer).
It seems upgrading is not unusual - a TripAdisor or similar review I saw before booking mentioned the same thing. That's the floating reception and admin area on right of shot.

Our boat chalet room was huge and had all the inclusions you'd expect in a 2000+ baht room - at 1200! There was also a lounge area with aircon and fridge near the boat's entrance which would be ideal as a common area if families/friends took more than one room.

This is the floating swimming pool. Nice place to spend some time on a hot day. Beachside restaurant is a short distance to the right.

Grand Lagoona's beach. Clean sand, not too shallow at low tide. Free kayaks available. If you expand this shot you will better see the breakwater at the end which Lagoona's western boundary and is where the lagoon and small river joins the sea. The beach curves in the opposite direction past here for about 500m. After that it reaches the main road which goes another km or two across to Bang Bao - you can see Bang Bao's pier area in far background.

Grand Lagoona has many hectares of spacious grounds with a couple of km of paved roads and paths to walk or cycle. Cycles are free to guests. Visitors pay 150 baht at the gate for use of resort facilities including bikes. We kept our bicycles alongside our chalet overnight, just the thing for a quick fang to breakfast. Lagoona also has very good mountain bikes for hire at 100baht - takes about 15 minutes to do the 4km over to Bang Bao pier, with a couple of decent hills. I also rode up to Bai Lan and Lonely Beach - more than a couple of indecent hills along that route.

Someone aced Jake on the road up to Lagoona's waterfall. Ants were enjoying the scene. Waterfall is underwhelming but the 20 minute (return) walking track from the parking area is pretty nice. That's one of the free bikes; the hire mountain bikes are much better with disc brakes etc.

That's Lagoona's beachside restaurant and bar in background. Only restaurant of 3 operating when we visited - Lagoona seemed to be running at less than 10% in early April. Nice aspect with good views out towards Ko Wai and other islands south of Chang. Very good staff. Prices mainly 50 to 100% up on normal budget restaurants but we found a few dishes in our lower budget range. Big Changs a relative bargain at 90 baht. There are budget restaurants a little more than 10 minutes walk along beach towards Ban Bao (hop under the fence near the breakwater). Lagoona's seaside free breakfast is not a buffet but American style, pretty nice. Here Lady Tezza cruises in for some refreshments....

...and weaves back to the boat chalet after a Singha sinking session.

THE AREA AROUND GRAND LAGOONA

The Grand Lagoona-Bang Bao precinct of southern Ko Chang - some of the places mentioned below. Image - Google.

The budget restaurant/bar area at the end of the beach west of Lagoona. At least 2 budget bungalow outfits here including KK Beach Hut. Pix is shot from coast road where it hits the corner of the beach - this brings a fair few daytrippers down from the west coast beaches, meaning this area gets a good crowd later in the day - some nice beach lounges to take it easy on mid left of shot (click to expand). Water clear of debris and reasonably deep at low tide in the area of the waders in shot.
A new holiday villa development was under construction behind trees in far background - the beach actually does a back-curve past there and is the site of Tropical Resort, a nice looking place immediately west of Grand Lagoona which looked midrange. But the sea is very shallow and rocky at low tide in Tropical's area.

This is shot from the road maybe 500m closer to Bang Bao than the previous pic - if you expand it you can see the pier area pretty well. Small gap at far background right shows ocean side of Bang Bao - Bang Bao Cliff Cottages 2 shots down is on the higher area immediately to its right. Upmarket Nirvana resort is on the left of the gap.
In foreground is a another fancy holiday villa construction - check its pier and pretty impressive pool area. Some of the villas are higher than this shot.

Bang Bao pier area has some really nice shops, a host of good restaurants (seafood a big feature) with nice decks over the bay on the sunset side, quite a bit of accommodation. There are several ATMs and a 7eleven on the land end. Area usually laid back but gets busy when daytrip and dive boats are leaving and returning.

You won't land a much cheaper bungalow-over-water than these Bang Bao pier specials. Note the much more upmaket Bang Bao Sea Hut stilt houses are adjacent the pier.

The small bay on the seaward side of the gap west of Bang Bao pier mentioned two shots above, with Bang Bao Cliff Cottage's nice seaside restaurant and a few of its higher cliffside bungalow (to the left).
In the foreground is upmarket Nirvana Resort's rockside walkway which goes for a few hundred meters and then turns into a rainforest track which loops back to the resort in a nicely landscaped area on the other side of this narrow peninsula. Nirvana has two nice smallish pools, but the beach on the bay (pier) side is a bit ordinary. So is Cliffside's bayside beach, but a lot of people swim off the seaside rocks near the restaurant which reportedly has some pretty good snorkelling for Chang.

Cliff Cottage's restaurant was a nice place to spend time. Owner macca was enthusiastically preparing a fishing rod during our visit - the rocks over the top of the bottle seem to be SPOT X.

The southern Chang beach strip shot from the Bang Bao pier. Beach actually a shallow S shape, not straight as it photographs. Grand Lagoona's beach and breakwater far right - if you expand shot you can see the Galaxy floating hotel behind. KK Beach Hut/budget restaurants and beach bars start far left.
Mountains behind even steeper than they photograph - explains why last few km of the around island road have not been constructed.

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Beach Blogger's Trip Report to WHITE SAND BEACH - visited late March 2010.

White Sand Beach from the south-west - some of the places mentioned on this page. Click to expand (may depend on your browser). Image Google.

I first stayed on White Sand in '98 - 3 times in fact, divided by visits to the islands south of big Chang. Because I don't believe in staying at the same place more than once I sampled Cookies, Rocksand and KC's back then.
I broke my rule on this trip - my 2nd visit in 2008 showed Rocksand had changed dramatically from the double storey bar with a few really basic bungalows leaning against the cliff behind - and having such great memories of the place I determined to stay there this visit.

THE ROCKSAND PRECINCT
All those old-time knockers who say White Sand is developed out of reach of budget travellers aint done their research. They can still get a high season bungalow overlooking the beach for 500b in this area - and lower priced ones a row back.

This is Rocksand today. There is a '98 shot lower down this page in the NOSTALGIA TRIPPING section for comparison.
The restaurant and bar is now confined to the lower deck and this deck has been extended each side.
The top deck has been filled in to make 6 fan outside-bathroom rooms, the front 3 with wonderful seaview balconies. That's our seaview room top right with the washing.
Behind the deck at right is a 2-storey extension with another 6 rooms - cramped Seaview fan rooms on the bottom, nicer bigger Seaview aircon TV rooms on top. In the same position to the left is the cookhouse.
There is another block out of frame to the left which you can see in the shot below.
At anything above quarter-tide, people moving from the main beach to the northern section of White Sand (to the left) are forced to climb up through the bar/restaurant terrace, which is great for business - and for guests to check the passing parade.

Area immediately to the north of Rocksand - the high building is part of Rocksand with the Sunset Cocktail Bar lowest (not operating when we visited, in what was virtually shoulder season), a big Luxury Beach Room above and latest owner Joost's pad on top.
Note the elevated walkway to this building's left, for high tide access further north.
The high building at the walkway's left is the excellent Mayalamean with very inexpensive and good food and the cheapest beer and massages we found all trip. Their elevated restaurant is far left and there are budget beachfront rooms to its right (500b) - cheaper ones behind (300b when we visited). I have a phone number and restaurant shot on the main Chang page.
At the far left of shot is the first part of the very extensive White Sand Resort.
This is a nice shot to expand for detail - click (may depend on your browser).

Immediately to the south of Rocksand - funky Independent Bo is immediately next, followed by Little Chang Bungalows, then Star Beach followed by Pen's Bungalows. All seemed to have March 2010 prices of 500 beachfront, 300 or so further back and plenty of vacancies at this time. Independent Bo has an elevated eating spot which we didn't visit, the others nice beachfront restaurants - pretty reasonable prices here too. The northern-most bungalows of flash new KC's start behind trees at far right of shot.

ROCKSAND ITSELF

This is our first room at Rocksand - #4, a Beach Room With Fan, Bathroom (hotwater) and Seaview Terrace. Frankly it was terrible - small, cramped, stuffy, very difficult to access/leave bed if you were sleeping on the wall side and didn't want to disturb your partner, very small bathroom out of frame to the right. Very limited space on camera side of bed plus medium area (hidden from camera right of shot behind foot of bed for bags etc but very difficult to access. No hooks or storage units. This cost 900 without breakfast on the net - I notice the price has now dropped to 700 for the same month but that could reflect the impact of the Red Shirts rioting on tourism which was not on the horizon when we originally booked. I reckon it is worth 500 max, and only because of the hotwater. You can get far more spacious seafront cold water bungalows in the joints each side for 500.
We only lasted one night here.
This is the front of #4 (left bottom) from the side of our second room's balcony. #4's seaview terrace pretty cramped but okay outlook. Room above 4 and its neighbours pretty nice from what we could see - bigger because slope of cliff allows a much deeper room, got TV and air. All taken when we wanted to upgrade....

...which worked out pretty well, because this cheaper top floor Sea View room with fantastic terrace overlooking the restaurant deck and out to sea was available. It was airy and spacious, much more so than this shot shows, with a big king sized bed which would sleep 3 adults, another single bed which you can just see to the right, and enough space for 4 people's gear. Plenty of storage but no wardrobe, good lights, quiet fan. Clean. Outside bathroom short distance down hall - actually one toilet- shower room and a separate hw shower room. And further toilets/showers downstairs behind the restaurant. We paid 700b (now 600 on the website) - I reckon it was well worth 700. would be a bargain with 3 or 4 budget travellers sharing.

Sweet views from the lengthy seaview terrace of our second room - here to the north-west. Really nice sunsets directly west meaning lots of time sitting here working on the elcheapo Chateau Cardboard Aussie red. Nostalgia trip back to '98 sunsets sitting in the same place when it was an open decked upstairs bar - with even better consumables.

Rocksand has a few trad-type backpacker fan bungalows with bathrooms built up the slope behind the main structure. 500 baht when we visited. My 50 baht '98 "bungalow" was here, basically a lean-to against the cliff-face with no back wall - just the rock face. I spent the night with my heavy bike-lock chain beside my pillow in case any nasty monkeys invaded. Joost has plans to develop this area.

