A Taste of Thailand

Dedy On Senin, 13 Januari 2014

Sea view at Yao Noi 

the great escape

They’re steamy, spicy and tantalising, just like the distinctive cuisine: Rob Woodburn enjoys the best of Thailand’s holiday islands.


The beguiling islands of Thailand are sprinkled across the Andaman Sea and along the coast of the Gulf of Thailand. 

With sandy coves washed by a limpid turquoise sea and misty interiors, mountainous and jungle-strewn, these dreamy isles are dazzling to the imagination and promise affordable tropical indulgence.  

Linked to the mainland by causeway, Phuket is not only its largest island but also Thailand’s most popular offshore destination and one of the world’s top scuba-diving spots. More than a third of all tourists to Thailand spend some time here. The international airport is in the island’s north, 32 kilometres from the main tourist area.

Phuket is similar in size to Singapore and, although rugged and forested, can be spectacularly crowded at times, particularly from December to March and in August, when its west-coast beaches are often packed to capacity. Given this popularity, you can expect accommodation options that span the spectrum, from simple bungalows to five-star, luxury spa resorts. 

Sunset on Koh Lanta

 

Many beaches and properties on the island’s west coast, facing the Andaman Sea, were devastated by the tsunami of 26 December 2004. All Phuket’s main tourist areas have since recovered. Today, the three main holiday havens are the southern beaches of Patong, Karon and Kata. 

Beaches to the north of Patong are more tranquil. Some of Thailand’s top luxury resorts are found here, in particular along Bang Tao beach, where such silken exclusivity commands prices to match. 

A 4WD tour into the interior reveals Phuket to be a mix of wilderness and rainforest, with intriguing limestone caves and a patchwork of fruit and spice plantations. Tours can include jungle hiking and elephant trekking on creatures rescued from logging camps. A day-tour to the Asia Safari and Elephant Camp at Khao Lak, north of Phuket, may also include an elephant ride and river rafting.

The town of Phuket, on the island’s south-east coast, has fine restaurants and excellent markets. Increase your knowledge of local culture on a tour to some of Phuket’s 29 temples and absorb further local flavour wandering through open-air food markets in Patong, Kata, Rawai and Phuket town. 

Turquoise sea and Thai sunshine
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Tourist attractions include the Phuket Aquarium, a butterfly and insect garden, and Phuket Orchid Garden & Thai Village, where you can watch folk-dancing, Thai boxing demonstrations and an elephant show. Many holidaymakers enjoy a big night out at Phuket FantaSea’s 5,000-seat restaurant, with its Las Vegas-style floorshow.

Outdoor island activities include golf, tennis, horse-riding, go-karting and sports fishing. And as befits a leading dive destination, Phuket offers all manner of recreational diving options, from novice ‘holiday’ dives to Open Water and Advanced certification courses.

Popular daily boat excursions visit beautiful Phang Nga Bay in the north-east, renowned for limestone outcrops that rise vertically from the sea like towering sentinels. One of the top attractions is ‘James Bond Island’, which featured in 1974’s The Man with the Golden Gun. Nearby Koh Panyi has a fascinating stilt village. You can also kayak in the bay.

Koh Yao Noi and Koh Yao Yai are two large islands in Phang Nga Bay lying between Phuket and Krabi on the mainland. Both are becoming more popular for walking, kayaking and snorkelling, yet still offer a more rural and relaxed experience than Phuket. Ko Lanta Yai is the largest island in the Lanta archipelago, off Krabi. It’s intensively developed along its west coast – though as it bears the brunt of the monsoon, the place can be practically deserted from April until November.    

Beachside dining Thailand island style
 

Koh Phi Phi Don and Koh Phi Phi Leh are neighbouring islands that lure thousands of tourists each year. Most visitors stay in the central village on Phi Phi Don, sandwiched between two bays, Lo Dalam and Ton Sai: much of the village was swept away by the 2004 tsunami but has since been extensively rebuilt. Along its narrow lanes of bars, snack joints, dive outlets, cafés and shops, you can find cheap clothing and food, Internet access, bottled water and laundry facilities plus tickets for excursions to Maya Beach on neighbouring Phi Phi Leh, made famous in the film version of The Beach. Avoid visiting here over Christmas and Easter holiday periods, when the local infrastructure is sorely strained. 

To escape Phi Phi’s sun-worship crush, take a long-tailed boat to the island’s north, home to sea gypsies and a smattering of small, quiet resorts. A beach stroll along the sand at dawn, as the sun’s rays gleam on golden shrines, will impart a feeling of heaven on Earth.

