Phuket and South Thailand

The sea of Thailand: photo and travel diary

in search of the perfect beach
Thailand is very rich in spectacular beaches and islands, but here we present two particularly wild sea destinations: Ko Yao Noi (with the nearby Ko Yao Yai ) And the Surin Islands. The description of our itinerary follows, with many photos, lots of information and a short travel diary.
(For general information on prices, climate, transport, etc., visit The general travel page In Thailand and Laos , where you will also find links to other destinations, including Bangkok).

The sea of Thailand: photo and travel diary

Ko Yao Noi and Ko Yao Yai
Ko Yao We are one of the largest islands in Phang Nga bay. Long a fifteen kilometers, presents several beaches, a lot of jungle, cultivated fields and villages not yet touched by tourism. If in your travel itinerary in southern Thailand you want to avoid other tourists (not for dislike, eh, simply to travel to adventure) this is the right place.

We reached Ko Yao us from Krabi airport: a bus took us to the Tha Len pier, from where a wooden boat sailed for the island in the midst of strange rocky islands.

We stayed at the Guesthouse Holiday Resort, on the beach, which also had a bar/restaurant with beautiful outdoor tables that they knew of vacation. We rented a scooter with which to turn the island, between beaches and jungle. The guesthouses and the few bars (up to that point empty, but they would probably be filled in the Christmas holidays) focused in the south-east part of the island.
We agree to gestures with an agency for a boat trip and kayaking to the islands in the eastern part of the Bay of Phang Nga. After a dinner in a good restaurant, we went to sleep early - as almost always, during our travel itinerary in Thailand. The morning has gold in the mouth, for the traveler in the vein of discoveries.
The excursions to the islands of the Bay of Phang Nga was only for us, aboard a long-tailed boat, on which the couple of the Agency loaded a double canoe and paddles.

The wild islets of which it is full of Phang Nga Bay generally have steep walls on which a lush vegetation climbs and at the inside of which are opened amazing caves. In some caves Thai workers climb with bamboo stairs to take - it seems - swallow nests.

we paid admiring deserted beaches, monkeys, stalactites ... the strong piece of this kayak itinerary was Ko Hong, with its vast internal lagoon.

The water was not very clear, due to the type of almost muddy backdrop of the Bay of Phang Nga, but the beaches were clamorous, and the rest we would have been able to see another crystal clear sea during the holiday ...
by boat We walked the open sea traits, for the rest we turned between the canoe islands.

The next day, with our rental scooter, we decided to give a further turn to our Thai travel itinerary. We then headed to the pier with ferries to the island of Ko Yao Yai. The ferry was actually a wooden boat on which the scooter was loaded, with the risk of dropping him into the sea. So we went to Ko Yao Yai.

Ko Yao Yai is larger, quiet and wild than Ko Yao us. The Muslim population wanted to be quiet and had not allowed the development of tourist facilities. On the island we met very long deserted beaches, infinite white arches that separated the sea from the forest.

The backdrops were often low and muddy: ten and praise landscape, but water not swimming in the dream sea of Thailand.

We returned to Ko Yao we in the late afternoon to dine in our guesthouse, where we ate the excellent crab accompanied by the Immanciable Chang beer, the twenty-seventh I believe in the first three days of vacation.
Always with the boat of the same pair of the trip of Two days before, and with a double kayak, we went to the island of Ko Panak, in the western part of the Bay of Phang Nga. This was a paradise for the canoeist. Along the route we saw cliffs, caves, stalactites and, above all, the Hong . Hongs are incredible internal lagoons to Phang Nga bay islands. On the first one we found accessed by chance by thining in a tiny and deep hole in the cliff. That internal lagoon was surrounded by rocks and wild vegetation. There were only us, what an absolute peace!

It was one of the most exciting and adventurous moments of the journey. After enjoying the Hong now we decided to return to our canoe itinerary.

Ko Panak is quite large, so we paid for a long time. We met another cave at some point, complete with monkeys. Here were tourists and it was easy to understand that the cave was the entrance of a large and winding natural marine tunnel, certainly more than 100 meters long, which led to another Hong. Obviously it was completely dark and the front torch was absolutely necessary. Thus we arrived at another wonderful Hong in the middle of Ko Panak. Peak walls left room at some point at a thick vegetation. The mangroves grow on the water.

At the end of this new adventure we continued our canoeist itinerary by meeting deserted beaches and strange rocks until the dick of Ko Panak and find the boat to finish. Phang Nga bay is ideal for an adventurous vacation!

We then returned to Ko Yao us, where we jumped on the boat that would take us to Phuket to continue the travel itinerary between the islands of Thailand.

Nai Yang Beach (Phuket Island)
Our stay in Phuket ridipped to two nights and one morning on the beach of Nai Yang. This is one of the most peaceful areas of Phuket island, with few restaurants on sand, no transgressive local and few tourists (relative to the rest of Phuket - many compared to Ko Yao, of course). We reached the beach in Minibus (after having arrived by boat from Ko Yao Noi).

We stayed at the Family Houses hotel, a quiet place on a beautiful beach. From there a tour took us to van and boat to the Surin Islands, on which we stopped three days (see below). We then returned to the Family Houses for a last night in Nay Yang.
Break the trip to Nai Yang Beach within a hyperactive vacation is really pleasant. Nai Yang is a long beach to walk and bathe. We found it practically deserted in the morning, apart from the fishermen's boats, with whom you can organize a trip to the nearby coral reef (but it is better to stretch your itinerary by going to the Surin Islands!).

At the end of our vacation among the Thai Islands, a taxi took us to Phuket airport (very close to Nai Yang) and flew to Laos, the next goal of our trip.

Surin Islands
A national park and authentic natural paradise, the Archipelago of the Surin Islands is accessible in an hour and a half of boat (fast). We had booked a tour on the Internet with the Khao Lak Travel Center, an almost inevitable solution because all the tents and the few bungalows present on the Wild Islands Surin are managed by the park's body, with which it is difficult to interact for an independent traveler.

Our solution (3 days and 2 nights in a tent, with camping equipment provided by the Tour Operator) allowed us to fully enjoy these fantastic islands, which I absolutely recommend inserting in your travel itinerary in southern Thailand despite being perhaps more Uncomfortable of other destinations. The first day we were snorkeling on the coral reef and visited a Moken village, a nomadic fishing population.

Unfortunately the 2004 tsunami revolutionized the life of the Moken, forced to live in a more permanent way. Moreover, in that vacation we could admire beautiful and colorful backdrops, but also many white corals broken by the tsunami.

The tour included meals in the discreet National Park restaurant. In the evening she was at the beach in absolute peace and went to sleep in a tent one step away from the water.

The landscape, especially near the park, was amazing: white sand, crystal clear sea, jungle, some varano, birds ... in short, only nature, apart from the curtains and a few wooden structures. Our third day of vacation in the surin archipelago offered us the opportunity to snorkel first with a turtle, then with sharks of the length of a metro and a half, as well as with millions of colored fish.

We returned to Nai Yang, in Phuket, on the evening of December 25th. While we went there, the number of tourists on the Surin islands increased with all travelers arrived in Thailand for Christmas holidays. A sin, because I lived in peace The Archipelago delle Surin was one of the most extraordinary places in our travel itinerary.

(Pssst, from here the journey continues in laos ).

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