Because of its strategic position and views, Rocksand's bar/restaurant tended to attract a good crowd of visitors from neighbouring and distant resorts. Umbrellas are set up when sunshine hits max. Food is good but prices tend to be 20-40% more than average backpacker/flashpacker standards. No worries - we ate a lot of our meals at Mayalamean, Star Beach and distant White Sand Resort's restaurant 400m north. White Sand's big muesli/fruit/yoghurt + giant mug of tea (a Lady Tezza must) made the pleasant morning walk well worth it. Behind camera is a covered area with more tables and then a nice lounging area with cushions, and small tables. The whole area had free wi-fi.

Overall, Rocksand is a pretty good place if you don't pick the Beach Rooms with Fan. But not perfect.
Food/drink prices could be lower (but there was certainly no lack of customers - someone from super-posh KCs would find the prices knock down low - and cheapskates like me have plenty of nearby options).
Access is a bit of a bummer - basically we carted our bags through the beach access alley next to the 7/eleven where the main road from the mountain pass first hits the township's main street and then dragged them the 400m further north along the beach. The place does have a 4wd which comes in through White Sand Beach resort's steep access road about 3km up the pass and parks next to Mayalamean about 80m north of Rocksand - but there is no mention any pick-up service when you book. Places like Star Beach have a trolley on bicycle wheels which a staff member pushes along the beach.
When we booked in all hot and sweaty after our beach trek with luggage there was no welcoming cool drink. There were no first-day bottles of water in the room. For a place aspiring to flashpacker standards (and better - the most expensive room is midrange priced) these are unusual omissions.

A TOUR OF THE BEACH

Far North White Sand Beach - this is the area which starts just north of Rocksand-Mayalamean and runs maybe 600m to the far headland. The best and quietest section of White Sand IMHO. White Sand Resort's bungalows run all along here - the restaurant/reception is maybe halfway along and they have a second restaurant near the headland. Water good for swimming all tides from the other side of Rocksand to the headland.

Central North White Sand Beach. This is shot from Rocksand's bar/restaurant deck looking south - the area in the foreground is in front of the Independent Bo-Pen's strip. A bit past the tree the beach widens in front of KC Grande's 400m long outfit. Sand and water pretty good all along here. Not very crowded. Used to be naked backpacker-babes in the good old days.
Actually if you expand this you can see right up to the southern end of the beach.

Central White Sand Beach (looking south) - this is shot from the northern main street beach access alongside the 7/eleven. Sand pretty good along here - and a lot more than on my 2008 visit which must have had pretty bad wet season storm-wave erosion. Some nice shade. More crowded. Water getting a bit shallow lowest tide. Candle-lit beach tables at night but not as concentrated as further south.

Southern White Sand Beach (looking north). The beach actually ends alongside the camera here. The very nice pool of Kacha resort is actually behind-right of camera with rocks out front - their beachside restaurant is just behind the first sign in shot. Beach narrow along most of this section, good shade, water pretty shallow low tide. Most crowded day and night. I walked up here 4pm one afternoon and they already had heaps of beach mats/cushions/low tables with candles set up for the sand bars and lots of dining tables being put out. Some pretty concentrated resorts and other beach businesses along here.
Note that quite a few of White Sand Beach's newer resorts are actually even further south from this - those people closest in the shot were on my minivan from Samet and told me their place was a good 800m south on the main road. Nice pool, nice resort but a long walk to the beach. Check location maps on your booking sites.

NOSTALGIA TRIPPING

Rocksand in the 90s. More or less a 2 storey bar with the "rustic" action on the upper deck. A few pretty basic bungalows against the cliff-face behind.

I like this 90's shot because I took it virtually where the front door to the balcony of our second 2010 room is located.

The other end of the upper deck in the 90s. That's the nicest (northern) section of White Sand Beach (then and now) in the background.

Many travellers will remember the main section of White Sand in the 90s - these are KC's great beachfront bungalows then. One of my 3 visits in '98 I stayed here - spent many mellow candle-lit hours on the front balcony. From memory I paid 150b.

Whoa! Same place now. Most exxy rooms 25k! Cheapest 4200 after discount!! At least they kept some of the palms.

In '98 I also stayed at Cookies in this nice timber/concrete beachfront bungalow, flashpacker standard at 400 which I thought outrageous (the beach was just about booked out).

This is the new Cookies - rooms probably 10 times that price. Interestingly it is about 100m further south than the original - the old bungalows and restaurant are still there being run by Sanctawan. Cookies has also extended across the inland side of the main street in a similar block.

IF YOU WANT TO DO A TRIP REPORT OF WHITE SAND BEACH (OR ANY OTHER BEACH OR ISLAND) PLEASE FIRE TEXT AND ANY PIX INTO lajolla22@hotmail.com. IF YOU HAVE NO PIX LADY TEZZA AND I HAVE ENOUGH GENERAL ONES TO COVER, BUT SHOTS OF INDIVIDUAL RESORTS, ROOMS AND EVEN YOU ARE ALWAYS NICE.

Back to the main Ko Chang page.

NUSA LEMBONGAN TRIP REPORTS

2010-02-24T21:20:00.009+11:00

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TOM'S NUSA LEMBONGAN TRIP REPORT - visited February 2010

Last time I was there was 1992 so quite a bit has changed - but Lembongan is still a very relaxing place. The weather has been absolutely beautiful, almost no rain season at all this year.

I stayed at Linda's bungalows, a pretty good place and great food. Bungalows are 100000 but the best are the 2 rooms she has in the private villa,200000 rp absolute beachfront,amazing views and huge balcony to relax on.

I checked a few other places very close to Linda's on Jungubatu Bay but they were quite a bit higher: Ketut 250-400000 , next door to Ketut's the heavily redeveloped Mainski Inn at 250000/night. Agung was a good cheapie for 70000 but nothing compared to Linda's.

Jungubatu Bay south of Linda's.

The best way to see the island and other beaches is renting a motorbike (70000 /day) and this what seems most people are doing cos although it is not a big island it is very very hot and the walk to lets say Mushroom Beach is at least 45 minute walk, Dream Beach and Sunset Beach over an hour.

The nicest beach is Dream beach and although it was pretty flat when I was there there was still a good undertow so certainly not advisable on windy days.

Restaurant and bungalows at Dream Beach Huts. Very nice views from the upper deck of restaurant.

Snorkeling off the beaches is very mediocre, best is at Mushroom Bay which is the best swimmimg beach.

I took the Perama boat from Kuta at 125000 including shuttle bus to Sanur, quite a comfortable boatride - surprisingly for this time of the year. The public boat (above at Sanur) was 60000 (but no transfer from Kuta) and looks quite ok as well if there are no rough seas.

Low tide from the headland at Jungubatu shows seaweed farms - at high tide the lagoon is very scenic. Linda's is on the beach at far end of the photograph.

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Thanks Tom:

If you want to do a Trip Report on Lembongan or any other beach or island pleased send text and/or any photos and captions to lajolla22@hotmail.com - with enough contributions we can keep people more up to date than my visits every year/second year or so manage.

Back to the Nusa Lembongan main page.

Multi-island Reports

2010-02-24T20:43:00.009+11:00

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Sessa's Trip to Phuket, PP, Mook, Kradan & Lipe

Travelled January-February 2011

PHUKET
(Karon) 'Karon Living Room' (950 baht)Our trip began at Phuket -'Karon Living Room' (Karon) bargained from 1600 baht to 950 baht a night. Stayed 2 nights.

Phuket (Kata beach)

PHI PHI
Next - to Phi Phi ,spent one night at the 'Long Beach Bungalow' 600 baht night.
New accommodation the next day at Gypsy at 800 baht per night.

Phi Phi - long beach bongalow (600 baht).

Phi Phi - A walk From Long Beach on Don.

PP Long Beach

PP at Long Beach.

KHO MOOK
The next day we went to Kho Mook with Tiger Line. We checked in on the other side of the island from Charley beach not far from the pier in a place called Coco Lodge. 800 baht per night.

Kho Mook - 'Coco lodge' Bamboo Bungalow for rent (550 baht)
Kho Mook - 'Coco Lodge'(800 baht)
Kho Mook- picture taken from the resturant at 'Coco Lodge'

Kho Mook - 'Coco Lodge' Toilet

We slept 2 nights at Coco Lodge before we checked into 'Mookies' for a night, 250 baht. Here I got to know Alex and Nasha as the new holders of Mookie. They bought Mookie about 4 months ago. Nasha is pregnant (four month).

Mookies famous bar.

Mookies

Kho Mook - the sand spit at Hua Leam

Kho Mook - Hua Leam ( on the other side of of the island to Charley Beach) Here we are on the way to Sivalai Beach Resort. We Had to see the resort that cost 10.000 baht a night

Kho Mook - Charley beach

Emerald Cave Kho Mook

KHO KRADAN
The next day we travelled to Kho Kradan for an overnight stay. Here it was fully booked so we had to settle for a bungalow for 1600 baht at 'Kradan Beach Resort'.

Kradan Beach Resort

Kho Kradan Beach at Kradan Beach Resort

KHO LIPE
At last we were on our way to Kho Lipe. Here I met my son (Ruben) and his girlfriend (Jenny). The trip from Kho Lipe Kradan tok about three and a half hours with Tigerline. In Lipe, we stayed one night at the 'Serene Bungalow' near Pattaya beach, 600 baht a night, until we found a new place the day after, at the Sunrise Beach - 'Lipe Beach Resort at 550 baht per night (same resort as Ruben, but in a bungalow hut).
We slept there two nights before we left back to Phi Phi and stayed one night at 'K House' for 700 baht

Kho Lipe - 'Lipe Beach Resort'

Kho Lipe - sunrise at Sunrise Beach 05:30 in the morning

Beach at Mountain Resort Kho Lipe - Pic taken from Mountain resturant

Mountain Resort Kho Lipe

Island off south Andaman Beach (Sunrise) Lipe

Kho Lipe - trip with a longtail boat to several places such as Kho Kra - Kho Usen- Kho Talak (snorkeling trip)

Back at Phuket (Rawai Beach)

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PS: It's no problem to get an open ticket from Andaman Master and Tigerline. I had one my self for the whole trip.

By the way... people who want to stay and book at Mookies on Kho Mook can call Nasha's mobilphone: +66 080-561-1781 or Alex +66 082-498-3228. In high season it's often full booked.

KO BULON LAE TRIP REPORTS

2010-02-07T15:33:00.034+11:00

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John Bassett's Bulon Lae Report - visited January 2011

Beachfront bungalows at Pansand Resort

Koh Bulon is a quieter island yet to have mass tourist development.

