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last visited February 2014
Offshore islands from the roof pool of The Kantary Bay hotel, Cape Panwa, a quiet area in the south-east of Phuket.



Karon from the southern end. This is one loooooong beach - it took me 50 minutes to stroll from the far end. That was after walking Kata Yai in 20, the headland in another 10. Good thing there are a couple of neat beach restaurants/bars immediately behind camera for a revitalising cheap cold Chang - or three.


20 minutes on the return leg - still short of half way. Note the lifeguard flags - Karon has several sets along the beach as do most Phuket beaches in dry season. Not that the sea is dangerous then - only drunks and careless jet ski riders will get into trouble. Wet season is different - the sea is often dangerous. Fortunately the big 3 beaches and several  others have lifeguards then too, despite it being low season. Nevertheless too many people are still drowning at Phuket in low season - maybe you could read my SOME TIPS ON NOT DROWNING page for some strategies for if you get into trouble.


Karon from the north end. Probably least crowded section but still popular. Like the two Katas there is some okay snorkelling off the headland rocks for novices.

Like most Phuket beaches Karon has a vast array of accommodation from one star up. The web booking sites are good usually starting at 2 star - and for the cheapest rooms above shopfronts etc it is just a matter of arriving and checking the signs.
Jamie some time ago supplied news of new Karon budget accommodation in a good location: "The Pineapple Guesthouse in Karon will have a backpackers dorm ready within the next couple of weeks, 150 - 200 Baht/night."


SOUTH-CENTRAL WEST COAST BEACHES
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Labels will be clearer of you click-expand. The main beach at Patong (between markers) is 2.8km long and is around 36km from the airport. Not too many people know of the beaches on the southern peninsula.

PATONG 
Patong gets bad press for walls of sun lounges, overcrowding, heaps of yobbos chasing Thai rent girs and higher prices for foood and booze than many other Phuket locations. But the shopping is good, there is a huge variety of accommodation from gorgeous resorts where you would never know you are at Phuket's most criticised beach, thru nice mid-rangers to thousands of comfortable budget rooms above businesses; people watching is good value and the beach itself has white sand, pretty nice water and plenty of space to put the sarong down if you don't want a sun lounge.
Plus if you check down page a little, there are some very nice less visited beaches a short distance along the southern headland.

Typical Patong scenes - shoulder season early Dec 2010. Note earlier comments about dangerous surf here in low season (May-midNov).

Whoa! I don't care what anyone says - the Russian invasion of Phuket sure has some pluses. 

LOW SEASON PARADISE NEAR PATONG
The south end of Patong beach is book-ended by a sizable headland. If you follow the continuation of Patong's beach road where it heads steeply up the hill once crossing the small bridge you will come to 3 nice beaches, 2 of which are nicely sheltered from the wet season westerlies when nearby Patong is blown out and nasty.

Tri Tra Beach is the first you come to - notice calm water whereas I'd just walked the length of Patong in background and it was blown-out - wet seaon June 2010. A couple of beach restaurant/bars here plus midrange Tri Trang Beach Resort (white building - click to expand shot - yep, that's what it's called despite overlooking Tri Tra). Water gets shallow at lowest tide.

Tri Trang Beach. This is little further along on the opposite side of the road - the Merlin Beach Resort with its own nice little beach. Nice sand but lots of rock in the water - I understand it isn't good for swimming at low tide. Because this faces west it was copping the blowy conditions which can develop in low season but would be a sweet spot on calmer wet season days and in dry season when the wind is from the opposite direction. I saw a big storm coming in off the sea and scuttled up to a neat headland restaurant (not part of the hotel) for this shot - drank cheap beer for 15 minutes while it poured - one of 2 similar wet periods that day.

Near the tip of the peninsula is another sheltered wet season beach, Paradise Beach. This small strip of sand has a similar stretch over a small headland behind camera. Access is thru private land and there is a 100b charge to go onto the beach itself which gets you a beach lounge and showers. I normally hate the idea of paying for a beach but having seen how crap Patong was that day, this place in comparison was indeed a sheltered paradise and well worth it. You can snorkel. There is an okay restaurant - prices are a bit more than budget to start with but threw me a bit when they added 10% govt tax, the only one of dozens to do this that trip. One caveat - the reef is very close to shore making swimming less easy at dead low tide.



NORTH-CENTRAL WEST COAST BEACHES
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Kamala is 2km long and about 25km from the airport, Laem Sing(h) only 300m in length - maybe 22km and Surin 800m and 20km. The small beach immediately left (north) of Surin is Pansea - it can only be reached by boat because the two flash hotels there, the Chedi and Amanpuri block land access. Don't let them kid you the beach itself is private - there are no private beaches in Thailand. The beach partly seen higher at left of frame is Bang Tao, a long beach the central section of which is home to the mega Laguna complex of luxury hotels etc. - 

KAMALA
This is the next beach north of Patong, but it's a fair haul, not one you will want to walk. See my later comments about travelling BETWEEN the beaches.

Kamala is a very attractive beach. In high season it tends not to get overcrowded, but there are still enough restaurants and bars for people to enjoy themselves. Plenty of accommodation and this is the location of the famous Fantasea attraction.

In Jan 09Matt and Suzzie sent me this info on Phuket:
We're big fans of Kamala Beach and off-season (July/August) we like the peace there.
The beach isn't very well looked after at that time of year in parts, but the town has a nice laid-back vibe. Benjamin Resort on Moo 3 (Beach Road) near the school has some great rooms overlooking the bay (especially rooms C1 and C2, B1 and B2), and if you tell them yer planning to stay more than a couple of days you can get them down to 500baht, including breakfast. They're well maintained, airy, and the balconies are perfect fer watching the sunset over the ocean.
Go down to the beach at this time and all the locals are out paddling and playing footie. Kamala has plenty of options with restaurants and bars, and off season you can have the pick of the bunch. The tuk-tuk mafia are bastards though, and there's no cheap way of getting around other than the songthaeow that goes round the houses.

Kamala Beach - low season August 09. A nice section of sand, clean water, even a few surfable body-waves this time of year. This is shot just north of Benjamin Resort at the end of a handful of similar unpretentious accommodation places lining a short shopping street roughly parallel to the beach. There is a similar accommodation/restaurant street parallel to the beach up near those casuarinas in the middle of the beach. The popular midrange Kamala Beach Hotel and Resort is behind the palms just over the top of the umbrella on right. There are several other midrange and better resorts in the area, some back from the beach and others along the coast road just to the south where it winds up into higher country. Lots of condo development going on in this higher area too.This beach will never look built-out because a big Muslim cemetary takes up the northern section behind the trees.I got the impression that Kamala would be a quieter version of Kata in high season. Which would not be too bad at all. (I managed to check Kamala high season 2010 - yep, a quieter Kata).

UPDATE AUGUSTO9 - I decided to spend some time at Kamala and heeded Matt and Suzzie's advice about the Benjamin. This is the view directly west from one of the beachfront room's balcony - the view to the right is an elevated vegetation-filtered version of the previous shot. Note the rocks behind the lanterns in this pix - the sea is shallow this south end at lowest tide but fine and with no rocks in the middle and north ends.
Benjamin is a good value place. Not flash but big comfortable clean rooms with TV, frig - beachfront for 500 with brekka when we visited in low season. Note brekka is tea/coffee, toast and jam. Good little shopping street on the other side of the hotel with a fair selection of restaurants, clothing stores, a few bars and a 711. Even had a girly bar but low key. One of the girls, God bless here, rang her uncle to take Lady Tezza, me and 2 Yanks to the airport when arranged transport fell thru at the last minute (taxis are scarce in Kamala night-time low season). The area was quiet at night when I visited but I reckon would have enough going on in high season to keep all but hard-core partiers happy.

I called in at Kamala on a motorcycle tour of the beaches in early Dec 2010 which is shoulder season - a fair few more people than my August 09 stay.


Busier in this high season shot (Feb 2014) but considerably less crammed than Surin to the north. Figures - Kamala is about twice as long.


Couple of cool beach bars at the northern end of Kamala beach. My sort of places.


LAEM SINGH
If you walk 15 minutes along the coastal road over the headland north of Kamala you come to the main roadside carpark (20b for motorcycles) of compact Laem Singh Beach. A fairly steep set of stairs takes you down to what was once regarded by many as the most attractive beach on Phuket. Maybe its popularity and the invasion of sun-lounges has downgraded it a spot or two, but the lack of resorts and other development apart from a few beach restaurants still gives that "beach in the jungle" vibe. Well worth a visit.
I found out during my 2014 stay at Surin that there is another easier track down to  Laem Singh about 10 minutes walk south along the main coastal road from Surin beach. The beach was pretty busy, but not as much as Surin.


Midway between the 2 carparks is this roadside viewing cabana. Entry free in Feb 2014 but I bet some dude is charging 20 baht entry or parking next time I pass by and someone else has set up a food stall.

tezza freeloads on glamour shoot at Laem Singh. I was cool until cutey took top off - then began severe camera shake.


SURIN
Another 10 minutes walk north gets you to Surin. Everything I've written about Kamala goes for this place - maybe it is a little more developed and busy. Not unattractive in the least. I shot this pic in Dec 2010 - surprisingly for dry season there was a decent little surf running.

Cool bar on rocks, south end of Surin Beach. I'm a sucker for places like this - usually come back from a beach-checking mission blitzed. This is a 2010 shot - in 2014 there was a lot more sand here - the water did not get near, even at peak tide.


In Feb 2014 I wanted to stay at the closest west coast beach to my Phuket entry pier at Bang Rong ex Kos Yao Noi/Yai. Surin was it. I was surprised how crowded it was - Surin is very big with Russian tourists. This is the southern half but virtually all the beach was as packed except for maybe the northern 5%. I have more info and pix on the PHUKET TRIP REPORT page.



PANSEA
In Feb 2014 I decided to rock-hop around the headland at the north end of Surin beach to get you dudes a shot of this rather nice "private" beach.

Relatively uncrowded because of the restricted access thru the flash hotels behind the beach.


BANG TA0
This is a long beach a short distance north of Surin/Pansea. The area behind used to be Phuket's main tin mining area and is now dominated by very spacious high end resorts and golf courses in the Laguna complex. However there are some more affordable resorts at the southern end which has a touristy shopping/restaurant/bar street very much like that at the southern end of Kamala.

This shot from near the southern end shows about 90% of the beach. It is busiest at this end which is pretty narrow near high tide in the shot - gets progressively less busy moving away from camera - last half of the beach has little development, very few people. This is a nice shot to click-expand. More pix and info on the PHUKET TRIP REPORT page.

Because the beach widens and is less crowded away from the southern corner, it is the first of Phuket's west coast beaches moving north to have restaurant tables set up on the beach. Nice, particularly at night when the candles come out.

THE AIRPORT AREA BEACHES


Nai Thon is approx 1km long and less than 8km from the airport. Nai Yang 2.5km long and beach central is a bit under 3km from arrivals. The 1500m long section between markers I've labelled Airport Beach is probably technically the southern end of the very long Mai Khao beach. Note that if you are staying immediately left of the runway (there is at least one snazzy hotel there) you are probably as far by road from the terminal which is under the "Airport" marker as Nai Thon because you have to go around the far end of the long runway. Doesn't look it in this oblique shot.

NAI THON
It'a a fair distance further north from Surin to Nai Thon (a few low-key beaches between) which in fact is only about 5km from the airport. I already have details up-page at staying low season 09 at the very nice Naithonburi when it was rare for more than 3 people to be on the beach at any time. But this Dec 2010 shot shows a few more people - note sign of the times, Russian "SWIM BETWEEN THE FLAGS" (or similar message) notice against rescue board adjacent swim-flags opposite The Naithonburi. This place is much more low-key in tourist season than say Surin or Kamala - the main road along the beach has a distinct village feeling. Once again good surf for dry season - I had a nice little body-surf here.

Matt and Suzzie again:Nai Thon Beach further north is beautiful, and cos it requires a bit of effort to get to it's virtually empty off season. You can hire a lounger in the shade fer 20baht and one of the hotels has a guy that will come over and take an order fer drinks if you want them. Beware though, the sea is way too rough at this time and will eat you alive if you get out of yer depth.

AUG09 - Matt and Suzzie's description of Naithon sounded pretty good so I decided to spend a few nights there. This shot is in similar weather to theirs - one of those 15-20% of low season days where the wind gets up, making for pretty big and messy surf and not-so-nice beach conditions.
Hence even fewer people than normal low season. But a pretty nice beach. From what I've read (and later saw - see high season 2010 pic above this one), high season here is kinda nice - never too busy. 4 resorts across the road behind the casuarina trees, a number of restaurants. Some very high end joints on the higher section of coastline just to the south. A bit more than 10 minutes from the airport but no aircraft noise.

NAI YANG
In MARCH 08, Thorntree poster living stayed at Patong, was less than impressed and hired a car to check for nicer beaches. He/she was rather whelmed by Nai Yang:
"Naiyang Beach would be our choice for a place to holiday in Thailand if we were ever to come again. Big enough to have lots of local little restaurants and bars and longtails to take you snorkeling. A good swimming beach. Plenty of modest looking but comfy beach cabins. We had a great lunch on the beach there – some of the best Thai food of the trip and incredible coffee – which can be hard to come by here."
This is shot towards the south end of Nai Yang. The central section of the beach behind camera has a good mix of accommodation places from high-end to flashpacker, a useful small business stip along the beach road, plus a bunch of seaside restaurants and a few bars. North end (see below) is a reasonably long, curved, casuarina lined beach with a lot of undeveloped areas, fair enough because it is part of the national park. . Nai Yang is a favourite with beach going locals so there are some good food stands and small restaurants. The airport is only 5 minutes away. Image - Panoramio: Kristof Cornelis

I shot this in high season 2010 from a little further north than the above pix, looking the other way. The National Park section begins just past these people - the first part of the Park has some low impact beach restaurants you can see if you click the pic, and further north just casuarina trees backing the sand, which has some nice picnic areas popular with locals - a pretty attractive bit of beach. The end of the airport runway is not far past the end of those trees.
Don't be put off by the sun lounges in the foreground. They cover only about 300m of a reasonably long beach and aren't intrusively jam-packed row upon row like beaches further south - and are half the price.


The beach restaurants are less than 5 minutes walk from the sun lounge area. They are very popular with local Thais, meaning .......


...... lots of yummy inexpensive sea food and other Thai tucker.

This is the full length of Nai Yang looking south, shot from adjacent the far headland in the pic 3 above this. People looking for a stretch of undeveloped beach could do worse than the section close to camera. Many kms more starting around the headland behind camera. This is a nice shot to click-expand.

UPDATE - I stayed at Nai Yang in May 2012. A pretty good location being so close to the airport. Unfortunately the wet season had kicked in which stopped me doing my usual crawl around the greater area so I haven't enough info to do a TRIP REPORT for that section. Nevertheless between showers there was enough sun for some good beach time - and the westerlies made the kite surfers' day. Nice little shopping/restaurant area and a good range of accommodation from budget up. I stayed at the midrange Nai Yang Beach Resort which is just across the road from the beach and shops and offers some very good off-season deals on the mass booking sites.


FURTHER UPDATE - spent a further few days at Nai Yang prior to flying out in December 2012. Being high season, Nai Yang Beach Resort was a bit pricey so Lady Tezza and I stayed at the very good value Nai Yang Boutique Resort 4 minutes walk from the beach. Lady T has done a TRIP REPORT here.
The better weather saw all the business-strip restaurants putting chairs and tables on the sand - intense competition resulted in nice meals at very attractive budget prices.

AIRPORT BEACH
I think technically this may be the southern-most part of Mai Khao beach (see below) but I think it is distinctive enough to warrant its own section. The sand and water are pretty nice here. At background far-right you can see the headland at the south end of Nai Yang beach - it took me about 15 minutes to walk down here from the sun-lounge section of Nai Yang. Those trees at left of frame are all part of the National Park which begins in the southern quarter of Nai Yang. They hide a pretty big picnic area popular with locals - if you look carefully you can see the life-guard flag just past those people. A good service seeing most Thais can't swim, but the sea is benign all along here in high season.
This is a nice spot for plane-spotters to bring their family for some beach/water time while they ...


.... check out the airplane action.


When an earlier twin-engine Airbus opened its throttles for take-off it got a bit blustery here against the fence. So when this big baby was in position I hastily snapped the shot and took off for the lower beach near the water. Despite this a bit of sand was blown about - it may pay to park girlfriend/wife/kids 100m along the beach for their fun-time.


Looks like life-guarding at Phuket aint too taxing - well in high season at least. Phuket can get big dangerous seas in wet season during/after a big westerly monsoon blow. All those surf-inexperienced Russians must be a worry, not to mention drunk Aussies who think they know all about surf and don't realise how blitzed they are. Mind you, I don't think too many Russians and Aussies find this beach. Fortunately for them the popular southern beaches also feature Australian trained lifeguards these days. Doesn't stop heaps of people getting into trouble and too many of them drowning. Be careful - maybe read my DON'T DROWN page where I point out that getting dragged out to sea in a rip current aint the end of the world unless you can't tread water let alone swim: rips can even be useful if you are a keen surfer.


THE FAR NORTHERN WEST COAST BEACHES
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I'm not too sure where the demarcation point between Mai Khao and Sai Khao is on this 10km+ strip of sand - I have an idea you need to be pretty far north.

MAI KHAO - SAI KHAO
11 km of unspoiled beach on Phuket? Yep, Mai Khao - Sai Khao/Sai Kaew at the northern end of the west coast can do this - as this high season shot shows. Actually the beach is a continuation of Nai Yang the other side of the airport, but even less developed. There are about 4 high-end resorts and 2 budget places along the full length and National Parks enforces a 30m set-back even for sunlounges so all you see looking up and down the beach (this is shot at about half-way) are the casuarina trees. Turtles are known to hatch along here because of its quietness.
Many of you people will have seen the beach from the bus at its northern end because the main road out of Phuket veers west and passes a row of budget seafood beach-side restaurants not far from the causeway to the mainland. Note I've seen this northern-most stretch of Mai Khao referred to as SAI KHAO or SAI KAEW.
I stayed in a budget place right of frame in the above shot - SEASIDE COTTAGES AND RESTAURANT - I did a trip report with more info and pix HERE.

Old style thatch bamboo bungalows on Phuket?? Yep, at SEASIDE COTTAGES. One at left 30m from the beach. They have flasher bungalows too.


THE SOUTHERN BEACHES


I hadn't visited this area since 1997 when I rode a bicycle down here from Kata (must have been keen - this area is seriously hilly) so in March 2013 I grabbed a moto and did a tour to get some pix and info for the page.

NUI BEACH
I didn't make it to Nui. The rough dirt road got progressively steeper. I gave up at a parking spot for bikes which was still high above the sea - the walk down and back looked like it would consume well over an hour and this is a pay beach - I didn't feel like paying for a 10 minute look and snap session. But apparently it is a lovely beach and the guys who run it do a good job of looking after it. There was a mobile number at the parking area offering motorcycle taxi rides in for a hefty price - the track looked a good test for a skilled off-road motorcyclists one-up - forget the passenger.
I pinched the pic from this excellent site.


The main road south of the Nui Beach turn-off has at least 3 elephant camps.

NAI HARN BEACH
This attractive 700m beach has only a few (high end) accommodation places - check for Phuket Yacht Club (no marina there) - so many of these people are day trippers. Popular with locals so lots of cheap food and drink vendors behind the sand. This beach is nicely sheltered in the dry season but can be exposed on those windier wet season days. 


Nai Harn Feb 2014 - crowded but plenty of space to lay a towel or sarong if you are  not big on beach lounges. Nice water - deep enough low tide for swimming not too far out. Cheap food stalls behind umbrellas along beach road - another shopping/restaurant/bar street heading inland close to left of camera.

AO SANE BEACH
This tiny beach is about 600m west of Nai Harn. It has a budget bungalow place (Ao Sane Bungalows and Restaurant tel: 076- 288 306/388 394 mob: 082 419 0300) with a restaurant/bar overlooking the beach. When I first went there last century it had a few backpackers hanging around only - but in March 2013/Feb 2014 it was quite busy with visiting day trippers. The restaurant in Feb 2014 had large beers for 80baht, the cheapest bungalow beer all trip (notice I include all the really important stuff). Bungalows available when I called by in Feb 2014 were backpacker standard at 500/600b depending on position. There were a few aircon jobs, all taken.


The sea in dry season is quite nice off Ao Sane - clear water, sandy bottom with quite a few big rocks. Some patchy coral a bit off the beach, okay but not great. Such conditions attract snorkellers. And fish. This bloke has done well.


Nairock on the left of Phuket Yacht Club - shot from the far end of Nai Harn beach.




BAN KRATING BEACH
I found out in Feb 2014 that if you take the short path between the bungalows at the far end of Ao Sane beach you come to what I call Ban Krating beach (although Ao Sane's southern bungalows back at least half the beach). The beach is nothing to get excited about but is certainly quiet, and nicer Ao Sane (2 minutes) and Nai Harn (20) are an easy stroll. There is an even smaller patch of sand which you can see past rocks in background.

YANUI BEACH
Whoa! This is a nice one - some say the best on the island. That's the main west coast road as it drops from Cape Promthep, Phuket's most southerly point.


There is no accommodation at Yanui - all these people are day trippers, many from the host of accommodation places in not too distant Rawai and Chalong. The usual beach restaurant is just out of frame left. A fair few snorkellers were checking the far bay on the other side of the sand spit (okay, cuspate foreland for all you pedants).


Cape Promthep was a wind-swept grassy headland with some wind turbines when I fist visited in 1997. My 2013 return saw this monument to a Thai prince who was a big deal in the Thai navy 100 years or so ago. Beneath is a small naval museum - nothing mind blowing but free admission and nice aircon.
Behind camera is some sort of monument to elephants. The wind turbines are still spinning, further behind camera.
btw the dopey trees you can see in shot block outlook towards Coral Island, Ko Racha, Ko Phi Phi etc from this high position.

RAWAI BEACH
Unlike the above beaches, 1600m long Rawai is on the eastern side of the peninsula. It aint much of a beach - patchy sand, gets the low tide blues, too much boat activity. Popular with Thais. Plenty of good value restaurants etc. Has a long pier for fishing. Note the web booking sites show quite a lot of accommodation at Rawai. I wouldn't stay for the beach, although Yanui, Nai Harn and Ao Sane are only a few km away.
BTW - Chalong beach to the north is much the same as Rawai, although I noticed one mid range hotel south of the pier had managed to make its beach area quite presentable.


CAPE PANWA - A QUIET SOUTH EAST BEACH AREA NICELY SHELTERED IN WET SEASON
This beach is quite a distance from Rawai - that's the cape far background-right in the shot above this. The very similar (but far longer) to Rawai CHALONG is in between. Cape Panwa Hotel's beach is only 250m across and is about 50km from the airport. The beach across the road from Kantary Bay Hotel is very thin and tidal. 

Nice beach at Cape Panwa Hotel. This faces Phi Phi/Yao Yai and is very sheltered on those 15 to 25% of wet season days when the wind gets blustery on the west coast beaches. Access either by longtail or thru the Cape Panwa Hotel grounds - no problems for outsiders - walk in off the street, turn right, catch furnicular railway type thing down the steep hillside, turn left to beach a short distance.

An area which caught my eye for my August 2007 Andaman trip was hilly CAPE PANWA in the south-east of the island, and so on a second Phuket visit that August, I went and stayed a few days at The Bay Hotel (UPDATE - now called KANTARY BAY HOTEL) there. Hey, nice midrange place only 200 m from the Phuket Aquarium, in the $us35 range low season inc breakfast, fabulous rooftop pool with million dollar views of the offshore islands and the south end of Phuket (see picture top of this page), a good street-front budget restaurant, not bad shopping, a small minimart, regular 30 minute songthaews into Phuket town. And best of all, free access to most facilities and a free shuttle bus across to the nearby higher grade Cape Panwa Hotel which has a lovely beach on its own little bay as the photo above shows.
The beach at The Kantari Bay is pretty ordinary and faces west towards southern Phuket and the offshore islands including Coral Island and Ko Racha - see shot at the top of the page.

A second ground level pool at The Kantary Bay Hotel, Cape Panwa - see opening shot for the roof level pool.


THIS GREAT SITE has photos, location and short descriptions of every beach on Phuket (and there are A LOT of beaches).


GETTING BETWEEN THE BEACHES.
It’s kinda crazy, but songthaews don’t really connect the popular west coast beaches. That’s not quite correct, because those starting at the waiting point at the south end of Kata Yai actually run across to central Karon before returning to Kata on the inner loop road some distance from the beach and then heading off to Phuket town.
But there are no songthaews between Kata Noi and Yai - no worries, you can walk across the headland in less than 10 minutes.
It takes not too much longer to walk over the headland between Kata Yai and Karon (but a hell of a lot longer to walk the beach - it is one loooong beach).

However the gap between Karon and Patong is a biggy - it takes about 10 minutes to drive this. Now there are tuk tuks which will happily provide this service, but the rates are a complete rip-off: 200+ in 2007 (one positive - they are clearly sign-posted at the tuk-tuk waiting stations) and in previous years I found it cheaper to bargain-down a car from one of those car transport guys who hang around outside hotels to do this journey. btw there is a lot of bad blood between these car guys and the tuk tuk/taxi mafia - the latter often administer beatings etc. In earlly 2013 the Phuket govt ordered all car transport guys to get a taxi licence or suffer the consequences. At the same time the taxi mafia issued a new list of outrageous prices - well over twice per km of say Bangkok. Note too the taxis work on a "village" monopoly system - a taxi originating in say Kata will not pick you up in Patong after it has brought another fare there. All of this of course helps keep prices up. On my past 2 trips (2013 and 2014) I found even the resorts' transfer vehicles were licensed "taxis" - I also found NO-ONE prepared to undercut the official taxi prices stuck up all over the place. People think all those flash pool condos at Surin Heights belong to Bangkok big-movers. Wrong - this is where the Phuket taxi mafia live.

Alternatively, to get between the beaches you could catch a songthaew into Phuket town and then out to the next beach - only about 40baht each trip - but Karon-Phuket town is about 50 minutes and Phuket town-Patong the best part of 40.

The gaps between the west coast beaches north of Patong up to Nai  Yang are mostly equally non walkable except for Kamala-Laem Singh-Surin-Bang Tao. I also noticed a Phuket Town-Surin-Kamala songthaew so you don't need to walk or motorcycle between those two beaches.

The tuk-tuk mafia seem to have transport at and between the beaches tied up. You see few meter taxis at the beaches - the ones I've noticed I've assumed have brought passengers from the airport or town. However in April 2012 I heard a Patong local telling a traveller that you can usually find taxis parked near the police box on the main beach road at Patong opposite the very busy Soi Bangla girlie/bar lane. Maybe they need the cops for protection from the tuk tuk guys.

Heaps of motorcycles are for hire cheaply, but make sure you have an international licence and are given a helmet - this is one place where the cops seem keen on checking these out. UPDATE MARCH 2013 - I rode a moto all around the south of the island out of Kata Yai - no licence checks.
Motorcycle scams are not unknown - the hire business points out a small scratch etc when you return the bike (often pre-existing when you hired it: check the bike for damage, point out and photograph any existing damage) and charges you a ridiculous price for repairs otherwise you don't get your passport back. Best bet is to hire from your hotel which is far less likely to pull this scam. Many hotels don't hire bikes - if you deal with an outside company DON'T HAND OVER YOUR PASSPORT. Give them a photocopy. If they don't go for it, hire from someone else - competition is fierce and there are dozens of legit companies for each dodgy one.

Note complaints of similar JET SKI scams are common from Phuket. I don't bother hiring them - the fact that there are fewer hire outfits compared to bikes weakens the customers' position.

On a Phuket visit last century I hired a bicycle - outside the beach towns and Phuket town the roads have a good run-off lane and are pretty safe - but the trips over the headlands between beaches and across to the other side of the island have major hills, the kind that keep on keeping-on just when you think you are at the summit - I ride daily in a very hilly town and still found Phuket a real good challenge.

On that bicycle-propelled trip I checked most of the west coast beaches They were real laid back north of Patong, but the ones fairly close (KAMALA etc) were fairly well developed whereas the ones closer to the airport (NAI THON, NAI YANG etc) were still very relaxed and a real contrast to the beaches south.
UPDATE Dec 2010 - I used a bicycle this trip too - this time to ride the back roads behind Mai Khao Beach north of the airport. Pretty quiet and flat in this area, and also when I cycled about 5 km each way along the busy main highway to visit Phuket Marine National Park's mangrove board-walk near the causway to the mainland - big run-off lane makes cycling this road pretty safe.
I also hired a motorcycle from my bungalow joint - the host said his guests had not been hassled about licences as long as they had the (supplied) helmet. I rode as far south as Kamala without problems. I'm not sure what the situation is now like around the big 3 beaches regarding licence checks.


SOME GENERAL INFORMATION ON PHUKET.
Phuket gets lots of bad press on travellers‘ sites, which it doesn’t deserve.
Sure, Patong is like Miami Beach or Surfers Paradise with an extra helping of sleaze, but Phuket is a big island with a wide range of beaches from party to laid back, has some great scenery and a big variety of other attractions. It is surrounded by a range of other attractive areas and so is one of the better islands as a base for daytrips.
Another plus is that Phuket is bursting with midrange and upper hotels meaning that competition in low season (April/May to early November) forces prices down to 30% of their high season levels - $us30 can buy a great midrange room with huge buffet breakfast. $us80 can get you the Ritz. And even super busy, sleazy in places Patong has some very nice properties with huge pools, acres of groomed grounds etc, where you would never believe crowded streets are a short distance away.

One other thing - the big 3 beaches of Patong, Karon and Kata may be commercialised with their western hotels, beach chairs and umbrellas, but they sure are pretty beaches. Makes the dump which is Pattaya beach in the eastern Gulf look just that. And they still have their element of Thai character - there is a bunch of beachfront restaurants and a little bar at the southern headland of Kata Yai which has food and booze at similar prices to a lot of their counterparts on less commercial islands. And they sure are nice places to sit and watch the passing parade, not to mention the waves and surfers in low season when a bit of swell actually appears, not too common in Thailand.
Which reminds me, Phuket gets a fair few tourist drownings low season, so take care, swim in areas designated by the safe swimming flags. And perhaps read my Some Tips on Not Drowning page.
Don’t worry high season - the sea at all the western beaches tends to be flat as a board 99% of the time and never gets dangerous.

To its credit, Phuket has lifeguard towers on its more popular beaches. This one at Kamala is unmanned in this low season shot - the lifeguard had actually gone for a paddle on his rescue board to get a few waves. Just as easy to keep an eye on the 2 or 3 swimmers from in the water.


SNORKELLING AT PHUKET
Phuket is not known as a top snorkelling location like say the Similans, Surins, Ko Tao, Phi Phi or Kradan. However some okay snorkelling can be found.

The popular beaches are long and sandy - if you snorkel off the beach you may see a few fish but coral will be scarce. However all beaches have headlands (exception Mai Khao) and I've found there are always some fringing coral on the rocks and a greater concentration of fish to make snorkelling in such areas entertaining for non hard-core fins and flipper fiends. Low season visitors be careful - the west coast headlands can get big waves and strong rip currents in this period. When low season throws up these conditions I'd be snorkelling off Cape Panwa Resort's beach - it aint great here but conditions are sheltered May to November.

The best snorkelling at the big 3 beaches can be found at Kata.
The rocks at the southern end of Kata Noi's beach attract quite a crowd in high season.
Snorkellers off the south headland of Kata Yai - only 30m from the beach.

The headland at the north end of Kata Yai is pretty good - you can continue all the way out to the small island which has an okay reef on the beach side.

The Tri Tra/Tri Trang/Paradise Beach headland at the south end of Patong also has some okay snorkelling. Check my pic up-page of the bay off Merlin Resort on Tri Trang - lotsa rocks and patches of coral which makes snorkelling away from lowest tide okay.
Ditto the reef just off the sand at Paradise Beach. Tri Tra and Paradise tend to be sheltered in low season so a good spot for you east coast stayers to get your underwater kicks.

I've heard the south end of Freedom Beach (aka Relax Beach/Karon Noi) which is south of the Tra/Trang/Paradise peninsula and can only be accessed by boat (the track in is thru private land) is pretty good. If you can afford to stay at the hotel there, Le Meridien from memory, you don't have to longtail to the beach.

Heading north along the west coast, the rocks at the south end of Leam Singh just north of Kamala are okay. 


The nearby south end of Surin had a bunch of snorkellers when I stayed there in 2014. I had a look, nothing fantastic but enough fish and good rock areas to keep non-fanatics interested.

Just short of the airport, north Nai Yang beach has a reef which is supposed to be okay.

Way down the south end of the island Ao Sane's beach has lots of rocks etc which attract the fish and coral. I saw a fair few snorkellers in the water off Yanui beach. Nui beach to the north is said to be okay.


PHUKET TOWN.
A lot of people fly or bus into Phuket and then leave next day for Phi Phi, Lanta etc. Phuket town is the obvious overnighter - it is closer to the airport than the popular beaches, real close to the busiest ferry piers and the bus station and has a good range of accommodation of all standards.
It also has good shopping and eats for people intending to stay longer - quite a few travellers make Phuket town their base and go out to the beaches or to other island attractions each day. However it is quieter in the night-life/entertainment stakes for non-locals not in the know. Quieter but still has some okay places.

Actually, if I was on a flight which gave me part of an afternoon at the beaches on arrival, I would pick the beaches instead of Phuket town. Have a swim, a beer/meal in a beachfront bar, walk the sand, grab some entertainment. The inclusive shuttle buses to the pier take an extra 15-20 minutes next morning, but what the hell.