The Similan Islands, a tiny archipelago of nine isles around 80 kilometres north-west of Phuket, are considered Thailand’s top dive region, renowned for their fine coral reefs and huge array of reef fish. Typically, the Similans are visited by live-aboard dive cruises, though day-trips from Khao Lak are possible between November and May.

Sunset over Koh Trang
 

Still farther north lie the Surin Islands, a quintet of isles boasting beautiful bays and dense jungle along with diving, snorkelling and game-fishing. A dive site known as Richelieu Rock (or Hin Bonam) is famous for attracting whale sharks, particularly between February and April. The national park office is on the main island of Surin Nuea. Between November and April, ferries make the four-hour crossing to the Surins from Khura Buri Pier, about 125 kilometres from the town of Phang Nga.

Thailand’s second biggest island is Ko Chang, also known as Elephant Island, one of 47 in a national marine park off the eastern gulf coast, which extends south-east of Bangkok from Chonburi to Trat, close to Thailand’s border with Cambodia. 

Ko Chang is mostly covered in undisturbed rainforest, which is home to an astounding variety of exotic wildlife. There are waterfalls, fishing villages and secluded bays, dive schools at the four large beaches on the west coast, and an abundance of fresh seafood. Access is by ferry from Laem Ngop on the mainland. 

Boats can be taken from Ko Chang to nearby Koh Kut, another peaceful island with coconut and rubber plantations and a growing tourist infrastructure, much like nearby Koh Mak.

Beachside shrine on Phi Phi
 

Located midway off the eastern gulf coast, Koh Samet’s silky white-sand beaches are within much easier reach of Bangkok and hence are extremely popular with locals and foreigners: the island is crowded at weekends and on public holidays. There’s no shortage of simple bungalow accommodation or places to eat, however, and camping is allowed. The island’s south is much quieter than its north.

The country’s third-largest island is Koh Samui, off the Kra Isthmus in the Gulf of Thailand. It was virtually ‘undiscovered’ by westerners until the late 1970s, when the first guest huts began sprouting beside the east-coast beaches at Chaweng and Lamai. Development has not ceased since. 

Koh Samui is now Thailand’s second most popular island destination, with a busy airport, upmarket resorts and a golf course. Chaweng and Lamai have become bustling beach towns with fast-food outlets, shopping strips, bars, nightclubs, souvenir stalls and hawkers. 

Longtail boat at Koh Phi Phi


A round-island road takes in the sights, including the famous Big Buddha in the north. This road also makes it easy to eschew the east side of the island for less exploited and more tranquil sections along its west coast.

Nearby Koh Pha Ngan is best known for hedonistic full-moon beach parties, events that lure thousands of young travellers, who dance all night to pulsating beats at various venues along Hat Rin Beach. 

Don’t let this frenetic image deter you from discovering the quiet coves and calm beaches that fringe the island’s north-east coast. Pha Ngan is quite large, with lots of forest and plenty of tranquil areas. It’s still less developed than Koh Samui, yet has accommodation to suit all budgets. 

Fishermen return at sunset to Kata Beach, Phuket


Mu Ko Ang Thong National (Marine) Park, west of Koh Samui, encompasses more than 40 islets and includes marvellous beaches, lagoons, caves and limestone formations. There’s great snorkelling and scuba-diving here, though true underwater aficionados steer further north, to Kho Tao, one of the Gulf of Thailand’s best dive sites.

Koh Tarutao lies within a national marine park in Thailand’s far south: Survivor Thailand was filmed here. In addition to clean white sands, waterfalls, hiking trails and reef snorkelling, the island is home to the dusky langur, mouse deer, a fishing cat and a crab-eating macaque. Tarutao can be reached by ferry or speedboat from Pak Bara jetty, with a park fee payable on arrival. The park is officially closed for the monsoon season from mid-May until mid-November.

Tarutao and nearby Koh Adang, Koh Lipe and Koh Rawi remain relatively undeveloped but are become increasing popular with adventurous travellers. It’s recommended that visitors step lightly here and expect to be self-sufficient, as facilities are minimal. 

Relaxing island stlye in a small and beatiful cove
 

Thailand’s southern province of Trang has a typically Andaman coastline: sandy beaches washed by a celadon sea, remote and practically deserted islands, and a maze of limestone formations equal to those distinguishing Phang Nga Bay. Boats from Pak Meng visit islets with romantic names like Koh Mook and Koh Kradan that evoke a sense of what Koh Samui and Koh Phi Phi might have been like, before tourism changed them forever.

Photography courtesy Tourism Authority of Thailand.


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