Since we were visiting Koh Bulon first we probably should have logically flown to Langkawi first not Phuket. Oh well what we do love about travelling most is when things don’t go according to plan, then the fun begins. Anyhow rather than sit in an aircon bus for 6 – 8 hours we decided to ferry and speed boat down to Bulon via Koh Lanta. This is definitely the more expensive option but is probably more fun, and gets you there quicker if you have limited time especially the speedboat (bring your earplugs against the 4 x 225hp engines).
Typical Satun Pak Bara area speedboats. 4 engined jobs are a bit bigger.

On Lanta we stayed at ‘Time for Lime’ which is pretty much close to everything. Accom is standard fan rooms. It has a cooking school and a restaurant overlooking a very touristy beach. The significant thing about ‘Time for Lime’ is the Norwegian owner runs an animal sanctuary there and there are lots of cats, a couple of dogs and a monkey roaming around the accom area. Running an animal sanctuary in Thailand is a tough job.

On Koh Bulon we booked our accom at Pansand Resort on line through Andaman Island Hopping.de. They were reliable and transparent so there were no problems there. Pansand has the best location, setting and accom on Bulon but that’s about as far as it goes. Service is muted, occasionally sullen, bordering on unfriendly. The food is ordinary for Thailand and a few sun lounges or hammocks wouldn’t go astray. Tezza you’re right bungalow 10 on the beach would be the one to book…next time. The beach at Bulon is easterly facing but excellent white sand and swimming. All accom/resorts are fairly close by... no cars or motorbikes on Bulon.
Second eating area at Pansand Resort

Marina resort restaurant up the beach and inland a bit is pure theatre and at night lit up like a trans-Atlantic liner, the food is better than Pansand.

Marina Resort bungalow.

Bulone Resort accom and restaurant are well located on the best white sand beach with beautiful views.

They are moving the restaurant area back due to erosion problems. You can see the old location has wet sand right up and under the front piers.

Accom’ s fairly standard bungalows. The staff are friendly and the food is consistently good, probably the best Thai food we had in Thailand. The big plus is the new beach bar situated under the casuarinas next to the beach. Ex-pat French man Jean Luc is passionate about his drinks and all the drinks at the resort, shakes and cocktails are great and the beer is icy cold. Apart from the standard accom Bulone resort gets the big thumbs up. If you’re into partying forget Koh Bulon.

I modified this Google Earth image to show the places John mentions - Tezza. Might be worth clicking to expand.

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straydog's Ko Bulone Trip Report - mid Dec 09

I can confirm what has been said on travel sites and Tezza's blog. Ko Bulone Lae is very nice. There is not much going on - actually nothing. Beautiful clear water and white sand.

I was offered an attractive front row concrete bungalow for 1300 baht including breakfast at Pansand - single use. Double was 1500 baht with breakfasts.

Bulone resort had a similar bungalow for 1200 baht with no breakfast. This was front row, single use, better positioned than Pansand and on a prettier beach.
When there IS a beach - because the tide is eating up the land, right from under the trees. So there are quite a few tree stumps right on the beach including huge trees. Some of them are still standing as above but they are obviously doomed.

Bulone resort also had a brand new wooden hut for 800 baht, front row, with more grass - less beach and very nicely located. I took this and was very happy with it. It comes with sheets, towels, shampoo, soap and was good quality.
Remember though, we are talking wooden hut on the beach, not high or even middle class hotels - so no sheet changing, no room cleaning, nothing of the sort! I say this as I found some mad reviews on Trip Advisor complaining the room hadn't been cleaned! Of course it hadn't been cleaned, it's a hut on the beach!

Erosion is threatening the restaurant as well - it is low tide in the above shot but you can see the high tide mark on this calm day. The restaurant has three menus - breakfast, lunch and dinner unlike those all-in-one menus of most places. Quite expensive, even when compared to other tourist places like KSR with Singhas at 60/120, pat thai 90-100 and fried rice 90-100. However, the reason for the higher prices became evident when the dishes were served. Portions are huge - like I hadn't seen in Thailand for years!
The staff is great, extremely friendly - the same can be said of Pansand.
After an email tip from Tezza about the good but crowded Marina Resort's restaurant I tried it and it was good... the crowd when at its peak - was of 13...

INTERNET
Bulone's internet is also a bit high in price at 3 baht per minute and fairly slow.

TRANSPORT
I paid 1100 baht return from Hat Yai using HatYai Tours also called Sukothai Tours, which is right outside the train station. A fair amount of overcharging seems involved - I found out later the return trip for the speed boat is 600 baht. So I was charged 500 return for the 2 hours in the minibus to Pakbara which seems too much. But it relieved me of the problem of finding my way to Pakbara. However if you are short of baht you will probably want to go by yourself and get a boat ticket at the pier. There seem to be two boats a day. The one I took left me at Pansand resort and left around 12:30. There is another leaving earlier getting to Bulone Resort.

There is a 50 baht levy charged by a local boat as you are reaching the island because the speed boat doesn't take you to the beach. It was suggested this money is for the community. That is Pansand's transfer boat in the above shot - was bringing in people for other resorts too.
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Rachael's Ko Bulon Lae Trip Report - early Dec 09

Koh Bulon is situated off the South-western peninsula of Thailand, not far from the Malaysian border. There are about 5 resorts on the island but if you’re looking for a good beach view you have a choice of 2 – Bulone Resort or Pansand Resort. We stayed at Pansand and although a little more expensive (still only £30 a night including breakfast) it is located on a nicer stretch of beach - although Bulone's Resort's beach (above) is certainly nice at low tide.

Bulone's beachfront accommodation is right on the sand in full view of any passers-by....

...whilst Pansand's huts were set back in the vegetation so you get more privacy but still with a sea view and only 20 paces to the beach. Pansand offer three types of bungalows and we stayed in the Laolieng style in bungalow #5 which is closest to camera above. This one had in our opinion the best view of the beach (Tezza here - Rachael aint wrong - I arrived around the same time, had #1 which is far background in the shade. Thought to myself - jeez, I bet I booked loonng before these other people! OK - not quite as nice a view, but #1 was still a sweet location).

Both resorts have restaurants and we alternated between the two. They were equally good although Pansand above offers a more traditional Thai menu....

....whilst Bulone's seaside restaurant offered Pasta and Burgers in addition to Thai dishes.

A walk to the north side of the island takes you via a hilly trail to the top of the peak where Bong Hill, a cute Thai rasta bar is found with a small studio attached - one of the chaps who runs it creates and sells stunning canvases and batik prints.

Past Bong Hill is Bulon’s fishing village which is home to about 100 'Chao Lae' or sea gypsy people. We stumbled across the village accidentally and I was concerned that they may be a little annoyed at us invading their home but they seemed hugely curious of us and the children in particular were keen to try out their English.

Although a stunning island there is little in the way of nightlife on Bulon (other than Bong Hill of course!) and after 3 nights we decided to move on in search of somewhere with a bit more buzz to it.But for relaxing it is hard to beat - that shot above is in the camping area to the south of Bulone Resort.
A couple of final things to note about Koh Bulon – there is only electricity from 5pm to 7am (Tezza - Bulone Resort has electricity during the day) and whilst there are a couple of small shops selling drinks and snacks, there is no ATM so make sure you take enough money to cover your accommodation, food and onward travel.
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Thanks Rachael.
Rachael has more on Muk, plus other islands like Lanta, Kradan and Bulon Lae on her site A DATE AT THE TATE. She also has a section on Bangkok and some good general info on MONEY, FOOD, COSTS, TRANSPORT etc.

You can return to the main Bulon Lae page here.

If you want to submit a trip report on Bulon Lae or any other location please send text and any pix to lajolla22@hotmail.com - label it TRIP REPORT to separate from spam. If you have no pix, I can find some.

Readers' Trip Reports - KO LIPE

2010-02-02T20:57:00.034+11:00

Julie's Ko Lipe Report -visited Dec 09.

“So here’s the plan”, says Beach Blogger. “We’ll walk over to Andaman Beach, up to the sand spit near Mountain Resort, get a long-tail over to Ko Adang, climb up to the viewpoint - maybe have time to go to the waterfall”.

The trouble with holidaying with a travel blogger is you’re on the go all the time, checking everything out, no time for taking it easy. You get to do not-relaxing in spectacular amounts.
Yesterday we spent 5 hours circumnavigating Ko Lipe - BB wants to do a page on rubbish so we stopped for about 5000 shots of fishing junk, building debris, broken bottles, washed up boat fuel containers. If I see one more pair of abandoned kid’s sandals I’m going to scream

You tramp to all sorts of less-visited places with Beach Blogger - this is the start of the headland walkway between Pattaya Beach and the small and very nice Sanom Beach to the west.

Not too many people make it to this low tide beach to the west of Mountain resort in the island's north. Highest building on far headland is holiday place built for the Thai Princess. Those lower bungalows look to be shacks for her entourage. Over the other side of that headland is Sunset Beach of Porn Bungalows fame.

Some places are worth the walk, in this case Bila Beach, further west again from Sunset Beach and about 20 minutes from the western end of Pattaya Beach. Nice little beachfront bar/restaurant with a few new bamboo bungalows built on the slopes behind. Small attractive beach with great views of Ko Adang and Ko Rawi.

“How long and steep is the climb to the viewpoint?” I enquire.
"Only 15 minutes, about as easy as the haul out of Kendall’s Beach, but longer”.
There’s nothing easy about the haul out of Kendall’s Beach at home. I tell him he can count me out.
“Stone the crows, you’re a bundle of adventure”, sulks BB. “Okay, this won’t take as long - we’ll go over to Viewpoint’s southern beach like yesterday, but this time rock-hop around the peninsula back here to Pattaya”.
“Didn’t you tell me the peninsula is close to impossible, that you nearly killed yourself last time?”
“Sure, but that was before I did the climbing course on Laoliang”.
The climbing course on Ko Laoliang was one 40 minute beginner’s session. Which I haven’t done. I don’t say anything, just give him that look.
He shrugs, puts on his Hawaiian shirt (must look cool) and wanders off in the direction of Viewpoint.