Having said that, I have used Phuket Backpackers' on Thanon Ranong in town central almost next to the food markets, as an overnight base many times. This place is spotless, quiet, has cheap dorms, free internet and movies on the big screen. There are more expensive singles and doubles in a garden section out the back. They have a good travel desk, songthaews to the beaches leave from outside the markets, there is a neighbouring 7/11 and a whole bunch of cheap Muslim vegetarian restaurants just to the left. The markets are a blow-out and there is quite good general shopping in Ranong Road and a small street running perpendicular opposite the markets.
In recent years they have added a pub area fronting the road. Also there are now aircon rooms in a separate building a few doors down the street. I stayed in them with Lady Tezza in November 2012 and they were pretty good value.

Phuket fresh food market is about 40m east of Phuket Backpackers'. No shortage of fruit etc and there is quite a big cooked food section. This new building was finished at least 4 years before it began operating in 2012. An interim market area across the road continues to operate for low rent stall-holders.

UPDATE - In March 2013 I decided to try one of the double fan rooms at Phuket Backpackers'. This is the user-report I wrote for the booking site:


Town-center is quite compact. 10-15 minutes walk will get you to the Ocean Department Store. There are heaps of tuk tuks, taxis and touts who want to show you the best places.
See travelfish.org for a good selection of other Phuket town accommodation.

EARLIER UPDATE April 2012 I felt like a change and so got me a single room at D's Guesthouse on Thalang Road which is only 10 minutes walk from the old bus station where the Airport Bus arrives. At 300 and 350 baht the fan rooms with bathroom were considerably cheaper than similar rooms at Phuket Backpackers' which is another 10 minutes walk south. D's is run by a nice lady and her daughter and the rooms are spacious and clean. This is a very quiet area. One disadvantage is that there is no travel desk so if you are heading for the islands you will pay more at the pier unless you have picked up a cheaper ticket at the airport (debatible), bus station or around town beforehand. An advantage useful to single women arrriving late is that D's will pick up at the airport at a price competitive with the taxi service.

As I said Thalang Road is a very quiet area. But it also has about the best examples of Chinese shop-house architecture in Thailand and each year there is a Thalang Road Festival to celebrate this. I found this pic while browsing Jamies Phuket Blog - a link to Jamie is in the link list top right of this page.
btw Thalang road has several okay places to eat and if you head 400m west and turn left at the first traffic lights you can find more plus one spot that was doing cool live music when I passed by.


DAYTRIPS
Phuket probably has a better selection of daytrips than any other Thai island. The big two are:

Phang Nga Bay - for the best seascape/landscape in Thailand, this is a must-not-miss. Quite a lot are advertised as James Bond Island Trips, and you do spend time on this tourist trap, but the pressure of longtails means about 15 minutes max which gives you heaps of time to cruise the hundreds of other great karst stack islands, the spectacular mangroves and have lunch on Ko Panyi, the sea-gypsy island which has a great buffet in its stilt restaurant area. For extra you can arrange to stay overninght on the island (see link below on Ko Panyi for details of my stay in 2010). Most trips involve a coach to Phang Na town and then a big longtail, but speedboat and kayaking tours are also available.

It doesn't get much more spectacular than Phang Nga Bay (image PHUKETPERFECTPROPERTIES)

Phi Phi Island - a free shuttle picks you up from your accommodation and takes you to the pier. The ferry trips tend to take in Maya Bay of The Beach fame, the birds' nest caves, often beach and snorkelling time on Bamboo island, luncheon at one of the restaurants or resorts on Phi Phi Don and some town/shopping time.
You can also do these trips by speedboat which give more time on the island.

Phi Phi Ley's Viking Cave. Those are day trip speedboats, mainly from Phuket (although Krabi and a few Lanta boats come across too). I took this shot from the regular 0930 Phuket-Phi Phi ferry which doubles as a day trip ferry (more than half the passengers on this December 2012 voyage had day trip badges on) - in the past this has dropped other passengers off at the Phi Phi Don pier before leaving for Phi Phi Ley and other day trip locations. But this time it did a circumnavigation of Ley first - stopping someway offshore at Maya Bay (there were so many boats it couldn't get much closer and the beachcrowd looked like Bondi or Cococabana on a fine day) and then slowly cruising past these other Ley attractions. Personally, if I signed up for a day trip I would want to spend time on The Beach at Maya and maybe do some snorkelling at Ley (although there are plenty of other good spots off Phi Phi Don for this) - it may pay to check the details of any Phi Phi day trip you are contemplating. Probably this combined passenger-day trip run I was on would be one of the cheaper day trips - more money may get you on The Beach.

Other daytrips include:
- the popular Coral Island just off the south-east coast of Phi Phi (nice beach, fairly good snorkelling, gets crowded but there is a pristine uncrowded beach a few minutes by track from the main one).
- a similar but longer distance one to Ko Racha/Raya about 25km further to the south.
- golfing, national park at Khao Lak
- national park at Khao Sok (this is getting to be a bit of a stretch distance wise - I reckon from the beaches you may be looking at 3 hours each way by coach).
- snorkelling and beach time at the marine national park at the Similan Islands (this is also a fair stretch time wise, although I was surprised at the large number of people coming up from Phuket when I stayed on the Similans in May 2012).

Russian daytrippers do the big glamour shoot on Main Beach, Similans Island #4. 80% of daytrippers seemed to be Russian in April 2012 and all the girls must have modeled for Russian Playboy at one time (judging by their raunch poses).

Note I now have pages on both Raya Island and Coral Island plus the Similans and Khao Sok. Check the links towards the end of this page.

daytrips continued
- lots of fishing and diving boat trips.
- cultural and nature attractions on the island and nearby mainland.

One off the radar daytrip is to jump on a songthaew outside the day market for Ban Rong, get the ferry across to attractive Ko Yao Noi, hire a motorcycle or tuk-tuk off one of the guys at the pier and do a tour of the island. Perfect if you want to see a rural, unspoiled Thai island. A Malaysian guy and his wife were doing this when I went across to stay on the island in March. See my Yao Noi page for more details.

Phuket Island Hopper - http://www.phuket-islandhopper.com/ does a daytrip that takes in a beach fringed small coral cay called Bamboo Island and then time on Ko Yao Yai.

Phuket has dozens if not hundreds of day-trip providers. I'm not too sure about this one: the name looks a bit dodgy.

DIVING
Phuket is one of the 3 big dive locations in Thailand. There are over a hundred dive shops - crikey! Local dive sites include reefs, wrecks and walls at Racha Yai, Racha Noi, the King Cruiser Wreck, Anemone Reef and Shark Point. There are plenty of more distant daytrips to places like Phi Phi and the Similans, plus overnighters and liveaboards to the same areas, the Surins and even into Burma. One well regarded outfit that does most of these locations is Sunrise Divers - http://www.sunrise-divers.com/



ARRIVING AT THE AIRPORT
Phuket airport is towards the northern (mainland) end of the island, some 32 km from Phuket town and 40+ from the big 3 beach areas of Patong, Karon and Kata.
There are a number of ways to get to your destination.

The Airport Bus - a 3/4 size coach, runs between 0630 and 2000, every 75 to 90 minutes for 95 baht down to Phuket town bus station (the old bus station right in town, not the new on the outskirts), taking an hour+ or -. A timetable, latest prices and interim stops can be seen here http://www.airportbusphuket.com/.
Ferry time-table
Bus time-table

Busy scene at Phuket's Rassada pier, embarkation point for most Phi Phi, Lanta and Krabi ferries. Rassada is only about 3km from Phuket town central but a good 35km from the airport.


WHEN TO GO
The most obvious time is dry season which normally is mid-late November thru to sometime in mid-April to ealry March (although some Phuket locals say the true wet season does not kick in until August-September). But the fact is, Phuket is an all year resort these days with hardly any accommodation or attractions shutting down - although prices for good rooms can get really low and attractive.
How bad is wet season? I've visited several times - got the usual: lots of sunshine between one or a few showers/storms/cloudy periods. Some days cloudy but no rain - can sunburn like toast on such days - clouds only stop a limited amount of UV. Some days no cloud at all. Prolonged rainfall very rare (I've never lost a full day to rain but it can happen).

August at Kata - not too much cloud in this shot. The opening pix top of this page was also shot in August.

 Something I've experienced several times - on about 20% of days the wet season westerlies can kick in with gusto and frequently will blow for several days. Even when not raining it can be pretty exposed on the west-facing beaches (most of Phuket's beaches face west) with blustery unpleasant conditions and often big dangerous surf with lotsa rips.

I pinched this off Jamie's Phuket weather blog - this was shot during an unusually prolonged windy/rainy spell in June 2012 - didn't keep these Karon visitors off the beach.

Another Jamie shot of Karon - only 3 days later. Plenty of blue sky. Although that surf is pretty big - surf often lasts several days after a big blow.
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Hey, that is about my knowledge of Phuket. Once again, you can't beat Jamie's Phuket Blogfor detail from a local expert.
And this site will allow you to find a heap of businesses around Phuket - hire cars, accommodation, shopping, daytrips, real estate and a lot more.
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If you are visiting Phuket perhaps you will be interested in nearby:

KO RAYA/RACHA

CORAL ISLAND

KO YAO NOI

KO YAO YAI

PHANG NGA BAY

KO PANYI

KRABI-RAILAY-TON SAI-AO NANG

KHAO LAK

SIMILAN ISLANDS

KO LANTA

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If you see mistakes or have extra info, please post it below. If you have questions, please post them in THE FORUM, accessed via the INDEX page. I don't get to check individual island pages all that often.


I like to close a page with a sunset shot - no shortage at Phuket where most beaches face west.

LONG ISLAND RESORT AND HOOK ISLAND WILDERNESS RESORT

Long Island Resort's position at Happy Bay is pretty good on the best beach of the island, facing north which provides shelter from the SE trade winds which are the prevailing breezes in the holiday season and do get blustery at times - image Sailing Whitsundays

Places mentioned on this page (image - modified Google Earth)

Queensland’s WhitSunday Islands are a magnet to all income ranges.
Mega-rich dude boaties can fang around some of the neatest tropical islands in Australia and then rest up in their condos on Hamilton Island or high on the hillside overlooking the mainland's Airlie Beach. Or they can holiday on super-swank Hayman island
Midrange travellers have the choice of a half dozen other island resorts and more on the mainland.
Budget travellers are lured by the good-value overnight yacht trips around the islands, similar dive-boat excursions and an abundance of backpacker accommodation and night-life at Airlie.
However if the budget types want to actually stay on one of the islands, the choices are much more limited.

Airlie Beach with Able Point Marina and Cannondale in background (image Azure Sea)

Image - Whitsunday Transit



Daytrippers at Whitehaven Beach - 7km of the whitest sand in Australia. This southern end also has camping facilities - permits from Queensland National Parks, transfers for $30 each way from Island Camping Transfers.

There is a good bus service from Airlie to Shute Harbour costing about $4.50 one-way. Or buy one of the day ticket hop on hop off all you like at $8.50 which allows you to get off and do the next walks - Mount Rooper and Swamp Bay (below) about 2 km back up the main road to Airlie, and then jump on the next bus thru at minimal cost.
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Mount Rooper
This is a nice walk to a viewing platform on Mount Rooper in the Conway Natinoal Park, mainly thru rainforest, slopes moderate to steep, but no real steep-steeps or killers**. Shortest is 4.8km return but there is a longer 5.4km loop track.Viewpoint atop Mount Rooper. Long Island at right, South Molle left, Whitsunday and Hamilton background.





Coral Sea Resort is in a pretty sweet position - image- http://www.coralsearesort.com/

Club Croc is at Cannondale about 3 km north of Airlie main street and 500m from the waterfront. Very close to Coles shopping complex.
However in the past 3 years or so there has been an explosion of building both waterfront and high on the steep mountainside behind the main street. About 80% is condo-style, much of this private apartments for rich retired dudes or holiday places for people into boats, views and tropical islands - but there are still a lot of resort rooms and rental holiday units going in. There will be even more when Port of Airlie - a huge marina/residential/retail complex going in on Boat Haven Bay just south of the main street, is opened in 2010. I reckon there will be an oversupply of midrange and better places in the near future, leading to some very nice deals.


Some 0f the new unit development behind the main street- great bay views from up there.


Budget places.
There are motels and plenty of cheaper holiday units, plus an array of Backpacker joints.
In Airlie main street from north to south are Koala Beach Resort (doesn’t get good reviews, but has nice views), Beaches (party place, huge bar, noisy, bit shabbly), Airlie Waterfront (actually just off the main street - was kinda regimented with huge single sex dorms when I stayed a few years back, apparently getting a bit shabby now), Magnum’s (people who haven’t been here for several years will not believe the transformation - must be accomm for a thousand people in lots of newish blocks, heavily landscaped, lively street front bar/restaurant, party rep but I noticed some quiet pockets) and Airlie Beach YHA (good rep in the reviews).
About 5 minutes walk south of the main street is Backpackers By the Bay where I stayed this trip. This small friendly place has nice elevated views which could disappear when the Port of Airlie marina is finished and was a pretty good place to stay although not to the rave point that some internet booking site reviewers give it. Decent prices for beer at $3.50 - blew Magnums $6.10 out the window. Neither as cheap as tezza’s 2l cardboard cask of cheap Oz red though!

Sipping elcheapo red on the deckchairs, lower terrace of Backpackers By the Bay. As you can see, a lot of the bay is being filled in for the Port of Airlie project.
Sign adjacent pool on next level up - PLEASE DON'T MOON PASSING CARS.

Out of town in Cannondale is Bush Village (always gets good reviews, free shuttle into town, close to Coles shopping complex) and Reefo’s (big pool, small lively bar/restaurant area but chalet dorms dumps when I stayed 5 years back and according to recent reviews, no better).

Airlie from the south-west - Able Point marina top left. Most of Boathaven Bay on the right is being filled in and redeveloped into the Port Airlie marina/residential/retial complex (image Resort Corp)

**The tezza slope range grades steepest to easiest as follows:
KILLER - prolonged climbs that have or need ropes or steps as aids. Even ferret-bodied over-trained tri-athlete dudes are know to go “Aw Strewth!”
STEEP-STEEP - good workout for the most fit.
STEEP - good workout for all but the most fit.
MODERATE - Homer Simpson types may puff, most others are okay.
GENTLE - no problems for 99.99% of the population.
KANANGA - named after the circumferentially-enhanced, fitness-challenged travel forum nasty and big-time plagiariser of this blog, who hails a taxi anytime the slope hits 1%. Trekker he aint.

bobbybanks who lives in the Airlie area gave this info:"If people are looking at Whitehaven Trips make sure they get one that includes Hill Inlet. Excellent view from the short walk to the lookout.

Sth. Molle best resort island, due to it's rewarding views from the walks and fish feeding from the main jetty.

Standbys in all areas get a little difficult around Christmas and school holidays in general and cruising standby's get harder to get after Sept through to early January.

Reefo's you mention on your blog has closed down and rumour has it that Gilligans Flaspackers are moving in there. It could be a good thing.

Great pic of the black hole that is the construction site that has been plaguing us and will continue to do so for a while. I was in town the other day and they were piledriving with a constant hammer, it was a Saturday morning and the thud could be heard for miles. Progress.

The croc safari in winter is a definite to do thing. The crocs are plentiful and rather large here and winter sees them on the river bank trying to warm up."

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If you are planning on spending time in Airlie perhaps you will be interested in:

BUDGET CRUISING THE WHITSUNDAYS

BUDGET RESORTS ON THE WHITSUNDAY ISLANDS

BYRON BAY

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If you have any questions, please post them on THE FORUM reached via the INDEX. I don't get to check individual pages often but I try to check the Forum daily when not travelling.

"Survivor" country - Siobhan from Adelaide crosses this rickety bridge to the daytrip/camping area at the north end of Ao Son Beach on the west coast of Tarutao.

Ko Tarutao is a big, mountainous rainforest-covered island very close to the Malaysian border in the Andaman. It is 100% National Park and has no other accommodation. The beaches are very nice. It is best known to travellers as one of the better places to get off the beaten track - but the general public would probably be more interested to know this was the site of Survivor Thailand, the second in the series from memory.

Late afternoon relaxation as Perama 114 cruises towards the sunset north of Sumbawa island (CLICK TO EXPAND IMAGES)

From the 3 other boat-trip reports on this blog, you can probably gather I'm a bit of a fan of cruising scenic islands on the cheap. The Lombok-Flores trip is one I've wanted to do for several years - as it turned out, time constraints meant I did the reverse 2 day/2night trip instead of the 3 or 4 day west-east cruises offered by a number of operators.
Travel forums are full of scathing or praising reports on such trips - the only way was to find out for myself. Overall, I thought Perama's operation was exceptionally good, my one qualification is that it was a little bit expensive by Indonesian standards (but still very good value in western terms) at approx $US125 deck class all meals, snorkelling gear and NP entry included in May 09.
To give a contrast, Wisata's 4 day/3 night deck class was around $US150 - but this outfit let me down badly on my multi ferries/buses trip west-east to Flores, so maybe their boat trip standard isn't up to Perama's.

First night onboard at Labuanbajo harbour saw a farewell party for departing west-east passengers and a welcome to new east-west people like myself. Dinner was provided, drinks could be purchased, some music and dancing for the keen.
Over half the passengers were doing BOTH legs of the trip. Perama's schedule has different places visited on each leg so these people did not revisit attractions with one exception.Universally, both departing and staying passengers had nothing but praise for the boat, food and crew - a good sign for newbies like me.

Perama 2 day/2 night route: west Flores to Lombok. Click-expand image for detail. (image - modified Google Earth)

It's a long way from West Flores to Lombok, so guests sleep on board after the party to allow a 5am start to the 3 hour cruise to Rinca Island for our Komodo spotting trek.

Arriving at Rinca

Rinca and its neighbour Komodo are the two biggest islands in Komodo National Park. I was lucky the reverse trip visited Rinca - the dragons are more concentrated. Outward leg people saw only 2 dragons on Komodo - we saw 9 on Rinca.

These dudes are hanging around the National Park guesthouse rooms and kitchen, hoping for handouts or a boozed-out backpacker to fall off a balcony.
Rinca and Komodo are big, almost semi-arid islands in the rain-shadow gap between Sumbawa and Flores. Our 2 hour guided trek took us thru open savanna type country, patches of wet-dry rainforest and up some moderately steep slopes for scenic views back towards Labuanbajo. That our oldest passenger, enthusiastic semi-pro photojournalist Joy from NZ completed the walk no problems despite recently reconstructed knees demonstrates that this trek is not out of the question for the 60s+. Joy merely took a bit longer and had her own NP guide with a big dragon-bashing stick for company.

This poor guy had Komodo bite marks on his hind quarters. Komodo saliva is highly infectious, the prey tends to collapse a day or two after bitten. If it's any consolation, the guides said this was an old buffalo. Maybe they are a bit slow and an easier target although we were told the dragons can hit 18kmh. Anyone who has seen an Aussie croc or dragon-like goanna move at top speed won't doubt this.

Our guides thought this dragon lurking nearby was the culprit. Besides buffalo, dragon prey includes wild deer, bush chickens. The local monkeys are a bit fast and smart, so are less frequent victims.

From Rinca we motored north-west for a few hours to our next stop at small Laba Island for some snorkelling and beach time. The coral was less than whelming here - but maybe I had been spoiled by some of the best Asian coral I've seen at Kanawa Island close off Labuanbajo the previous day.

Perama 114 left and sister boat 220 at Gili Laba. When bookings are high, Perama puts on two boats. Jumping off the top mast brace on 114 was good sport at stops like this.

After Laba we set off on the long long cruise to Moyo Island off central northern Sumbawa. This takes until about 8am next morning. Late afternoon was spent sunning, socialising and relaxing as in the opening pic, and sometime after dinner everone hit the sack. Deck class sleep on seat-cushion matresses covered by sunbathing mats on the upper sunbathing deck if they want to check the stars and passing moonlit island peaks, or the in the converted dining saloon if they want a roof, or it decides to rain (which can happen even in dry season).
Note that it tends to be balmy when you turn in mid/late evening, but cools progressively so that the hour or so before dawn can make for suprisingly cool conditions when the wind-chill factor from forward motion is taken into account. Shorts and a T will not cut it here. Perama provide sleeping bags for around one US dollar per night and it is a good idea to have one on hand for when things cool.
Dry season sees the route via the north of Sumbawa in the lee of the prevailing south east trade winds so that seas usually tend to be slight, but rougher seas are not unknown. Our passage was very smooth except for the last few hours between Sumbawa and Lombok where the gap exposed us to a moderate swell and some wind-blown surface chop. Nobody got motion-sickness.
Cabin class get a fairly compact box with a double bed and an overslung single bunk, plus a fan.
There was no surcharge for cabin-singles on this trip, although that might be different if the boats are heavily booked.
The boat had two fairly spacious and clean bathrooms with western toilets and nice showers. The water pipes must go past the engines because the water was always warmish. We weren't urged to have quick showers so the water tanks must be reasonably large.

Late first-afternoon pass of volcanic Pulau Sangean off north-east Sumbawa.
Highlight of Moyo Island was a 45 minute walk thru shaded farm area lanes and nice rainforest tracks to a 4m waterall, rope swing and nice pool with deliciously cool water.

Our Moyo landing spot had a visit of a traditional fishing village scheduled but we were behind time. The people were very friendly and acted as guides to the falls. Indonesian kids like this one are invariably cute.
Mid afternoon saw us reach Perama Island (Gili Kondo), a small coral cay off the north-west corner of Sumbawa. This has quite good coral, mainly of the stag-horn type in many different varieties. On the far side of the island Perama is replanting coral - on the outward trip guests stop for a meal in the small daytrip area and get to plant their own coral. Our stop here was for about 90 minutes, allowing for some beach time. I walked around the island in less than 15 minutes.Heading west from Moya the winds picked up sufficiently to hoist the jib which allowed us to regain ground on Perama 220 which was slightly faster under motor alone.220 didn't have a sail

Heading into the sun on the last leg to Labuan Lombok port on that island's east coast - actually the last BOAT leg, because Perama then loads you into one of their small buses for a 2 hour trip east to capital Mattaram or touristy Senggigi near the Gili Islands. These are reached around 1930 and 2200 resp.In this shot, a small passing cloud gives welcome shade to the boat.

FOOD was Indonesian style and very good in both taste and quantity. Fang-merchants will not go hungry. Nothing was over-spicey. All meals except the last one shown below were buffet style and usually included a chicken or fish dish, sometimes both, plus salad, usually eggs in one style or another, a cooked vegetable dish and fruit. Vegetarians should not go hungry. Pancakes were common, although bread lovers will be disappointed.
That 23 year old Coko and his 19 year old off-sider Jamal can turn out such a feast in their tiny kitchen is admirable. They got a bigger cheer at the two end of cruise gatherings than either captain Paewai or super efficient and cheerful cruise director Riswadi.
People who like milk with their tea/coffee will also be disappointed - I'd suggest bringing your own in a container and putting it in the large drinks coolers along with all the beer, soft drink and aqua.
Apart from brekka time, tea/coffee had to be purchased but at 35 cents a throw was a pretty good deal. So too were other purchases - small cans of Bintang were 12500 idr - say $US1.25 at the time - I was used to paying 15ooo for slightly bigger small Bintang bottles at budget bungalow restaurants this trip - Perama's soft drinks were 6000 and large water 5000 - I paid up to 10000 for these at some more isolated bungalows. There is an assortment of snacks for purchase too.
Purchases are written up on a ledger near the drinks cooler on the honour system and paid for on the approach to Labuan-Lombok.Alex from California likes things hot and prepares to spice up final dinner on approach to Lombok. This was the only non-buffet meal, a combination of omelette-rice-cucumber salad and fruit. The super compact kitchen can be seen rear left of picture.This salon was a nice breezy area for shade lovers between meals, as was a rear balcony, a favourite for Aussie Neil on his 5th cruise to hang out his fishing rod - no luck this trip.At night, the table is lashed to the roof to provide headspace for floor sleepers. The seats to the sides were popular berths too.

LUGGAGE is kept in an easily accessible room on the lower deck. Most people kept a daypack with cameras, toiletries bag, ipods etc with them.

At 41, careful Cap'n Pewai was way older than the rest of the enthusiastic crew, most of whom were in their early to mid-20s. Invariably smiling and cheerful, they did their utmost to make the trip a success - and succeeded admirably judging by the response of my fellow passengers. To see the full crew including the cap'n line dancing at the welcoming party was a hoot.

CRITICISMS? Well I've already indicated that the trip price seems a tad high by Indo standards. Perama claim you pay for quality. I also reckon they could take a tip off similar trips I've done and make free tea, coffee and bikkies available anytime. Not to mention a supply of milk for those needing it in their beverages.
A caveat is that our boat was running at two thirds capacity - I'm wondering if comfort etc are quite so good when there is a full complement of passengers.
But apart from these factors, I'm a fan. So much that next Indo trip I'm making a point of doing the 3 day west-east Lombok to Flores leg.

More info including up to date pricing, route maps, more pix etc can be seen at Perama's website.



IMPORTANT UPDATE - at 3am on March 28 2011 Perama lost one of its boats trying to negotiate a tight entrance into a sheltered bay near Komodo during a storm. Fortunately none of the passengers or crew were lost or badly injured altough lots of personal belongings were lost. People managed to make the short distance to shore from where they were picked up by a nearby dive live-aboard boat.
Survivors were given a refund of their fares, some got recovered passports and some of their property but many complained that otherwise they were left to their own resources once in Labuanbajo.

My thoughts: Perama's route is 95% off a lee shore in the dry season = calm sailing. I always thought trips before mid-late April and after mid October could be iffy from the point of running into rough conditions.

Sad though is Perama's response to helping their customers - although par for the course in Asia.


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If you are considering Perama's Tour you may be interested in staying in LABUANBAJO and the delightful budget islands or SERAYA and KANAWA. I have info and pix HERE.
You might also be interested in my budget cruises of Australias wonderful WHITSUNDAY ISLANDS and the TURKISH COAST.

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Note - if you see any mistakes or have extra info, please post below. If you have questions, please ask them on THE FORUM, accessed via the index. I don't get to check individual pages regularly but I try to check the forum every day when not travelling.

Want your own budget beachfront bungalow on a near deserted island with nice beaches and reasonable snorkelling? Seraya fits the bill real well. I paid $us12 for a single less expensive Category A bungalow plus $2 each way for transport - prices are slightly higher in peak. Doubles pay an extra few dollars. The Category Bs are slightly more expensive - these are the ones right hand side of the pix. People told me they were slightly bigger than Cat As with tiled floors - but otherwise identical. Note they are set back from the beach about 3m and slightly raised with tree interrupted views. One couple switched across to the As after the first night. The website says there is a minimum stay of 2 nights, but a sign in the restaurant indicated a small surcharge for one night visits.
The hill behind has good views of the surrounding area plus sensational sunsets - the slightly lower one immediately right of shot is at the western end of the island with easier access and better photo-ops of the resort. The higher isolated building at right is an expat's holiday house.
The on-the-sand airy restaurant is just out of shot to the left (CLICK TO EXPAND IMAGES).

There are dozens of islands and islets within an hour’s slow boat ride of Labuanbajo, the major enty point for West Flores. Two of them have laid back budget bungalow outfits.
Seraya, 12km north of Labuanbajo just around the north west-corner of big Flores is owned by popular Gardenia Resort in town, and if you don’t book online, Gardenia can easily arrange this. The boat goes out around 11am and returns roughly at 8am or even earlier. The latter may seem a bit early but seems geared to people wanting an early flight. It works out real well if time is limited and you want to also visit Kanawa - their boat also leaves around 11am and normally returns early morning.



The cheaper bungalows - it’s not too many places you can actually get the oft asked for bungalow right on the sand. Note the buckets at the foot of the stairs for feet washing - a must that few bungalow places on or near the beach have. There was also a broom.The rooms were spotless and in good condition with enough room for 2+gear. Comfy beds were double, not queen or king. Mosquito net in good repair. No fan because electricity is limited. One night was a bit hot, the other had sea breezes. Nice sea and adjacent islands views from the big veranda.Attached indoor/outdoor bathroom has western toilet, no basin, no showerhead. These islands are almost semi arid and water has to be carted from the mainland - it is available only when the generator runs - about 1800 to 2300. You wash by the trad Asian small hand-bucket into the big bucket routine. There is another bucket to cart seawater to flush the toilet. No mirror in bathroom.

The on-sand restaurant was a pretty nice place to spend time. Food was a slightly limited variety of Gardenia's menu at only 10% or so extra price. This place was actually cheaper than quite a few budget places I stayed despite its monopoly and freight costs. Food was tasty. Service was okay, but this is one of those places you go to the kitchen door and fire in your order if no-one is around. The staff were cheerful.

These dudes tended to come sniffing around in the afternoon. There was no sign of Seraya’s infamous aggressive male buck - I think he may have pushed his luck and got venisonised. These guys were very shy, as were the many goats who also came wandering. However it may be not a good idea to go away from your bungalow with the door open.That tree provides nice shade and was very popular with daytrippers. Most days saw at least 2 boats bring these from Labuanbajo.





Sunset and island view from the hill at west end of the island. This is easier to descend than the slightly higher hill near right - use better footwear than flip-flops. The cleared headland at rear right is part of the mainland - the far eastern tip of the island is the lower headland in front of this. I walked one end to the other in under 40 minutes.The rear of the fishing village can be seen just left of the far headland - from the resort walk along the beach and take the track aound the left lower side of the hill farside of the buildings.The best coral is along the drop-off into the deep water, particularly adjacent the restaurant (where those boats are). This is about 120m from the beach. The coral is okay but nowhere near as good as Kanawa Island. The dark area closer the beach is an area of sea grass with some interesting marine life.

This back beach can be reached in 10 minutes by taking a track over the saddle behind the bungalows.

The fishing village was neater than average - most places had a satellite dish out back big enough to bring in the Hubble, which indicates that the Indonesian fishing industry may be travelling well.


KANAWA ISLAND
Kanawa is about the same distance from Labuanbajo, but due west. It is also a budget resort - at first glance it looks a bit more expensive than Seraya at $us15 for a single, but prices include transport - so things work out much of a muchness. There is no one-day supplement.
The booking office is in Labuanbajo main street across the road from the steps up to Gardenia Hotel, and very close to Perama's office.
Kanawa’s bungalows are not absolute beachfront and you could land a second rower. The restaurant is the building closest the water mid shot. The sand in front is a bit dust affected and not as attractive as Seraya.The reef drop-off at the end of the pier is an okay place to snorkel, but some of the best Asian coral I’ve seen starts at the nearest curve of the beach on left and runs towards the camera. It deteriorates past the near-end of the beach. This section can be seen below.

The reef drop-off is about 150m from the beach in the good coral area. The coral and fish for 30m on the beach side of the drop-off is very good too. That’s mainland Flores in the far background.

Back-beach on Kanawa. Beaches go virtually around the island but there are some headland areas which make walking around difficult. 2 Aussies, VERY good snorkelers kicked around in about 2 hours, but novices may find this a bit tough.I spent about 2 hours clambering around this hilly area behind the resort - it had about 5 summits and some real nice views. That’s Labuanbajo background centre. The best access track is near the small hut under the low cliff west of the resort - follow the electricity line to just short of the hut. The summit areas are criss-crossed with tracks, many made by the shy goats.(Kanawa also had a deer). If you can, wear long trousers and a long sleeved shirt - there are some innocuous looking shrubs with razor sharp thorns. Flip-flops won't cut it.
The sunsets would be great up here because of the height, but it takes maybe 20 minutes more difficult climb compared to 10 minutes at Seraya.

The nicest section of coral starts adjacent this corner of the beach and runs to opposite the end of the beach. It is particularly good directly out from the swimmer in background. The beach is more grainy coral based which some people don’t like as much as fine sand - note the high-water mark shows the beach is pretty skinny most places at high tide.

My front row bungalow was about 25m behind the beach but with nice views of neighbouring islands and mainland Flores. It was in pretty good condition, had a comfy double bed, good mozzie net, plenty of room for 2+gear - although couples on my boat were allocated specific bungalows which may be a bit bigger. No foot-wash bucket, no broom. No fan - electricity is at similar times to Seraya. Bathroom could not be accessed from inside - you had to go out onto the big side veranda which could be a hassle for frequent nocturnal bathroom runners. Squat toilet which worries some. Same water supply set up as Seraya although the built in storage area was much bigger than Seraya’s buckets. No mirror in bathroom.

The restaurant was about 30m behind the beach and the area immediately in front was not as attractive as Seraya. Service was real good, food nice although prices were 30 to 50% more than Seraya (35k v 24k for a large Bintang - fried rice+ 30 v 18) - actually around what I expected for such an isolated place. Note some Canadians who had visited the previous week had told me in Labuanbajo that there was a very limited variety of food on their visit. Not too bad on mine - although the menu had less choice than Seraya’s.






UPDATE MAY 2010 - UPPMARKET DEVELOPMENT COMING TO KANAWA?MACMAGHNUSA gave this info: All those wishing to visit Kanawa in its present 'rustic' state should do so pretty quickly as plans are underway for a major luxury 'ecofriendly' resort there, Maldives style with bungalows out on the water. The company in charge of it is Mercury Solutions, based in Bali. They're a three men operation that 'source locations for investors' and Kanawa has been chosen. One of the team is a new age hippie type from Lleida in Spain and he spoke excitedly of a major resort 'in harmony' with the environment. Not sure if the economy of West Flores will benefit from this carbuncle attached to its western end, but there will be consequences for the currently pristine marine environment, due to the daily discharge of 'treated' sewage. Water supply will come from a 'desalination facility' which will no doubt add to the beauty of the place. Isn't this so sad?

UPDATE NOVEMBER 2011
So far the big development mentioned above has not eventuated. However the resort has changed ownership and some limited upgrades have been done - plus there is the option of TENTS.
But there have been some disturbing user reports on travel forums about the island recently mentioning overpriced bungalows (303k after taxes) and tents (17ok) and food which is not exactly cheap. Plus overbooking by the Labuanbajo office which has led to hassles on arrival at the island.
Now I'd like to get back and do a review but I can't see that happening any time soon - if any of you guys want to send a TRIP REPORT in, check that section on how.

SO WHICH ISLAND IS THE BETTER?
Depends on your priorities:
BEACH - nicer, much wider on Seraya. Both beaches seemed to be cleaned each day, but the between-beach area in front of Kanawa’s restaurant had a bit of litter first day.
CORAL - outstanding by my experience of Asia on Kanawa, considerably better than Seraya.
BUNGALOWS - much better position and slightly more attractive on Seraya.RESTAURANT - better position, wider choice and considerably cheaper on Seraya. Service a bit better on Kanawa.
EXCLUSIVITY - want your own desert island? Kanawa has no fishing village and seemed to get no daytrippers.It seems to attract fewer guests.
TREKKING - Kanawa by a long shot. The hill area is great. It’s a pretty ordinary walk across Seraya to the fishing village.
ASPECT - Kanawa faces south and picks up the south-east trades. It also has more extensive views of neighbouring islands and the mainland. Seraya faces north - it still seemed to pick up a nice breeze most times but not as cooling as Kanawa.Thing is, I doubt you’d be disappointed whichever you picked. But why not do as I did and visit both? - as said earlier, boat times are such that you can come in from one island and go out to the other a few hours later. Note too 5 of us wanted to get a late boat back into Labuanbajo from Kanawa - after a bit of bargaining we managed to charter one for $us15.

Location (image - modified Google Earth)

LABUANBAJO
This is surprisingly small for the main entry point, port, fishing town and tourist destination in West Flores. It stretches a few km along a bay and up the hillside.

The main street is a disgrace - hot, dusty, rubbish and broken bits of pavement and road everywhere - often crammed with traffic - which is noisy - the locals like the open muffler set up on their vehicles (and boats). There seems to be more transport guys hassling for a ride than Kuta Bali.
Services are pretty good - lots of dive shops, places where you can organise daytrips and overnighters to surrounding islands for beaches and snorkelling plus Komodo and Rinca for some dragon spotting, trips further east on Flores, plenty of restaurants and other stores.

Away from the street, you can find some quiet and breezy oases with nice views like this area shot from Gardenia Hotel which has okay quality good value bungalows from budget to flahspacker set in a leafy area up a hill, good inexpensive food but abysmal service (tip, go to the kitchen door or to the manager’s little bar area behind the cabana tables to the left of the main restaurant).Golo Hill is even higher on the hill, is slightly upmarket and gets very good reviews on travel sites. Nearby Paradise Bar rocks with locals and travellers Friday and Saturday nights. There are lots of other budget places in town and a couple of midrangers down the coast (you can see one on the beach left background) and a fair way north on the mainland coast towards Seraya.




GETTTING THERESeveral outfits fly from Bali and Lombok:http://www.alliance-indonesia.com/indonesia_airline.htm http://www.merpati.co.id/en/default.aspx
http://www.transnusa.co.id/index.php?switchto=eng
Flights have some history of being overbooked (or cancelled if there are too few passengers), but no-one I talked to in my May 09 shoulder season trip had trouble.

You can get a ferries/buses ticket from Bali or Lombok - but note my Gilis-Labuanbajo trip started 8am Wednesday morning and didn’t reach Labuanbajo until 5am Friday morning, mainly because I had to hang around Sarpe port in eastern Sumbawa from 6am until 7pm for the once-a day-ferry (the morning boat had not run for months).I think the ferry connections on the reverse trip are better.Sarpe-port is a God-forsaken hole, but 5 of us chartered a local boat for the day at two nice beaches on an island about 10km away. The second had pretty nice coral. We bargained the boat down to 150k - hell, 3 dollars each for nice locations was a sweet deal and turned a drag into a pretty nice day.

You can come across or return on Perama’s Lombok-Flores cruise. Other operators do this trip at peak season.
There is an occasional Pelni boat which will take you (maybe with connections) all the way to Jakarta and beyond.
There are also ferries to big Sumba Island.
And lots of buses and shuttles from further east on Flores.

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If you are interested in visiting Kanawa/Seraya or Labuanbajo, perhaps you might consider travelling to/from Lombok to East Flores on the Perama's budget Dragon Watching Cruise via Komodo/Rinca I did.

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If you see any mistakes or have extra information please mention them below. If you have a trip report on these places or any others please send text/pix to lajolla22@hotmail.com
If you have a question, please post it in THE FORUM which can be accessed about 70% down the INDEX page - I check it most days but don't check individual island pages very often.

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UPDATED MAY 2014

Best beach on Bali? Well on the mainland at least in my humble opinion. This is Balangan, the closest of the Bukit beaches to Kuta and the airport. More info and pix down page.

The Bukit Peninsula is that higher limestone plateau you see when looking south from the Tuban-Kuta-Legian-Seminyak beach strip. Long a haunt of surfers, the fact it has arguably the best beaches on MAINLAND Bali and some spectacular cliff and coastal scenery means it’s becoming increasingly popular with both the backpacker set and midrange/high-end travellers.
Backpackers are taking advantage of cheap beach accommodation set up for surfers while a building boom has seen a growing number of flasher places for the fiscally enhanced.


Part of the Bukit coastline west from Dreamland North. Super busy Dreamland Main with its huge new hotel structure, deck chairs and beach umbrellas (see below) is just around that rock near-left. If you don’t like crowds, the beach in the foreground is a few steps away.Bingin where I based myself is the collection of seaside buildings spreading up the cliff in the near background.Right up the end of the peninsula is the famed surfing and Buddhist temple location of Uluwatu.
The neat little beach at Padang Padang is tucked in about half way between Ulu and Bingin.The nicest beach of the lot, Balangan, is about 2km behind the camera (CLICK TO EXPAND IMAGES).

THE BUKIT BEACHES ARE SOUTH OF AIRPORT-JIMBARAN
ULU-PADANG is between ULUWATU AND PADANG PADANG. Someone can't spell DREAMLAND or Jimbaran (hur hur, sorry) - image Google Earth

Dreamland (aka New Kuta Beach) pretty early and not yet crowded with daytrippers. This used to be the pick of the Bukit - a gorgeous beach behind which were lots of neat elcheapo losmen built for surfer-dudes to catch some shuteye plus some laid back warungs where you could sink a Bintang or 5 checking the surf. How things change - have a look at the shot  two down of the monster seaside club-retail structure which has replaced them. BTW, this was unfinished in my May 09 visit, although some guests were swanking it out in the horizon pool overlooking the beach. 


August 2012 shot of roof pool.


The completed Klapa beach club in August 2010. The architect should be shot. Nevertheless the place seems to attract the cool international and local set. I felt out of place even down on the front terrace at the good value beach-view warung.

But if your thing is sun-lounges, beach-umbies and a host of beautiful people to spec out, Dream Beach may be just the thing. Certainly the sand and water are way cleaner than the Kuta strip. The warung back of sand is a good place to spend time and I'm impressed with just how modest its food and drink prices are for an area which has headed way upmarket.

Umbrellas on patio above sand are part of budget warung - plenty more seating under roofed area. Prices are not much more than the bottom budget surfer warungs at adjacent Balangan. Note the life guard tower far left of patio.

 You can walk down between Dreamland and Bingin along the beach at low tide - at high water the headland tracks are not too hard to navigate - just walk up past the two dudes with the motorcycle food cart in the shot three above this and follow the tracks. The above shot is maybe half-tide.

The less crowded section of Dreamland, south of the main area. Note that most of this part has some rock just off the sand at low tide whereas the main area is mainly clear.



August 2012 change - lots more sand at Bingin: the most I've seen in 4 visits. Admittedly low tide, but so is the shot above this.

CHOCKY’S , my digs at Bingin. Nice surfer hangout. That upstairs loft is the one basic double room. There are 3 singles behind a higher veranda partly obscured in this shot by the building to the right. The railed area above the posters is the front of the restaurant - pretty neat views from both here and the higher veranda area. Access to the loft room and basic singles’ balcony is by ladder. Below the restaurant are 2 family rooms, flash-packer level with their own bathrooms. The other rooms share a big bathroom area which was kept pretty clean on the restaurant level.
My basic single had just enough room, was super clean, the bed was comfy with a pretty thick foam mattress, mozzie net in good condition, fan quiet. Electricity 24 hours. I paid 80K rupiah (about $us8 at the time) - current room pricing can be seen on the website.
At high tide the waves smack into the lower front of the building - actually wavelets because when the swell is big (often) the reef dissipates most of its size. Can sound pretty busy at night.
Chocky provides an airport pickup service which if you are coming in at night like I did is essential - Bingin is down some obscure side roads, which stop about 200m from the buildings - and finding the right lanes from there and the correct set of steps to descend would be impossible for newcomers. Chocky charged me 160K compared to an airport taxi to anywhere on the Bukit for 120K, but took me back to Kuta for no extra at the end of the stay.
If you are going to come up by hire-motorcycle from Kuta, check Google Earth first and draw yourself a map. But make sure it’s daylight, and watch out for cops checking for Indo or International Driving Licences endorsed for motorcycles.

For surfers, Chocky’s has one of the prime positions in Bingin because the reef break is directly out front. This is a super fast left hander breaking into about 15cm of water at low tide - plenty of coral-scraped bodies on show in this neck of the woods. If you expand this shot you will see some kamikaze merchant tucked into the edge of the white water on the shoulder to the right.
Chocky spent a lot of time with a huge-lens digital SLR propped over the railing, snapping pix. Late afternoon usually saw a lively bunch of surfer dudes and babes from all over Bingin checking shots of themselves on his laptop, which he will burn onto disc for a suitable fee.
Restaurant food was pretty nice, prices a bit higher than average but supplies have to be hauled down those dang steps (and rubbish back up!). This is maybe why small bottles of Bintang (heavy in crates) was 20k v the more normal 15. Service was normally pretty good although brekka never kicked off before 0830. There are plenty of other restaurants in the area.
Chocky was still snapping away in August 2012.
Distant Dreamland from the clifftop at Bingin - an easy walk at lowest tide. Once again, some nice flashpacker and midrange places on the clifftop.

Padang Padang is a neat little beach cut into the plateau. Another very good reef-break out front, but for experienced surfers. There is no accommodation right on the beach but you can see one of the growing bunch of midrange/top end places which have appeared on the Bukit on the cliff top behind. There is also a bunch of budget and flash packer places on the coast road about 300m inland from the beach plus a bit of a small village shopping area.

Once again you are looking at a decent set of stairs to get up to road level, but not as challenging as Bingin. Some nice shade areas side and back of beach. I dunno about those life-saver flags.

Uluwatu. There’s a dozen or so warungs plus surf shops in the area of the camera with great views of this world famous big wave break - not so big in this shot, the swell having a rest-day.
You pay extra for your Bintang if you want to hang in the joint front left…..

…..but no extra if you are quick enough to grab this neat little platform.
There is a neat little beach at the foot of the cliff at Ulu - actually there isn’t too much sand left at high tide. This is where the surfers enter the water.

Ulu always had a good range of budget surfer losmen, but now has a selection of flasher places. Google Blue Point Bay Villas for top-end cliff top.

Roughly midway between Uluwatu and Padang Padang is this un-named beach (actually I’ve seen it referred to as Ulu-Padang) where Thomas Homestay has set up a neat little budget/flash packer place. This is part of the view from the restaurant, you can actually see about twice as much beach - the rooms’ balconies have a similar outlook. The place has a large really nice tiled floor room with a big-screen TV for 200k - the smaller more basic rooms were 100k. ph 081 33775 6030
This is where I’m staying next Bukit visit.
Apparently the surf works okay here when the swell is up, but a wax-head with the universal motorcycle and sidewinder board-rack can reach even the most distant Bukit break, Balangan, in less than 15 minutes. For those on foot I walked from Ulu in less than 20 minutes and it took me just over 15 to then hoof it to Padang Padang.

Balangan - with the overdevelopment of Dreamland, probably the nicest beach on the Bukit AND mainland Bali (not as nice as Dream Beach on Nusa Lembongan though). Note that there is a rocky bottom off the sand at lowest tide in most places although a couple of little sub-beaches appear against the left headland as the tide drops with sand out into the water. There are also some nice pools to fossick and splash around in this near headland area as the tide drops. A good selection of budget losmen and laid back warungs lining the beach. This seemed to be the beach attracting most backpacker types although Padang Padang had its share. If you are feeling flush google La Joya for a flash place back behind the beach.For lower-midrange check for Balangan Sea View and Balangan Flowerbud.
Interestingly, on a day Bingin and Impossibles seemed to have lost swell, it was still quite good here. Once again a super-fast left hander. Goofy-footers’ paradise!
I walked across from Dreamland via the headland golf course - with a fat security turkey blowing his whistle at me. I just gave a cheesy and waved. You can walk around via the road - check the map down page a bit.At lowest tide you can walk the water’s edge from Dreamland. I found this pretty easy although it was a very low full moon tide and there were still a few puddles to jump. Actually I read on a surfer site you can walk all the way from Uluwatu at low tide - but from what I saw I think this may be confined to those twice monthly (full moon/no moon) lowest low tides.
Notice the area behind the beach is much lower than further west towards Bingin -Padang Padang - Uluwatu. The Bukit plateau is tilted upwards both towards the west and particularly the south. There are some awesome cliffs on the far southern side - and a few very upmarket hotels have perched themselves up top - google Bali Cliff Hotel.

Balangan at low tide. Some don't like exposed rock but many enjoy checking out the pools. Some nice sandy-bottomed ones in this area.

Tide has dropped a little more.

This is an August 2012 shot further along the beach away from the better pools in the western corner - I'm now starting to think that if you want off-the-sand swimming and hit the beach around low tide you may not think Balangan is mainland Bali's best beach. You would probably be better at nearby Dreamland or Padang Padang. Before you consider a day visit, better Google Bali tide times. If you are staying multi days, remember that low tide/high tide get an hour later each day so what may not be a good situation when you first arrive could be fine say 3 days later.


Looks sweet at higher tide levels - another 2012 shot. Remember it is about 6.25 hours between low and high tide so if the tide is too low when you first arrive on any day it could be fine a few hours later. Or vice versa. This was taken the same morning as the previous shot - about 1130 compared with the previous shot's 1630 from memory. Nice shot to click-expand.

Besides surfers and backpackers, Balangan is beginning to attract midrange travellers. Wax-heads shoud drag their eyes away from on-beach distractions to the point break. Balangan was running 6'-8' this day and VERY fast.

STAYING AT DREAMLAND AUGUST 2010
I wanted to show Lady Tezza the Bukit and looked into some of the midrange places behind Balangan Beach. But when checking Agoda for alternative Bukit accommodation I found the New Kuta Condotel which Google Earth showed was a few hundred meters from Dreamland itself.

Dreamland's New Kuta Condotel from the adjacent golf course. Seemed to me to be a 3.5-4 star property in facilities and service at prices similar to 2 star in Kuta itself ($us70 high season 2010 - these cheapest rooms more like 2.5 star but very nice). Maybe discounting to attract customers - running at 50% capacity in August, mainly young Euro surfer couples and Chinese tour groups - also some Euro student groups. Restaurant prices way lower than western levels and free brekka buffet was a killer. Place runs 3 free shuttles down to Kuta each day and 2 to Nusa Dua, so you are not isolated to the Bukit. Free bicycles but not great - I walked most places.

Outlook from the wi-fi lounge in back of the Condotel lobby. Pyramid in background is top of the new beach club structure on Dreamland Beach.

The Condotel was a central point for good access to the nearby beaches. The stroll down to Dreamland took less than 10 minutes.
Balangan was about 20 - turn right out of the hotel and follow the curved divided road for 10 minutes to the big new hotel on the left - take the lane immediately past this - a short distance down this you will come to a security gate and be waved thru if you say you are going to Balangan - follow the lane to the edge of the headland where you will see short paths leading down to the far south end of the beach. If you have wheeled transport there are several access roads a fair bit further past this first access lane.
To get to Bingin, go down to Dreamland and clamber up the southern headland on the paths the surfers take - follow their motorcyle tracks but don't take the new tarred road past where if veers inland - follow the paths closer to the sea. The hardest part is the haul down the mega-steps when you reach the top of Bingin. From the hotel you are looking at maybe 25 minutes. It takes about 5 minutes to walk along the shore from Dreamland to Bingin when the tide drops.
This isn't a bad pic to expand (click).UPDATE FEB 2012 - travelfish now has a very good site on Bukit accommodation from budget thru flashpacker into lower midrange.

STAYING AT BALANGAN AUGUST 2012

I was pretty keen on spending some time at Balangan on my latest visit to Bali. I was a bit surprised at how expensive the non-basic surfer/backpacker places were and how hard it was to find a vacancy on the booking sites despite looking some months ahead. I finally found a room at Balangan Garden but this overpriced place wasn't all that great. I got Lady Tezza to do a trip report which is good value because she looks for other things in a beach and is not afraid to stir the pot. Plus there's a bunch of the new pix etc which could help your future visit.


OTHER BALI BEACHES

I RECKON BALI'S BEST BEACH is DREAM BEACH on the offshore island of Nusa Lembongan. It is away from other areas near the south-west corner of the island, maybe 3km from Lembongan Village and is probably only 200m across, book-ended by high headlands with one rather nice flash-packer bungalow/restaurant place overlooking the bay. The sand is clean and white. One caveat - this place tends to pick up a lot of swell so the surf can be quite tricky. There is a permanent rip current on the left side of the bay (facing the sea) - anywhere past halfway across should be avoided otherwise you may find yourself disappearing towards the distant fringing reef and the bigger waves at a rapid rate of knots. Remember, if caught in a rip current swim SIDEWAYS out of the rip - in this case towards the right hand side of the beach.

Sweet beach but often tricky surf at Lembongan's Dream Beach


Latest July 2012 shot. Dream Beach seems to have been discovered by the daytrippers from other areas on Lembongan. Carpark full of motorcycles, restaurant busy. Resort now has snazzy 2 level rim pool -  seemingly plenty of guests. Surf as tricky as ever - this is a bit of a lull.

When the tide is full and the swash of a big swell is coming a long way up the beach there is not a lot of dry sand left on Dream Beach. If you click expand you may be able to see sunbathers in a small pocket of dry sand just behind the sunlounges at left. There is a similar pocket back left of beach.

MUSHROOM BAY on Lembongan is also a pretty nice beach. This one is backed by a variety of midrange and top-end accommodation and some restaurants with good views. It can get pretty busy from about 1100 thru to 1400 with daytrippers from Bali, but is very relaxed at other times. The bay is sheltered by a fringing reef so dangerous surf is not a factor.

More shots of Mushroom Bay and Dream Beach can be seen on this page.

I rate SANUR BEACHas mainland Bali’s 3rd best after Balangan and Dreamland, although other people may prefer one of the beaches mentioned later.
Sanur has some very nice sections of sand, particularly now that extensive but not intrusive groyne development has finished which seems to have achieved the aim of building up the beach. Sanur is a 5km long curved beach along which runs a nice walking/cycling path, backed by hotels, restaurants, some beach markets etc. Much nicer and lower key than Kuta. However an offshore reef means sheltered water, no surf, and some parts of the lagoon get real shallow at low tide, okay for low-key snorkelling at higher tides.
For nice sand I particularly recommend the area around the Bali Hyatt (central) & Bali Beach Hotels (south end) and last trip I was impressed by the sand build-up in my favourite mid-north region around Gazebo Hotel - Griya Santrian (not Puri Santrian)- MAP

This is NOT the nicest section of Sanur Beach - just south of the little harbour in North Sanur. The beach widens and improves from the Inna Grand Bali Beach hotel in background. But for you local-culture fiends, this section is very popular with Balinese families because of good parking near the harbour. Note early Sunday morning seems to be THE time for the family to hit the beach - this was shot at 0730. The Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Penida ferries are in middle-ground - the harbour gets bumpy in any big swell so the boats get moved up a bit behind the protection of the reef.

This is shot from the 10th floor of the Inna Grand Bali Beach Hotel and shows the first section of the better part of Sanur beach which continues around far corner for another 3-4km. Offshore reef means sheltered water - gets shallow in parts at low tide but always has some water. Good spot for watersports - so-so snorkelling for non-fanatics (although I saw some snorkel boats working the reef drop-off on the OCEAN SIDE which could be better). Good surf for experts at times along the ocean side of reef in several spots. Inna Grand is a pretty sweet hotel with a big variety of rooms and bungalows in mega-spacious grounds - prices drop dramatically after Sept 1 which allowed us to spend a few days in the Garden Wing on the 2010 visit.


The NUSA DUA/TANJUNG BENOA strip has some nice sand areas, but unlike Sanur, I find the groyne development along much of here a bit intrusive. There are certainly some very nice international style properties to stay in this area. However not all Nusa Dua's beaches are between groynes - some of the best resorts are behind what I call Nusa Dua North and Nusa Dua South beaches. These longish beaches are definitely not groyne beaches (a groyne is a transverse to the beach breakwater aimed at trapping beach drifitng sand to cut beach erosion/build beaches).

Nusa Dua North - sweet. Nusa Dua South is similar but longer.

Note too that not too shabby Geger Beach (see below) can be argued to be a Nusa Dua beach, being a continuation of Nusa Dua South.

GEGER BEACH
Now here's one I didn't know about. In August 2012 Trip Adviser ran a feature on 10 of the world's unforgettable beaches. Bali made it with PANTAI GEGER. This beach is part of the western end of the Nusa Dua strip where it starts to wrap around the south-eastern coast of the Bukit peninsula - I'm not sure if you would rate it a Nusa Dua or Bukit beach. Note that recent Trip Adviser reviewers say the beach is being encroached on by the new and huge Mulia Resort and is a construction zone. When finished apparently there will only be about 75m of free beach squeezed between the Mulia and the St Regis. I wish this report had come earlier - a week before it arrived in my email I was only 5km away on Balangan - cruising over and checking it would have been a doddle. Not having been there, I had to swipe this image from Trip Adviser.


UPDATE JUNE 2013 - I managed to stay a few days at a nearby hotel and check Geger out. To clarify things, it definitely is a Nusa Dua beach - actually an extension of the rather nice Nusa Dua south beach which starts at the far corner in the above shot (that corner is highlighted in the Trip Advisor shot above this). And even though the Mulia Resort and Spa takes up maybe 60% of Geger's southern half's beachfront the public is free to walk the whole beach.

There is a bunch of inexpensive restaurants where the road on the far side of the Mulia reaches the beach - each has sun lounges, umgrellas etc available. Note Mt Agung in background - telephoto makes it appear a bit close: better perspective is in the shot above this one.

So is Geger Beach Bali”s best? It is a fine stretch of sand protected by an offshore reef with water that appears not to get too shallow at low tide. But the part domination by the huge Mulia seems to have taken some of its former quaintness away. I prefer not too distant Balangan and Dreamland.


JIMBARAN immediately south of the airport has its fans and is a definite step up from Kuta. Some nice places to stay and the area is highly rated for good seafood restaurants. I rate the 800m long beach itself a grade under Sanur. In May 2014 I managed to revisit Jimbarin and stay a few nights - gone is the occasional fishing junk and flotsam: locals seem to be manicuring the beach much more now with more resorts and a rush of visitors to dine at the many beachside fish restaurants while checking the sunset.

Sun's gone but not the crowds - about 30 seafood restaurants line the beach at north Jimbarin. Another half dozen mid beach. Sunset is an event with people coming from all over south Bali to check it out.


The beach is widest in the north in front of the restaurants. Not bad central beach but gets pretty skinny high tide in the last 20% - at least in May 2014, but maybe the recently finished wet season was a rough one with more than usual storm wave erosion. Beaches can recover fairly quickly once fine weather dominates. 


There is a pretty nice white sand beach just south of the harbour bay at PADANGBAI on Bali’s east coast called Bias Tugal. Maybe 200m long, book-ended by headlands and backed by a steep rain-forested hill - a major part of which had been cleared in May 09 for a mega Korean owned hotel. There are a few small warungs on the beach, and the ladies running them told me the hotel does not have title to the beach, but I bet there will be multiple beach-lounges and umbies when it opens.

Only part of the new mega-resort can be seen in this shot. Good news from my latest August 2010 visit is that the resort is in limbo - apparently the developers did not get the correct permits. Same is true for another upmarket resort on a headland maybe 400m to the left of shot. Pathway to beach from road heading up hill south of town now well sign-posted.

More pix of other Padangbai areas can be seen on this page.
Padangbai's town beach is not bad towards the left (north) end of the bay. The beach across the other side of the steep northern headland at BLUE LAGOON is very skimpy, maybe absent at higher tides of the month. Nice snorkelling here however.


CANDIDASA is maybe 10km further north as the crow flies - the TOWN BEACH here is non existent at high tide and stones at low tide. Lots of concrete break-walls and groynes here and south west to cut wave erosion.
There is a WHITE SAND BEACH about 6km further north which is a popular daytrip call-in, although I was underwhelmed by a lot of natural beach flotsam, some overkeen warung owners trying to drum up business and more yellow than white sand.
Just south west of town centre is a range of midrange places accessed by lanes off the coastal highway which have no beach at high tide but patches of white/yellow sand at lower levels.
(Candi Beach shots this page)


THE NORTH COAST BEACHES on the coastal strips around AMED and LOVINA are black sand. Nevertheless the series of little bays which make up the Amed strip are very scenic and relaxing. Lovina had a rep for Kuta type hassle in the old days but was pretty relaxed last time I 2 times I visited. Pix of Lovina beaches can be seen on this page.


I hadn't visited THE NORTH-WEST COASTAL AREA of Bali on earlier trips but was told not all the beaches are black sand, and are comparatively deserted and laid back with a few nice budget places to stay. In AUGUST 2012 I got to Pemuteran and Menjangan island in the north west. The main beach at Pemuteran is black sand but a short distance west colour turns yellow and seems to stay that way. However I did not see any beaches to rave about to although a good look around the Prapat Agung Peninsula of the north-west National Park would probably turn up a gem or two. The coastal track is about 30km long here and I didn't have the time to do it. Menjangan Island seemed to have some okay sections of sand but approaching from the ocean seemed tricky because the fringing reef appears to go right to the shore. Anyway, your time is better spent snorkeling in this outstanding for Bali coral and fish location.


WEST COAST BEACHES
I've stayed at the west coast surfing spots of Canggu and Medewi. Beaches were tan-grey and nothing to write home to mum about. But the surfing can be good, the water clean particularly at more northern Medewi and there are no crowds.


KUTA
Kuta beach was gorgeous way back when I first visited as a surfer-grommet. Good waves, lovely clean white sand, backed by a line of palms, behind which were mainly grazing water buffalo and cash-cropping. The beach was pretty deserted apart from a handful of surfer dudes and naked hippy-chicks sunning and frolicking in the shore-break. I spent my teens pining for a hippy-chick girlfriend to take to the beach.

ALL YOU DESPERATE DANS EXPECTING A GRATUITOUS SHOT OF A NAKED HIPPY CHICK AT THIS POINT ARE OUT OF LUCK - THIS IS A FAMILY SHOW DUDES.

Kuta these days? Ummm - well the surf is still often pretty good.
The sand has a definite tint of grey. It’s lined with beach chairs, usually crowded, has heaps of places selling drinks, snacks, surfboard hire, and is backed by a super busy road the other side of which are a host of hotels, restaurants and other businesses.
The palms are gone, but many areas have shade-trees in back which is nice. The crack-down on hawkers seemed to have been relaxed on my last few visits with heaps of ladies wanting to give massages, guys with the usual watches/paintings/wood carvings, girls with fruit and snacks or sarongs/bikinis/board-shorts.
Unfortunately the water aint pristine any more - with a fair few plastic bags etc. In wet season the wind is onshore and so a lot of natural and man-made flotsam and jetsam can be washed onto the sand.
The surf is still often very good but watch for rip-currents. There are Aussie-trained surf-lifesavers but not enough for a pretty long strip of beach.
You can walk north for several km and in previous recent trips I’ve always hired a bicycle and fanged along at lower tide checking the scene. Some very nice girls, only semi-naked these days, so the scene is okay. For you ladies, the surfer-dudes and Bali beach boys can cut it.
Actually if the tide is right you can go 10+km all the way to Canggu, although you may have to ford some streams in wet and early dry seasons.

Not exactly Kuta - my camera's card was full by the time I got there in 2009. Instead this is a beach on a small island near Sarpe in East Sumbawa a few weeks before. I had to spend a day in Sarpe - 7am to 7pm - waiting for the ferry to Labuanbajo in East Flores. Sarpe pier area is a God-forsaken hole so 5 of us hired this boat for $3 each and spent much of the day on this and another deserted beach. This one in particular had fairly good coral. No palms in back here - parts of eastern Sumbawa are almost semi arid.

My camera's card was okay on a later 2010 trip - as you can see Kuta would not make the list of the world's top 1000 beaches these days. It did when I first saw it.

About 2km north in the mid-Legian area the beach gets less crowded, starts to narrow and the sand gets darker. In parts of Seminyak it is quite narrow and darkish in places. Some very flash newer hotels up here.

North Seminyak in 2012 maybe 5km from Kuta's main section of beach - not too narrow in this section although this is low tide. August peak season yet not exactly crowded. The central part of Seminyak beach had more people but way fewer than down at Kuta-Legian.

 South of Kuta main the beach is divided by break-walls and groynes into shortish sections. Most of this area is known as Tuban. It has always been possible to walk all the way to the airport thru the Tuban area and there is now a very good paved path which runs all the way back of the beach - see pix on the main Bali page.

Beach-side paved path finishes at groyne mid shot. You can walk a block or so inland from there to the main road and then to the airport, but it would be at least a km from the terminal, maybe more.

There are some nice pockets of sand along here, some laid back beach bars and restaurants and quite a few good places to stay - pretty flash in the near-Kuta area. The water is calmer, protected by Kuta Reef offshore which is a fairly hot surfing spot for experienced riders. Best accessed by hiring one of the local boaties - it’s a looong paddle.

So is Kuta Beach a waste of time? I don’t think so. It has good surf, great people watching and magic sunsets.
On a recent trip I had half a day before my flight. I got a Perama bus from Padangbai to Kuta, wandered down to the beach, walked up to Legian checking the scene, had a nice swim-surf-some sun, walked back down to Kuta beach central and bought a beer off one of the hundreds of guys selling same up under the trees.

When you do this you are their best friend for life. Out comes the plastic chair, placed in prime shade-spot under the trees. 

I sat there, checked the passing parade of beautiful and not-so people......

....the ever so keen tourists trying to learn to surf in 1 or 2 lessons (impossible) at one of the many surf-schools....

....the Balinese beach boys cracking-on to backpacker-babes and vice-versa....

Who's tuning who? (Or is that whom?)

... fended off the massage girls and sarong sellers, bought me a delicious peeled pineapple and a choc-ice from a nice passing lady - and several beers later headed for the airport in a real good mood. Which was just as well, knowing Bali airport.

If you want some out of the way beaches with few crowds etc this site is very good.

If you click this June 2013 shot to expand it you will see around 100 people with boards and rash-vests in the surf - virtually all of them are surf school pupils. Crikey, I've never seen a crowd like this - and early June is still shoulder season. Kelly Slater has a lot to answer for.

Why surf-school teachers' voices sometimes go squeaky - image TransWorld Surf


If you see mistakes or have extra info, please post it below.
If you have any questions, please ask them on THE FORUM which can be clicked on three-quarters down the INDEX page - I don't get a chance to check individual pages often.

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If you are considering BALI BEACHES perhaps you might be interested in EAST BALI, THE MAIN BALI PAGE and the nearby GILI ISLANDS and LOMBOK pages which can all be accessed via THE INDEX
Budget SERAYA and KANAWA islands in West Flores are also very sweet and have a page.-------------------------------------------------------

Last visited June 2013 (Candidasa) - September 2011 (Padangbai)

No shortage of dive boats at Padangbai. That's a Lembar (Lombok) bound vehicle ferry leaving the pier in the background.

South Bali attracts the majority of Bali visitors, but discerning travellers have long headed for the quieter towns of east Bali for relaxation in an attractive area.

PADANGBAIThe town bay at Padangbai has the Lombok vehicle ferry pier to the right and a neat range of mainly budget accommodation places lining the beach road on the left. The Blue Lagoon snorkelling area is the smaller bay far left and the white sand ocean beach of Bias Tugel can be seen just to the right of the main town bay (image Karangasim Tourism)

Correct north-south orientation. 1-Perama depot 2-small boat pier 3-main beachside accommodation-restaurant strip 4-Mustikasari 5-headland road to Blue Lagoon 6 path to Bias Tugel. There are now ATMs just inland from 1 and on the beachfront road a short distance to the left of 2. My labels are a bit small - click to expand image.

Padangbai is an enigma because despite its bustling ferry wharf where vessels to Lombok load and unload trucks, buses, other vehicles and people 24/7, it’s a surprisingly laid-back and appealing little town with a nice selection of budget and these days better accommodation.


Padangbai’s town bay from a now abandoned restaurant site on the northern headland. Note the ferry pier at top right of first shot . You can also catch scheduled small ferries to Nusa Peninda from nearby, plus Perama’s slow boat and several speed boats direct to the Gilis. Small boat owners will take you across to Nusa Lembongan for the right price.
There is an ATM at the bank just inland from the big pier on the main access road - left side facing inland.And new on my Sept 2011 visit was another ATM in a moneychanging office a short distance along the bay-front road towards the main pier from the small boat pier used for the fast boat. This would be ideal for people heading for Gilis Meno and Air - there are now plenty of ATMs on Trawangan.
The near-end of the bay has a strip of budget accommodation places, dive shops and restaurants along the beach road - accomm prices were around $us9 -12, some with, some without brekka on my latest May 09 trip. Some of the more popular include Padangbai Beach Inns 1/2, Padang Bai Billabong and the Topi Inn at the end of the road has finally been rebuilt (under construction my past 2 visits - several years apart!) There are quite a few others in town although those close to the pier could be a bit noisy in the early hours. The old beachfront fish restaurants I enjoyed so much on previous trips are gone - but this has definitely opened up the beach side of the road and given the restaurants on the other side good views (click to expand image).