The next 3 hours are bliss. I get a beach lounge from the nice old guy outside Varin Resort, set it up in the shade of the trees, and watch the passing parade. BB paints the picture on some travel-site:

Is there anything better than lounging on the beach mat under a palm on Lipe's Ao Pattaya half-blitzed on duty-free rum, while checking the passing parade of gap-yearers, neo-hippies, pirate wannabes, Miss Swedens, grey nomads, Kelly Slater clones, rasta-baby beach boys, swaggering divers in rolled down wetsuits, circumferentially-enhanced youth-challenged farangs with sleek young friends from Isan, beer and footy bovver boys, Russian oligarchs with their hot blond mistresses, giggling Thai daytrippers in the orange life-vests and Chavs/Chavettes straight from central casting?
Well yes, there are better things, but it sure is entertaining.

Problem is I can’t remember any time he stopped still for the 10 minutes required to notice all this. Not even the 3 minutes he needs to get half-blitzed on Captain Morgan.

Plenty of shade on Varin beachfront. Lounges free for guests.

Happy-snap time for Thai tour group. Must have lost their orange vests.

Every 20 minutes or so I wander down to the crystal clear water and cool off. At one point I don the mask+snorkel and have a good look at the fish and coral a short distance from the beach. I then stroll 200m west to Nongbank restaurant and sip a nice cool Chang at the beach tables under the casuarinas.

----a nice cool Chang (or two) under the trees at Nongbank. This is about 150m west of Varin near Lipae Resort. It does good inexpensive meals and has some newish fan bungalows.

I glance towards the peninsula and see a Hawaiian-shirted figure clutching onto the rock-face about 2m above the water. He seems to be stuck, going neither forward nor back. There is a good ocean swell running and a wave breaks against the rocks exactly where he’s hanging on. He isn’t when the spray disperses.
I’m not worried. Beach Blogger is a long-time point-break surfer who’s enthusiasm has always exceeded his ability. He’s spent more time swimming between the rocks than carving them on his board. It’s 400m to the beach but this bloke won’t drown. He’s had plenty of practice not drowning.
20 minutes later a bedraggled dude in a wet Hawaiian shirt is back at the beach lounges.
“I thought you said you were going to climb around the point? Not swim it”.
“Yeah, but things got a bit sweaty. So I dropped in”.
I suppose that’s the truth.

...enthusiasm has always exceeded ability

Varin reminds me of an efficient summer camp for adults. The resort gets a lot of Thai package groups and is set up very effectively to cater for the morning breakfast rush before they leave on their snorkelling and sight-seeing daytrips etc. Food is always hot in this busy period with a constant flow of steaming trays from the kitchen. Very good range of western and Thai dishes with smiling Thai guest keen to point out the correct combination of condiments for local dishes - and giggling politely when you get it wrong. Nice atmosphere.

Varin knows how to pack them in. Hundreds of rooms - spacing is a bit more spread than this but still fairly tight. Non-refundable charge on safety deposit box, +5% on credit cards and internal bathrooms behind 2m high partitions in cheaper rooms are, to use BB's expression, less than whelming.

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Gee. thanks Julie. Um - I’m thinking about “enthusiasm exceeding ability” - I guess extreme enthusiasm coupled with very high ability fits okay.

If you want to do a Trip Report on Lipe or any other beach or island pleased send text and/or any photos and captions to lajolla22@hotmail.com - with enough contributions we can keep people more up to date than my visits every year/second year or so manage.

Lots more info and pix on the main Lipe blog page.

KO MUK/MOOK/MUUK

2010-01-29T16:19:00.012+11:00

mudshark82s wet season trip report - visited July 2011

Hey tezza, Here is a July 2011 update from Koh Mook,
Thailand.

The only places appearing to be open at Farang Beach are
Charlies (bungalows/restaurant,not minimart), Rubber
Tree (bungalows only), and Hilltop, a Thai family
restaurant abt 500m up the dirt track from Rubber Tree,
past Mookies. Nice family, good food and absurdly cheap
prices. 40 baht padthai/fried rice/thai dishes with
steamed rice, 80baht curry, 50 baht big Chang!
Haad Farang, Sawasdee, and Mookies are closed.

The Thai family's pet at the restaurant.
Great little monkey, fun to play with.

Charlies' food has resort prices but the Thai family
are great with prices lower than on any of the islands
or beaches I've seen, they even offered to take me back
to Rubber Tree on their motorbike one night when it
was raining after dark. The path gets wet and muddy
this time of year! I was their only customer 2 days in
a row.


Concerte fan bungalow, comfortable and clean in good
setting at Rubber Tree - 400 baht, booked for 300 with
only a little persuading. I would recommend this, much
nicer bungalows and cheaper than Charlie's bamboo fan
ones.

Here is the breakdown, 2 places to sleep, 2 to eat, no
minimarts or other places to sell basic drinks, snacks
and necessities.

Farang beach is quite dirty, lots of trash washed up
and nobody seems to notice, especially when i spent a
few hours on the beach without seeing a soul one
afternoon, other times in the last couple days there was
no more than 3 people on the beach at once and nobody
stayed long.

With all the trash, empty bungalows and rental shacks, I
felt like I was on an abandoned shore. Never saw a
single longtail near the beach, making tours or
transport off limits.


5-10 other farangs staying around there each day, very
dead.  Strong surf, fun bodysurfing, the garbage you
swim with takes away from the enjoyment though.


---------------------------------------------

Thanks 'shark. Looks like Muk in low season 2011 is even
quieter than when I visited in low season 2010.
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Rachael's Ko Muk Trip Report - visited Dec 09

Farang Beach - there are only 5 or 6 places to stay most of which are concentrated around this beach on the south-west side of the island. The beach is dominated by Charlies which is a sprawling, westernised resort complete with a swimming pool. Quite why you need this when a few steps away you have the warm, crystal clear Andaman sea is beyond me.

I would urge anyone who visits Koh Mook to bypass Charlies and take your custom to one of the smaller, family run resorts which are no more than a 3 minute walk from the beach and much more reasonably priced. To this end we stayed at the Rubber Tree Bungalows which is run by a lovely guy called Ekkasit or ‘Ey’ for short. As cliched as it sounds he really could not be more welcoming and helpful.
Our bamboo bungalow cost 500 baht a night and was pretty basic but we didn’t need anything more.

For those on a tighter budget head to Mookies which is further up the road past Rubbertree. Brian (an Aussie ex-pat) and his beautiful Thai wife have set up a resort of ‘tentalows’ - semi-permanent tents with a shared bathroom which are a bargain at 250 baht a night. We spent most of our nights in the bar at Mookies which has a great atmosphere and the best fish and chips we’ve ever tasted!

Our main reason for visiting Koh Mook was to visit the Morakot Cave which is tucked away on the western side of the island and accessible only at lower tide via an eighty metre long tunnel. The tunnel apparently opens out into a stunning lagoon of crystal clear water and a white sand beach between steep, emerald green cliffs - but our attempt to make it through failed miserably! In an attempt to try and get the cave all to ourselves we shunned the escorted trips in favour of a kayak!
We were told it would be dark in the tunnel but weren’t prepared for the utter pitch blackness that met us – my tiny travel torch was useless and so we were forced to beat a hasty retreat after just 2 or 3 metres. So if you do visit the cave take a super powerful torch or better still, just cut your losses and book a trip where you swim through with a guide.

--------------------------
Thanks Rachael.
Rachael has more on Muk, plus other islands like Lanta, Kradan and Bulon Lae on her site A DATE AT THE TATE. She also has a section on Bangkok and some good general info on MONEY, FOOD, COSTS, TRANSPORT etc.
---------------------------------------------

Sessa has a fair bit of Muk stuff on her Multi-Island trip report Jan-Feb 2011 HERE

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If you want to submit a trip report on Muk or any other location please send text and any pix to lajolla22@hotmail.com

Back to the main Ko Muk page.

SIMILANS ISLANDS TRIP REPORTS

2010-01-25T21:10:00.014+11:00

Mark Vetare's Ko Tachai (Similans) Trip Report

Visited March 2011

Sweet beach (all images - Mark Vetare)

Koh Tachai is the northernmost island in the Similan chain with its nearest neighbor north being Mu Koh Surin. Koh Tachai is a lovely island with a long white beach, beautiful waters, rocky outcrops and a small mountain viewpoint that even the laziest tourist can tackle.

Ko Tachai on Google Earth - although part of the Similans National Park it is a long way north of the main islands (1 to 9) - 47km from the northen-most island #9, 60km from the Surins NP Headquarters at island #4, 27 km from Ko Bon and 70km from the Similans mainland departure port at Thap Lamu south of Khao Lak. The Surins are a lot closer than Similans 1 to 9 - 37km.

Many backpackers have not heard of the island despite its beauty. This is presumably due to the fact that there are no bungalows or banana pancakes. It is though, very popular for the Thai and foreign day-trippers on package.

The water on Tachai is beautiful to the eye and visibility in the water is what one might expect from the region.

It is certainly one of the prettiest islands I have visited. Without the campground and tourists, it would be pretty close to paradise adding some coco palms on the beach.

There is some interesting wildlife as well:
Chicken Crabs and the largest hermit crabs I have ever seen. NP staff warn of snakes so do take care.

The coral/fish are in the same condition most of Thailand at the 5-15m level these days and despite all the raves about this being manta/whale shark territory there is far too much traffic around the island to attract the big stuff.
You have to go to Koh Bon for a chance there. We often swam out to where the boats moor - sometimes we were lazy from hiking and SeaStar was kind enough to take us by boat. It is a fun swim out to the bouys and arguably better in its own way than the place where the boats toss you in. As you swim toward the point (N) you will see larger fish - but no hope for pelagics. The southern point is good for a morning snorkel just to mix it up. It's shallow and barely acceptable but not really for avid snorkelers; dive boats drop here - why I do not know.

Sarisa checks the scene.

My Thai girlfriend and myself were allowed to stake our own tent - we stayed for a total of ten days knowing this won't last being the part of the Similans (note this is cheating a bit, Mark only had a shot of his tent at the Surins so I pinched it - tezza)
She arranged it all over the phone and it wasn't easy getting the boat operator nailed down on price and agreement to take our gear over. If we were just traveling about and fronted up in Thap Lamu at 6am it would have worked a treat - but we were adamant on putting our tent down, saving a minimum of B350 a night and being the first to do so.

As stated prior, there are no bungalows and we received word months ago staking your own tent is no longer possible (unless perhaps you camp with a dive group). Therefore if you want to stay on Tachai, you will need to rent an NP tent at a 350-550B per night.