The beach road at the north end of the bay has some good value lower-midrange and budget places to stay - one of the former is Mustikasari in a quiet location right at the end of beach road where it starts to climb over to Blue Lagoon. A very spacious fan room cost us $us28 including breakfasts in August 2010. Attractive grounds, nice pool area. Short walk to plenty of good value eats along the beach front and closer the pier. Note next door's Toppi Inn, oft praised in the guide books, has an attractive restaurant area and good prices but we waited an hour for food on our one visit. Toppi's upstairs budget rooms were a pretty reasonable 100k in high season 2010.

The Blue Lagoon. If you continue up the steep hill which starts at the northern end of the town beach road and follow the signs you will reach this nice snorkelling spot in less than 10 minutes. Coral and fish life are pretty good by Bali mainland standards. Lots of people come around from town in hire-boats and from even as far as Candidasa which is visible about 8 km north. Quite a lot of work has been done here since my last visit - a retaining wall behind the narrow beach, tumbledown warungs replaced by attractive joints with beach chairs etc.

This is the Blue Lagoon region from a Gilis-bound boat. The town bay is over the saddle behind the sand. Those buildings high to the right are part of an flash villa resort new since my last visit - Blue Lagoon Villa

Just around the SOUTHERN headland from the town bay (but very difficult to reach by rock-hopping) is the nice white sand beach of Bias Tugel. Always popular on previous trips, I was surprised how few visitors arrived on the day of the shot. The ladies in the warungs are real keen to sell drinks/massages/etc but this is still a pleasant place to spend time. There always seems to be a decent shore-wash of waves, but I have never seen a surfable wave here.
The huge scale of the Korean financed hotel development behind Bias Tugel can be seen in the right half of this shot. The warung ladies told me the hotel could not purchase the beach - but I bet it puts a bunch of beach chairs and umbrellas there. The near-finished development at the end of the headland is Indian owned according to the ladies. Until the Korean hotel is finished, the best way to access the beach is to take the road over the hill south of town and cut through the hotel grounds. When this is closed off, stick on the road and continue to bear left at intersections etc. After about 15 minutes you will come to the end of the road where a bush track descends to the southern end of the beach.
UDDATE AUGUST 2010 - these hotels are in unfinished limbo, apparently with problems in their development applications. There is now a big BIAS TUGAL sign showing the short-cut thru the grounds and down to the beach posted a short distance up the hill as you leave town on the side road south from near the pier.


CANDIDASA.
Candi is an attractive seaside town on the main coastal road in East Bali. The east coast curves here so that the section Candi is on actually runs closer to west-east.Candidasa comprises 3 sections:
-Central Candi, the main street area which has a good range of services and plenty of accommodation of all standards both sides of the road.
-Forest Road - an area hugging the coast past where the main road turns inland towards Amlapura - far right side of map above and extending a short distance out of frame. More midrange places than budget here.
-West Candi - a strip about 2km long west of Central Candi on the approach from Denpasar/Kuta. The coastal road is up to 500m inland along here with lanes heading down to the mainly midrange/high-end resorts. This strip starts at Lotus Seaview one third across the map and extends left out of frame.Map from AsiaRooms

This modified Google Earth image shows some of the Candidasa region locations more clearly: 1-main coastal road 2-West Candi midrange area 3-Tenganan traditional village 4-Candidasa central 5-Forest Road 6-White Sand Beach

Travellers will find no shortage of accommodation of all standards in the general Candidasa area.
I’m no gourmet but people tell me there are a handful of fine-dining restaurants in and around town. There are certainly plenty of tourist standard eats-joints. This is no place for party animals, although live music is found at one of two restaurant-bars in the main street most nights.
There are plenty of money changers, at least one bank and there is now an ATM on the sea-side towards the Kuta-Denpasar end of the main street not too far from the Perama office 


There are plenty of budget/moderately priced restaurants in town. Intense competition keeps prices low and food/service good. One downside is traffic noise - the road is not only the main route to north east Bali but part of the trans-Indonesian highway on account it connects the ferry pier from Java at Gilimanuk in the north-west to the ferries for Lombok and further east at Padangbai to Candi's south. This is no 5th Avenue, but still pretty busy with vehicles of all sizes. Quieter dining right in town would be found at the seafront restaurants of some of the resorts on the south side of the main street, but less likely to be budget.


Candi's main street features this pretty nice lagoon towards its western end. 

Typical less expensive seaside place on the Central town strip. This is Temple Restaurant and Seaside Cottages. Note the stone pebble beach - apparently mining of the coral reef for building material some 30 years ago exposed the beach to erosion and the sand was lost. I noticed seaside places on the West Candi strip had patches of yellow sand although they were covered at high tide with waves smacking against seas walls similar to the above.

Seaside Cottages has a fine array of bungalows set in a neat garden area between the street front restaurant and the ocean front. Prices range from a ridiculously low 45k ($us4.50 at time of visit) for a backpacker-basic place to 350k for aircon, hot water and more. My 95k bungalow, second back from the ocean-front here, was a midrange bungalow in all respects except for cold water and fan-only. Hell, they serviced it daily with clean towels - for 95k! Not surprisingly, brekka aint included for this sort of money. Food in the street front restaurant was real nice, prices seemed competitive to other places I stayed this holiday - although this restaurant is one of those places which adds 15% govt and service charges to the prices in the menu.

Immediately across the main road is the well know Watergarden Resort. It has a reciprocal deal with Seaside Cottages where guests can use one's pool or the other's beachfront lounges providing they purchase food or drink. So for the price of a few Bintangs (only 17.5K each compared to the common 15k) I got to swim some laps and loll on the poolside lie-lows checking the specifications of jetsetter babes.

Watergarden is a real nice midranger with very attractive bungalows set up a hillside in lush garden surrounds. Each bungalow has its own lagoon immediately off the deck. I have a travel-agent friend who always stays here on Bali visits.

THE NIRWANA RESORT AND SPA
I decided to spend a few nights in Candi enroute to Amed in June 2013. I'd always liked the looks of the what I call up page the West Candi midrange area, so I looked around for a promising looking place which wasn't over the top price wise.

 The resorts in this area tend to be several hundred meters down laneways from the busy main road and are therefore considerably quieter locations. Nirwana runs a free shuttle into town on request (other bookings allowing - we never had problems on availability). We walked to the village once – about 25 minutes. Water and other basics are available less than 10 mins into this walk at a main road minimart.


The rough laneway approach suggests nothing special ahead but on arrival Nirwana turns out to be  a very nice property with excellent staff.  


AROUND CANDIDASA

A favourite short excursion from Candidasa is WHITE SAND BEACH to the north.In actual fact I found the place a bit underwhelming - the quality of sand and landscape would not land it in my top 500 beaches and some of the half-dozen or so warung operators can be quite persistent in their quest for business. The most popular way to access the beach is to hire a boatman who will take you the 4 or 5km up the coast. I hired a bicycle at 20K a day and cycled there - motorcycle rent is not too much more expensive. Go up over the winding pass on the main road immediately north of town towards Amlapura - on the other side of the pass there is a long ribbon of a village stretching about 2km along the road. The 3rd and 4th turns a fair way into the village to the right are signposted VIRGIN BEACH (look for the blue signs) - either of these will take you down to the beach about 2-3km away.

Another popular excursion is a boat trip out to snorkel one of the 3 islands above. I did this about 10 years ago - fish and coral okay but nothing to get excited about. Much better is a trip to the more distant Blue Lagoon at Padangbai, which the boat guys are always trying to push. The islands in the shot are also popular for diving and there are several dive shops in town.

On my first trip to Candidasa I climbed the impressive hill behind the main street area for impressive views of town, the lagoon, the offshore islands and some nice valley areas further inland.

Also close to town is the traditional village of Tenganan, home to one of the last groups of original Balinese. This is reached by heading inland from the main coast highway up the signposted road a few hundred meters on the Kuta side of the main street - there is a bunch of motor-cycle taxi guys waiting at the corner to cart tourists the 4km or so to the village. I found the gentle gradient real easy on my hire-bicycle but the place appeared a bit arty and tourist-trappy to my liking, so I turned around and pedalled back.

Further from town and best reached with a car and driver or hire motorcyle is Tirta Gangga - another traditional village with nice views of attractive rice terraces and the Water Palace which has great gardens, many pools including one in which tourists can swim.


In June 3013 I managed to stay a few nights at Tirta Gangga. The water palace is worth a visit and the rice terraces although not as good as some other areas I've seen are not bad.

Even more spectacular rice terraces and hill-v alley scenery can be seen by getting your driver to take one of the roads that loop behind Candidasa high up in the hills to the west. There are several turn-offs onto these roads on the highway to Amalapura and the loops will eventually descend to meet the coast road again somewhere south of Candi towards Kuta/Denpasar.

Another popular daytrip by car is to the Amed strip of quiet coastal villages along the western end of the north coast starting about 45 minutes north of Candi. Some very attractive scenery, good snorkelling, nice black sand beaches and pleasant restaurants along here. Good dive area too.

Google Images Karangasem has some nice pix o f the Water Palace, rice terraces etc.

GETTING THERE
In June 2013 we came up from Kuta by car and driver for 350k rp - $23 at the time. A fixed price taxi from the airport may now be 50k or so more.
You can go by local public bemo but this would mean changing bemos several times and would take all day. A better bet would be a public bus from Denpasser bus station to Amlapura which could drop you off going thru Candi.
Shuttle bus operators are the best no fuss low budget option for travelllers - Perama has several trips per day - usually Kuta to Sanur to Ubud to Padangbai to Candidasa although I have travelled on a direct Kuta-Sanur to Padangbai Perama. The final stetch to Candi has always been in a smaller van. I actually short-cut Perama by jumping on a motorcycle-taxi at Padangbai and fanging up to Candidasa for 20k. Perama has a stop-over of about 20 minutes. That was in '09, a 2013 price would be more likely 30k - but this would depend on your bargaining skill with the transport guys who hang around the pier in Padangbai.
Current Perama prices and timetable
http://www.peramatour.com/bali_Shuttle.php


Plenty of people come in to Padangbai from Lombok via slow ferry, Perama’s direct slow boat to the Gilis and the fast boats to the Gilis. I have also come across from Nusa Lembongan in the past with a bunch of surfer dudes in a chartered fishing boat.
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If you are considering East Bali perhaps you might be interested in BALI'S BEST BEACHES, THE MAIN BALI PAGE, SIDEMAN, TIRTA GANGGA,  AMED  and the nearby GILI ISLANDS and LOMBOK which can all be accessed via THE INDEX



IF YOU SEE MISTAKES OR HAVE EXTRA INFO PLEASE POST BELOW. BUT IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS PLEASE POST THEM ON THE FORUM PAGE WHICH CAN BE ACCESSED VIA THE INDEX - I CHECK IT REGULARLY BUT MAY ONLY READ THIS PAGE ONCE IN A WHILE.

Last visited April 2012

HAD SALAD, THAN SADET, HAD THIAN, BOTTLE BEACH PLUS NEARBY BEACHESTaking it easy on Had Sadet (click to expand pix)

My main Phangan page is getting pretty lengthy so after my latest revisits in August 09 and June 2010 I kept information on new places visited pretty concise on that page with the idea of doing a more detailed coverage here.

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HAD SALAD (Haad Salad, Hat Salad) is in the north of Phangan's west coast (map).
Had Salad from Cookies hotel block balcony. Very nice white sand beach, not too narrow here at the top of high tide with clear water. About half a dozen accommodation places along the beach mainly flashpacker or midrange, but check that high end joint front right - Salad Buri. There are some budget rooms, mainly closer to the main road. Very quiet beach - those longtails seemed mainly ornamental and few daytrip longtails come in because Mae Had with its better snorkelling is just to the north.At low tide the water gets pretty shallow particularly closest to camera where quite a bit of sand and some rock is exposed. Mid way along the bay, the beach has a fairly steep profile and thus doesn't get too wide at low tide. Nevertheless you have to wade out quite some distance to swim freely.No problems high tide.
That's the restaurant roof front center - views not quite as panoramic, but still pretty special.
The fringing reef out of shot to the left protects the beach from swell which sometimes is generated by the summer westerlies. From late November to April this is a lee beach.

SNORKELLING AT HAD SALAD.
Lots of people were content to snorkel around in the middle of the bay inside the fringing reef. I noticed quite a few fish in this area on my way out to the reef drop-off. The drop-off is not precipitous like many - more a steepish slope. There was a good variety of coral types along the seaward side but unfortunately not a great range or vibrancy of colour. Fish life was reasonable but not the variety, colour and numbers you see in top coral areas. Both coral and fishlife improved a fair bit along the northern headland, but cannot match nearby Ko Ma at Mae Had (which in itself is down several steps from world class).

Cookies position on the southern headland of Had Salad. Pool front left, panoramic restaurant mid-level right, hotel block top right, various bungalows top and mid-level left. Most bungalows and all the hotel rooms have nice beach/bay views - it seemed some of the poolside bungalow views were blocked a bit by vegetation. Being tucked behind the northern headland, this place was sheltered on those 10-15% of summer days when the westerlies get a bit blustery. And there is plenty of nice shade past mid-day. But the aspect here is NNE - you will have to go mid-beach to catch the sunsets.
Another caveat - steep climbs to most rooms and bungalows. Cookies access driveway comes part way down the hill from a dirt access road which runs along the top of the headland off the main paved Had Yao to Mae Had coastal road. If you can't hack slopes, most of the other beachfront midrangers like Haadland, Salad Hut and Salad Beach Resort looked pretty sweet to me with nice bungalows, gardens, pools etc.

I thought Cookies was a class act. The views are fantastic from most bungalows/rooms plus the restaurant, the service good, the food nice and at pretty normal budget bungalow prices and the pool area was a nice place to spend time. It's a step or three up from my usual basic backpacker joint, but Lady Tezza does like a bit of comfort. I picked the cheapest room, the Over Sea Hotel Room at 1200 baht high season, which included breakfast, aircon, hot water,TV with about 50 chanels, DVD, and serviced daily if you asked. At the resaurant there were 2 laptops for the internet (1baht/minute), pool towels, boxes of games, books and DVDs. To me, this was more a lower-midrange room than a flashpacker.
Value? Well right now I'm researching prices for Ko Lipe early December and can't get an aircon room, no TV, no hot water, no pool for 1200. And Had Salad is as nice as any Lipe beach - plus Cookies is better than the 2 places I'm researching.
The room at Cookies was big with enough room for another normal double matress beside our king size bed if needed. It was concrete construction which stayed cool when the aircon was off, with semi-polished floors and cool staining on the bathroom walls to give a granite appearance (the shots on the websites look like the bathrooms are plywood, not concrete). The aircon was quiet and there was 24 hours electricity. The balcony had a nice seating/table set plus a hammock to enjoy the great views. However inside could have done with some sort of seating and a few hooks and shelves for small items. The room also had its own safe deposit box.
Cookies website gives has some good pix of the various accommodation exteriors and interiors - although sawadee.com is probably better in this respect.
Our one problem was that despite requesting a pier pickup on booking backed up by an email before arrival, we had to wait about 25 minutes after someone rang Cookies for us. At least we weren't charged - pickup is usually 400 odd baht per vehicle. On departure they have scheduled songthaew taxis running down to the pier about 4 times daily for 150 baht per person.

Cookies beachside pool has enough elevation for a pleasant outlook. There was a slightly higher spa pool area behind camera plus some sunlounges back there shaded by vegetation most of the day. Nice shade was also provided by that Bali-like sitting bure (roofed structure) beachside on right.

Central part of Had Salad is a nice place to hang approaching sunset.

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AROUND HAD SALAD

Captions are a bit small - click to expand

From Cookies it is an easy walk to Had Kruad, Hat Thian (west) and Hat Yao to the south. A longer walk to Mae Had to the north. Chaloklum and Coral Beach on the north coast are about 6km and 9km away and are best reached by motorcycle (heaps for rent in Salad - Cookies' were going for 180 baht a day) or bicycle if you are a nut-case like tezza.

Had Kruad (Khruat/Gruad etc) is a small bay just south of Had Salad. Keep walking along the dirt access road which Cookies' driveway joins and in a few minutes you will reach the first driveway toLucky Resort which has flashpacker and budget huts spaced down the hillside plus a pool. Adjacent is the similar Dragon, with Haad Gruad Beach Resort in the northern corner (note this last place has some shocking user reviews on sites like travelfish).
This lowest tide shot shows the beach and access to the sea are not great. However this secluded and laid back bay had quite a few guests of the longtime traveller type.

Had Thian (west coast) is a further 10 minutes walk south along the same dirt access road as Cookies and Had Kruad. There is only one bungalow place in this small bay, Haad Thian Beach Resortwhich has aircon, tv and hot water rooms/bungalows, quite a few big enough for families. Some of the more expensive bungalows are very flash but cheaper ones are more flashpacker. Unlike Kruad, you can enter the water off the beach as shown in this low tide shot and there is also a pool.

Had Yao (west coast) is about 20 minutes walk from Cookies (but another 10 from other Had Salad Resorts) either by the main coastal branch road which is now paved all the way between the major beaches, or by continuing along the walking track from Had Thian's access road (keep going straight ahead where this track branches left uphill). Nice beach with lots of accommodation and facilities - a bit like a quieter Had Rin. This is a low tide shot - the water tends to be pretty shallow close to shore.


I put in the driveway out of Cookies* to the access "road" from the main coastal road. To get to Had Kruad and Had Thian it's just a matter of following this narrow rough dirt "road" to their driveways. To get to Had Yao you need to take the walking track in yellow from close to Had Thian.
*if you are not staying at Cookies don't hesitate to take the steep path up past their pool and restaurant to join their access driveway. I have done it several times, no problems. This is a thing about Thai resorts - all but top end joints don't question people cutting thru their property. 

To the north of Had Salad is Mae Had (Hat Mae, Haad Mae etc). This is shot from the sandspit out to Ko Ma looking south. A northern section of the beach which is not quite as attractive curves away behind camera. Like Had Salad, water can get pretty shallow at lowest tide inside the fringing reef, but because Ko Ma has probably the best coral in Phangan on its southern side and those trees provide nice shade, this beach is very popular with the daytripping boats. There are some interesting clumps of coral in the lagoon off the beach and on the reef drop-off out from the beach too.
There are some real nice bungalow places behind the trees, the front rowers right on the sand. I noticed many have upgraded since my last visit and tend to have aircon etc and were asking around the 1000 mark for front row high season.

UPDATE - in Apeil 2012 I decided to stay at Mae Had for a few days. Got me a real nice bungalow at Mae Had View.

Outlook from my front row budget bungalow - 500baht with hot water. I have a TRIP REPORT with lotsa pix and details of this joint and Mae Had here.

The beach is about a 4km walk from Had Salad, but the road out of Salad has a killer hill and is a real good workout. So much so that I grabbed a bicycle at a yoga joint at the top of the hill (100 baht per day - pretty good bike for a change). The yoga place featured a collection of real sleek dudes and dudettes lounging around prior to doing and instructors' course. Hey you new-agers will also like this joint - cosmic tarrot card reading, herbal steam, reiki treatment with chakra balancing etc. Gourmets may appreciate the Thai cooking class. THE YOGA RETREAT.

OTHER YOGA JOINTS - there is quite a selection on Phangan. Matordor Trips has a list, some info on each and sublinks HERE.

To the east of Mae Had heading along the north coast of Phangan......

The western section of the big bay at Chaloklum on the island's north coast. Chalok's pier can be seen at the left (more clearly if you click to expand), but the town and the eastern section of the bay are hidden by the near vegetation. Chalok is popular with some old time travellers because it is still a working fishing town but also has the usual traveller restaurants/tour bookings/internet etc, plus several low key bungalow places along the bay. Known for its seafood restaurants too. Access from Thong Sala is by good concrete road. The beaches and water are okay to both sides of the town, but it does get shallow with an exposed section of reef low tide in the western 20% of the bay, so maybe consult your maps before booking.
I shot this from a viewpoint restaurant along the road to Had Khom, an excellent place for a recovery beer or four after riding my hire bicycle up the killer hill from Chalok.


This place is about half way along the beach west of Chalok's pier shown in the previous shot. No exposed reef at low tide here - although it gets a lot shallower than in this pic. Good position with only a 5 minute walk along the beach to the heart of Chaloklum. I shot this in 2012 off a billboard further west at Mae Had - hence the 2km arrow.
This joint appears to be flashpacker/lower midrange. A couple more budget-flashpacker places further west near the end of the beach. Plenty of budget joints immediately east of Chalok's pier.

People are always asking for elephants. These dudes were close to Chaloklum on the main road from Thong Sala and I saw a similar place on the steep hill just north of the Mae Had turn-off on the west coast road. Rides in the jungle etc are available if that sort of thing floats yer boat.

Coral Beach (Had Khom) is about 3 km east of Chaloklum on the north coast. I found it much easier to access than previously - a newish concrete road leads from Chalok over steepish hills to a point just past Had Khum and there ares several bungalow access tracks to get down to the beach. There are 3 bungalow outfits on the beach and another on the western headland. As you can see, the beach itself is pretty sweet, and the water was deep enough close to shore for easy swimming low tide. I reckon this is kinda like Bottle Beach (further east) last time I saw it, but easier to access. I'm pencilling this in for my next trip.

UPDATE JUNE 2010 - well, I didn't get to stay on Coral next trip, but I trekked across from adjacent Had Khuad (Bottle Beach) and hit it at lowest tide - some difference! Nevertheless I still like it as a beach and have seen some glowing reviews recently. Note the above 2 shots were taken from Coral Bay Bungalows which has budget and flashpacker style places straddling the headland, most with views over Coral Beach but some along with the restaurant looking westward across to Chaloklum.

Bungalows on the sand at Had Khom. These belong to Ocean View Resort

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THAN SADET
For the second part of the my August 2009 Phangan trip I went across to Than Sadet on the east coast, a place I've visited several times before on daytrips. The word on the forums is that Mai Pen Rai on Had Sadet is the place to stay.
Than Sadet actually refers to the small river which flows out at the southern end of the beach.
The bungalows at the beach have a songthaew taxi which takes off from Teep's Than Sadet Travel Agency in Thong Sala just across from the piers at 1330. This cost 150baht per passenger. Mai Pen Rai can arrange transfers at other times for 800 per vehicle. The road up into the highlands has more paving now but is still super rough and steep in parts. I still don't recommend it for amateur motorcyclists although plenty were doing it.
You can also access Had Sadet from Had Rin by longtail or the on Samui-Thong Nai Pan ferry.

Verandah of Tezza's rockside bungalow at Mai Pen Rai. The bunglow room's front to left is covered by vegetation but with sufficient clearing for the window view 2 shots down. A cliffside boulder behind actually overhangs the rear bathroom to form a roof.

Beach view from Chez Tezza verandah. People are always asking for a bungalow on the sand - well Had Sadet has them. Some belong to Mai Pen Rai, others to JS Hut. Mai Pen Rai's atmospheric beach restaurant is at the far end of the beach. Food and prices are average for island budget bungalows. Mai Pen Rai's riverside bungalows start that end - you can see the small bridge crossing the river far left.
Bear right past the bungalows for about 50 m and then walk up the slope to Tree House Phangan's restaurant at neighbouring Had Thong Reng.
That's the Phangan east coast ferry which runs across to Samui and back each day nosing into the beach. For details see Phangan Part One towards the bottom of the page and Mai Pen Rai's access page (it has a shot of the slightly smaller ferry which seemed to alternate with this one).

Neat outlook from bungalow itself. This place had plenty of room for 2 people and their gear, a nice 4 poster bed (the posts were stained sapling branches) with a nicely fitted mozzie net and a thin but fairly comfortable Thai queen size mattress backing up to that window. The place was clean and the fan quiet but the generator cut out about midnight. Towels, drinking water, soap and toiletpaper were supplied and the funky indoor/outdoor bathroom as mentioned had an overhanging boulder as a roof - plus a concreted pebble floor and slate featured walls.There was a western flush toilet and a bum spritzer. Cold water shower had good water pressure.
Not sure about value - this was a backpacker not flashpacker standard room as far as amenities were concerned and at 650 baht (no brekka) was pretty expensive. But what price do you add for the views and the funky artiness of design? To tell the truth I'd easily add 150 to the typical high-season 500baht Andaman bungalow.
Note that each bungalow is individually designed. Quite a few have lofts and there are plenty of family bungalows. Mai Pen Rai's website shows dozens of pictures of interiors and exteriors.

The north headland at Sadet. There are at least 4 bungalow operations on this headland - Mai Pen Rai's bungalow operations take the first 2 levels behind the furthest boat and continue around the rocks away fron the camera for at least 150m - Plaa's is above them and Silver Cliffis to Plaa's left. That's Silver Cliff's restaurant high left with the white roof (see the fabulous view below) and Plaa's restaurant furthest right at top. The big building just above the end of the beach is another restaurant - this is JS Hut's second restaurant with some beachfront and lower rock bungalows. The more expensive mid-beachfront restaurant for JSHut is out of shot left of camera and Mai Pen Rai's popular restaurant is at the other end of the beach behind camera. The small twin peaks of Chez Tezza's bungalow-verandah roofs can just be seen peeking over the vegetation just above the for'ard flag mast of the most distant boat.


UPDATE - when I stayed a few days here in April 2012 JS Hut was not operating. A frequent Sadet visitor told me the lady who runs it only opens 4 months of the year. I figure they are probably the busiest 4 months - with this area's better weather giving a second high season in July/August, I'm thinking those 2 months plus January and February. The place was certainly open in August 2009.

Fabulous view from Silver Cliff Bungalows' restaurant - just as good as near neighbour Plaa's Thansadet Resort (see the shot 70% down Phangan Part 1. Worth the climb alone, but I also found prices in both these better than the beach-level restaurants. The food at Plaa's was better too - exceptional. I didn't get a chance to eat at Silver Cliff, but made a point of finding time for a beer or more up here. Bungalow prices were considerably lower at both than Mai Pen Rai but you have to consider the climb and I'm not sure if they offer the same degree of artistic funkiness.
UPDATE MARCH 2010 - my friend Eddie made this comment: "PLAAS - Did you see the inside of Plaas bungalow?? Worth atleast 1000 baht but available for 300 to 400 baht."

So I made a point of staying at Plaas in April 2012. My 450baht bungalow was huge, had a very nice polished wood interior and tinted glass sliding doors. Plus a huge bathroom with a BATHTUB. I Noticed Plaas has family bungalows, often absent at beach bungalow places (but not at Mai Pen Rai who's variety of bungalows is mind-boggling. I have lotsa info and pix of Plaas and general Sadet from my trip on the PHANGAN TRIP REPORT PAGE.

Outlook from my Plaas' bungalow April 2012

A fair few daytrip boats put into Sadet making for some longtail noise but also some interesting people watching - particularly the rich dudes and their babes/hot daughters who hop off the speedboats. Most daytrippers walk up to the falls, grab some sun or swim time on the beach and take a meal or snack in the restaurants. Daytrippers might note that the most obvious of these in the middle of the beach is considerably dearer than the ones at both ends and way dearer than Plaas' or Silver Cliff's.

SNORKELLING AT THAN SADET
Coral does not like fresh or less than pristinely clear water. For that reason I gave checking the bay at Sadet the big miss - the river water flowing into the bay was a bit murky. Neighbouring Had Thong Reng had much clearer water and no appreciable stream flowing into it. There was some coral of various types off the rocks both sides of the bay but disappointing in having little variety and no vibrancy in colour. Ditto fish life.

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AROUND THAN SADET

Had Thong Reng is just over the small headland south of Than Sadet and can be accessed by a track off the river bridge at Sadet in less than 5 minutes. The small bay has a nice beach and had much clearer water than Sadet. The bungalow operation here is Tree Houseand the promotional blurb they gave me says this is the new location for the old Ko Chang Tree House people. They had quite a big range of nice looking bungalows between 250 and 550 baht located back of beach and up on the headland to the right of shot. The restaurant is also top of headland and that big shack central beach-front is the beach bar. www.tree-house.org
email - sunshine@tree-house.org
UPDATE JANUARY 2012 - I just got news that Tree House has lost the lease to their land - the lease-holders have sold out to an upmarket developer.


Abandoned Thong Reng restaurant - April 2012


Hide on High Jewelry and Bar - way up on the hilltop 10 minutes northwest of the beach - very laid back scenic joint, as is Viewpoint Restaurant and Bungalows nearby. See the Phangan TRIP REPORT page via the index for more info.

There are 3 "waterfalls" moving inland from Sadet beach and adjacent to the access road. This is the best - Thong Nang Waterfall (and various other names) and can be reached from the beach in less than 15 minutes of easy walking. Like many Thai falls, it is less than whelming, but the pool is usually real nice for a cool swim. I have visited at other times and there was a much better, clearer flow of water. In low flow times like the above, most of the water enters the pool by a shute which goes under that big rock back-left. It was possible on a previous trip to slide down this shute into a cave under the rock and then swim underwater into the pool. However the shute seemed partially blocked by debris this trip and looked too small for a human to pass. So I gave it a miss.

You can walk to Thong Nai Pan Yai from Than Sadet on a trail considerably closer to the coast than the roads. This leaves Sadet about 5 minutes up the main Sadet access road just inland from the Ranger Station - follow the signs to Viewpoint Bungalows but go straight ahead where the track to Viewpoint turns hard right uphill after another 5 minutes. This track is not for motorbikes being super rutted and steep in sections and narrowing to a one-person rainforest path in the highest third. It dumps out adjacent the small supermarket/travel agency/motorbike hire place about midway along TNP Yai's inland main street. The track took me 55 minutes to walk - beach to beach 65 minutes. Above is the first sight you get of Thong Nai Pan Yao and Noi (most distant) from the path.
Modified Google Earth image. I was surprised at Google's line scale - distances seemed greater to me. But then the track is not straight line - zigs and has some good height changes. Sure beats walking the road route. But I stress it is for walking only - don't be mislead by locals riding bikes up the first section from the turnoff near Than Sadet. There are some houses up there but the road is impossibly steep and rough even in this section. Later it narrows into a rainforest track and even had a 2m deep ditch across it at one stage.
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I was so taken with the look of Had Thian when my Thong Nai Pan to Samui ferry called in August 2009 that I decided to spend some time there next Phangan visit - June 2010. This is

Had Thian East Coast from Horizon Bungalow's restaurant - the southern third of the beach is hidden at left and includes the funky new-agers' 
The Sanctuary Resort beachfront restaurant against the headland. Had Thian Resort's bungalows are behind the trees in back of beach. There is another bungalow place behind the rocks at far right. Dream where I stayed is about 200m behind the beach.Those "rocks" in the water starting mid-beach are actually unexpectedly good coral - this is one easy place to snorkel off the beach. Swimming is good too because excessive shallowness at low tide is not a problem. There is a neat sunbathing platform mid-bay hidden by the tree front right of pic. The sand is not the super-fine stuff found on some Phangan beaches.Cute Had Wai Nam is a 5 minute walk across that low saddle right of shot - bigger but still attractive Had Yuan East Coast is less than 15 minutes trek by good track behind the camera.


Google Earth image of Had Thian and surrounding beaches' location - I cranked up the vertical exaggeration a bit much on this shot, but the mountains in SE Phangan look almost as impressive in reality. That's Thong Sala the main pier town in far background. Note there is a new road which goes from Had Yuan/Had Thian right across that huge divide towards Thong Sala - it meets a small road which comes up from the south coast at Ban Kai, hidden behind the divide. I have a map on the PHANGAN TRIP REPORT PAGE. Click this image to expand.

Outlook from front row of The Sanctuary's beach-corner restaurant. Wonderful place to spend time with a pretty friendly relaxed crowd - the place offers yoga, detox, all sorts of personal development courses - all the new-agers' stuff. Accommodation tends to be flashpacker thru midrange and restaurant prices are a bit higher than other Thian places whose accommodation is more budget into flashpacker. BREAKING NEWS - I just Googled the website - the joint also has a DORM and they talk about longhouse type rooms too.
Note new type of longtail hull, pretty common in Phangan's se corner. Longtails are the main form of access - you come in from Had Rin East and will be asked anything from 300 down per boat. I managed 200, no bargain. An old guy hangs around just to the left of frame and makes regular runs down to Had Rin for a lesser amount. There is a vehicle track into Thian now but I understand it is a shocker - no visitors I saw were coming in by vehicle and there were no daytripper motorcyclists.
There is a walking track which meets the one out of Had Yuan further south and treks up over the very high steep mountain to Had Rin. I tried to find it at Had Yuan but had no luck. Next time I'll try from the Had Rin side.

Never a dull moment at The Sanctuary.

Part of The Sanctuary's characterful beach-corner restaurant and bar.

Outlook from the hillside restaurant of Beam Bungalows - the beach is about 200m thru the trees. Attractive split level place but not as funky and arty as The Sanctuary's. Excellent food at prices maybe 10%-20% higher than typical budget restaurant but sevings are very generous. Good service from very friendly family. Most of the attractive bungalows are built up the adjacent hillside in a very nice garden setting - had outside bathroom ones for 150 and those with bathroom for 300 in June 2010 - prices may go to 250 and 500+ in coming high season. I had a cheaper bathroom job down on the flat before the hill - very good bungalow but surroundings not as attractive.
Beam hasn't a website at time of writing - Ph 66(0)869 439 294

Pay attention gang - a 100 baht bungalow in 2010! Beam offered me this near-new outside bathroom place in June. Similar places up in their nicely landscaped hillside area were going for 150. Management told me this one would be 200 in high season. Can anyone tell me of another 200 baht bungalow high season 2010 - particularly on a very nice beach on one of the better islands?
I passed this one up on account I had a heap of washing to do which is hard with an outside bathroom - I got a bigger and very good 250 baht with bathroom joint adjacent. Perspective - night before I'd stayed in a 250 baht Had Rin fleapit with outside bathroom, thumpa thumpa party music untill 4am and the Had Yai chapter of the Harley Club blasting their hogs up the adjacent alley in the early hours. Night before that a slightly inferior bungalow for 500 (twice as much!) on Ko Muk - super low season, I was the only guest in the whole resort! And I had to bargain that down from 1000. 1000! Tell them they're dreaming. I did.

Bit of a contrast to Had Thian's new-ager thing - Horizen offers kick-boxing instruction. Pretty sweet location high on the southern headland with excellent views from bungalows and restaurants.

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AROUND HAD THIAN

HAD WAI/WHY NAM
Less than 5 minutes walk over the low saddle to the north of Had Thian brings you to Had Wai Nam - only one place on this nice little beach, Wai Nam Hut - backpacker/flashpacker with prices a bit higher than similar joints on Had Thian. Nice bungalows on steep headland adjacent camera and up hillside behind beach restaurant in shot. Yoga instruction in open headland pavilion right of camera. This place also has coral right off the beach in the north half of the bay - not quite as good as at Had Thian.

HAD YUAN
Under 15 minutes steeper walk in the opposite direction (to the south) from Had Thian gets you to Had Yuan - this is a longer attractive beach with nice sand, deep enough water all tides and a full range of bungalows from budget to midrange+. I particularly liked the ones along the wooden walkway at the southern headland. Bungalows are ranged up the slopes behind, hidden by the trees in this pic. The northern headland had some higher places with spectacular views.

Dining cabana adjacent excellent restaurant of Bamboo Hut, north headland of Had Yuan. I stayed there in May 2012 - more pix and details in the TRIP REPORT SECTION.
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HAD KHUAD - BOTTLE BEACH

Having called in several times on daytrips and trying unsuccessfully to cycle in from Chaloklum one time (hur hur hur) I finally got to stay at Bottle Beach in June 2010.

Eastern end of north coast. White Sand, clear water, long protective (from most winds) headlands, 4 nice places to stay - my 400 baht (low season) beachfront bungalow at Bottle Beach One was behind those palms mid-right of shot.
I longtailed up here from Had Thian for 1000, bargained down from a 2500 ask - 1000 is a fair bit but it was a 20 minute trip and the alternative (longtail back to Had Rin - songthaews to - longtail from Chalok Lum) would have taken hours and cost maybe half that.
The viewpoint from which the panoramic shot was taken (60% down page on Phangan part 1) is top of highest peak in background

Bottle Beach One is actually a pretty classy resort - most of the accommodation is flashpacker into midrange including some very nice newish garden bungalows inland from the pool. I couldn't figure why they have given a fair section of their prime beachfront to budget bungalows until I noticed all 6 were occupied in low season vs maybe 10% of the other places. Keeps up the cashflow in slow times. I think the free or subsidised accommodation with the dive courses is in these bungalows too.

Doesn't get too much closer to absolute beachfront than these 450 baht (June 2010) fan ones.

The beachfront restaurant here was scenic, had good food at average budget bungalow prices - tended to get a fair few cruising longtails etc calling in for a feed and beer. Service was patchy - mainly good, sometimes scratchy. For more pix and latest prices Google for the website.
I thought the adjacent oft-praised Smile Resort looked pretty good too - sweet bungalows, nice beach corner restaurant with slightly higher prices.

Bottle Beach from the walking track across to Had Khom (Coral Bay) to the west. Seeing this track goes as high as the eastern-side viewpoint mountain top right of pic, this outlook - the only decent view you get of the beach on the steepish half hour climb up - is a bit disappointing. You descend steeply for half an hour on the other side too - and then you have to come back. Good for walking off copious amounts of Chang. Good excuse for drinking copious amounts of Chang in bungalow restaurants both sides.

 
I trekked across to Bottle Beach from Thong Nai Pan in April 2012 to see what had changed. Not much - the most significant was probably these new concrete aircon bungalows at Bottle Beach One replacing a couple of the beachside fan ones. 


 I HAVE MORE INFO AND SOME OTHER PIX ON THE BOTTLE BEACH TRIP REPORT HERE
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Some nice scenery from the east coast ferry as it makes its way down to Had Rin on the way to Samui in August 09. This is Had Wai Nam - Had Thian (east), the new agers'/detoxers'/retoxers' beach is just over the low saddle to the south. Click to expand.

Tezza freeloads on glamour shoot from Mai Pen Rai bungalow verandah hide-away

Note there are more pix of Sadet, Salad and many of the other places on this page on the Phangan Part One page - plus info/pix on a lot of other Phangan locations, transport info, when to go etc.
The Phangan TRIP REPORT PAGE also has o a lot more info, maps and pix of these places.
If you have any questions, please ask them in THE FORUM rather than below. I don't get a chance to check all threads daily, but unless I'm travelling I'll try to monitor THE FORUM regularly, If you see mistakes or have additional info, please post it below.

Last visited August 2013

Listen up trendsetters - who says you can't find laid-back, picturesque, good-value places on Samui these days? This is Jungle Club high in the hills behind Chaweng Noi with 180 degree panoramic views from the pool, those hillside roofed sitting-bures silhouetted at left-background and the Bali-style restaurant. (click to expand pix)

You can check the coastline stretching from Chong Mon/Maitang Island in the north (most distant in shot), down thru Chaweng and Chaweng Noi to the area around Coral Cove in the south. Accommodation here starts at backpacker/flashpacker level. More details and pix t at the foot of the page.

Samui map from http://www.phukhao.com/The two main beaches, Chaweng and Lamai are on the east coast at right. Chaweng Noi is the smaller beach just above the Viewpoint mid east coast. Tiny Thong Ta Kien is the second small bay (near the road) on the north side of Laem Nan peninsula just north of Lamai.

For a more detailed map it is hard to beat sawadee.com'sinteractive map. This can be enlarged and the hundreds of accommodation options can be clicked on to bring up sawadee's info, photos, guest reviews and price lists.

SAMUI gets bad press on many travel sites for being overdeveloped and trashy. I disagree. It is hard to find a nicer white-sand beach in southern Thailand than Chaweng and the resorts lining the beach are pretty attractive, not Miami Beach/Surfers Paradise recreated. Lamai is not too far behind Chaweng.
And midrange/high-end travellers deserve a nice scenic island mid-year when the Andaman and eastern Gulf are frequently too wet - as do the sun/swim/party set and the rent-girl chasers. Okay, the girlie-bar areas in Chaweng and Lamai may be a turn-off for some, but these are easily avoided.
True, the road strip behind Chaweng's beachfront hotels and bunalows is becoming a kinda tourist trap with lots of tacky t-shirt and sarong shops and those pesky tailors, but once again this is easily avoided. As is the super busy Chaweng by-pass with just about every type of business you can imagine. You have to remember Samui has quite a big local economy, and this strip contains many of the goods/service-suppliers for such. It aint so much for tourists, but it does make the trip from the north to say Lamai much quicker than the good old days.
Ah yeah, the good old days. All you dudes wishing Chaweng was like the late 80s should consider whether your town is unchanged since that time. And then head a short distance north of Samui where Phangan offers beaches just like Chaweng's good old days at Hads Thian, Why Nam, Sadet, Thong Reng, Mae + Coral Cove, Bottle Beach and others.
But hey, you don't have to go to Phangan. There are still some beaches on Samui which are quiet, scenic and laid back. And on Chaweng and Lamai it is still possible to find some old-time good value traveller type joints.

THE EAST COAST
CHAWENG - CHAWENG NOI - CORAL COVE - THONG TA KIEN - LAMAI - CHONG MON - HUA THANON.

THONG TA KIEN

And who says you can't find a quiet, scenic white-sand beach with good value accommodation on the popular east coast of Samui within a few minutes of the shopping and entertainment of Lamai and Chaweng?

This isTHONG TA KIEN, a small bay at the start of the hilly section of coastline between Lamai and Chaweng. There are 4 bungalow joints on this bay and since first seeing it way back I've been determined to stay here some day.
This shot is at about half-tide. At lower tide levels the far end of the bay becomes very shallow and there is a section of rocks mid-bay which is exposed. However the western section of the bay closest camera is sandy right out into deeper water, which at lowest tide is maybe 30m out to be deep enough to swim. Closer to the beach is nice for pottering around looking at fishies etc - or snorkelling when the tide is up. The water was very clear when I visited. I also snorkelled along the western headland - there were small patches of fringing coral, but mainly mono-colour and underwhelming.
The road climbs quite steeply along this headland and there are some nice bar/restaurants with good views within 10 minutes walk. The second one you come to has budget prices.
To the south, the northern part of Lamai beach is only a 10 minute walk. Lamai is a long beach, the busy central part is say 10 minutes in songthaew. Chaweng is about the same.

Thong Ta Kien is a quiet bay - I don't think I saw a longtail boat put in or even pass close to shore. Most accommodation is far enough from the road for vehicle noise to be a non-issue except maybe for some of the rooms at the western-most place, Crystal Bay Resort.

Check further down page for Coral Bay, a similar beach about 2km along this hilly section, closer to Chaweng.

Least expensive standard rooms at Thongtakian Resort.

I saw a Thorntree post way back in the 90s raving about Thongtakian, and when I checked the user reviews on Trip Advisor, travelfish and the various booking sites it seemed to get the most raves for my budget range (just above flashpacker - Lady Tezza do like her aircon and hot water).
Okay, the standard rooms as you can see have a nice garden setting. You get a fridge and TV on top of the aircon and hot-water plus brekka included for 1100 high season August 09.
The room was clean, maybe approaching time for an interior repaint, plenty big enough for 2 and their gear, had sufficient storage, a king-size bed which was pretty comfortable, and was serviced daily. Adequate bathroom with western toilet, plenty of water pressure and good hot water. The balcony was a nice place to hang late afternoon with a glass of red (we brought a cheap Aussie box of wine) or a beer. Note there was a small shop up near reception where beers were nearly as cheap as 7/11s in town - bless that fridge in the room!
Thongtakian has plenty of more expensive rooms and bungalows. You can see the range on Thongtakian's website and sawadee.com. Some guests at the pool said their high-end poolside rooms in the new hotel wing were real nice.
The restaurant was beachfront with some of the chairs and tables on the sand, prices about average for budget bunalows (and this place is mid-range), food pretty nice. The buffet breakfast was served in a separate area up near reception (maybe so you can stuff yer bags with pastries etc when your daytrip shuttle bus comes a bit early) and was pretty good except like every other Thai buffet place this trip, more heat would not have hurt at times. I'm a world class fang merchant - can hoover down tucker like I've been starved the last 10 years - I reckon I easily got thru 200+ baht of multiple juice/coffee/fruit/cereal+yoghurt/eggs/half a dozen other hot things each morning. And if you think I'm good, you should see Lady T go! Lucky she gyms it out and I run/swim/cycle or we could end up circumferencially enhanced like my old pal Singapore Slim.
All this brings into consideration VALUE - we paid 1100 high season but subtract say 400 for brekka and you are talking 700 room only, which makes Mai Pen Rai's 650 baht backpacker bungalow on Had Sadet Phangan, no aircon/TV/hot water/fridge/pool/daily service maybe a bit expensive. Hey, I'm becoming a fan of midrangers - if I have someone to share.

Oblique Google Earth image of Thong Ta Kien looking from the north-west.


LAMAI

Here it comes again - who says you can't get a beachfront budget bungalow of the old style on LAMAI these days?

Google for New Hut, Lamai. These share-bathroom bungalows were going for 350 high season 2010. One the other side of the atmospheric beachfront restaurant were bigger places with bathroom for 450.
This place was towards the north end of Lamai where a small stream cuts the beach. There is a reef which runs down the northern third Lamai forming a shallow lagoon at low tide, way too shallow for swimming in most places. Some people like this because it allows for some fossicking or just sitting around in a shallow pool of water. I prefer deeper water so I can swim anytime - which is available starting 5 minutes further south - the center and south end of the beach have no reef and good water depth low tide. Note that a bit further north from New Hut is a new small harbour for longtails constructed from dredged reef-rock, which looked a bit daggy low tide.

Lamai beach from the viewpoint on the southern headland.

The beach must be about 4km long. I particularly like the section immediately across from the nearest jet ski, where a collection of boulders gives the beach some character and makes for some nice swimming and snorkelling in water clearer than at the near headland. Note the relative lack of people at prime sunshine time - 11am on a perfect August (high season) day.
Lamai seemed to have fewer big resorts than Chaweng and quite a few smaller places advertising room with air for 700 - a lot had pools.
The far headland is the Laem Nan peninsula - there are some nice resorts along here with elevated views down the bay and neat patches of sand below, but shallow water low tide. The area was a frenzy of new construction when I checked it out this visit.
Thong Ta Kien is a short distance thru the lower saddle in the center background.

Maybe 15% from the far north end of Lamai is this small harbour which kinda detracts from the area and would have a bit of noise from longtails leaving early morning for some fishing. Maybe it would be a good idea to check the location of your resort relative to this - most of the booking sites have a satellite map. btw the beach is not too bad fairly close both sides of the harbour so I'd only worry if my resort is more or less adjacent.

Lamai from the south. A is the start of the reef area which run to the end of the beach at C. B is the river entrance - see below.
Google Earth's image at the time of posting showed this rather large interruption to the beach in the mid-north. I have never seen this - I'm assuming it is a wet season image - in the dry season the stream is just a trickle and the beach more or less straight here.
A closer look at the northern end of Lamai. D is the Laem Nam peninsula. This hilly area has a lot of recent development - much of it mid-range or better. Quite a few on the near side have good elevated views over Lamai's bay and little sandy beaches on the shoreline. I tried to reach that beach to the right of the D last trip but access was blocked by building activity.


CHAWENG

Brace for it - who says you can't get a reasonably priced beachfront place on CHAWENG? This is the beach area for OP Bungalows which gets good posts on travel forums. Aircon - hot water bungalows were going for 1050 when I called around.

OP Bungalows is situated on a particularly nice section of sand about one quarter down from the northern end where the beach does a curve. Note the exposed line of reef rocks in background - Chaweng also has a lagoon situation running along its northern third. The lagoon is more attractive than Lamai's and had quite a few people splashing around, fossicking and sitting in the shallows behind camera - plus sunbathers on exposed sand-bars 100m from the beach. Central and southern Chaweng have no reef - low tide water is deep enough for swimming but you may have to go out a bit further than similar areas at Lamai. Lamai's sand is pretty white, but Chaweng is even more so.

Okay old Samui hands - this is the site of the old-time favourite travellers' joint - Charlie Hut. A beach-vendor lady told me she used to work here and it had been closed 4 years. It surprises me that such a prime position in the middle of Chaweng would sit idle for so long.

Charlie Hut has in fact had two locations - the first right next door to the south. This is the boutique resort constructed on Charlie's original site. Nostalgia trippers should check for Buri Rasa, but you are gonna pay a wee bit more than the good old days.

The far southern end of the main Chaweng Beach. People wanting very uncrowded conditions should head this way. The breakwater in the foreground is at the exit of a small river against the headland, meaning water clarity isn't great for the first 100m or so, but once up near those beach umbrellas it is fine.

Pool and premium room hotel block at First House, Chaweng. This place is at the far southern end of the main Chaweng beach. There is a small river between the sunlounges and the far bungalows , with attractive Chaweng Noi beach behind. The bungalows belong to First Bungalow resort. First House has a small bridge across the river meaning you can be sunning it on Chaweng Noi in no time at all. First House also has direct access onto the southern end of the bigger main Chaweng beach.

I wanted to end our holiday in a nice hotel and show Lady T Chaweng so in typical Tezza fashion booked the cheapest standard room at First House which is in a separate block to the above. On arrival they upgraded us free to a family suite in the newer poolside block on account the aircon in the standard room was broken.
Jeez, what a blow - I've never stayed in a 4200 baht room in Thailand before. So I can't really give a comparative room report except to say the suite was everything I expected, the pool was great, the included buffet breakfast pretty awesome (restaurant prices for other meals were higher than other places this trip but there was a good budget restaurant on the street nearby, not to mention some minimarts with competitive prices), service very good. Being right at the southern end of main Chaweng beach it was maybe a 5 minute walk up to the start of the busy part of the Chaweng beach road shopping-restaurant strip.

Chaweng from the north. The really busy part of Chaweng beach is south from adjacent Ko Matlang symbol.

NORTH CHAWENG
My Google Earth image above is a bit misleading - suggests Nth Chaweng is from opposite Ko Matland north - in fact I would classify it as from the first inward turn of the beach just this side of the "reef" place marker.


While sand and water can't match Chaweng central further south, this a pretty nice area. Here I have a mid-tide shot where the water is deep enough for some protected kayaking. Ko Matlang background provides good shelter making this a protected lagoon. When the tide drops you have the pools for fossiking plus some nice sand bars for sunning.
A host of mainly midrange or better resorts along here - google for Papillon, Chaweng Blue Lagoon, Coral Bay, Al's Leam Song, Anantara Lawana. Plenty more - check Agoda and similar.


There are plenty of competitive beach bars/restaurants along here but these dudes have tried for something a bit special.


The road behind Chaweng beach has a busy business section which runs for maybe 2km. This is the start at the northern end, opposite nth Chaweng. Shops, restaurants, bars, banks --- you name it. There are even a few girly bars. This development has greatly upset old time Samu hands - but the fact is visitors expect to be able to access a full range of retail and services at a prime beach area.


CHAWENG NOI
CHAWENG NOI from the northern end near First House and First Bungalow resorts.

Noi means small, and the beach is small compared to 5km long main Chaweng to its immediate north, but not in absolute terms.
This is a fine beach with some good shade and particularly clear water in this northern section. The rocks at the small headland out of picture to left make for some interesting snorkelling fish-wise although there is no great coral. Some local dudes have set up a beach bar near these rocks selling cheap beer, other drinks and eats. This northern area can get quite crowded but further down the beach people tend to be less concentrated. Exclusively midrange and high-end accommodation along this beach, but there are some good budget dining places on the sand at the far southern end.
Thong Ta Kien and Coral Cove are tucked in behind those high headlands rear left.

Samui is becoming a real popular place for farang weddings. This is a hotel-beachfront job on Chaweng Noi which attracted a crowd of interested sunbather onlookers.

Lady Tezza commented the location was a bit more romantic than the civil celebrant's shack behind the Shell service station in the salubrious steel-city suburb of Unanderra^^.
Maybe so, but I bet this dude couldn't get his fuel injectors flushed and plugs swapped out while he got hitched. Or make the afternoon shift in the slab mill.

^^for you non-Oztrayans - pronounced Yew-nan-derr-uh.
My kids keep telling their friends mum and dad were married in a petrol station. Jeez - how unclassy do they think we are?

Chaweng Noi and Coral Cove (see below) from the north-west. That's the southern end of Lamai beach you can just see top left. Note cool Jungle Club high in the hills.

CORAL COVE

Coral Cove is the other small bay between Lamai and Chaweng Noi - closer to the latter.

Sand maybe not quite as white as Thong Ta Kien, water not quite as clear, but pretty nice, laid back and no exposed rock at low tide. Maybe a bit of road noise - the main road is very close to the back of the beach in the middle. Coral Cove Resort has a bunch of bungalows, some on the beach, some on the headland behind the camera. These include some budget priced options.
The flash looking place at the far end of the beach in the shot is Coral Cove Chalet, midrange and up. Higher on the hillside in what often is referred to as Coral Cove Heights is a bunch of midrangers with pretty nice views.

One of the hillside joints in Coral Cove Heights - Hi Coral Cove Bungalow.

Pretty snazzy place with a nice pool out of shot, access to small patches of sand between the rocks. Some local dudes were fishing off these rocks, so this could be a place for you keen anglers. Mid-range resort with some flashpacker-priced options. This is shot from the main road restaurant/bar - Chong Mon and Chaweng in background.

Viewpoint from the mountain side behind Hi Coral Cove on a good concrete road which takes off steeply from the main coast road closer to Coral Cove beach.

Ko Matland off the north end of Chaweng can be seen at right, Choeng Mon further away to its left, long Chaweng in the middle and Chaweng Noi disappearing behind the near headland. That's Ko Phangan far background partly under cloud.
Some nice places to stay along this road - check sawadee.com's interactive map for Best View Bungalows and neighbours.


CHOENG MON
This very attractive smaller beach in the north east of the island was pretty undeveloped when I first saw it with only a few hotels and bungalow places, but these days is a thriving beach-spot with mainly more expensive resorts, holiday villas and private dwellings. There is a bustling shopping/restaurant area along the main road thru here - although this road is well away from the busy around-island drag and is pretty quiet in comparison. Both north and south are small bays with similar development. It's not too far from the airport here although you will be away from the flight-path.

Choeng Mon in the far north-east of the island.


Choeng Mon 2013 - I've come to the conclusion this is one of the nicest stretch of sand on the island. The resorts behind the beach are not shabby either.
Choeng Mon food hawker doing business. It's not just budget travellers who appreciate the yummy and inexpensive tucker.


HUA THANON
This is the big bay south of Lamai and probably the least touristy coastline on the island, but good if you want to check a working Muslim fishing villages area. The beach does improve towards the south-east corner of the island approaching Laem Set and you have attractions like the Samui Aquarium and the Butterfly Farm plus a handful of midrange+ resorts.

Hua Thanon in the south-east corner of the island. My Samui map shows a fair bit of development along here since I last passed thru. Labels may be clearer if you click-expand.


Part of the Hua Thanon coast not very far south of Lamai. Not bad, but sand not up to the standard of the better beaches and water very shallow offshore at lower tide levels. Some of the more upmarket resorts further south probably do the usual excellent job of beach manicuring/improvement but I did not make them on this trip (August 2013) on account I turned inland to the waterfalls/viewpoints soon after the area in shot. I last checked out further south last century in my travel-lite no camera days - there was little development back then.


THE NORTH EAST CORNER
A very short distance north of Chong Moeng is a lovely little area of twin rainforested capes and several small coves with nice sheltered beaches (look for Samrong Bay, Tongson Bay and Tongsai Bay). This is a newish area with mainly high end and midrange accommodation - plus a lot of new villa construction where no doubt the Samui airport taxi mafia will live. Plus all you Wall St fugitive bond traders. You get a sense of islolation here and yet the airport** and Chong Meong business area are only a few km away, Chaweng a bit further.
**off the flght path so noise wouldn't be a problem.

SAMRONG BAY
That's the big bucks Six Senses on the headland. Equally expensive Idlyllic Samui and more affordable Arayaburi Boutique* are hidden at the closer end of the beach. Ko Phangan can be seen right background.
* Arayaburi has a nice villa with breakfast for $us100 in peak early January. Hell I recently paid that for a basic country NSW motel in mid-week. You may think I'm a bit anal checking Agoda etc for prices but I'm always planning Thailand trips with Lady Tezza in tow. She likes comfort. Funny, so do I, and its such a change from my most-typical budget beach bungalow when travelling solo (although The Lady also likes some of her holiday time in these too, bless her).

TONGSON BAY
How sweet is this.?Resorts include Melati, Samui Emerald and Tongson Bay Villas.



Nice area. Airport Departures is 2km south of Big Buddha Temple.

THE NORTH COAST
This is a quieter area compared to Chaweng-Lamai and the favourite of many long time travellers. You will find more budget accommodation here than the east coast, although these days there is no shortage of midrangers and better. I noticed when researching Samui accommodation that some of the midrangers seemed to offer very good value - aircon hot water rooms and pools at what would be flashpacker prices in the Andaman in a similar season.

MAE NAM
MAE NAM is the nicest of the north coast beaches IMHO, particularly here in the western third of the bay where quite a few nice midrange and better resorts are located.

Mae Nam also has probably the biggest range of budget places on the north coast if not the island. The beach is more yellow than white and has a steeper profile and coarser sand than Chaweng, but aint bad at all and the water tends to be pretty clear.

Oblique Google Earth image of Mae Nam from the west. Note that except for a small area near the pier there is no road immediately behind the beach - access to beachfront resorts is mainly by lanes down from the highway.


BO PHUT east of Mai Nam has a string of mainly midrange and better places particularly on its western half but you can still find some very good budget places. Like Bang Rak/Big Buddha immediately east, it is popular with longer term travellers.

The beach is not too bad at all, but maybe a step down from Mae Nam and no match for Choeng Mon and the best parts of Chaweng/Lamai.

East of mid-bay the short street which runs down to the "pier" area from the main road has a lot of character with old-style Thai coastal village shops mixed with traveller-type restaurants and other services. A beachside road runs at a T to this with access to beach restaurants on the sea side and restaurants/resorts on the other. This is the famous Fisherman's Village area. I've come thru here several times (the Phangan east coast ferry lands at the end of the street in shot) but in August 2013 I called in at night around 1930 and was pleasantly surprised - the whole area had transformed into a kind of WALKING STREET - shops and restaurants were brightly lit and people strolling in their finery. Reminded me of the Greek Islands.

Part of Google Earth's composite image was shot in wet season hence the cloud over the vital pier-main street area of Bo Phut. But overall their effort is much better now - previously much of Chaweng and Lamai was covered in cloud. 
Note you can just see the far end of Chaweng Noi beach towards the top left of image.


BANG RAK-BIG BUDDHA looked less appealing to me with a less attractive beach, lots of boats moored and moving around, a number of not so snazzy piers, water not so clear. Nevertheless it is popular with a lot of budget travellers being uncrowded and with a good range of accommodation with no shortage of budget places. It is very close to the airport for Tao/Phangan people wanting somewhere to stay overnight before an early flight.
UPDATE AUGUST 2013 - proximity to the airport is why I decided to spend a few nights at Bank Rak on my way between Phangan and Phuket. I began to see why it is popular with so many - I took me 3 minutes to walk from the central pier to my beachfront accommodation at Bangrak Beach Resort and less than 10 minutes by vehicle to Departures at the wonderful Samui airport. The town has an abundance of good value and more expensive accommodattion/restaurants and shops and is a pretty good base to reach a lot of other Samui areas relatively quickly.



BANG PO/POR is on the other (western) side of Mae Nam and is a long section of beach which runs almost to the north west corner of Samui. This area was very underveloped on my first Samui visit all those years ago, and I was surprised that it still is one of the quietest areas on the island. Over a very dispersed area there are a few high end villa joints some of which could be time-share, a growing number of midrange resorts, some small housing developments plus a handful of budget traveller places. Some will appeal to health freaks and new-agers when they tire of Had Thian East on Phangan. Lots of unsettled beach along Bang Por.

Bang Por is the first of the nicer beaches from the arrivals piers in Naithon - as such it is sure to become the new frontier for resort/villa development. Already there are some fine midrange places scattered along this nice strip of sand although budget travellers can still find some old-time gems in the area. Many of the latter have a rep for new-age type activities.


Bang Por from near the western end - attractive sand and clear water. But if you check the Google Earth image above this pic you will notice the coral reef rock starts immediately off the sand in most spots, leading to shallow water at low tide. But not too bad - tide is out in this shot and there is no rock exposed.
Bang Por from near the eastern end - some pretty sweet places here - for flash joints, google The Sea Samui Vacation Residences Bang Por (closest camera) - and for value By Beach Resort.
A good value budget placeFreedom Beach Sunset Bar and Restaurantis located here. I love joints like this - had to take time out from my beach exploration for a beer or two. Sunsets indeed would be fine, made more dramatic by setting in certain months over the rugged islands of the Ang Thong National Marine Park to the north west, just out of frame to the right. Equally rugged Ko Phangan is immediately north (directly right from camera), only 10km or so away. Actually all the north coast beaches have good views of this big island.
Bang Por actually extends a bit further east than the above 2 shots - this section is separated from the main beach by a short section of rocks (a very high hill with some great villas is behind - unlike most of Bang Por which has flat land behind the beach). The  local name for this section of beach is Ban Tai and there appeared to be some resorts behind those palms by the tourist action on the beach. Try googling KohSamui Resort and Mimosa Resort. Less expensive - Baan Suan Siriwin.


THE SOUTH COAST
Ao Thong Krut (aka Thong Tanote Beach/Thong Krut Bay - lower part of image below) in the southwest is a laid-back area with a couple of midrangers, some good beachfront seafood restaurants, a fishing village to the east, a fair few fishing boats offshore and good views and access to the islands of Ko Tan and Ko Mat Sum. A perfect get away from the crowds spot.
So too is Ao Bang Koa/Bang Kao Bay, the big bay in the central south. Lots of deserted sand and backdrops along here with widely dispersed tourist accommodation and private dwellings. Some sections of this beach are very attractive but you will go nuts selecting which of about a dozen access tracks from the main road you should take.
At the south east corner of the island you have Laem Set, a headland/cove area with small patches of sand and some pretty snazzy resorts plus a slightly longer beach immediately north-east with similar accommodation. When I first visited Samui there were some funky travellers' bungalows in this attractive area - no more.

The south coast from the west. Quite a lot of new resorts are being established along here but because of its size the area is still underdeveloped. Note low tide can present shallow water along here but the flats are mainly sandy, not mud or dead coral. You can daytrip to Ko Kaen - the pier for the boats is just above the symbol for Bang Krut Bay. Any small travel agent or accommodation should be able to organise this.

UPDATE AUGUST 2013 - I'm disappointed I did not have time to cruise the south coast and get some shots to make up for my lack of camera last time I checked the area last century. But I had limited time latest Samui visit and spent way to much of my around island motorcycle trip checking the waterfalls and viewpoints to the near north of the above shot. Maybe next visit.

About the best I can offer is this shot I took from the Bangkok Air flight from Phuket showing about one third of the south coast and the southern half of the west coast.


THE WEST COAST
I didn't get a chance to check the west coast on recent trips - it was dark and threatening rain by the time I left the waterfall areas nearby. I toured along here in the mid 90s and there was little tourist development. The beach areas were pretty nice although no match for the east coast. There is a tendency towards shallow water at low tide.
From the vehicle ferry coming from Don Sak this trip I could see a handful of pretty snazzy resorts located at some of the better areas - quite a few on bluffs overlooking the coast with patches of beach below. Knowing the ability of high end resorts to further improve beach quality, I reckon prospective guests should not worry on this issue. The west coast gets magic sunsets, has lots of empty beach and good views of the mountainous mainland and the Ang Thong Marine Park islands to the north east.

The west coast looking from south of south-west. Naithon is the island administrative capital and the arrival pier for most vehicle and other ferries from the Surathani coast. However the Raja vehicle ferries come in towards the north end of Taling Ngam beach about 10km south (pedants will note I have paced the symbol slightly too far south - it should be just on the other side of that tiny headland nearly touching it at present) . If you are going to the eastern beaches from there the quickest route if via the southern road as marked. From Naithon you will be taken via the north coast road.


Looking south at the northern part of the east coast plus a small part of the north coast (bottom of image). I don't know what this smaller beach west of Ban Por is called - the main north coast road from Nathon misses most of this beach and so holiday residential development is low.
If you click expand you will be able to see how shallow the east coast water is north of the Nathon piers - not a lot of holiday activity along this stretch. But the steep mountain slopes east of the beach have some nice looking place (some hotels - many are private villas).

At the south end of the west coast is the hilly Laem Hin Klom peninsual and a new joint which caught my eye from the ferry last two trips is the very high end Conrad Ko Samui cascading down the steep hillside. I reckon the views from the higher areas would be outstanding.
I'm not sure how Google Earth generates relief on its oblique images but some structures end up looking a bit weird - the units are not tipped as they appear here.


DAYTRIPS

ANG THONG NATIONAL MARINE PARK.

The viewpoint at Wua Talap, the National Park headquarter island is not too bad at all with 360 degree views of dozens of islets - image http://www.thailand-travelonline.com/

The climb up here is pretty strenuous but well worth while. That's part of the headquarters area bottom left - last I heard it was possible to rent longhouse rooms and camp here. There is a separate climbing track to the right of the viewpoint one to some okay cliffside caves.
I did this on my first visit to and reckon it is a must not-miss. There are seemingly hundreds of islands in this area between Samui and the mainland.
Most daytrips involve some snorkelling/beach time, a trip to overview Thai Nai - the Emerald Lagoon on which the lagoon in the novel/movie The Beach was based (the novel had the heroes starting in Samui and chartering a longtail to a secret nearby island - almost certainly in the Ang Thong group and a hell of a long way from Phi Phi Don in the Andaman where the movie was shot) and a fair bit of time on headquarter island. Any hotel travel desk or small travel agent in Samui can organise a trip - both slow-boats and speedboats can be used. I noticed prices had gone from budget to midrange since my last visit.

Trip reporter MV sent me this great shot from the viewpoint at Ang Thong National Marine Park headquarters island.


I pinched this Ang Thong map off http://samui.sawadee.com/map/12img/121angthong.jpg

OTHER ISLANDS
Trip sellers also offer daytrips to neighbouring Ko Phangan and Ko Tao/Ko Nangyuan. Both areas are real nice and well worth seeing, but I personally consider Tao/Nangyuan a bit of a stretch in a boat unless you are going to stay there.
Note that these days Lomprayah's fast catamaran from Mae Nam calls in at all three and is usually a bit more comfortable and not too much slower than the speedboats doing the trip. People have told me the cats are not too good in real rough seas - neither are the speedboats. The slower ferries are usually the go in these conditions.
You can also visit Ko Kaen to the south of Samui.


WATERFALLS
Most accessible are the Namuang falls in the central south. I visited in a previous trip (travel-lite:no camera) and found the lower falls underwhelming (only 18m high) and didn't have time to access the upper falls (you had to walk for about 30 minutes), but people on later trips said the 80m drop is worth it. Apparently there are some other attractions like elephant rides along the track.