The reason you want to camp and stay a few days is to enjoy the place for some hours without the throng of day-trippers. You can get great shots in the early morning and a few at sunset. Forewarned: the camp ground itself is a work in progress and despite loads of free space, you are shunted to an side area that is not very nice. Oh well, it's just for sleeping.

It is very easy to escape the day-trippers. Walk to the south of the island, there is lots of shade there you can put your hammock up for the balance of the afternoon.
At this time we are some of a handful of people outside dive groups to have camped this island and according to the head ranger have the record for longest stay (10 days). I also have the cumulative longest stay as of this year on Koh Rork as well (for an independent camper)

If you do not want to bring a stove, and ALL your own food - best option is to buy lunches (quite a good lunch) with your boat operator (B150-200), bring bread for breakfast and cans of whatever for dinner. Drink your coffee cold. Some supermarkets sell alcohol based heating tablets, you can make a stove out of rocks and cook coffee and noodles. Plan to not buy ANY meals in the canteen, the prices are absolutely obscene. DO NOT BE LAZY ABOUT THIS - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

"best option is to buy lunches (quite a good lunch) with your boat operator (B150-200)" - Sea Star does lunch.

We expected prices to be same as the other marine parks - but the manager of the canteen charges double which is simply scandalous. That is B150 for something that you'd pay B30 for in the street. We came prepared as always with snacks and food but since we could not confirm a restaurant on the island - we came to cook. Cook we did, all ten days. We took the sum total of two meals in the canteen - and that was due to to the fact my girlfriend wanted to eat some special salty fish, so I was forced into a meal as well.

The trip out is not cheap at B3,500 pax, although we paid B3,000. Contact Tae at SeaStar tours on FB (Sea Star Happy Journey, Sea Star by Tae). She can also arrange return return tickets to BKK for you (or elsewhere) and was kind enough to drive us up to the road. Sea Star gave us all sorts of freebies - I won't say what so you don't expect it. We were the first, my girlfriend is Thai and they are just lovely people. So we lucked out there. Medseye also runs a trip and there are a few others. Just go with Sea Star - great boat, good staff. We've done the homework for you already.

Sea Star boat

It will be a pricey three days including the boat and lunches, but if you can afford it and are looking to do something others have not - Ta Chai may be your ticket. It is very easy to get on/off the island and can be tagged on to any trip in the general vicinity.

I would recommend you have a look, it is a very pretty island - but bear in mind this is camping only and it is not a cheap trip. Please tell Tae that Mark and Toom say hello and passed you on.

Many photos of this island as well as much, much more. FB friend to me Mark Vetare

Provided to Tezza (DB), OW Ref #12932 All rights reserved Mark Vetare

Mark sent these perfect end of the day shots for perfect end of report shots.

TEZZA UPDATE - Mark just emailed this to me:
Date: Sun, 29 May 2011
I can unfortunately confirm no camping is allowed and this may include dive groups as well. For a few years dive groups were allowed to come ashore and stake tents. When I was there I saw a few groups, the only large one being Poseidon.
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COCODRILO'S PHOTO TRIP REPORT ON THE SIMILANS ISLANDS - visited late Dec 09.

This is the viewpoint above the back-beach at National Park HQ, Island #4. The nearest boat is Poseidon's overnight snorkelling trip craft. Good snorkelling in the area of the boats in background.

Closer view of Poseidon's boat. Back platform for easy entry/exit to water. Nice shower hoses just above. Big shaded area for eating, relaxing. Sunbathing deck (and space for sleeping under the stars for those who wish) above front cabin and smaller sunning space behind shaded area.

The Poseidon trip was amazing, the staff very knowledgeable, attentive and kind, and the (Thai) food on board was simply excellent!

Chris shot this one of me on a snap expedition.

Chris also got this Manta.

And this moray.

Fish in a feeding frenzy.

Veined coral.

Colourful clam.

Anemones.

-----------------------------------------------------
Thanks Coco. Coco has a bunch more nice pix here.

If you want to fire in a trip report on the Similans or any other location please send text and/or captions plus any pix to lajolla22@hotmail.com. Hopefully we can keep info up to date without me having to return to dozens of islands every second year. There are so many other places I want to visit.

Back to the main Similans and Snorkelling page.

PATTAYA

2010-01-22T19:02:00.000+11:00

Pattaya by night - image Thailand Guide

I visited Pattaya 10 years ago, so my info isn't up-to-date enough to do a page. I did find it a real interesting place to spend a few days - lots of good accommodation in all price ranges, ditto restaurants, great shopping and a really big mix of people from family packagers thru budget travellers like me to the usual suspects chasing rent girls galore.
My personal take is that if you are in the area, take a day or two to check the place out - it will not be wasted time.

Thailand resident and poster to many travel websites Khunwilko has a terrific report on Pattaya and gave me the okay to post it here:

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Here are a few thoughts on Pattaya for those who can’t make up their mind, or are worried about the sex industry and what it’s like for single women, couples, children etc,

Pattaya is a cheap and, in general, cheerful town On the Eastern seaboard of Thailand, the climate is great....just about the driest place on the Thai coast and the cost of living is cheap.....

The image most people have of a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah is really a result of careless and sensationalist reporting by various media around the world. It is true that there are many middle-aged men who have found they can afford to retire here often with a wife or girlfriend half their age – or at least “looks” half their age...who are we to judge? - ...but it is also a fun holiday resort and great value for money.

The demographics are changing – new markets have been found in Eastern Europe and Asia..Korea, Taiwan China and India – the new economies are sending their people on holiday for the first time in many cases and Pattaya is ideal for them

There is also a lot to do if you are a family on holiday.

Visually, the beaches in Pattaya are not up to much compared to elsewhere in Thailand; it’s a very urban environment...rows of umbrellas and deck-chairs. Although people do swim, the sea is rather polluted…how much is unclear….they claim to have cleaned up the water a lot in the last few years and have marked of areas for swimmers. Neighbouring Jomtien beach about a 15 min “bus” ride away looks to be more swimmer-friendly but there is the occasional bout of untreated sewerage there from time to time. (This IS Thailand!). Cosy beach and Sugar beach between Pattaya and Jomtien offer less crowded or urban alternatives. Bear in mind that what is done to monitor pollution on any of the beaches throughout Thailand is not clear. Inevitably, wherever you are, ALL the main holiday beaches in Thailand are subject to pollution from time to time depending on season wind and tides.
Central Pattaya Beach - image Beach Thailand

All the same many people enjoy the beaches in and around Pattaya....At both Pattaya and Jomtien beaches you can hire all sorts of water sports stuff, and it’s all pretty cheap. All beaches have plenty of people selling drinks and snacks etc....have a fresh coconut and drink the liquid inside through a straw....very refreshing!

Off shore there are one or two islands with much nicer beaches, they are easily accessible for a day trip. If you go to Koh Laan, the main beach is really just a row of restaurants etc., but, it’s well worth hiring a moped and driving over to the other side of the island.....views from the top are great and there are some very quiet beaches there. Or simply walk along the coast for a bit to get away from the crowds.
Ko Laan - image PATTAYADB.COM

Further down the coast towards Sattahip there are some quite reasonable beaches, Ban Sare or Ban Amphoe for example.

On the mainland, Pattaya offers a range of amusement parks, gardens, and theme parks and various sports.

There are numerous good quality golf courses, horse riding and motor sports, both karting and a car racing circuit. There are some small airfields nearby for fans of light aircraft too.

Nong Nooch Tropical Gardens although recently scandalised by the Beeb for their treatment of Elephants is worth a visit, just don’t support the Elephant rides. Elephant village is similarly not to be supported. Pattaya Park is a Water World amusement park that offers all the usual water rides plus a revolving restaurant and some hair-rising ways of getting up there and back down. Mini Siam is a miniature tour of Thailand - full of bus-loads of tourists with a MacDonald’s’ at the entrance. Million year old stone park has beautiful gardens - feed the 5ft long catfish! And cringe at the abysmal treatment of tigers and crocodiles. Further a field is Sri Racha tiger Zoo...to be avoided at all costs, and Kao Keow Open Zoo, a refreshing change from the usual callous way animals are treated in Thailand. There is also the “Water World” Aquarium on Sukumvit Rd. Any hotel or travel shop will arrange to take you there. For kids and the easily pleased, there’s also Ripley’s Believe It Or Not and Toys R us!

The Sanctuary of Truth is a rather unexpected attraction given the nature and reputation of Pattaya as a holiday destination. Built by a wealthy business family to celebrate the religions of the world, it is an enormous hand-carved wooden building built on a small promontory at Naklua the Northern end of Pattaya.
You’ll need a Sawngthaew or Motorcycle taxi to get there and it is rather dear to get in....current price unknown.
Work on the building seems to be continually in progress, and provides employment for many artisans and craftsmen from all over the country.
A walk around the site you’ll see carvers at work, inside the building are signs explaining each section of the building, and just marvel at the wonderful if rather crude carving.
The building itself is amazing but there are also some peripheral attractions that don’t seem so wonderful. One can rent a horse to ride around the site. At the time your correspondent was there one of the animals had got out of control and was being chased around the site by clearly untrained staff.
Another “attraction is the dolphin show. Here a small species of Dolphins (they are replaced from time to time!) -are put through there paces in a muddy pond, balancing balls and splashing the audience....it’s all rather embarrassing really.
However, all in all despite the rather second rate other attractions the site is well worth a visit.
The Sanctuary of Truth - image Pattaya Guides

Pattaya offers some of the best shopping outside Bangkok, and it is actually more accessible being sited in a much smaller area. New shopping malls are constantly being built – – Central is the latest to spring up between beach road and second –very “up-market” – lots of “brand-name” shops/restaurants etc etc – food hall and “hi-so” supermarket downstairs. Beach road and second road are the main shopping roads.

Along the beach stalls shops and arcades offer all the usual souvenir stuff and some things that might cause a few raised eyebrows.... (A Samurai Sword or replica gun?!?!). Lots of ersatz stuff and big brand copies, CDs and DVDs for 150 baht, computer programs.....
The malls....several new malls are currently being built or just about to open - Check out the older “MIKE’S” & “ROYAL GARDEN PLAZA” - accessible from Beach Rd or Second Rd) offer more quality goods still at great prices. Royal garden has an eatery with good views of the bay on the top floor and Mikes has a public swimming pool on the roof!
Other Malls around town include “Big C” on 2nd road, Tesco’s on Pattaya North (Nua), and Carrefour on Pattaya Central (Klang), and the new the Avenue Complex on Pattaya Second Road, featuring the Villa supermarket for those craving a taste of home – at a price. All these have a range of other shops and restaurants all under one air-conditioned roof. Tesco and Big C also have stores on Sukumvit Rd - the main road from Bangkok.