Okay, in August 2013 I got to Namyuang Waterfall 2. I didn't think this met the description of an 80m drop, but.....
....maybe they are including this lower section. Thing is I picture waterfalls as FALLING directly from above, not like the above, which I personally would classify as STEEP RAPIDS. tezza rating here - undewhelming, but maybe I'm hard to please.
Okay, the good news - unlike my last century visit to this area, there is now a road  (good condition, sealed) which goes withing 10 minutes rainforest walk of Falls 2. Look for the signs towards the western end of the village on the main east-west cross island road (see image below) - about 4km from the east coast intersection with the road heading to the south coast.
 There is an elephant trekking place maybe 2km south of the falls, which would be a neat way to access.
I didn't worry about Falls 1 which didn't impress me last century. The road in there is separate, but the turnoff is only about 300m further west on the main southern east west route.

Route to Namyuang Falls and some other nearby falls and viewpoints (see below).

OTHER FALLS AND VIEWPOINTS
Samui must have a dozen waterfalls. For instance by mistake I took an early turn towards the mountains when looking for Waterfall 2 (was fooled by "WATERFALL" sign when cruising the cross island road, turned inland at about 2.5km from the east intersection with the road heading to the south coast (behind the 4170 marker above) instead of 4km) - but the ride up this road was not exactly wasted time. Only trouble is I spent so much time checking out this area I didn't have enough left to grab some pix of the south and west coast beaches. Next time.

Khao Yai Falls - this is about 5km up the road - about a 30m drop, pleasant enough but once again maybe underwhelming for we dudes looking for the sheer drop. There is a path leads up to the top of the falls on the left. The access path drops steeply from the mountain road - sign says 20m to falls but more like 300. The good thing is it's well sealed and okay for motorcyclists - you will have to walk the last 70m or so. A dude collects 20baht just past the parking area. (Namyuang Waterfall is free!).
Note there are maybe another 3 or 4 similar waterfalls along this road.
Roadside above the Khao Yai waterfall access path is a nice budget restaurant with.....
....an okay viewpoint (another 20baht trendsetters) looking over the south east corner of Samui. You would think that there would be simply sea in this direction between Samui and north Borneo, but in fact that land far background is the mainland coast which turns to the east south of Samui.

GOING HIGHER - this road continues steeply into the mountains. I was impressed with the condition - a very good concrete surface. Seems to me someone in Samui has political push - similar roads on Phangan or Tao would be dirt after 1km - this one didn't turn to dirt until maybe 10-12km.


Getting real high - maybe only 2km from the end of the sealed section, is a neat joint, Sea View Restaurant. This has an okay viewpoint and this sweet pool with good views over the south west corner of the island. The Don Sak/Surathani mainland coastline in the background. I think the viewpoint had a charge of 20baht and the pool 100.
Note there are several similar viewpoint restaurants up in this region (but I don't know if they run to pools) - plus safari parks and similar.


OTHER ACTIVITES
You can do dive trips and deep sea fishing. There are about 3 different jungle treks including one of those treetop walkways, more elephant joints, a snake farm, butterfly garden, go-karting, golf - it seemed to me Samui now offers as much variety in activities as Phuket. Several Island Tour outfits will combine a handful of these attractions with visits to some of the more scenic viewpoints on the island.


WHEN TO GO.
The Samui/Phangan/Tao area tends to have a different wet season to most of Thailand. Normally this kicks in late September/early October and runs into early January, although the fact that Christmas/New Year is peak season indicates that it can't be too bad come late December.
The good news is that when the Andaman and Eastern Gulf islands are in wet season midyear, Samui is usually much drier. Sure it will rain a bit in these months but usually sunshine dominates. This drier weather means a second high season in July/August and consequently not the bargain accommodation prices you will find in Phuket, Krabi or big Ko Chang etc.
February thru April are even drier. Note March April can be pretty hot.
A point about this area's wet season - frequently this can be as holiday friendly as most other Thai regions, but every now and then they have a shocker. In all the years I have been following Thai weather this is the only place I have seen forum posters complaining about persistent bad weather, prolonged heavy rain etc. This seems to happen every 3rd or 4th year, but not necessarily on a regular basis. So if I was planning a Thai beach holiday in say Oct, Nov or early Dec I might think more about the mid or eastern Gulf or the Andaman. However if these months were the only time I could visit and I really wanted to see Samui, I would not be put-off - my first visit into this area was in a November and I got real nice weather, as good as my 3 August visits.
A smaller point - May in this area and many other Thai regions often gets a little blip of extra rain compared to adjacent months. Usually this is not enough to make it a mini wet season but once again I occasionally see complaints from the Phangan/Samui/Tao areas about prolonged rainy spells.

For the price conscious, you are going to get good discounts in wet season. But note months like March, April, June and a lot of Septrember are usually not wet, yet many accommodation places go into low season pricing. Note too that low-budget places are much less variable in pricing compared to midrange and high-end joints.


GETTING THERE
From Bangkok
The least expensive way is to get a bus/ferry or train/ferry combination ticket right onto Samui. Most of these involve travel to the Surathani area piers, although Lomprayah and Seatran run their buses/fast catamaran or ferry via Chumpon-Tao-Phangan.
Both offer an overnight bus services, and the sleeper train option is also popular with people wishing to minimise beach time lost to travel.

Many complaints have come about thefts from luggage in buses put on by travel agents in the Khao San Road area of Bangkok - people are urged to use the government buses from Bangkok's southern bus terminal which also provide the combination ferry ticket.
  Lomprayah is one private operator which seems free of theft.

Note that Surathani's railway station is Phun Phin, about 12km west of town. The most used piers are some 60+km east of Surathani, in the Don Sak area, although Seatran's express boat and the night ferry leave from the Bandon pier in town. If you arrive without a combined ticket, the small travel agents across from the station will sell you a combination bus/ferry ticket to the pier and beyond. Ditto if you fly into Surathani airport or arrive at Surathani town's bus station.

Seatran vehicle/passenger ferry at Samui's Naithon pier - 90 minutes to Donsak (140baht May 2012) plus 45 minutes Seatran bus into Surathani (100baht) - buy a combined ticket. Drops off at travel agency on main drag. Some of these have a reputation for mucking people* around so I wandered up to the nearby bus station and caught a minibus to Phuket.
*one outfit which has a good rep with a modern spacious aircon office in Surathani is Pantip Travel. I have used them with satisfaction. Going the other way, if you mention their name to the conductor, buses arriving in Surathani will drop you virtually outside - they run minibuses the fair distance to Don Sak in the east.




Don Sak east of Surathani.

From the west and south.
You can also get bus (or minibus)/ferry tickets from Phuket, Trang, Hat Yai, Penang, KL, Krabi and Phi Phi. Note in relation to the latter that one of the main operators, PP Family probably gets more complaints than any other regular Thai transport operator - not only for underbus thefts but for time wasting and general lack of care - travelfish advises against them. I reckon if you catch the first ferry out and the normal Krabi-Surathani minibus you would make it in a day. Catching the night ferry from Surathani town pier around 2200-2300 assures this. Actually you would probably be able to leave PP on the afternoon ferry and still make the night ferry.

Note the sleeper train option is popular with people coming from Penang, Kl and Singapore.

Lomprayah ferry arriving at Samui's Mae Nam pier early afternoon. People on right of pier are disembarking - those on left are leaving for Ko Phangan, Ko Tao and Chumpon/Bangkok. Lomprayah is not a bad outfit -runs a very good delivery/pickup service on Samui, but needs to streamline check-in. They get you to write your name on a passenger list - a computerised list which they could simply tick off would be so much quicker.

Very handy for people arriving too late for the last ferry out of Donsak (1900) is one of my favourites, the night ferry which leaves around 2300 from the town pier, chugs down river and then across the bay, you on your designated matress and pillow, arriving in Samui about 0530 where transport is waiting at the pier to take you to your beach of choice. You can grab a swim and brekka while all those lazy travellers are still tucked into their bungalows cutting the zzzzzs.

From Phangan and Tao
A number of companies run ferries - a pretty good timetable showing just about ALL ferry services (ie not only from the neighbouring islands but also Chumpon and the Surathani coast) is on sawadee.com
This doesn't show the small ferry which runs down the east coast of Phangan, starting at Thong Nai Pan around 0900 and picking up at several beaches on the way down including Than Sadet and East Hat Rin and arriving at Bo PHut around1100-1130.
You can also cross from Phangan and Tao by speedboat - dearer, often bumpy, but saving bulk time.
The Had Rin Queen approaches Bang Rak pier near the airport. This is the best way to access from south east Phangan. But if you are coming from the east coast anywhere north of Had Rin, the best bet is to use the smaller east coast ferry (although there is only one service each way per day, compared with the Had Rin Queen's several).

Flying
The one advantage of flying into Surathani can be cheaper tickets, but direct flights into Samui's uniquely appealing airport is worth the extra $ in time saved. Some good ex-airport transport info on that link.
Bangkok Air and Thai fly into Samui from Bangkok - and Bangkok Air also flies in directly from Phuket, Krabi, Chiang Mai and U-Tapao near Pattaya.
International flights:
Direct flights into Samui are offered by Bangkok Air from Hong Kong and Singapore. Berjaya fly from KL as does Firefly.


BACK TO THE JUNGLE CLUB

Jungle Club's Balinese-style restaurant from the pool. Has similar panoramic if not so precipitous views as the pool and hillside bures. Prices maybe 10-20% higher than budget bungalow restaurant level, but still a steal by western standards.

Accommodation here ranges from neat old-style budget bungalow to high-end - check the range at sawadee.com which also has a bunch of excellent pix. This place gets user raves on the booking sites and travel forums. I walked up from the southern end of Chaweng Noi beach in 30 minutes. The access road takes off from the main Samui coast road about midway along the Chaweng Noi strip and JUNGLE CLUB is well sign-posted. The access road, very steep in parts, is concreted for all except the last 400m which is not as steep and would not be too tricky for amateur motorcyclist. I gotta spend a few nights here next visit.

Which I did. In May 2012 I jumped across from Phangan specifically for a few nights at Jungle Club.

Jungle Club's atmospheric restaurant has fine views. Food is very good with prices maybe 20% higher than average budget bungalow restaurants (most of the accommodation here is lower midrange). Quite a lot of outsiders seemed to make their way up here to dine. Excellent friendly service.


As said up page, Jungle Club also has budget bungalows. That's Chez Tezza above.  Old time backpackers will do deja vu all over again. Typical budget bungalow except for the hot water. Plenty of room but not for a third mattress. King sized bed can sleep 3 friends. Nice fitted net. Good lights, quiet fan. Very quiet up here all round. Spacious manicured grounds. 800 baht good value considering the inferior 1000 baht places on Ko Ngai same trip - and they didn't have a pool. Hell, I'd pay an extra 300 a day just for JC's pool.


Sweet
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If you visit Samui you might also be interested in nearby:

KO PHANGAN (PAGE 1)
KO PHANGAN (PART 2)

KO TAO

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If you have any questions, please ask them in THE FORUM rather than below. I don't get a chance to check all island pages daily, but unless I'm travelling I'll try to monitor THE FORUM regularly.

Everone's favourite - Bottle Beach (Had Khuad/Khuat) on the east end of the north coast of Ko Phangan. I reckon there are better - if pushed I'd say the beach at Donald Duck Bay on Similan Island #8 (4 shots further down page) is the best I've seen.

I put together a few shots from the site of what I regard as some of the more pristine beaches in Thailand. Forget about dictionaries - let's define that as having nice sand, clear water, cleaned of wet-season rubbish and fishing junk, with no development or with unobtrusive development and never being crowded (at least away from public holidays or weekends for those beaches easily accessed by Thais).

This is just a sample - there are others which fit the description. Pus quite a few really nice beaches which don't meet the no/low development rule


Bottle Beach is a pretty nice low tide beach too - water is a bit shallow close to the sand but not too bad.

Had Khom (Coral Beach), north coast of Ko Phangan(click to expand)Oops - what a difference 6 hours can make! Not so great at low tide - but it took me a year and a revisit to find this out. Doesn't phase me - I aim to spend some time here on some future trip, has some real relaxed bungalow joints..

Donald Duck Bay, Similan Island #8 - but can get very busy with daytrippers 1000-0300


National Park Headquarter Beach, Similan Island #4 - repeat abt daytrippers


Ao Mai Ngam - Surin Islands camping beach #2. Book-ended by mountainous headlands, clear water, white sand, lots of nice tree shade in back of the beach, plenty of sand left at full high tide. Negatives include cheek-by-jowel tents under the beachfront trees for maybe 40% its length, but you could argue they are partly hidden by the trees and less intrusive than a bungalow joint or two.


Nui Bay - southern Ko Lanta


Ao Si - Ko Jum


Relax Bay (Had Phak Naam) - the Phi Phi knockers never make it to the lovely and uncrowded east coast bays. Image Louise F.


Leela Beach, back of Had Rin, Phangan - check my Phangan page for low tide shot.


Bamboo Island near Phi Phi - this one is a bit contentious because it can get a bit busy with daytrippers in dry season. Looks pretty sweet here - image Louise F.


Oean beach near Poseidon Bungalows, Khao Lak (image Similantour)


The only beach on Ko Lialiang Noi - Image - http://www.laoliangresort.com/


Had Thong Reng, east coast of Phangan - site of the new Tree House moved from Ko Chang (UPDATE APRIL 2012 - not any more, closed down for upmarket development. But nicer beach/more development/less clear water Had Sadet is only 10 minutes easy walk to the right).


Ao Pudsa/Tubtim - Ko Samet


Bang Bao, Ko Kut

Ko Nanguan (Ko Tao) - warning, this beach does get popular with daytrippers between abt 1000 and 1600.

Mai Khao Phuket - 10 km of sand backed by casuarinas, about half a dozen resorts the full length, but compulsory National Park set-back (sea turtles hatch here) even for sun lounges makes them unobtrusive.

For fans of loooong underdeveloped beaches like Mai Khao but who seek somewhere twice the length with about the same few number of places to stay - the main ocean beach on Ko Kho Khao.

South Beach Ko Phra Thong is another for the looong, undevelopoed beach fans - it is ++ on both compared to pretty good Ko Kho Khao. Most of Ko Phra Thong's west coast is similar to this section adjacent Golden Buddha Beach Resort. Some budget bungalows 15 minutes walk away.


Small beach just west of Pansand Bungalows, Ko Bulon Lae - Image: Pansand Resort
Note my last visit saw much sand removed by storm erosion.

Loh Paret, Ko Yao Yai


Ao Jak, Ko Tarutao


Ao Malaka, NP headquarters beach, Ko Taruato - long enough for daytrippers not to be a problem.


Eastern Beach, Ko Ngai (image Fantasy Resort). Eastern beach on adjacent Ko Kradan very similar.

Eastern beach at NP headquarters, Ko Adang.

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If you disagree or have extra information, please fire them in below. If you have questions, please ask them on THE FORUM which I check most days. I only visit individual island pages occasionally.
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Pantai Cenang, Langkawi's most popular beach (click all shots to expand - might depend on your browser).

Langkawi is a big island very close to the Thai border in north-west peninsula Malaysia. It is Malaysia's most popular holiday beach destination and has a natural advantage over rivals Tioman and the Perhentians in that its dry season (roughly late November into April) coincides with much of their wet season whereas its wet season is not usually as devastatingly wet, allowing all season visits.
Like Tioman, it is a duty free island - but this industry is much better developed than Tioman's makeshift effort with some spectacular deals on many products. The landscape is not as spectacular as Tioman's but pretty attractive, the beaches on average are as good as both east coast rivals - with the best considerably better IMHO. Snorkelling is not as good and the water is not as clear.
Langkawi has a much more accommodation, particularly in the midrange and top end areas. It has a good but not busy road system - the others have virtually no roads - and no taxes mean that hire cars and motorcycles are amazingly cheap. Competition means shopping and restaurant prices are very good - but accommodation seems considerably dearer than say KL for the same standard, but not appreciably dearer than its east coast rivals.
The taxi system is very inexpensive and runs on set prices - your accommodation can tell you exactly how much it will cost to your destination. A 4 hour tour of the island cost us rm100 - about $us30.
Naturally there is no shortage of places selling booze, which can be a problem on the Perhentians (although it is possible to find yourself in Muslim-owned Langkawi restaurants and general stores which don't serve/sell alcohol).
Like Tioman, you can fly onto Langkawi, but in big commercial jets, not short-take-off-and-land turboprops. The ferry service is much better than both rivals.
And from Langkawi it is dead easy to island-hop across into Thailand and continue island-hopping all the way north to Phuket.


(Click to expand)
The popular beaches of Cenang and Tengah are on the lower left coast. The tilted U shape above this is where the coastal road runs around the perimeter of part of the airport runway.
At top left, the southern and northern facing coasts have some fine small beaches with top-end resorts like Barau Bay, Berjaya Langkawi, Sheraton Langkawi and the Datai. Inland at top left the island is very mountainous and features the Cable Car and Seven Wells/Tanjung Waterfalls.
Spectacular Tanjung Rhu beach is at the head of the inlet towards the right side of the north coast. The top-right (north-east) of the island is very rugged, mountainous and least developed.
The small bustling capital, Kuah, where the mainland ferries arrive, is near the right end of the southern coast - image www.travelfair.com

I have visited Langkawi twice before this latest late Nov/early Dec 09 visit, but too long ago to write a useful blog page. So when the World Financial Crisis threw up some super-cheap fares into the area I grabbed two for Lady Tezza and me. We actually made two visits this time, separated by a 12 day island-hop across to nearby Ko Lipe and Ko Bulon Lae in Thailand.

The main beach areas from the north. Attractive Cenang is in foreground and Tengah starts right of headland half way across shot. There are some nice midrange/higher end resorts at the camera end - Pelangi Beach Resort, casa Del Mar and the lower priced and oft-praised Beach Garden. More budget oriented resorts begin a few hundred meters down beach.This section of Cenang faces due west with some pretty nice sunsets, but behind camera the beach turns and runs roughly east for a several hundred meters to a small river mouth - the huge Pelangi Beach Resort backs most of this section too.
At the far end of the two beaches, Southern Tengah faces north-west and misses the magic sunsets - the sun sets behind the headland and/or offshore islands.
Cenang is big on water sports with jet skis, banana boats and para-gliding pretty popular. But several sections are partitioned off for safe swimming which is possible at all tides, although you may have to wade out a fair bit at lowest tide. Tengah is similar but much quieter.


Opposite end. The main beach areas from the south. Cenang is far background left and you can see that Tengah is actually split into two sections by the small headland half way across the shot. It is possible to walk around this on the sand at low tide and high tide requires some simple rock-hopping.Tengah South, closest at right, is a wider nicer beach than the twice as long and still attractive Tengah North to its left. But because of two small creek entrances, the water is maybe not as clear. Actually crystal-clear water is not a feature at Cenang either. Both sections of Tengah are quieter than Cenang - as is the beach road which is not a continuous strip of retail like Cenang. Nevertheless, all the services except ATM and duty free are available along the main road which parallels the beach.


Cenang Beach from the southern headland. Flash structure front right is a new restaurant under construction. Maybe it's part of the Aquarium-Duty Free complex which is on the main road out of frame further right. Peaks in background are part of the northwest highland range - the cable car leads up to the highest point.


Cenang features some pretty neat beach bars with good music, colourful staff and pretty reasonable prices for drinks and snacks. Excellent places to be at sunset and after.


Our digs at Cenang were at Boutique Resort, on the main street across the road from the beach about one third the way from the eastern end. Actually the huge reception area and upstairs ball room(!) is on the main street - the accommodation-pool area is about a 200m walk further inland, although you and your luggage get driven across on arrival and departure.
This seemed by far best value for a midranger on Cenang when we researched - prices were not too much more than some of the flashpacker joints without pools. The tropical grotto pool complete with waterfall was a ripper. The rooms must have been fine when new, being huge and nicely furnished, but were beginning to get a bit rough around the edges - our carpet should have been replaced 5 years ago. But everything* was clean and worked, the staff were great and the inclusive buffet breakfast pretty good. *Note that despite being promised it was on its way several times, our room fridge never arrived.
There is easy access to the beach across the road and the place is surrounded by good shops and restaurants. The airport is about 10 minutes and rm 18 (at time of writing) away.


Killer absolute beachfront treehouses at Malibest - 4 in all, central on Cenang. These were a bit more expensive than my Boutique Resort room and I couldn't remember them from previous trips so I chickened out booking. But having seen them, I'd go for them next trip.Malibest also has more normal rooms, below midrange in price - get mixed reviews.


The famed mid-beach AB Motel a hundred meters east of Malibest has replaced its seaside A-frame chalets with these neat rooms plus an adjacent small hotel block. There are now similar rooms to the above across the road too. Prices have headed north but still below midrange. The place is well known for rude service, as shown by the older lady in reception when I enquired re vacancies - she acts as if she is doing a favour letting us stay in her place. Got that back to front. Very cheap internet and car/bike hire here.
Not too many of the old A frame chalets left on Cenang - nearby Sandy Bay Resort had a few, as did Sunset Beach Resort at the far eastern end.The best place to find really inexpensive rooms is up the lanes leading inland from the main beach road in the western half of the area.


Main street Cenang parallels the beach and is a collection of clothing/trinket/trip booking/general stores, restaurants, resorts entrances and down the southern end the Aquarium complex with some very good value duty free stores. There are a couple of money changers and an ATM in that area.Other stores seemed to have super competitive prices for casual clothing, beer etc. Restaurants had fine food and good prices.


Despite school holidays, Cenang was never crowded during the day. However numbers seemed to triple around sunset as locals and more tourists came out to play.


I've never stayed at Tengah Beach, so on our return from nearby Ko Lipe in Thailand we headed for the Lanai, which seemed to be best value according to user reviews.A really nice midranger right at the far end of Tengah South against the headland. All the usual inclusions, great staff, maybe best buffet breakfast all trip, nice wide section of beach, killer beach bar/cafe with half price happy hour drinks ($us1 beers) - food maybe 20% dearer than outside budget restaurants, but the servings we got at least 20% bigger.
2 good budget restaurants and a fine general store with car/bike hire about 5 minutes along the main road. Maybe 25 minutes walk into the duty free stores at the eastern end of Cenang - rm6 in a taxi. Airport 15 minutes and rm22 in a taxi at time of writing. A number of other good midranger places on both sections of Tengah beach.


A lower cost place gets rave reviews in users' forums is Tropical Resort on the main beach road, Tengah North. It's only about a 10 minute walk in to Cenang from here. Contact numbers have been scarce so I called in and got a card - ph 04-955 4075/955 3075. There are 2 small shopping complexes + restaurants adjacent.Popular low budget Zachry's which has even got dorm rooms is nearby on the opposite (inland) side of the road.


TRIPS AND EXCURSIONS.
Langkawi has many operators offering a good range of excursions and daytips. You can do jungle walks, mountain bike trips, sailing including dinner cruises, visit crocodile farms, do mangrove/cave trips, snorkelling/diving on Coral Island (Payar Island) half way to Penang, city tours, cultural village visits, rice museum/farm visits, island hopping yada yada. Google will find a whole bunch of operators - one site which gives some good info and pix is Langkawi Discovery.
The TripAdvisor Langkawi Forum has some very good info on what are the good-uns and the crocks. One which gets lots of praise is the mangrove trip - but there are about 4 outfits offering this.
I'm not an excursion type person, preferring to do my own thing. Particularly when some of these trips run to over rm200. Hell, 200 buys a lot of Tiger beer.


One good value excursion is the 4 island half-day trip put on by several operators for rm35-45 if you join a group. All of these take in large, mountainous Pulai Dayang Bunting with its spectacular fresh water lake. Most also offer some beach time, snorkelling, a mangrove swamp tour, maybe eagle feeding/fish feeding etc.
Most trips are done in fast small boats, but this group of Chinese-Australians organised to be taken from Cenang Beach by jet-ski - 3 up including local driver. That would be a fair bit more expensive.

LANGKAWI CABLE CAR
Situated in the north-west of the island, this is on many operators' around-island itineraries, but is a good one to do independently.
The cost is a very good value rm 30 per person return to the top, no extra for the skywalk.
A taxi from Tengah cost us rm 30 one-way - it would be slightly less from Cenang. Many people get their taxi to wait at rm25 per hour, but we were glad we didn't - arriving late morning during school holidays we found a one hour queue to get aboard one of the 6 person gondolas. Of course we could have faced a wait for a free cab on return to the bottom - we were lucky, of about 8 waiting cabs, one was not committed to people still on the ride.
To do justice to the ride and intermediate/top stations/skywalk you need at least an hour once on the cable. Plus more time if you want to explore the extensive tourist village at the bottom station.
Note that when we returned from the top station at about 2pm, the queue had shrunk to around 20 people - maybe 3 minutes wait. Going past the carpark on another trip a bit later in the day on the weekend suggested Saturday and Sunday afternoons may be a bit busier.

Going up. Great value ride at rm 30 per person return.


Top station and skywalk from intermediate station which is maybe 75% of the distance to the top.


View from top station (700m+ above sea level) limited a bit by typical Andaman haze. Beach close right is adjacent to Barueau Bay Resort. Telaga Harbour, exit point for Ko Lipe speedboats, is to the left of two small islands mid-shot. Note center-foreground the mini-township of restaurants, entertainment facilities and shopping at the bottom station.
360 degree views show the nearby Thai island of Tarutao to the north (on a clearer day Kos Lipe, Adang and Bulon Lae would also be visible), some precipitous coastal views to the west and hinterland mountain views to the east along with part of the eastern north coast.


The skywalk shot from the top station. Accessed by a set of killer stairs near the point of photography. Note there are bathrooms and good value snacks/drinks available at the top station. Drinks often needed because security at the bottom station will confiscate any (visible) bottles of water.


Pretty impressive engineering/construction job - the drop into the gorge must be over 300m here.

AROUND ISLAND TRIPS.
Plenty of outfits will load you into a bus and take you on a trip around the island which takes in things like the main beaches, some waterfalls, the cable car, a mangrove boat tip, crocodile farm, craft village, rice museum etc. Hell, a bunch of Thai ladies came over on our speedboat from Ko Lipe and were shovelled immediately onto a waiting coach.
But if you like doing your own thing, you can hire a car (from rm 35 to 200+ a day depending on season and model), motorcycle (rm 20 up) or bicycle (rm 15 up) and set your own itinerary.
Lady Tezza dislikes my driving enough in Australia and didn't care to drive herself, so we booked a taxi for a 4 hour minimum block at the set price of rm 100. We took in 2 beaches and waterfalls in the north and from Tengah more or less circumnavigated the western half of the island - without stopping to swim or eat we managed to fill the 4 hours exactly.
I also wanted to revisit Guning Rayah (mountain) in the island center which is as high as the cable car summit, but our driver said his elderly Proton's auto-transmission was prone to overheating on the Tour de France type swithchback climb - which I remember as a blast on my hire motorcycle back in the 90s. This of would have added an hour and rm25 to the trip.


First stop was at what I regard as the nicest beach on Langkawi and in peninsula Malaysia, Tanjung Rhu. A wide strip of blinding white sand maybe a kilometer long in a sheltered bay on the eastern section of the north coast.There is a small river estuary backed by spectacular cliffs is on the eastern side of the bay. A little way up the river is the popular Mangrove Tour area which also takes in some cave areas.When the tide falls it is possible to walk out to the island in background, but other areas are still fine for swimming.Beach umbrellas are for super swanky Tanjung Rhu Resort, the only accommodation on the bay. If these are a turn-off to you, there is a swathe of deserted beach elsewhere.The even swankier Four Seasons resort is on a separate beach maybe 2km west, maybe not quite as nice, but pretty sweet by normal beach standards.There is a small collection of budget restaurants, shops, tour booking places where the access road hits Tanjung Rhu Beach proper.


Black Sand Beach is about half way along the main northern road. Only section of black sand on the island - seemed to be rutile stained to me, pretty common in Australia and here a bit of a tourist trap with lots of (good value) clothing and souvenir shops, food stalls etc.


Temurun Waterfall is maybe half way along the 12 km north-west coast road. Well signposted from the road, the path goes thru a nicely shaded picnic area and reaches after 5 minutes the first falls which are only about 15 m high but have a nice little pool for cooling down. Another 5 minutes leads via a shortish section of moderately steep stairs to this second falls area, the top 10% of which are out of frame. Dry season sees a mere trickle of water compared to the wet season pix on the notice board in the picnic area. The pool is maybe 20 meters across here and reasonbly deep in parts judging by the locals jumping from a 10m high ledge.There was no formed track to the third falls, but I saw a rough path which maybe is used by experienced bush/basher-climbers.A fair few monkeys in this area. They seemed non cheeky/aggressive but it is always wise to not leave valuables unattended.


The north west coast road has several smallish beaches with nice views of nearby Ko Tarutao in Thailand. The nicest is Pantai Datai, but this is private to the swanky resort of the same name. Pix shows Pasir Tengorak Beach, the first past the Crocodile Farm.


The Seven Wells Waterfall area, quite close to the cable car. Shot shows some of the pools at the first "well". A pleasant spot and worth the climb. The path splits above here to lead to the higher wells and you can eventually reach the summit of the peak after about 2.5 km.
In the background of this shot, the river steepens and starts the higher section of Terjun Waterfall - the lower, steepest section can be seen in the last shot. There is good fencing to stop careless tourists dropping over the edge.


Note killer stairs to the first "well". Total distance is about 450m. Lady Tezza works out on the stairmaster at the gym but got pretty weary on this climb. About 5 sheltered rest stations on the way up.


A better spot for viewing and cooling in the pools plus easier to reach is adjacent Terjun Waterfall, about half way up the stairway to the first "well". Clearly signposted, the path is a 200 odd meter relatively level walk to the left.

GETTING THERE
FERRIES
From the mainland the main port for Langkawi is Kuala Perlis with frequent inexpensive services.
There are less frequent services from Kuala Kedah further south on the mainland and from Penang.

From the Thailand mainland the same company runs 4 ferries per day to Langkawi from the Thammalang pier about 10km south of Satun. Emigration/immigration are done at the piers each end.
All services arrive at Kuah pier.
See Langkawi Ferry Services. for all of the above routes.

You can also travel from the Thai island of Ko Lipe by speedboat. At the time of writing the service seems shared by Telaga Harbour Shuttle and SPB Speedboat at 2 services per day. It's a good idea to book ahead (our return service was booked out well ahead), to waterproof baggage (I have a big 50+ liter thin plastic bin liner bag I chuck everything into and then stuff into my travel bag) and not sit out the front if you are susceptible to back injury (a girl on our return journey hurt her back on a vicious bump in heavy chop and had to be wheelchaired off to hospital on arrival). Emigration/immigration is done at SPB's office on Pattaya beach at Lipe and in the Telaga Harbour Office.
Tigerline normally runs their bigger, drier boat out of Awana Port just over the hill from Tengah, but this had not resumed eary in the new o9/10 high season.

FLYING
Langkawi has a busy airport with a big modern terminal. You can fly in from KL on Malaysian Air, Firefly and AirAsia, from Penang on Firefly and from Singapore on Silk Air and AirAsia.

GETTING AROUND
Hire cars are so inexpensive that many travellers grab one at the airport. Plenty of places in Kuah and the main tourist spots hire cars, motorcycles and bicycles.

Buses are virtually non-existent but as said, taxis are very inexpensive and are on fixed prices. All the drivers we met were very courteous. There is a taxi counter at the airport to buy your ticket.

Some expats want to bring their own cars via a vehicle ferry out of Kuala Kedah, but I read the tax-free status of Langkawi requires lots of form filling and a surety bond and makes the exercise not worthwhile given the cheapness of hire cars.

MONEY
There are 2 bank money changers at the airport with rates only 2% down on KL when I visited.
Money changers of various types can be found at the beaches and in Kuah - the rates I saw were not as competitive.
ATMS - 2 at the aiport. The CimBank one is a bit hard to see, at the back of its money change roundel.
Others can be found at Underwater World in Pantai Cenang, Perdana Quay, Langkawi Fair Shopping Mall and many in Kuah Town.

WHEN TO GO
Dry season is the best bet - this normally kicks in around late November and runs into April. However wet season is not out of the question - like the Thai Andaman islands further north there is usually enough sunshine to make a beach holiday feasible and prolonged wet periods are not too common (but can happen). Accommodation prices normally drop during this period.

Many advise that Malaysian and Singaporean public and school holidays can make the island busy - I was there at the start of the extended late November into early Jan school break and things were not too busy except at the Cable Car. However things could be different around Christmas/New Year and in shorter breaks.

Arriving unbooked at the time of the LIMA DEFENCE SHOW which normally runs for a week in late November or early December can be a mistake. I did this on my first visit and found the island completely booked out by keen airplane/warship spotters. This year I planned our stay to hop over to Thailand while the show was on - but on return locals told me things were not as busy because greedy accommodation people had jacked up prices too much. It was pretty neat lounging on the beach watching F15s F16s and F18s practising their aerobatics in the week before the show.
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If you visit Langkawi you might also be interested in nearby:

KO LIPE

KO ADANG

KO TARUTAO

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If you see any mistakes, please post them below. If you have any questions, please ask them in the FORUM section accessed via the INDEX. I don't check these individual pages often but I try to check the forum most days when not travelling.

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Last visited March 2013

Lazing on a sunny afternoon - the perfect island for relaxation. Click to expand shot (may depend on your browser).

MOST OF THIS PAGE WAS WRITTEN AFTER MY DECEMBER '09 VISIT BUT I HAVE ADDED UPDATES FROM MY LATEST STAY IN MARCH '13.

Ko Bulon Lae is a small and attractive island about 30 minutes by fast boat out from mainland Pak Bara in the south Andaman. Its best-know neighbours are Ko Tarutao to the south and Ko Lipe to the south-west, although they are not exactly close.
Bulon was laid back when I visited in March 07 and again in early December 09, but reports say it gets pretty crowded at the peak of high season (Bulon has a loyal band of north Euro returnees - apparently they have the two main resorts booked out at peak way ahead). 
UPDATE MARCH 2013 - In previous months Bulon Lae had been one of the most visited pages on my site, so maybe I should have thought twice about arriving un-booked. March isn't exactly peak season but I had to search around a fair bit in the beach area to find a vacancy. There seemed to be plenty of spaces over in the Panka village area.

There are no real roads, just a few tracks of which only the main route between the main beach area and the village is paved. We saw no motorised vehicles of any kind. I was surprised by the lack of motorcycles - once a track is paved this is usually the come-on for locals to get one. We saw only one dog. Lots of cats.


The beach area extends from the western most bungalows of Pansand at left around past the spit at the eastern most point of the island to the area past Bulone Resort's old restaurant. 
I get the impression from this Google Earth image (beaches are pretty skinny) that it was taken at the peak of high tide OR after a period of pretty hefty storm erosion, which aint unusual for Bulon Lae.

(2009 shot) The beach area starts here on the eastern-most last few hundred meters of the north coast in front of BULONE RESORT and then turns 90 degrees not too far past the last tree to run along the eastern coast for maybe 500 meters past the camping area followed by what I call the village green (really the school oval) and then PANSAND RESORT.

Wet season storm wave attack has heavily eroded the beach in shot and also at the other end in front of Pansand. At highest tide there is not too much sand left (this shot was taken not long after high tide), although other tide levels see plenty to lounge on - as the opening shot shows (in front of Pansand's restaurant cabana mid-tide). However the middle spit-school oval beach area on and just past the turn of the beach has 400+ meters of good sand at all times. On the turn a nice spit of sand has developed and is slowly extending itself towards Tarutao from stuff eroded from the other sections.
There are 3 other smaller resorts in this beach area - SCHOOL BUNGALOWS, MARINA RESORT AND BULON HILL. The above is a nice shot to expand.

The erosion continues - this March 2013 shot shows the restaurant has gone and only one beachfront bungalow remains. Those ruins closest camera were once a shower block for when Bulone Resort had outside-bathroom bungalows, plus toilets for the restaurant - on my first visit in 2007 I didn't consider the block particularly close to the water.


The one remaining 2013 beachside bungalow. Check those sandbags - I don't give it a big chance of surviving next November/December's king tide/high winds (bigger waves) combo.
Actually Katia from Bulon Hill Bungalows told me this used to be a third row bungalow and I remember from my very first visit there were several rows along here.





(2013 shot) This stump is the remains of an undermined tree. Notice the beach off Bulone Resort gets the low tide blues pretty extensively, but at anywhere over half tide is fine for swimming. At high tide there is not too much beach at all, but plenty a short walk around the north-east corner of the island on the spit and in front of the school oval.
The bay in the shot was popular for snorkelling. At high tide I swam out to the fringing reef which is where the water changes colour past the furthest person in shot - the coral and fishies were okay but nothing to write home to mum about.

Around the north east corner: in the far distance is the spit and closer the camera (partly hidden) the school oval section. For this 2009 shot I waited until high tide on a King Tide day (full moon). You can see the erosion taking place at left with undercut trees etc. This is the northern (non-bungalow) section of Pansand's beach area - at low tide there is a good 20 metre wide section of sand here.
In the far distance at the corner of the island behind those casuarina trees is the camping ground. 

This is the same area a few hours later, not low tide but an hour above mid-tide. I was a bit unhappy about the previous shot, thought it didn't bring out the spit development very well.
Note our stay coincided with strong north-east winds, and so there are small wavelets hitting the beach. My previous visit saw very smooth conditions both Pansand and Bulone Resort sides.


I went back to much the same area in 2013 for a bottom of low tide shot which shows just how extensive the beach gets. Interestingly I thought there was no greater or less erosion near camera than in 2009, although the spit itself seemed a bit less extensive.

One of the nicest sections of this beach low tide is the final western end end - that's tezza's 2009 PANSAND RESORT Laolieng style #1 bungalow on the right close to beach.


The same area again proved my favourite in March 2013. Note only a small section of sand is left at full high tide - this is about half tide. No November strong winds so the water was smooth and delightful (very clear). The fringing reef is about the same distance off the beach as at Bulone Resort - coral and fishies a bit inferior.

Pansand Resort's 5 Loalieng bungalows are spread to left of camera with beach/ocean views getting progressively better - then there are 4 or 5 bigger Lide bungalows with better views again. The website shows only two beds in these bigger joints, but our Laolieng wasn't squeezy, so I reckon you could get some extra beds into the Lides. Certainly they had 4 chairs on the balconies.
At the very left of shot is the most distant from the restaurant of the Libong bungalows, so close to the sand it seems in danger of being undermined one king-tide/storm surge night (UPDATE - still looking much the same in 2013). There are about a dozen others spread along a path to the restaurant getting progressively more distant from the sea - but never more than 30m with great views across a nice lawn area.
Some distance in back of these seafront places are the second rowers both Lide and Libong in a nice garden setting, most elevated on the lower slopes of the hillside, giving tree filtered ocean views.
This beach had water up to the vegetation on our King Tide (technically called Spring Tide fer all you pedants - got nothing to do with the season) nights - the daytime high was a bit lower, something that happens frequently most places. At lowest Spring Tide (the lowest of the month) quite a lot of the reef was exposed here - much less further north.

Chez Tezza 2009 at Pansand.

Very comfortable small chalet with plenty of room. Usual flashpacker inclusions except no aircon or hot water. Serviced daily. Big softish king single matresses pushed together. Large bathroom with separate basin/mirror area. Plenty of storage. Electricity roughly 1745 to 0615. Nice balcony with beach/sea views. Clothes line at side - ground softish because of poor drainage. Quiet - few longtails at night (or even during day). Neat spacious grounds, paths well lit.
Internet at reception in the early evening.
This bungalow much better value than the ones we had at both Mountain Resort and Varin on Lipe at 1200 shoulder - 1500 high season 09/10, despite no aircon. But still expensive compared to many non-Andaman locations.

This is Pansand's separate restaurant cabana, shot from the bigger open-sided restaurant which also has snazzy views.

Food pretty nice here at what seemed to be typical budget prices plus maybe 10% and more than competitive with other Bulon places we ate at. Cheaper large Chang beers than elsewhere at 90baht - we noticed some island expats tended to gravitate here in the afternoon. Very nice inclusive breakfasts - part a la carte part buffet. Fantastic staff, best I've experienced in Thailand.
Pansand has a small store, internet and can book transport etc.

Beachfront bungalows at BULONE RESORT 2009- this is what the website calls Seaview and they certainly are, particularly at high tide. In my first visit in 07, they weren't beachfront, but second rowers (maybe third rowers according to Katia at Bulonhill resort). Storm erosion has undercut all the old outside-bathroom beachfront bungalows in this area (there is one left past the blue roofed restaurant in the background). I took this shot from approx the position of my old beachfront bungalow of the earlier trip - I reckon they have lost at least 4 metres of beachfront land.

The lady running the restaurant told me a big storm coupled with a full-moon king tide this past October (09) undermined the eastern third of the restaurant and they had to rebuild it. They have some nice small outside dining cabanas there which nearly went.
Out of frame to the right of shot is a small headland with the Family Seaview bungalows built just behind the rocks. These are relatively safe from erosion and have nice views similar to the second shot on this page.

Note you may find the beach in better condition if you visit later in high season - fine weather re-establishes beaches - I noticed a build up of at least 10cm of sand in the 4 days I was there. But the definite long-term trend is the reverse - there was already one set of concrete piers where a beachfront bungalow had gone when I first visited in 07, and my neighbouring bungalow has water under it at high tide.
Don't be turned off by the condition of the beach in the shot - once the tide started to drop there were some real nice patches of sand, and at high tide very sandy nice spit area is only 300m away. Bulone Resort's website has some shots of their beach at low tide which look to be fairly recent.

The beach and water at half tide 2013.

Bulone also has what they call Seaview Second Line bungalows - these are similar to the ones in shot but are mainly ranged around the perimeter of the spacious grounds - not too many have sea views.
I also stayed in one of these inland "seaviews" in 07 - it was a big, clean spacious job but I was a little disappointed in that it didn't have inclusions like towels and toilet paper (sure to be available now - competition is hot), the grounds were not all that tidy or well lit (very orderly now) and the price seemed way high (but I'm used to high Andaman prices these days). Last time I checked the websites, price-wise Bulone's bungalows were a bit cheaper than Pansand's but didn't include breakfast - light eaters would wind up roughly equal in total cost, heavy brekka fang-merchants like me end up ahead at Pansand.
I do think Pansand's grounds and restaurant are more attractive, the staff better and the area a bit better protected from the blustery north-easterlies which blew for part of our stay in 2009 (November and December can be very windy in the Andaman). Beaches are about equal, swimming/snorkelling a bit nicer at Bulone and the view/outlook at Bulone a bit better. Bulone had 24 hour electicity which Pansand lacked at least in 2009. Check your Trip Advisor etc for updates. There is a small store at both and p.c.  internet is available. Katja from Bulonhill Resort told me Bulone's booking desk is more reliable than at Pansand - it certainly worked well for me. Overall I slightly favour Pansand but it is close. Others may think the opposite.

Bulone's 2009 restaurant in background had slightly dearer prices for food, and big Changs were 120. Lady Tezza was rapt in their huge cups of tea so we spent a fair bit of time there. Service is okay, but not brilliant like Pansand. Bulone's bigger Seaside Family bungalows are behind the rocks in back of camera.


(2013 shot) Whoa! Foreground is remains of old restaurant, center background the rebuilt job. Not as atmospheric as the old seafront place, but less likely to disappear one stormy night. The building to its left is the small store/internet/reception.


(2013 shot) Bulone Resort has partly compensated for the loss of the seafront bungalows with these new rather nice looking family sized joints. The few outside-bathroom bungalows no longer exist. There seems fewer bungalows than previously but the size of these new places suggests maybe not fewer beds. 



These are the nice bungalows of MARINA RESORT spaced up the lower hillside once the paved track starts to climb the hill from the beach area over to Panka Village.
Nearest beach at Bulone's old restaurant maybe 3 minutes away - spit area 10. Fan with bathroom, they get good user reviews on travelfish etc - going for 600 without brekka early Dec09. The attractive restaurant with lots of sitting mats etc is on the other side of the track and drew a good crowd from other resorts - has quirky and attentive service, but slow delivery of food the 2 times we ate there. Maybe popularity has got ahead of kitchen capacity.

UPDATE 2013 - I called in at Marina on arrival. The older lady in reception didn't even look up from her book as she waved me away with "NO HAVE!" when I asked about a vacancy. Cute business plan: doesn't seem to take into account visitors who will return to the island frequently, people who like to eat in various restaurants during their visit, let alone snippetty internet tattle-tales.

SCHOOL BUNGALOWS are located mid-way between Pansand and Bulone and are lined down the southern side of what I call the "village green" area which contains a soccer field, a basketball area, a police bungalow and the schoolhouse itself.
There were also a small store and a popular eats joint in 07, but there was no sign of these in later visits. 4 bungalow restaurants are within 5 minutes. A good section of the beach is less than 100m behind the last bungalow in shot.
Fan with bathroom at 350 in early Dec09. This place is popular - fully occupied in March 07 and 13 but with several vacancies early Dec 09 which was more shoulder.

A lot of people miss BULONHILL because it is tucked up a narrow lane to the right alongside the southern exit to Bulone Resort.
Most of the bungalows range up the hill adjacent to Marina's restaurant. There is a variety of fan with bathroom bungalows here from 350 to 700 (2009) and the German girl who owns it with her Thai husband said they are thinking of renting out their very nice house come high season too. Funky looking 2 level restaurant is on the lower slope. These people were busy finishing a new bungalow early Dec09 and planned to open in a few weeks.

UPDATE - I ended up at Bulonhill in March 2013. It was fairly heavily booked and I had to take a 1000baht bungalow first night and a 400 after that.

Bulonhill 1000baht bungalow - spacious, plain, airy, fairly recently constructed place in leafy garden setting, firm double bed, good net, good bathroom with bucket flush western toilet, basin, bidet, towels. Clean, quiet. 1000 seems a bit high until you compare with other popular Andaman islands.

400 bungalow. You have to look hard to find a bungalow with bathroom close to the beach on popular Andaman islands at this price. The place was nearing the end of its life and had a 5% fore-aft tilt which wasn't noticeable in the bed (the thin mattress was actually more comfortable than the okay one in the 1000 job and the fitted mozzie net was a beauty), had just enough room for 2 people and their gear. The bathroom was more basic - no basin, bum gun or toilet paper and the toilet was squat. Bungalow not as plain with a few candles, shell  sculptures etc. I liked it.

I thoroughly enjoyed my stay at Bulonhill. Katia (Katja) gave me the most detailed and informative introductory bungalow and island briefing I've had in dozens of different bungalow visits and was a general mine of information. Her island map was far more informative than those I've been given previous trips at Bulone Resort and Pansand.
The atmospheric restaurant had prices maybe 20-40% higher than the average at budget bungalows - about the same this visit as at Pansand and a bit lower than Bulone Resort. I avoided Marina's restaurant this trip because I was still sulking about being burned by the old lady. Bulonhill's servings were big and the food very nice.


THE CAMPING AREA
This is in the casuarina tree area behind the sand spit on the corner of the beach area. Beach camping is popular with young Thais and on my March 07 trip about a dozen tents were pitched over one weekend. But in 2009, 2 days of which coincided with the King's Birthday Holiday Weekend I was surprised to see no campers. It may have something to do with nearest Bulone Resort hard-arse act of closing its closest-to-beach outside-bathroom on the first weekend I mention above. However if you are a camper, Thai law makes it possible to camp on ANY beach - and I'd be offering Bulone or one of the other resorts a small sum to use their bathrooms. If you used their restaurant they may not want a payment for the bathroom.

The campers were back in March 2013 - mainly Thai family groups although there was one young Brit family. The bloke told me they get water from a well beside the nearby school oval and use the toilet block behind the school house.

Frequent visitors may have  noticed an older brown as a berry western dude in a g-string sunning on the spit or hanging in his artfully decorated day shelter near the camping area. This is Thomas from the south of France who has spent the coldest 6 months of his home area's year on Bulon for quite some time. Apparently he has an inexpensive bungalow over in the village.

Adjacent the camping area in the woods behind the spit is a region where resort visitors were pitching their hammocks. There must have been 20 contented dudes swinging away over the extended area. I have never carried a hammock (I travel real light) but I felt this was an ideal way/spot to spend some time



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PANKA BAY VILLAGE AREA
This is on the central north coast and stretches between 2 bays Panka Noi and Panka Yai. There are 6 bungalow resorts in this area (7 in 2013) with a pretty impressive capacity - maybe 100 units - although it looked like only 5% were in use in early Dec09 - maybe double in 2013. This would be the place to look when the island is heavily booked at peak peak.
It takes 10 minutes not too tough walk of the paved track over the hill from its start near Marina Resort to the start of the village. The first place you come to after the communication towers at the top of the hill is a rather funky art shop which also doubles as a bar. Further down near the entrance of VIEWPOINT RESORT is a medium size shop and info place. One of the first places in the village proper is a small bakery - the lady (Sue) who owns this usually does a goodies run over to the beach area with a lot of nice stuff for sale each afternoon. There are a number of other places to eat in the village away from the bungalow restaurants, mainly good value joints for locals and visitors.

Menu at Pin and Mouda's Restaurant - considerably less expensive than over at the beach - but not Jungle Hut (see below).

VIEW POINT RESORT is the first accommodation you reach soon after the descent into the village starts and is one of the nicer places to stay on the that side.
Built on a steep, heavily landscaped hillside sloping from the main track down to Panka Noi Bay, most bungalows have some sort of view. There is quite a range of bungalows here and they showed me a real nice attached bathroom job for 300 back in 07, considerably less than the beachside places were asking.
UPDATE 2013-  a girl on my departing boat told me she had a good bungalow a fair way up from the beach here for 500baht.

View Point has a pleasant beachfront restaurant in front of the section of sand in the background. Swimming is okay in the top half of the tide but you can see at full low tide there is a lot of rock and coral exposed. A leisurely stroll to the nicest beach area between Bulone Resort and Pansand would take 15 minutes max.
The other village bay, Panka Yai is similar - a sandy strip but rocky at low tide.

SULEIDA RESORT is immediately past View Point on the main track down to the village - but on the inland side (View Point now has a handful of bungalows on this side too). Very neat looking travellers' type bungalows.

Some Suleida bungalows

This is Panka Yai beach at high tide in front of PANKA BAY RESORT, a pretty nice looking place had quite a few bungalows very similar in appearance to Chez Tezza at Pansand pictured higher on this page.

Some Panka Bay bungalows behind the beach.

You need to walk for about 5 minutes through the village to reach Panka Yai - a little before you hit the beach you will pass through another bungalow outfit CHAOLAE RESORT (2013 - now calling itself Chao Lae Homestay) which looked more budget backpacker in style.

Some Chao Lae bungalows 2013. Note a reader Man Bucet found tents here when the rest of the island was booked out in February 2011. I wonder if Man got as far as Jungle Hut on the Mango Bay track?

The other beach on the island is at Mango Bay.
This is on the south coast and is a not too distant but difficult rock-hop around the headland from Pansand, but is easier to reach on a path from Panka Village - take any turn heading left as you walk thru the village towards Panka Yai and you will hit the track (in 2013 I found the main track was very well signposted from village central). It takes maybe 10 minutes thru a rubber plantation to reach the beach.
The main activity here is a small bunch of fishermen's huts where the track hits the beach. There is a funky looking beach bar out of frame to left of camera which looked to have been closed for some time (but may be waiting for peak season) - and a place with a few bungalows higher to this looking over the bay thru the jungle which had a some long-term type travellers hanging around in 07, seemed to now be locals' accommodation.

New since 2009 - this floating pier which seems to have boosted fishing activities and serves as a rough weather facility for incoming island supplies. No sign of the beach bar in 2013.

About half way along the track to Mango Bay is JUNGLE HUT with 2 rows of traditional backpacker style bungalows.
This neat looking place looked brand new in 07 but was closed in March - I was dismayed that maybe it had gone broke. But locals assured me that it has been operating when things get busier and sure enough it was a going concern in my later visits. That garden in 2013 was starting to look like a real jungle. Has an attractive open restaurant adjacent the track. You would be looking at 5 minutes to the beach at Mango Bay which is okay but not earth shaking, maybe 15 to 20 to the spit area.

Most islolated it may be, but value at Jungle Hut is outstanding. Large huts with bathroom 400, small with bathroom 200 in 2013 and the pretty girl running the joint told me she does not vary this throughout the season. Restaurant prices were some of the lowest Andaman island asks I've seen in recent years - mains 50-80 baht, big beers 70-80. Had some pretty contented looking travellers hanging about.

Not too far on the village side of Jungle Hut is the new to me Salweena Resort. Only a few bungalows but they look pretty neat. I didn't get a price but Jungle Hut is sure to keep things competitive.

Back where the track from Mango Bay hits the outskirts of the village we talked to a nice local lady in 2009 who had 3 brand new bungalows in a spacious area. No guests as yet, but looking forward to high season. Asking 350 - tel 085 0772769 - JIAB BUNGALOW. Not a bad little shop here too.


GETTING THERE
From the Mainland - the nearest pier is at Pak Bara. Most websites show one speedboat service (about 30 minutes) each way (400 per passenger Dec09 - but I paid 350 in 2013 thru Bulone Resort's trip desk although Pansand's website is showing 450. The speedboat meets island longtails in a sheltered cove near the Bat Cave - the longtails charge 50 baht to the beach.
A girl on the island told me she arrived at Pak Bara too late for the speedboat and chartered a longtail for 350 baht - 2013.This seems remarkably reasonable seeing Phi Phi longtails want 200baht for a single person charter from Ton Sai to Long Beach - less than a quarter the distance.

The old slow ferryfrom Pak Bara to Bulon Lae no longer runs.

See my Ko Lipe page on details of getting to and from Pak Bara from elsewhere on the mainnland. btw the busy business area adjacent the new pier and passenger terminal has a big range of services including ATMs which cannot be found on Bulon Lae (or Lipe - although surely that is just a matter of time).

From Ko Lipe  - 600 per passenger Dec09 (same 2013) - maybe 45 minutes if the sea isn't rough.

From Ko Lanta-Ngai-Muk - both PBS and Bundhaya are running speedboats to/from Lipe which call in at Bulon.

The above is the situation in 2013 but Andaman island transport arrangements are always fluid so check Google before your trip. Bulone Resort and Pansand websites tend to keep up to date.

BE CAREFUL ON SPEEDBOATS!
It's a good idea to waterproof baggage (I have a big 50+ liter thin plastic bin liner bag I chuck everything into and then stuff into my travel bag) - our boat Lipe to Bulon Lae in early Dec 2009 hit such choppy seas that everything including me, crouched behind the elevated driver's chair for cover, got soaking wet. If you are susceptible to seasickness take some motion sickness tablets and look at the horizon.
DO NOT sit out the front particularly if you are susceptible to back injury (a girl on our return journey to Langkawi that month hurt her back on a vicious bump hit at speed in lighter chop and had to be wheelchaired off to hospital on arrival).

Leaving Bulone for Lipe.

Rachael has a Trip Report of her Dec 09 visit to Bulon Lae here which
might help people thinking of visiting. There are later reports from straydog and John Bassett too.

If you want to do a Trip Report on Bulon or any other location please send text and and/or any pix with captions to
lajolla22@hotmail.com. In this way we can keep readers more up to date than my visits every 2 years or so.

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If you visit Bulon Lae you might also be interested in nearby:

KO LIPE

KO ADANG

KO TARUTAO

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If you see mistakes or have extra info, please post below.
If you have any questions, please ask them in THE FORUM rather than below. I don't get a chance to check all threads daily, but unless I'm travelling I'll try to monitor THE FORUM regularly.

Last visited April 2012 Best restaurant view and surprisingly, some of the cheaper food in the Khao Lak area - outlook from the balcony table at MUAN LAI restaurant adjacent the main road as it drops towards Ban Nang Thong/Khao Lak town. This restaurant is now the second restaurant at the BAAN KRATING RESORT but is popular with passing tourists and locals. That's Sunset Beach below.

The area known as Khao Lak is actually a 20km stretch of mainland beaches starting about 75 km north of Phuket airport. There are 5 different beach areas along this stretch - some separated by headlands or rocks, others just merging into the next. I modified the Google image below to show the beach sequence. Might be worth clicking to expand.

Most old-timers think of Khao Lak as the NANG THONG-SUNSET BEACH area just north of the NATIONAL PARK headland bottom of image - but the true KHAO LAK BEACH is to the south of the same headland.
Heading north from Nang Thong we have BANG NIANG, KHUK KHAK, PAKARANG CAPE and PAK WEEP.
The 2 major towns are BAN NANG THONG near the southern headland which I have labelled KHAO LAK TOWN and the slightly less busy BANG NIANG a few km to the north.
It might be worth-while clicking this image to expand it.
This and following map-images modified Google Earth.

A GOOD MAP of the area showing most accommodation can be found here.


THE BEACHES

KHAO LAK BEACH
The Khao Lak strip starts in the south on the Phuket side of the high National Park headland at the true and less visited Khao Lak beach.

This is a very nice stretch of sand with lovely clear water for swimming. A handful of mid-range to high end hotels including THE MERLIN are situated at the left close to the headland.
Heading right on the beach there are a couple of small changes of direction which make for separate stretches of sand and then at far right of shot about 300m of sand which is the ocean beach for POSEIDON BUNGALOWS (see pic below). The resort itself is situated just out of shot on a lovely little estuary with views up another long beach further south to the long headland at Thap Lamu where the Similans Islands transfer boats depart.

Poseidon Bungalow's ocean beach - there is actually more the other side of that rock -image Poseidon Bungalows.

This is a shot I took of roughly the same area near the top of a very high tide in March '11

One criticism of the true Khao Lak beach is that it's a bit isolated - town in some 5 km north over the headland. True, a little service/restaurant area has developed on the inland side of the beach hotels around MERLIN and if you walk south along the beaches towards Poseidon (takes 15 minutes - hey, one morning I saw an elephant being walked along here) there are a few small places set up by local villagers selling fruit, drinks, massages and hiring beach chairs/umbrellas etc.

The true Khao Lak Beach south of the National Park headland.

NATIONAL PARK WHITE SAND BEACH
Next north is another beach probably a minority of Lak visitors see - a small stretch half way along the National Park headland.

This can be reached by a not-too-easy rock-hop north from Khao Lak beach (warning - don't be tempted to short-cut along promising-looking jungle paths that peter out - I was 2 hours overdue from a little trip to this beach for which Lady Tezza gave me hell). But the easiest access is an interesting track from inside the National Park entry gate near the restaurant very close to the highway at the top of the headland - the sign says 1.5km but it seemed a bit more - slopes mainly moderate, any steep ones quite short. A viewpoint is about one third the way along this track.
Note in my March '11 visit I also saw a signposted track WHITE SAND BEACH leading off the highway some 300m south of the National Park entry gate. I haven't had time to try this track yet, but its position promises it to be a bit shorter.
The beach is deeper than it appears in shot. Behind there were picnic tables and a structure looked like it could be used as a small cafe in peak season - deserted when I visited in late November 2010.

SUNSET BEACH
Sunset Beach from BAAN KRATING RESORT on the slopes of the National Park headland.

IF I HAD TO PICK ONE OF THESE BEACHES (that is if I was staying midrange or upmarket) I reckon I would go for Sunset. The beach here is very attractive - tucked in against the towering headland with nice sand and some outcrops of rock for character, there is a host of nice places to stay and to eat at, some right on the beachfront, others built up the headland side with panoramic views - and it has the great advantage of only being a 10-15 minute walk up to town for shopping, other restaurants etc.
Well, I did stay midrange (late Nov 2010) and did go for this beach - and actually BAAN KRATING mentioned above.

Looking south over Sunset Beach from the Nan Thong end - big headland in back has BAAN KRATING and several other resorts, and top right you can see the radio aerial at National Park HQ.

Sunset Beach, the National Park headland and white sand beach. My labels are a bit small, click to expand.

NANG THONG BEACH
The north end of Sunset Beach is near-right. Around the slight corner it becomes NANG THONG BEACH. I don't think there is any geographical feature separating beaches further north - NANG THONG simply merges into BANG NIANG BEACH about 2/3rds the way across image moving left (although there is another even smaller kink in the beach which may be the border - or a small creek estuary a bit further north).

Some parts of Nang Thong and northern Sunset have small rocky sections which give the beach added character.

Nang Thong is probably the most used beach section. There are a number of fine resorts both beachfront and beween the beach and the town which is maybe 500m inland. Lots of restaurants and bars in this zone too. Nang Thong has a greater concentration of budget rooms than others - although more in the town area - the days of beachside budget digs are long gone.
Moving north into BANG NIANG there are some very nice and spacious top-end and mid-range places accessed by long lanes from the highway with considerable unbuilt gaps between.

Nang Thong Beach and Khao Lak town (Ban Nang Thong)

BANG NIANG and KHUK KHAK BEACHES
BANG NIANG occupies about the middle 70% of this shot with KHUK KHAK the far LEFT 15-20 %.

About half way along BANG NIANG where the 1km long access roads arrive from Ban Bang Niang main street on the highway, there is a cluster of midrange resorts, restaurants and bars. This pattern continues along the access roads from the highway - with a few budget rooms and many shops as well. The main business area up on the highway has a good range of retail and other services but is not as big or comprehensive as Ban Nang Thong/Khao Lak town.

This is shot looking south from where the access road hits the beach from Bang Niang town.

Back on the beach moving north towards and into KHUK KHAK we have a repeat of very nice and spacious top-end and mid-range places but these are even more dispersed than to the south.
Khuk Khak is also know as KHUK KHAN. It is probably the most upmarket area with several big new developments under construction when I last visited.
If you like your beaches loooong and uninterrupted the Bang Niang - Khuk Khak strip would be just the thing. To me they are less attractive - a bit featureless and kinda exposed - I like my beaches with headlands, sections of rock yada yada. But hey, some of the resorts in these places are veeery flash - totally gorgeous - and people staying there would probably have no complaints at all.

Bang Niang beach right and Khuk Khak beach left.

This nice little inlet could be the border between Bang Niang and Khuk Khak beaches.

Khuk Khak beach appears pretty undeveloped - its mainly upmarket resorts are widely spaced and mainly behind the tree line.


LAEM PAKARANG
KHUK KHAK merges to the north into a longish headland at CAPE PAKARANG. This seems to be the last frontier development-wise even though the beach continues around most of the cape to PAK WEEP BEACH which is slightly more built up. There are a couple of high end joints on the cape looking this way, with undoubtably more to come.

I shot this from my BAAN KRATING bungalow balcony on the headland south of SUNSET BEACH - the 3x telephoto on my mighty point and shoot Canon (the flash failed 2 seconds after the warranty finished and the bastards would not repair it gratis) banging up against the rev-limiter. That white joint towards the end of the cape is some sort of tsunami tower co-ordination centre - was deserted when I called by in March '11.
Those fishing longtails in the foreground fanged around the bay off Sunset and Nang Thong beaches most of the day - they have front-loader fishing nets - seemed to work pretty well.

I shot these waxheads adjacent the tsunami centre in March '11 (expand shot to see dudes 'out the back') - believe it or not, there's a surf school operates here (I find it hard to believe dry season swell is consistent enough to support a surf school).

This is shot from near the tip of the Cape southwards back towards Khuk Khak, Bang Niang, Nang Thong and Sunset etc. Baan Krating and the National Park are approximately where the yellow arrow head is. Furthest headland is immediately south of Thap Lamu where the Similans Islands transfer boats depart.


PAK WEEP/ BANG SAK BEACHES
The PAK WEEP beach at Similana, looking onto Cape PakarangSimilana Resort .
Note the excellent and oft-praised Similana closed down some years ago for redevelopment, so that link may not work well. It was still closed with no sign of any work in March 2011 but a new Lak directory in 2012 features the place so it looks like it has finally re-opened. Unfortunately I didn't have time to go out and check it personally.

North of Pakarang Peninsula the beaches continue - the first is PAK WEEP, an area I thought when I called by in Feb 08 as 3rd best to SUNSET BEACH and the true KHAO LAK BEACH. Still true when I visited in 2010. Very attractive with a handful of midrange and better accommodation, some local beach restaurants and other services. Some of these actually extend onto the north-facing beach area of the cape.

Ang Thong Resort restaurant and bar on a nice section of Pak Weep - camera looking towards the end of the cape. This part of the beach is actually called WHITE SAND BEACH, and yes, the sand seemed whiter than most other beaches on this page.

Other resorts and bars stretch further north into what is known as BANG SAK beach, but are not cheek by jowel.

Cape Pakarang, Pak Weep and Bang Sak

Thing is, the beaches here continue another 15km or so until KO KHO KHAO - as you travel the main coastal highway along this stretch you see not inexpensive signs pointing to at least half a dozen resorts. AGODA and SAWADEE COM - PHANG NGA HOTELS (yep, Phang Nga province extends all the way from south of Phuket to Takua Pa) will find them.

Similana resort back at Pak Weep has gained some praising posts over the years - when I checked it in 08 I found a pretty nice lower-midrange joint spilling down a not-too-steep hillside above the beach. But just after this they closed to redevelop - and as reported above, not operating in March 2011. Update Feb 2012 - this website lists details of Similana

Lotsa nice sand between the Khao Lak strip and Ko Kho Khao


KHAO LAK TOWN
This is a Nov 2010 shot of Ban Nang Thong which most people think of as Khao Lak town.

The 800m of 4 lanes plus parking is a bit of an overkill, but if the tsunami relief funds were there, why not make the most of them for future needs, maybe as an emergency landing strip or for when the entire highway is finally 4 lanes?
Lots of convenience stores, shops, travel agencies, restaurants, bars, banks/atms/money changers etc along here - plus quite a few cheaper upstairs rooms (warning - a fair few long distance trucks and buses thunder thru at night).
Less noisy are some rooms behind restaurants near the bus stop for vehicles heading south - signs out front announce them. I had one behind Gekko Restaurant in March '11 - at 400 not great value for a basic joint - but clean, had hot water. A nicer budget spot was Jai in April 2012 (300baht) which is a little further north of Gekko. More info and pix on both downpage.
More of the same in streets leading away on both sides, particularly right of pic towards the beach.
I was disappointed in restaurant prices on my latest visits - seems this place is under the influence of cashed-up northern Euro midrange and better travellers with their still overvalued for the moment but not for long EURO (I wrote that in April 2011; it's now June 2012 and the Euro is still overvalued. Although the Greeks, Italians and Spaniards may think differently) - main street restaurants in towns like this are usually the price-effective places to eat and yet I found none with mains below 100 (I'm used to paying 80 or so in budget bungalow restaurants - less in main street joints).
Similarly the short 2km taxi trip from BAAN KRATING into town was costing 300 baht. Hell, I want to go 20km for 300 in other Thai places. But no doubt 300 for 2km is cheap in Germany. Not to mention Sweden and Norway.
2km? I walked.


THE NATIONAL PARK - RESTAURANT AND MORE.
Speaking of food prices, the cheapest by far in the area are at the NATIONAL PARK HQ RESTAURANT high on the headland south of Khao Lak town. Here we are talking main courses at 4o baht + rice - typical of Thai NP restaurants which cater for lots of domestic travellers who are not going to pay inflated Farang tourist prices. A large Chang beer was 40 in Nov 2010 from memory. I'm usually real happy with 70 although you Bangkok hangers may not agree.
Note though that the size of courses at the NP is Thai orientated - about 75% of what westerners prefer.