From sophisticated malls to traditional street markets, Pattya is a shoppers' paradise - image Lets Go Pattaya

Eating out in Pattaya & Jomtien is a treat! There’s everything form every country and it’s all cheap! Even the up-market stuff is half what you’d pay in Europe. You can eat US, French, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Full English Breakfast, Italian, Belgian, Dutch, German....... The list is endless.....BUT - what am I saying?..............There’s one I’ve missed out....

THAI food! Thai food is wonderful.....everything from mild Chinese based noodles to hot and spicy Issan food....seafood, barbeque, Tom Yam soups...try it...you’ll love it.....if you want to spend a bit of Money try Ruen Thai on 2nd road or Sugar Hut on Thap Phraya Rd, the hill between Jomtien and Pattaya. Ruen Thai has great food from the all regions of Thailand and puts on an ethnic floor show music, dance or even demonstration Thai boxing! Sugar Hut is in fact a very beautiful resort, the restaurant is in a traditional Thai style wooden house. The atmosphere is amazing.... you remove your shoes on entering the dining area and the seating is either traditional low or for those of us who are less flexible there are “normal” height chairs and tables. Everything is teak and silk....just a pity the menu is so badly written and the food is a little on the bland side, but for a one off evening out it’s a must.
At the other end of the price range there are the small Thai restaurants and street stalls dotted all over town....many won’t have a menu in English so just walk in, sit down and look hungry.....let them bring you something and try and guess what it is you’re eating....for (a lot) less than $5 for 2 you can’t go wrong. A bowl of street noodles can be as little as 15 baht.
Just one phrase you might find useful....”Mai Pet” (one for the Geordies!) - this means “not hot”...it won’t mean no chillies but it might bring it down to a level where you can just about eat it! - “Mai Prik” is NO chillies at all.
And for the mindless, bootless and unhorsed, the culturally stagnant and the grossly obese, there is the usual plethora of fast food outlets....McD’s, KFC, and Burger King....how can people eat that stuff!?!?!? And WHY when you are in a land of gastronomic delights, would you? (My comfort food of choice is a big plate of liver and onions - mmmmmmm!)

The night life in Pattaya is legendary....although now the bars officially close at 1.00pm; this does not stop some places from turning music down and carrying on till the early hours of daylight.
There are discos, clubs bars of sorts including the girlie places....

As with almost everywhere in Thailand, the sex trade ripples through Pattaya like veins through a stilton, and in a similar way gives the place its distinctive character. Aimed at both Thais and tourists it is quite unlike the red-light areas of Europe and America, it isn’t nearly as sleazy; mainly it consists of small open bars where (middle-aged) men sit drinking beer and talking to the “bar-girls”. If a tryst is arranged it will probably take place in one of the hundreds of hotels that permit “guests”. There is very little open display of lewdness as this is not approved of in Thailand. The “Go-go Bars” are behind closed doors and have naked or semi naked girls pole dancing or rather holding a pole and swaying to music. You and your (young) family would not be admitted to a Go-go bar – (couples would). If you went to an open beer bar you would be treated as a perfectly ordinary customer and the girls would dote on your children. (They are mostly mothers themselves). ..............and as for the “seediness” how many men do you know go to Hamburg or Amsterdam and find a wife?
High School Musical - Pattaya style (image Gentlemen's Club Pattya)

For something a little more “wholesome” - on 2nd road spend an hour or so at the newly relocated Malibu Bar....it’s a girl and lady-man show....a low budget affair, they make their own elaborate costumes and mime to well-known western songs. Every night they tread the boards from 8 till about 12.00 midnight...sometimes poor and amateurish but always entertaining...DO NOT miss Tina Turner! This guy (now the owner?) is actually quite professional and very good indeed. He does a couple of performances every night and the place fills just to watch his act. Unfortunately sometimes he has to take time off (twice a night, 7 days a week, year in year out - who wouldn’t?!? and the act is performed by a less talented stand-in. All -in- all a great friendly atmosphere, lots of couples and even kids - and no smut!!!!....no admission charge, and they do food.

If you are finding the heat a bit too much there are plenty of enclosed air-conditioned bars with a western theme, be they Irish, English, Belgian or whatever. Here you can eat “comfort food” and watch replays of your favourite old TV shows and live football.

If you’re tired out by all this...get a massage. Make sure it’s actually a massage establishment and not a “gentleman’s relaxation” facility! There are plenty of small boutiques you can go in and get a 1or 2 hour leg rub for about 150 to 400 baht and some beautiful Spas that will pamper you for the best part of a day for a few grand. (Thai baht that is!)

Pattaya remains one of the few seaside towns where anyone can do what they’ve always dreamed of.... But at half the price!

Thanks wilko.
Wilko has an excellent list of 20 THINGS TO THINK ABOUT WHEN VISITING THAILAND
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If you want to do a trip report on Pattaya or any other location, please send info and any pix if you have them to lajoll22@hotmail.com

KO LANTA TRIP REPORTS

2010-01-19T16:22:00.007+11:00

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Gianna's Ko Lanta Trip Report - visited early February 2011

GETTING THERE AND FINDING A PLACE

Passing Lanta ferry.

Phuket Town by ferry to Lanta - 550b per person including pick up from hotel. Easy to book even the evening before as they don't seem to have a cut off point re numbers! We took the 8.30am ferry but there is another at 1pm. The sea was very flat and it took just over 1 hr and 40 mins to Phi Phi, changed boat, then was about 2 hours to Lanta.

It was difficult to find a place because this time there were no touts on the ferry. A lady told us she had fan rooms on Khlong Nin for 600b so we went with her to Coral Beach Bungalows but it was 5k further on from Khlong Nin. Bog standard bungalows on a dirty, rocky beach. So we dumped our bags, paid for 1 night and hired a bike to go looking for something better.
OMG, it was difficult, everywhere was full unless you wanted to pay 2100B and there were only a couple of those.

KHLONG NIN

Khlong Nin beach at low tide.

Finally, we found a room at a place with no name behind the weather station at Khlong Nin. A/c, fridge, hot water in a brand new bungalow (there are 2) for 700b - 2 minutes to the beach!! Go to Beachside Agency and speak to Abdul. We stayed 3 days and only moved because they had a water problem, which they kept trying to fix.

We moved to Baan Rim Lay right on the beach, 600B fan room, hammock on the verandah and 2 sunloungers on the beach for your use!! It was great and we stayed 6 days. Mr Pong, the owner is there all day....you'll know him coz he goes swimming in his yfronts !

Beach in front of Baan Rim Lay Bungalows.

Khlong Nin was perfect for us - great beach and good swimming even at low tide, about 12 restaurants, a few bars and a mini market. Great food at Oasis Sunset, the woman who owns it is from the north so she has some different things on the menu, but the place was packed every night and she only opened this season. Really the best place we found .
Nice Beach Resort a bit further down Khlong Nin also has a good restaurant and does a fab pizza as well as some good Indian dishes. 120b for a chicken masala roti...yum. It was a bit cheaper too than other places. They also have a great massage outfit there called Moon Massage ......excellent 250B thai/oil/foot combo for a general relaxation type massage but the head lady there does a great back massage for any problems you have.
One restaurant to avoid, surprisingly, is Roi Thai. It looks a bit posh and as it was Valentines Day we decided to go. It does cookery lessons so we thought it would be good..........TERRIBLE !! Seriously bad, tasteless food, rubbish service and the quality of the ingredients was poor. So disappointing.
Khlong Nin is gorgeous, the beach is fab and there is enough choice of food places for a nice stay, but by 11pm everything is closed so it's a chilled, lovely relaxing place, ideal for a real chill out beach holiday.

KOH ROK
We did a daytrip to Koh Rok, which was a lovely destination for 1000b each. The speed boat had a capacity of 24 and had 42 people on board, the sea was rough and the engine kept cutting out. We arrived after about 50 mins (me in one of the few lifejackets) and the snorkelling was amazing, better than the Similans. Lion fish, octopus and many many more species of fish and the quantity was huge, fantastic. There are also lots of big monior lizards on the island who will fight over your lunch remains. The restaurant serves basic travellers food and the loos/showers were clean. You can organise to stay in one of the 2 man pop up tents.

Andaman island monitors.

OTHER LANTA LOCATIONS
Ban Saladan is a good place to visit with a few shops and art galleries and a couple of cute places for lunch. Great fruit market for juicy mangos and papayas.
Long Beach looked very busy and quite built up as did Khlong Dao.
We got a bike for 200b for the day and went down to Kantiang Beach which is primarily taken over by the Pimilai Resort built up the hillside but the beach there is again, wonderful. There's a couple of shops and a great bar/restaurant called Same Same but Different which we stopped by for a sundowner.
Lanta has loads to do if you want elephant trekking, canoe trips and the like as well as the snorkelling trips.

Moon Massage at Nice Beach Resort Khlong Nin beach.

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Cocodrilo's Ko Lanta Photo Trip Report - visited late December 09

I stayed 3 nights on Klong Dao - a very nice beach, at Lanta Bee garden. Nice place, very laid back vibe (after coming from Khao lak which was too family-oriented for me), right on the beach and lots of restaurants from where you can drink beer and watch the sunset, then have the catch of the day grilled for you. Best restaurant was"Krua Nidnoy", just a few doors down (on the beach) from Lanta Bee. Fabulous seafood. That was also the only place that made a proper caipirina (woo-hoo!).

Part of klong Dao which is the first beach from the northern ferry landing point.

Picasso Bar on Klong Dao

....from where you can drink beer and watch the sunset....

Local resident.

Kantiang Bay in the south of the island.

Lanta Old Town on the untouristy east coast is one of the nicest cleanest townships in the Andaman.

On the way to/from Lanta Town a stop at one of the viewpoints is a must.

Thanks Coco. Coco has a bunch more Lanta and other Andaman destination pix here.

If you want to submit a trip report on Lanta or any other location please send text and any pix to lajolla22@hotmail.com

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Rachael's Ko Lanta Trip Report - visited December 09

From Kradan we took a ferry to Koh Lanta. There are several beaches to choose from but we opted for Khlong Kong and I would recommend it – there was a great choice of bungalows and chilled out beach bars, a 7/11 and most importantly an ATM – Yey! Plus nice sunsets.
The beach wasn’t quite as beautiful as the earlier islands but it was still clean with white-ish sand and pretty clear water.

We stayed at The Roundhouse which is a small beachfront resort consisting of just 3 bamboo bungalows (find it next to Otto’s). It's run by a Swedish couple who had only recently taken it over so there was still some work in progress. For example there’s no bar or restaurant yet but they had an honesty ‘fridge’ which we could help ourselves to beers from and at only 500 baht a night it was perfect!

On our second day on Lanta we hired a jeep and explored the rest of the island which was fairly easy as it’s pretty small. The roads in the south are rocky and unpaved though so I would avoid them unless you have a 4x4!

We had a look round the National Park (it was disappointing) and stopped for lunch at the viewpoint restaurant which - not suprisingly - had fairly awesome views out over the island.

We went to see a thai kick-boxing match. 'Muay Thai' is the national sport of Thailand so it’s taken very seriously by both the boxers and spectator alike who cheer, shout and frantically place bets as the match progresses. The night kicked off with what is known as the ‘mosquito weight’ – basically 7 & 8 yo old Thai boys with skinny little legs and gloves bigger than their heads – and culminated in the night's ‘big fight’ which featured a 19-year old Swede versus a 50-year old Thai man. Needless to say the Swede won!
I don’t particularly like boxing as a sport but Muay Thai is a lot more skillful and at times quite artistic. Prior to the start of the first round, both fighters perform the 'Wai Kru', a spiritual dance to pay respect to their teacher accompanied by traditional Thai music. Being a successful Muay Thai fighter is the equivalent of being a top premiership footballer in the UK so it's hard not to get caught up in the passion and excitement of the sport!

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Rachael has more on Tao, plus other islands like Lanta, Mook and Bulon Lae on her site A DATE AT THE TATE. She also has a section on Bangkok and some good general info on MONEY, FOOD, COSTS etc.

If you want to submit a trip report on Lanta or any other location please send text and any pix to lajolla22@hotmail.com

Back to the main Ko Lanta page.

Readers' Trip Reports - Ko Jum

2010-01-17T21:04:00.001+11:00

Cocodrilo's Ko Jum Trip Report - visited January 2010

I was hellbent on climbing Mt Pu. I asked my guesthouse owner about it and he said you definitely need a guide as there are no paths, and parts of the mountain are sheer cliffs. Due to the rocky terrain and steep areas, it would be impossible to do in flip-flops, which was all I had so I borrowed a pair of sneakers from the son of the guesthosue owner! Guide charged 1000b which included water and lunch. I am in pretty darn good shape so I ended up exhausting the guide, even though he was leading me at a pretty rapid pace. It's only 450m or so high, and we did it in under 2 hours. Started in the morning so the views were a bit hazy. The beach in shot is North Beach (Luboa).

Climbing Mt Pu - I met some people who tried it without a guide but couldnt get near the top as they had no idea how to get there, thus couldn't see the good viewpoints. Took them a lot longer as well as they were going all over the place, trying to figure out the route.

Mount Pu from Golden Pearl Beach

Gazebo at my On Lee Bungalows - Ting Rai Beach

Bungalow interior - On Lee

Ting Rai Beach - central Ko Jum

Magic Beach - deserted beach a few minutes walk south of Ting Rai by sand away from high tide - by road at all times. Phi Phi in background.

Freedom Bar towards the south end of the island - on the first day, I managed to walk most of the island and see all the beaches (and bars!)

The far southern end of the island and Andaman Beach on Jum's east coast

Leaving Jum - longtails meeting the Lanta-Krabi ferry. 250 baht.

Coco has more Jum shots and a huge range of other Andaman pix here.
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Back to the main Jum page.

Surin Islands

2010-01-14T16:32:00.002+11:00

Bolesav's Surins trip report - visited Dec 09.

View of the main beach where the boat lands - the transportation was with Khuraburi Greenview Resort, but organised for us by our Khao Lak resort owner, who is Dutch - the resort is called Amsterdam Resort, a quiet little place near the beach in Khao Lak.
He reserved the transportation and the bungalows for us (during the week, weekends are busy with Thai people) - the cost of the transportation was TB 1900.
Having Amsterdam organise transport and paying National Parks for the accommodation seemed to be cheaper than the package Greenview Resort was offering and gave us variety at mealtimes. Greenview's package deal meals according to the people who did it this way, were OK but often cold, and the same every night.

We paid for the accommodation once we arrived to the island at the national park's office. National park runs long boats to the snorkeling sites at 9am and 2 pm, the cost per person is 80 TB. cost of the snorkeling gear rent is 80 tb per day
Park has a Nature trail on their map, we tried it and it crosses several broken down bridges, which we climbed anyway, visits nice and quiet beach in front of the Royal navy's barracks and continues to a beach on the other side of the North Surin island.

Tent accommodation on the main beach

Close up of tent area - (tezza-Wow, I'm a sucker for tents on the beach!)

View of the bungalows

Bungalows - we decided on the island bungalows, the cost is 2000TB per night, but you get comfortable bed, own shower, balcony and lockable room vs. tent where there tents are 20 cm apart from each other, approx 25 in a row, hard ground even when using the sleeping mat and no privacy.

Bungalows

Restaurant - food at the restaurant was good, nice variety, too. You have to purcahse "coupons" at the office, you pay with the coupons for the meal and at the end of the stay the office will exchange left over coupons back into TB. the price was TB 80 120 per main meal.One note, the cell phone coverage- we had a local DTAC, but there was no coverage at the islands at all.

Bungalows inside.
----incl bathroom
---- more inside.

SNORKELLING

This is a cuttlefish we saw. A few notes on the snorkeling at the Surins islands- the national park organizes the boat tours 2 a day for 80TB, at 9am and 2pm, the trip lasts approx. 2.5-3 hours included 2-3x snorkeling at 2-3 different stops. We were told the best season for snorkeling is Jan-Feb, when the sea is calm. The Surins were hit partially by Tsunami in 2004 and even though the people at the national park will tell you that all the snorkeling spots are equally nice, I did not find this to be true.

This map was done by Thaiforest Booking - click to expand for a clearer view of the snorkelling sites.
The following is my review of those snorkeling sites I visited:
Ao Pak Kaad (South Surin Island) - coral is damaged, occasionally nice spots, almost no fish.
Ao Tao - coral much healthier and varied than Ao Pak Kaad, not too many fishAo Mae Yai - very colorful and healthy coral, variety of different coral species, several species of fish.
Hian Chong Kaad - very nice healthy coral, soft coral with nemo, the depth very low, easy snorkeling.

Ao Suthep -coral very damaged, no fish
Ko Kland - coral in better shape than Ao Suthep, not very varied
Ao Chong Kaaad - coral mushroom like shape with fish

My favorite snorkeling sites (beauty of coral and fish) - Ao Mae Yai and Hian Chong Kaad
In addition to that there is a site (Ko Torinla) which is supposed to be very nice and supposedly one can see manta rays there in Jan-Feb, we had a bit too big waves in December when I was there so the national park cancelled the boat trip there.

Some web sites that provided me the info on the Surin islands:
SURINS ISLANDS COM
SURINS ISLANDS DIVE SITES
KURABURI GREENVIEW RESORT
AMSTERDAM RESORT KHAO LAK

Thanks Bolesav.
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If you want to submit a trip report on the Surins or any other location please send text and any pix to lajolla22@hotmail.com

Readers' Trip Reports - Ko Tao

2010-01-13T15:16:00.001+11:00

TRIP REPORT BY RACHAEL - visited Dec 09

The journey was pretty typical of travel around Thailand. We were dropped at a restaurant in the port town (probably the bus driver’s sister's cousin's place!), then herded into Songthaews (converted pick-up trucks) to take us to the Surathani pier.
Halfway there the trucks stopped at a petrol station an we were chucked back onto the pavement with no idea what was going on.
Alnother coach arrives and we get on to find our that our ferry has been cancelled and we are going to drive 6 hours up the mainland to Chumpon where a boat will take us to the island. Our ‘boat’ was actually a small cargo ship – after climbing over 2 jeeps, and pallets of vegetables and Thai whisky we made it to the sleeping quarters.
As the pictures show it wasn’t exactly luxury but that’s how Thailand works and after another (surprisingly comfy) night’s sleep we docked into Koh Tao at 6am the next morning.

Ban Kao.
Our favourite beach previously had been Haad Sairee but we were disappointed to find that it had been hugely developed since our last trips. Where there had once been just a few bamboo bungalows was now a mass of horrid, concrete buildings spreading out onto the sand so the beach was nothing more than a tiny sliver. Dejected, we hopped in a taxi and headed to Ban Kao on the South side of the island and were excited to find the Koh Tao we remembered still existed there – just a few resorts and a small, curved, palm fringed cove. We stayed in a concrete bungalow at the Big Fish Resort for 500 baht a night which was simple but comfy.

We visited Nang Yuan island which is a short longtail boat ride away and has 3 gorgeous forest covered islands connected by sandbanks at low tide. There is a 50 baht admission fee per person which I assume goes towards preserving the island and to that end, you can't take plastic bottles/bags in (although the island has a restaurant and beach bar so you won't starve or go thirsty!) If you like snorkelling there are several reefs to explore although get there as early as you can - its becoming a hugely popular dive site and the water was pretty busy by late morning . If you're feeling active you also can climb up to the island lookout for a breathtaking view.

On our last day I nagged Andy into hiring us a moped (well it only cost us £3 - bargain!). It was a pretty scary experience though given the lack of helmets/insurance, unpaved roads and Thai traffic laws (i.e. there are none) but with slow progress we did manage to see a bit of the island including a rather cool whale skeleton!

It was my 26th birthday whilst on Koh Tao. I wasn’t expecting anything given that the holiday was a big treat in itself but Andy still surprised me with cake, some little presents, sweeties and a Happy New Year card (apparently they had no birthday ones!). He also treated me to lunch and dinner (a big deal when you’re on a backpacker budget) so thank you Andy for a lovely day! :)
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Rachael has more on Tao, plus other islands like Lanta, Mook and Bulon Lae on her site A DATE AT THE TATE. She also has a section on Bangkok and some good general info on MONEY, FOOD, COSTS etc.

If you want to submit a trip report on Tao or any other location please send text and any pix to lajolla22@hotmail.com
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Back to the main Ko Tao page.

Ko Kradan Trip Reports

2010-01-12T21:23:00.015+11:00

Boleslav's Ko Kradan Revisit - December 2011

The main eastern beach from the rocks further north. All bungalow places/resorts except Paradise Lost and Ao Niang are located at this beach.

Here is an update on the Paradise Lost.

Wally's walking and eye sight is not as good as was last year, now he is using the walker to get between the restaurant and the bungalow. Yet his mid is still very sharp.

There is a free wifi at the Paradise Lost now and although Wally has an email, it is still more reliable to send him a text message then an email.

He started to build this hut where there will be a small minimart and a travel agency, it is located behind his restaurant toward the jungle. He said that many guests are asking him and Nook to organize transport to other islands and other trips, so he may as well have an agency to do it. Wally said that Sai from KK travel started her own agency, he was not too impressed with their service as they were not always answering their phones.

Wally partnered up with a friend who used some of the space behind the main restaurant to open an Italian restaurant there called Oasis, serving purely Italian food, pizzazz, calzone, spaghetti etc. The prices there for the main meal started at 250TB per dish.

The main restaurant at Paradise Lost.

We walked once along The main beach, it is getting build up more and more. Seven Seas added more bungalows and toward the northern end there is another guy building another resort.

Note that Wally has a three legged dog called Tripod, many people take pity on him, but be aware, he is the head of the pack and not friendly, do not try to pet him.

Below are some of Paradise Lost's bungalows.

Our Approach to Ko Kradan.
We arrived on Freedom Adventures' Boat from a multiday visit to Ko Rok - we asked them to drop us off on Ko Kradan.

Less seen view - Ko Kradan from the west

Rounding the south-west corner - that is the beach just west of Ao Niang resort mid-background

Ao Niang's beach on the south coast - this is the best snorkelling beach

The south-east corner

Part of the main eastern beach - the northern track to Paradise Lost in the jungle starts behind that fence.

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Ko Kradan, revisited by BOLESLAV - late November 2010

Kradan from Ko Muk (tezza note - boleslav's camera malfunctioned this trip but I had some spare shots from my June 2010 visit)

Wally's health is much better then last year, he can walk better and his mood was glowing. His hospitality remains wonderful, meal portions large. He remains opened all year long.
This year he built two new bungalows with large room and huge bathroom, remodeled one bungalow and the kitchen, which has more open feel. Nook threatened him if he keeps building more bungalows, she'll quit, so I think that there will be no more new bungalows in the future.
He had landscaper working on his garden in the low season, there are more plants separating some bungalows growing up.
Wally remains self appointed protector of the island's nature and had to call in the authorities in the past month as there was illegal logging going on behind the Ao Nang resort.
Nook now has her own motorcycle so that she does not have to walk from the Paradise Lost to the beach :)

Main eastern beach o n Kradan.

We were staying there in the end of November and Wally was happy to report he is fully booked, mostly by Europeans.

The rundown on the accommodation options at the Paradise Lost:
All the beds have mosquito nests
5 dorm beds, 250TB each, can use 5 outside toilets and 2 showers
3 Bungalows have double bed, are using the toilet and shower outside near the kitchen, the cost 600 TB per night
1 bungalow has private bathroom (huge) and queen size bed, the cost 1200 TB per night (newly rebuilt in 2010)
3 bungalows have private bathroom and king size bed, the cost 1200 TB per night
2 bungalows are luxury, have larger room, larger bathroom and king size bed, the cost 1500 TB per night (those are newly built in 2010)
2 rooms in one larger cabin, so called family bungalow, can be rented by large family, share the bathroom and shower, can be rented separately, the cost 1000 per room per night.

Some of Paradise Lost's older bungalows. The newer bungalows are behind camera, up the gentle slope from the restaurant. The ones in shot are 20m east of the restaurant.

The pack of his dogs is much smaller than last year as 5 of his dogs were poisoned by a Muslim neighbour.

We organized the transportation from Trang to Ko Kradan via KK Travel, Wally recommended agent there named Sai who speaks very good English. tel 075-211198, 223664, 081-8945955
There is regular transportation leaving Trang at 11am, costs 450 TB to get you to Ko Kradan, if you can not make this departure time, the private transport is 1200TB per boat and 800TB for the van.
We called the KK Travel from Krabi and upon arrival to Trang town, they picked us up, free of charge, from the bus station.
KK Travel pushed us a little to organize the return transportation with them, which is not necessary as either Wally can organize it or there are fixed departures scheduled at 9 am and 12:30 for 450 TB per person.

Leaving Kradan with Wally's regular mainland boatie.

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Ko Kradan by VOO888DOO (napster) - Visited December 09

On the way to Ko Kradan, passing by Ko Mook

Finally reaching Ko Kradan, luckily we choose Ko kradan over Ko Mook, fantastic seaview. Beachfront of Kradan Beach Resort.

Fan room, thb900 per day per room during high season.

Restaurant of kradan beach resort.

Most resorts located on east coast, facing Ko Mook. Very nice seaview.

Crab can be seen easily. Can you do so in Patong or Ao Nang?

Free kayaking ride provided from Kradan Beach Resort to all their customers.

I would rank Kradan Island as my top island that i been to in thailand, followed by Bamboo Island, Krabi.

Sunset Beach, west coast of Ko kradan facing Indian Ocean. Best for sunbathing and swimming since the whole world here belongs to you (no people here).

Napster has a heap more nice shots and text on his own travel site HERE.
He also has another site with Asian travel info HERE.
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Boleslav's Kradan Trip Report - visited December 09

Just back from Paradise Lost, spent a week there, loved it, it was not that easy to find much info, so hope this can help to others:

The owner, Wally can be reached at +66-89 587 2409, either call him, the connection is bad sometimes or send him a text message, he does not have internet hooked up, so do not send him an email.

Wally will reserve the space for and his reservation system is reliable(I booked in September for December stay),had our bungalow ready for us no problems.
His resort is 5 minutes walk into the heart of the island , if you have lots of luggage, Wally will pick it up by the small motorcycle with side car.

Accomodation:
image - Paradise Lost website

There are 9 bungalows there
the bungalows are either without shower (for 700TB/night)
smaller with shower (900TB/night)
larger with shower (1200TB/night)
all have mosquito nets,
or
there are 4 dorm beds in the open verandah for 250tb/night)

Transportation:
Wally can help with the transportation to the island from Trang or other places. We used Tigerline ferry, but there are cheaper options

The cost of food:
(note that the portions are generous)
breakfast : from TB 80-150 (selection of american breakfast, sandviches, omelette, mussli,fruit...)

Lunch/dinner-
average price 120-200TB per meal, beverages extra, selection of Thai meals or spagetti, french fries hamburger...
or if you are really hungry, you can get New Zealand steak either 1 kilo for gents (1800TB)
or 1/2 kilo for ladies (1200TB)

cost of the rent:
snorkeling gear- 100tb per day (note that the selection is very limited)
kayak: 150tb/hour or 400tb/half day

Wally can organize 4 island snorkeling tour visiting: Emerald cave (the best time to go there is around 8:30 before the hordes from day boats get there and you have the pirates cave for yourself)
Ko Chuk, Ko Ma and Ko Ngai, 2400TB/ longboat, so if you get more people together, it'll be cheaper.

The activities:
kayak around the island -took us 3 hours with the stops on some lonely beaches

The main eastern beach - image Paradise Lost website

Snorkeling from the beach - the best is in from of the national park, when looking into the sea, there is orange buoy, swim right from there
or
snorkeling from the South beach (access via path from Paradise lost)
Swimming-
from anywhere really, just a bit more difficult when the tide is low

Sunset watching-
heavenly from the Sunset beach or the viewpont above Sunset beach, access to the beach from Paradise lost

Sunrise -
from the main beach in front of the resorts

Other note:
Wally has 9 Thai ridgeback dogs, who will greet anyone with nice bark, but are friendly, some shy.

Wally looks like he does not pay attention but that's very deceiving, he knows what's going on, will ask you every morning if everything is OK, make sure his manager books anything you requested, just the perfect manager, not in your face, but making sure all's running smoothly.

He runs generators 24hrs, so there's TV, very cold beer, water, homemade ice cream and lights around the resort.

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Ko Kradan by Rachael - visited Dec09

Andy and I are agreed that this was the most stunning place we visited – it really is picture perfect with blindingly white sand and the most turquoise water you’ve ever seen!

From what we could see there are just 4 places to stay on Kradan. Two high end resorts called Seven Seas and Anantara which were well out of our budget, Paradise Lost and the Kradan Beach Resort. We stayed at the latter which was ok but nothing special if I’m honest. We had a concrete bungalow in a longhouse which was a row back from the beachfront ones and cost 900 baht (£18). Breakfast is included but was a bit manky (a buffet of cold fried eggs and frankfurters which the local birds seemed to enjoy – let’s just say we stuck to toast). The staff were a bit moody too although on an island as beautiful as Kradan its easy to forget the negatives!

Sunset at the western beach.

Paradise Lost was unfortunately full when we visited. Run by an American chap Wally and his Thai wife plus their dozen dogs for company, it’s a 5 minute walk into the forest and consists of maybe half a dozen bungalows in a clearing. We ate dinner there a couple of times and the food was great – rumour has it that their Pad Thai has won awards and make sure you try the garlic bread and homemade ice cream with a shot of baileys poured over the top!
Dinner at Wally's

We spent 5 lazy days on Kradan doing very little although our second day there was a little more eventful when I managed to cut my foot open on a rock in the sea. It was like a scene from jaws but Andy came to the rescue by whipping off his t-shirt and wrapping it around my foot before giving me a fireman’s lift back up the beach (thanks my hero – I still owe you a new top :P ) A trip back to Koh Mook’s clinic and 2 stitches followed which meant no more paddling for me.

Rachael has a bunch of other island reports which she graciously is allowing me to shorten and present here, plus some extra pix on her own blog A DATE AT THE TATE.
She has a good section on PACKING, including WHAT TO TAKE - FOOD - COSTS - GETTING AROUND.
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Sessa has some Kradan stuff on her Multi-Island trip report Jan-Feb 2011 HERE

And wonderingstar has a March 2011 trip report with a lot of updated info HERE

If you want to submit a trip report on Kradan or any other location please send text and any pix to lajolla22@hotmail.com

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Lots more info and pix on the main Kradan blog page.