National Park HQ is alonside the main road high on the headland directly south of Khao Lak town - about a 2.5 km moderate-slopes good-views walk. The restaurant is a short distance from the entrance gates - if you tell the guys at the NP gate you are going to the restaurant they won’t charge you the 200baht NP entrance fee. Which means you can then freeload the track to the viewpoint and even trek down to that small white sand beach I show 5th image from top of page.
The few bungalows at the NP HQ looked okay, but seemed to have staff staying in them. NP also had about a dozen tents set up just inside the entry gates one time I visited.
Note the National Park also has sections on the mountain side of the main road both south and north of HQ where you can trek to waterfalls etc. Intrepid visitor that I am, I've been too lazy to check these (so far). But crocodrilo has a waterfall shot down-page.


ACCOMMODATION
Two of the places I've stayed at over the years no longer operate.
HAPPY LAGOON, an ultra cheapy right on the beach at what must be southern Bang Niang (it took me quite a walk to lug my bag up from Nang Thong - I remember crossing a small estuary where an old Thai guy was charging 10baht to ferry people across on the world's smallest skiff) was wiped out by the tsunami. There is now a new Happy Lagoon on the road down from town to Nang Thong Beach - a pretty nice flashpacker into lower midrange place which has attracted some good reports, but I don't know if there is any connection.
NATURE RESORT, another good value place smack in the forest just the Phuket side of National Park HQ where I stayed in 06 shut down in 09. Seems people were not prepared to go the 3km down the headland road to the main beach areas. Sad - a nice joint.

POSEIDON BUNGALOWS
I stayed here too on my first trip last century and again on my 3rd Lak visit in 08 when the place had changed a fair bit, getting hit moderately by the tsunami. Moderately because thankfully most of the place is built up on a headland overlooking a small estuary - across which is a big expanse of beach leading abt 8km all the way up to Thap Lamu which is the port for the Similans trips, for fishing boats and a base for naval vessels from patrol boats thru to large destroyer/small cruiser types.
All of Poseidon’s old bungalows were at least 8m over the estuary, but the lower ones were cleaned up by the megawaves and have been replaced by better quality ones on the higher side of the path from restaurant to beach. Note there are a few family type ones sleeping 4 or more - not all that common in the Andaman.
The bungalows also extend further towards the beach now so that from last bungalow to sand is only about 2 minutes vs. 5 back then.
The old restaurant was a wonderful place, right down OVER the estuary on piers. It got destroyed (no-one hurt) - the new restaurant is way up top, arguably with an even better outlook north than before.
Restaurant prices here are maybe 30-50% higher than many budget restaurants and maye 20% higher than in town, still very good value by western standards. And this is a flashpacker standard place, not backpacker. At the same time, I've found some similar flashpacker joints like Sukorn Beach Bungalows and Ko Libong Beach Resort have been no dearer than backpacker for food and drink. And mid range BAAN KRATING'S MUAN LAI pictured at top of page was not much more than these.
Poseidon picked me up at Phuket airport - the 1 hour trip cost 1200baht. My bungalow was one of the cheaper 800baht fan jobs (with bathroom). At first glance it looked a bit Spartan, but it was spotless, in good condition, cosy with sufficient room for 2 and their gear but no more, a comfy queen bed and big not too hard pillows, good screens on windows and doors, quiet fan, toilet paper+soap+towels, clothes rack and moderate shelf space, good lights including reading light at bed-head, good water pressure, quiet (no roads nearby, few long tails except one local fisherman who came down the creek at 5am!), nice balcony except mine #17 was one of the few cheapies on the inland side of the path without panoramic views (although there were partial views of the bay). Bayview shot across path from balcony of Chez Tezza at Poseidon

No problems, 100m got me to the restaurant for my viewing time. Which is where I headed as soon as I stored my bag on arrival - the estuary and that looooong beach leading up to the cape past Thap Lamu sure looked nice in the moonlight, particulary after the first-for-the-trip Chang or four.

A March '11 shot from Poseidon's restaurant. Full high tide here soon after full moon (king/spring tide time). Interstingly, the casuarinas across the inlet had grown considerably since my last visit to block views of about 6km of sweeping beach, but the headland south of Thap Lamu port will never be blocked out. Bungalows closer the ocean beach such as the one below still have the full view.

Some of the cheapies at Poseidon overlooking the estuary which has little water in this low tide shot. Beach in background stretches some 8km north to a big cape. Poseidon's own ocean beach is directly behind the camera.

BTW - Poseidon is a popular place and is heavily booked, partly because it is a class act and partly because it is the base for their Similans Islands snorkelling overnight trip (see SIMILAN ISLANDS link below). This is one place I would not risk a walk-in. It is Swedish-Thai owned and has a large proportion of Swedish visitors. Staff are friendly and efficient.

Something you don't see everyday. Well maybe you do on the access road into Poseidon which also leads to a local baan near where I have in previous trips elephants being exercised on the beach.


BAAN KRATING
Mid range BAAN KRATING has several dozen pretty nice bungalows built on a steep slope in thick rainforest just south of Sunset Beach. The biggest building is its MUANG LAI great value-fantastic views restaurant (see shot top of page). If you click to expand, some of the bungalows will be clearer. Reception is out of shot right of frame.

Lady Tezza (Julie) tagged along on my Nov/Dec 2010 trip to Thailand - we decided first stop from Phuket airport on the way to Ko Kho Khao would be BAAN KRATING for 3 nights. I love it when The Lady comes - I get to stay in some pretty sweet places. Baan Krating didn't disappoint.
Julie has a TRIP REPORT of Khao Lak HEREwith a fair bit of info and pix of the resort.

OTHER ACCOMMODATION
Khao Lak is mainly a midrange and better location and has a vast array of such places to stay. Of these my only experience is the above Baan Krating but booking sites like Agoda, sawadee.com etc list heaps and are the places you should be looking. Hopefully my beach descriptions etc will make deciding between them a bit easier.

JimmyK who has contributed accommodation info to other pages visited Khao Lak in late November 07. Jimmy tends to stay mid-range to high end which gives a good contrast to much of my information:
"Flew into phuket and took i hour taxi to Khao Lak Resort--its about the same drive time here as it is to patong beach, but much more scenic, and hotels in khao lak are much better value than in phuket (though not a great place for backpackers who want to party). Khao lak Resort is magnificent (5000 baht for beach view bungalow) it is built into hillside so you feel like you are in the jungle (monitor lizards were are frequent guests). This is a special hotel-maybe great for honeymoon. this is the most scenic part of "khao lak". nearby hotels were priced same or higher but not as nice. convenient town of khao lak just a 20 minute walk or 40 baht songthaew away. Moved to Chong Fah Resort. Luxury beachfront unit on Bang Niang beach was also about 5000B. the units behind us were tightly packed but our beachfront was almost on top of the water. Great, pricey food. Frankly this beach is not as nice as the one in front of khao lak resort. We then moved to Similana Resort about 8 km to the north. Great low density "treehouses" for about 4000B (mind you at all these place you can pay less if you dont opt for beachfront.) Rooms not luxurious like last places--but very nice. This has always been my favorite hotel in thailand---very isolated--though 2 5-star affairs now share this very long beach. Again at this place you feel you are in the jungle----but get there now as predictably this cozy spot will be closed in april to open a luxury resort---they paved paradise and put in a parking lot..

Thanks Jimmy. My personal interest has been more budget orientated. Besides the cheaper places I mention above I've collected a bit of info on cheaper Lak places over the years:
The NATIONAL PARK HEADQUARTERS entry and the POLICE BOX high on the approach headland to Khao Lak town has 2 independent restaurants roadside (the main NP restaurant is inside the park about 5 minutes). I ate in the one closer to Nature Resort and the food here was quite good and the usual Thai low price good value. The girl here told me she had one room for 300 (06 price), and NP Headquarters also have some budget bungalows.
The only other place I saw budget rooms that trip was down in the new town where some of the main street businesses were advertising upstairs rooms for 400 and 500. I don’t fancy a hot room with big trucks roaring close by all night.
In later trips I have seen similar rooms on the quieter streets leading away from both sides of the main street.

I have seen some positive posts about FATHER AND SONS (NOM'S) which is behind Nom's restaurant down in the village away from the highway towards the sea.
Good reports also re JAI, which is behind a restaurant in the same area as the afore-mentioned GEKKO (just north of the bus-stop at the start of the four lanes heading north). SEAFOOD RESTAURANT is another with quiter rooms in back in this area. FAMILY HOUSE is associated with it.

Rooms up this alley behind Gekko Restaurant just south of the bus stop on the inland side of the main street next to the 7/11. Sign partially hidden by tree suggests this is really called Khao Lak Inn. No matter, Ghekko staff will show you the room. If restaurant is closed in a.m, walk up the alley to people in back. Number of other similar places a little further south of here. When looking for these places, if you are north of the Siam Bank you are too far north.
UPDATE APRIL 2012 - on my latest visit I noticed the restaurant is now an art shop. The rooms up the alley where still being advertised.

Main street restaurant area of Jai Bungalow where I stayed a few nights in April 2012. Bungalows are spread around a garden area behind restaurant. Basic but clean 300 baht jobs, spacious, towels, soap but no bottled water, okay bathroom with western toilet, cold shower. Quiet area. Jai is towards the northern end of the shopping strip on the inland side. Walk maybe 200m back north from where the south bound buses stop. From buses heading north maybe 250-300m further on the other side of the road. Jai has a 7-11 and a bigger supermarket directly across the street, several ATMs and money changers nearby. Restaurant had good food, huge menu list, attracted lots of outsiders, prices pretty average for Khao Lak which is maybe 20% higher than you would pay in Trang or Krabi town.

A real nice looking place which appears flashpacker - lower midrange is the afore-menioined new HAPPY LAGOON midway between the main part of the township and the beach on the main beach access road - its website shows aircon rooms for 1200 (Dec 08) high season, but several posters have said the fan rooms are very good value. Got a pool.

SimilanDiver gave this info about budget places in 07:
"Right here in Khao Lak on the main road there are several choices, ranging from budget places like SRI GUESTHOUSE (make sure you don't stay there on the nights when the bar about 10m away has it's DJ's playing). There are also some nice places with big rooms above the stores along the main road. With a bit of haggling you can find good rooms with AC and TV for 500 a night."

In nov 09 SimilanDiver praised cheapie PHU KHAO LAK as the current best deal, set in a coconut grove and meticulously maintained, one of the best restaurants in town

Matt and Suzzie sent me this info on cheapies in Jan 09:
Cheap place to stay at Ban La-On (Nang Thong Beach) - Opposite Jai Restaurant there's a family-run mini-mart across the road, they have a few little chalets behind the shop. Some are better than others. We stayed a month in one post-tsunami fer 300baht while we were working in Lak . A year later (2006) we went back again and blagged them down from 350 to 300 again. Again, some are shabby so it's worth checking a few out. They're basic (bed, fan, table, bathroom with cold shower, western toilet and bucket for flush), but suitable enough fer a stay of a few days (we were close to going insane in there after a month!), and a good cheap option for Ban La-On. You can use yer own padlock on the outside, so they're quite secure too. They are neither named or sign-posted; ask them at the mini-mart. The guy (he is always shirtless) is a bit grumpy, but you can lighten him up with a laugh or two.
Jai themselves have a few chalets that are quite nice but a bit pricier. Again, if you plan a longer stay they'll give you a better price.
Khao Lak Seafood next door is a great place to eat with a fantastic menu.
Another nod goes to Lemuan Seafood further down the road (opposite D-Supermart) - the ladies there are good fun and a bit dotty. If yer a regular they'll make a lot of fuss over you.

KHAO LAK SEAFOOD - Cocodrilo spent time in Lak prior to her live-aboard snorkelling trip to the Similans in dec 09 (see READERS' TRIP REPORTS) and sent me the following pix and info:

I stayed at Khao lak Seafood family house. While I loved the food there, they were always so busy the service was marginal. Also lots of people with babies in strollers dining there, which I do not want to see (nor hear) while on vacation.

The guesthouse was great, though, and right next to a mountain where you could hear all sorts of cool insect, gecko and bird sounds at night.

Inland from Bang Niang is Chong Fa Falls.

Tezza shot snuck in here to show the area's other main falls - the one further south at Tong Pling a short distance in from the main highway behind the true Khao Lak Beach. In typical Thailand falls style, less than whelming. Note an overhead bridge here leading to a trekking track on the north side of the pool The bridge was closed in March '11 because of disrepair - apparently the track follows the river downstream.

This is the abandoned patrol boat washed some 500m+ inland during the tsunami. It is adjacent the highway (inland side) a short distance north of the main Khao Lak shopping area.

AMSTERDAM RESORT - Surins Trip Report writer boleslav stayed in this budget/flashpacker place up from the beach a bit in Bang Niang - it seems this joint can organise pretty good transport to the Surins. There is a link to Amsterdam's website on boleslav's report.

UPDATE FEB 2012 - I was just shown this website compiled by the Sea Dragon Dive Center which has details of most Lak area accommodation over all price ranges - one of the best I've seen.

THINGS TO DO IN AND AROUND LAK

SIMILANS ISLANDS TRIPS - Lak is the base for both daytrips and to organise transport/overnight stays on the Similans a good 40km offshore. Boats actually leave from the busy small port at Thap Lamu about 10km south.

SURINS TRIPS - you can also organise visits to the Surins from Lak but they are a long way north - the main mainland base and pier is at Kuraburi about 50km up the coast.

DIVING - is a big activity out of Lak with several dive operations in town and at various resorts. Most dive boats also leave from Thap Lamu.

SNORKELLING - the Similans are arguably the best snorkelling sites in Thailand. Back on the coast things are pretty ordinary but novices will find enough fish around the rocks off Sunset and Nang Thong beaches to keep them interested. The rocks of the National Park headland likewise have a bit of fringing coral and fishies. I read somewhere that the big reef off the tip of Pakarang Cape has okay snorkelling but I haven't checked this fairly isolated from other Lak areas place.

NATIONAL PARK VISITS - I have already mentioned the trek down to the headland white sand beach from NP HQ. The inland sections of the park to the north and south also have treks and a couple of okay waterfalls for a splash around.
KHAO SOK NATIONAL PARK is maybe 60km away and can be daytripped from Lak.

PHANG NGA BAY MARINE NATIONAL PARK daytrips are also offered by all hotel and main street tour desks.

OTHERS - I've seen elephant rides offered, there is a big golf course just south of the true Khao Lak beach, deep sea fishing trips are possible. My favourite is to hire a motorcycle and cruise the various beach areas.


GETTING TO LAK FROM BANGKOK - easiest access is to fly to Phuket and make your way the 80km or so north as below. Some buses run Bangkok-Phuket via Ranong and Lak, but more go the near/Surathani route which goes nowhere near Lak.

From PHUKET - any Takua Pa and Ranong bus passes Lak. Some but not all Surathani bound public buses also pass. Note these Surathani buses also continue on to pass Khao Sok National Park about 90-120 minutes up the road. Some Bangkok bound buses (those that go via Rangong rather than near Surathani) pass thru Lak.

Buses starting south of Phuket for Ranong and Takua Pa tend to bypass Khao Lak on direct mountain roads to Takua Pa.

Access from PHUKET AIRPORT is a bit tricky. No problems for upmarket travelers with heaps of taxis - and the always available limo service++. Lots of the costlier accommodation in Lak have a pick-up service - check their websites for current prices. But for budget travelers the Phuket bus station is about an hour in the opposite direction to Lak, which wastes a lot of time and some money. No problems. TT poster Tagemi said he got a motorbike taxi from the airport out the few km to the main road bus stop - there is a food stall there and the vendors were happy to put him on the right bus (he was going to Krabi, but the Lak bound buses use the same road). It would be good politics to buy something from the stallholders to start with of course.

++ In late Nov 2010 I approached the limo counter inside ARRIVALS at Phuket Airport with 1500 b in my mitt. I knew the current website price was 1700 - the guy showed me a price list with 2000 - I showed him my 1500 and said I was heading outside to the taxi counter. He accepted 1500 instantly. No Beemers or Mercs - my limo was a current Camry. Nice ride just on one hour 9pm, would take a bit longer daytime. Going the other way I saw a desk, main street in Khao Lak town Nov 2010 offering car and driver to Phuket airport for 1000.
Lots of people travel up from KRABI to Lak. Using public buses sees an indirect main road route and often a need to change buses. Good news is that a minibus goes a direct shorter route using good county back-roads, starting abt 1100 and taking around 3 hours including one rest/eats stop. Cost in March 08 was 300 baht and any guesthouse or travel agent in Krabi town/Railay/Ao Nang etc can book you on, with a pick up shuttle around Krabi town to the depot where you wait around for 10-30 minutes while they organize things. You can also be picked up at the new Krabi pier if you have come off a PP or Lanta ferry. I’m not sure if they send a connecting shuttle out to Ao Nang for pick ups.


GETTING AROUND LAK
As said before, taxi prices tend to be geared towards European ability to pay.
Regular songthaews run up and down the strip, but maybe not as regular as a lot of people would like. There are heaps of songthaews parked beside the road with their drivers hopeful you will charter them as taxis.
Full size Takua Pa to Phuket and Surathani to Phuket all-stops buses also come thru every 30-40 minutes.
I found one of the best ways of accessing more far flung parts of the area is by hire motorcycle. You can maybe double the 150 per day you paid on Phuket.

If you visit Khao Lak you might also be interested in nearby:

SIMILAN ISLANDS

SURIN ISLANDS

PHUKET

KRABI-RAILAY-AO NANG-TON SAI

KO KHO KHAO
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If you have any questions or comments, please post them on THE FORUM rather than below. I don't get a chance to check all threads daily, but unless I'm travelling I'll try to monitor THE FORUM regularly.

The snorkelling enclosure at Redang's Marine National Park Headquarters had the best coral and fish I've seen in SE Asia for several years. Best area was way past the pier near far headland - a fair distance from the beach. Image expands when clicked - may depend on your browser.

Pulau Redang in north-east peninsula Malaysia has some of the whitest beaches, clearest water and best snorkelling/diving in Malaysia. But it is an enigma - while Berjaya's twin beaches and the southern Kalong beaches are as attractive and laid back as you will find, the main twin beach area of Pasir Panjang is packed with midrange resorts and has a holiday camp atmosphere with hundreds of middle class Singaporean /KL families and couples out to have a good time. It's still a beautiful beach but if you don't like lots of people in package holiday mode, go elsewhere.
The trouble with elsewhere for some is that Berjaya (2013 - now known at The Taaras) is above many budgets, and the southern Kalong Beaches are isolated - 2 flashpacker level resorts with only boat access which won't appeal to those looking for a bit of company and variety but not too much. But paradise for seclusion freaks.

A pretty compact island largely covered with steep hills and rainforest. It has the advantage over its near neighbours Perhentians and Kapas in that you can fly right onto the island by scheduled flights (modified Google Earth image).

Redang's location and surrounding islands. Merang is the mainland pier and Kuala Terengganu the nearest city - the airport there has less expensive flights. Scale - 100km from the Perhentians placemark at top to the Marang (not Merang) placemark at bottom. Lang Tangah is the island between Redang and the Perhentians.

BEACHES

Oblique Google Earth image from the north-east.
Berjaya's/The Taarus's two beaches bottom right are know as Teluk Dalum Kecil (Deep Water Bay - small) and Telek Dalum Besar (DWB - big).
Bottom left is the island's main resort beach area - the twin strips of sand which make up Pasir Panjang (Long Beach). There is a continuous line of maybe a dozen resorts along here - I have only labelled three.
The small unlabelled bay above Laguna's place-mark is Telek Bakau. This is not a very attractive area with one resort set back from the beach.
Further south, Telek Kalong (Kalong Bay) is a long sweep with three beach areas - Kalong Nth with only one resort operating in 2011; Redang Kalong - and twin southern beaches separated by a small headland. Each beach has a really nice place: as labelled, Mutiara on the southern most and Amana Gappa (using its older name Wisana in 2013) on the northern half.
I made this map before Redang Island Resort was constructed on the far southern inlet near the airport.
Labels may be clearer if you click image to expand.

East Coast beaches
(from the north)

PASAR PANJANG NORTH
I took this from the top of the small headland which divides the north and south sections of Pasir Pangjang. This beach has white sand, clear water, some okay+ snorkelling close to the headland in front of the camera. The floating pier tends to be busy with boat traffic although quite a few of the resorts' snorkelling and dive boats simply nose in towards the beach.

This is the dividing headland, at one stage an offshore island called Tanjung Tengah. A cuspate sand-spit has grown in the sheltered water behind to link the island to the formerly much straighter beach.
A buoyed-off swimming enclosure extends right around the headland with the area this side nicely sheltered from any windy-choppy conditions in high season's prevailing winds.
If you click to expand you can see this sheltered section is pretty popular with late-afternoon swimmers. A patch of fairly good coral starts about 30m off the sand this side. At the seaward end of the headland things are pretty bare but once around the other side there is a fairly big section of even better stuff. Unfortunately this does not extend all the way in to the far beach - the first 30m into the water has rubbishy broken and dead coral which is a pity because this was the area a lot of snorkel guides from the resorts on the south beach were taking their charges.
Lots of fish most places in the swimming enclosure - they are used to being hand-fed bread-scraps. The south side of Tanjung Tengah is known for sightings of harmless reef sharks although I did not see any.
I took this shot from the second floor balcony of SAND FLY, the little restaurant adjoining Redang Bay resort. Not a bad place for a late afternoon beer. Or three. That's Redang Bay's bar deck just below - beers the same price but it hasn't got the elevation. Tends to be popular at night with pretty loud music.


UPDATE SEPT 2013 - SAND FLY has been remodelled. No longer 2 storey (high area at back is part of THE BAY's dining area) but still has a nice seating area out front to check the passing scene. Good place to get cheap eats if your resort's restaurant is expensive.

North end of beach. Not too crowded in this 2013 pic, partly because it's Friday before the weekend crowd hits, partly because it's 1130 and people are still on the morning snorkelling trips.


Redang Holiday Villa at the far northern end of the beach. Sizable place extends back onto lower headland - had lots of locals and Chinese guests seemingly on packages.

Storm coming. Actually just going past.


PASAR PANJANG SOUTH
Pasir Panjang - South is sometimes called Shark Bay although that is more likely to be confined to the area left of camera adjacent Tanjung Tengah where harmless reef sharks are often seen.
This beach is a continuation of the same lovely sand, clear water and continuous strip of resorts. It has less boat traffic and picks up the cooling sea-breeze better than Panjang North.
Surprisingly uncrowded in this late morning shot. Perhaps everyone was off on the snorkelling boat trips all the resorts put on - dozens of families and couples from my resort alone took the morning trip each day. The beach always seemed to be busiest late afternoon near sunset.
If you click to expand you may be able to see the walkway to Redang Reef resort along the far headland. I love headland resorts but this outfit ignored my 3 emails - I thought they must be fully booked but when I strolled thru they had quite a few vacant chalets. Interesting business plan. There is a small bay behind Reef resort which is supposed to have pretty good snorkelling which continues all the way around the headland to this beach. The small bay also has a tiny beach.
The big joint at the far end of the beach is Redang Laguna - the most high-end of the resorts on the two sections of Pasir Panjang. But its email kiosk is no dearer than other places and way faster. Note most places have wireless these days, but I travel light - no notebook for me. Laguna has live music and a disco most nights. Big place - the accommodation units are very spread out so there may not be a noise penalty for most guests. Trip Advisor will tell you.

Local surf nazis rip at Panjang South. Well not quite - the ride only lasted for 5 seconds or so and the quality was rubbishy onshore slop. But as surfers will tell you, you do this because you can.By late afternoon each day of my visit the sea breeze was strong enough to create a bit of a swell on the more exposed south beach. Other beach-goers were having great fun with inflatable mattresses, floating tubes etc.

North or South Pasir Panjang?
So providing you are not put off by lots of people, which half of Panjang should you stay on?
I don't think it matters - just pick the resort you like the look of. You can walk from the middle of North beach to the middle of South in less than 10 minutes.


TELEK BAKU
Telek Bakau is reached by taking the paved 250m path south between Laguna and the headland on which Redang Reef is located. This is not a very attractive bay and at first glance has no resorts - but Redang Bahtera is set back from the beach behind the trees left of camera.
At the far end is a pretty busy pier which gets Laguna's ferries and dive/snorkel craft plus a lot of the general supply boats from the mainland and water taxis from the airport area.
A well defined path to Kalong North beach is immediately behind camera.
UPDATE SEPT 2013 - looks like Redang Bahtera has been closed for some time.


KALONG NORTH
KalongNorth does not lack length but apart from Telek Bakau is inferior to other Redang resort beaches. Sand has more broken coral, gets a bit skinny at high tide and the water deepens more slowly and tends not to be as crystal-clear. Nevertheless this would be classed as a pretty nice beach on most SE Asian holiday islands. Only one outfit was operating here in late June 2011 - Redang Kalong which looked like a fairly nice budget/flashpacker standard joint. Mozana was closed for business and one other place was in ruins (or maybe it was part of Mozana).
This would be an okay beach for lower end travellers looking for the quiet time but who want an occasional burst of life/entertainment - the bars, restaurants etc of Panjang Pasir are maybe 20 minutes walk north. Not to mention gorgeous sand and water.
Snorkelling/dive boats leave Redang Kalong resort.

UPDATE SEPT 2013
Looks like Mozana is planning a comeback. Unoccupied but seemed 90% refurbished when I passed by. Would be pressing things to be open before the season closes in late Oct.



KALANG SOUTH 1
Kalong South-1 is the next beach, separated from Kalang North in the previous shot by a substantial section of rocks** above which were steep rainforested slopes with no access track. So if you stay here the only place you can walk to is the adjacent Tanjung South-2 beach which is a two minute stroll via that substantial pier-walkway in background (click shot to expand).
** A Closer look in 2013 showed only the first 20m of (vertical) rocks from the north would be difficult, but if you waited for lowest tide it would be reasonably easy wading. The rest seems mainly flatish rocks.
Wow, this is one nice beach with the usual white sand and clear water. There was one newish flashpacker standard resort Amannaggapa on this beach, up in the area near the boat - I think this is the old Wisana redeveloped. I talked to two Brit guests, the only ones at the time, who told me they were in paradise - the isolation was just what they wanted.
UPDATE SEPT 2013 - Amannaggapa has reverted to the Wisana name.


The transfer barge for the public ferry from the town pier to Kuala Terengganu noses in to pick up Wisana guests in Sept 2013.



KALONG SOUTH 2
Kalong South-2 aint exactly shabby either. The one resort here, the long-running Redang Mutiara has a bigger number and range of chalets than its near-neighbour. Still pretty relaxed - one Malay family and one western couple to be seen when I went by in 2011. Seemed to have a few new buildings in Sept 2013.

There is hope for a pathway into Kalong South beaches from the north. In 2011 I  found this unfinished 250mm water pipeline leaving Kalong North beach and climbing south up through the rainforest - I think the eventual idea is to augment the Pasir Panjang resorts' water supplies with a more reliable source maybe near the airport or village. I followed it for about 600m, often walking along the top when things got a bit tricky at the side - I then noticed some smaller water suppy pipes diving downhill at a creek crossing which I figured must be from small dams higher on the creek to the resorts on Kalong South, so I followed them down about 200m to the beaches.Now it would be common sense to take advantage of the area cleared for the new pipeline by putting in a permanent path, not only to ease access to the beaches but to facilitate pipeline maintenance - pathways on both Perhentian islands follow water pipelines. Actually if it was Thailand they would let the jungle swallow the pipeline. Whenever a fault happens the repair crew hack their way thru again.
UPDATE - no apparent path alongside the pipeline in Sept 2013.


North coast beaches

TELUK DALUM KECIL
Teluk Dalum Kecil is the beach in front of the high-end Berjaya Resort (now called THE TAARAS in Sept 2013) on Deep Water Bay at the north of the island. A security goon wasn't too keen on me going into the resort to check the beach out (fair enough, I'd be leery of a retrobate like me too) but it looked pretty nice to me from the headland. The water aint exactly murky either. What struck me at this peak sunning time of 11am was how few people were on the beach.

TELUK DALUM BESAR
Deep Water Bay's other beach is the delightful Besar (big) beach. Not exclusive to Berjaya, it can be accessed by the jungle track from the main twin Pasir Panjang beach on the east coast which reaches the creek at the far end - or from Berjaya the camera end by a paved road that goes over the headland between Kecil and Besar beaches - a steep 10 minute walk - but when I first visited a truck load of guests were being ferried in suggesting that regular shuttles are the go.
This is a lovely beach, probably the best on the island - although before the resort development the twin Pasir Panjang was probably better.When I walked across for a second visit the only person on the beach was a local cop from the village - all excited about some big time football star staying on the Berjaya owner's super yacht moored 500m offshore. He thought I might be the guy simply because I was doing a few sit-ups on the sand. Me a football star? I hate soccer. Girls' game. Played by a bunch of mamas' boys/cheats/divers. But Rugby - that's different.


Southern Island beaches
There are scraps of sand all over the south of the island. Probably the best are at the National Marine Park headquarters island - see below in SNORKELLING. You can stay there if you like camping - if you want a resort your only chance is the new Redang Island Resort at Teluk Siang on the big southern inlet near the airport, village and public pier.

TELUK SIANG
I shot this from the transfer barge to the public ferry - the pier is out of frame to right. The hotel stretches right along that far ridge. If you click expand you will better see 6 small beaches - the one at right had sunlounges. I don't know if sand and water quality match the beaches further north from a distance the sand didn't look particularly white. Certainly you are isolated - but then access from the airport and public ferry is easier.


I ripped this shot off the resort's website. That's the National Park HQ island, Palau Pinang, in the background.


SNORKELLING
Redang is known as a snorkelling location. And indeed in the snorkelling enclosure at the Marine National Park Headquarter Island, Pulau Pinang, was the best coral and fish display I've seen in Malaysia, Thailand or the Bali area for several years.

The southern part of the snorkelling enclosure at Marine NP HQ - Pulau Pinang. Click to expand - the buoyed-off area extends all the way to the small headland past the pier. I found the coral was best close to camera a bit further out from the beach - near the pier is was largely broken but there was no shortage of fish due to the amount of fish feeding done by visitors. Near the far headland the coral improved but this area is subject to sand-drift - coral and sand are not good friends. This morning session was very popular, with several hundred people in the water or on the beach - 99% in their bright yellow or orange life jackets.


Redang Bay resort boats arriving at the Marine Park HQ pier. Redang Bay managed 3 snorkel-trip boats alone and soon there were half a dozen others from various resorts. Instant crowd. But I managed to easily snorkel by myself - most people were content to feed the fish in the shallows near the pier rather than search for the good coral in more distant areas.

The headquarters area is worth a visit even if you don't snorkel. This shot is taken from the small northern headland. The nice beach in front of the pier changes direction abruptly at the headland and heads south-east for 400m. Behind the pier beach you can find some shops, educational stuff, turtle conservation pens - even a small mosque.

Google Earth view of Marine National Park HQ area at Palau Pinjang, Redang.

The back beach at Marine Park HQ has a sizeable camping area - these school kids were packing up. I'm not sure what the camping fee is - but the Marine Park entry fee is only rm5 (less than $US2) which puts Thailand's Marine Park fee for foreigners of 500baht (about $17) to shame. The Marine Park fee for Redang is paid at the airport or mainland pier.

The resorts tend to do morning and afternoon snorkelling trips - and if you stay several days you get to see several other sites. I took one other - to a deep reef in the chanel a good 500m off Kalong North beach. I was not gruntled - the water was too deep for surface snorkellers to see much of the coral, and when I headed for the bottom this was pretty mediocre. There was a diver down there photographing stuff - what exactly was keeping him busy I don't know. I think he was a stooge to impress the tourists. One 10 yo kid, one of the few Malays without a life-vest, obviously wasn't too impressed - he kept diving the 4 m from the surface and tapping the diver on the head. The kid and I thought this a bit of a larf (yep, I have the emotional maturity of a 10 yo) but the diver didn't seem to share the joke.
However the fish population in this spot was pretty good and when the snorkelling guides produced bread scraps we had the usual feeding frenzy which is always value. I gained the impression on my Redang, Perhentians, Kapas and Tioman snorkelling trips that Asian snorkellers (and many westerners) aren't all that interested in the coral - as long as there are fish to check out.

I figured if that location was considered a worthwhile snorkelling trip site I wouldn't bother with any further organised jaunts (I have read that the Marine Park has closed some of the best areas due to coral bleaching damage) and simply get my snorkelling kicks off the main beach around the Tanjung Tengah headland mentioned earlier. It's so much easier to fall into the water off the sand than to take some crowded boat trip where 200 people off 4 or 5 boats form a floating scrum of yellow/orange life jackets and take 20 minutes to get into and out of the water etc.

People boarding two of the resort's boats of the main beach for the afternoon snorkel trip. For some reason these boats seem to moor in excessively deep water - I watched returning people jumping from smaller boats, loosing their footing in the deeper-than-expected water and going under. Not the best thing if you are carrying a camera etc. Not a bad idea to double wrap it in some simple plastic sandwich bags etc.

I didn't snorkel off the beach elsewhere but as mentioned before, I have read that the area right around the southern headland on which Reef Resort is located at Pasir Panjang South is similar to Tanjung Tengah.


Island snorkelling comparisons - Redang/Perhentians/Kapas/Tioman/Sibu in June/July 2011.
I found:
- the very best snorkelling was at the Marine National Park HQ at Pulau Pinang, Redang.
- the best snorkelling trip sites collectively were at the Perhentians. Lang Tengah and then Tioman next.
- best snorkelling off the beach was at the Perhentians and Tioman but Redang and Kapas were not that far behind.
- the most inferior snorkelling trip and snorkelling off the beach were at Pulau Sibu, but this was still way better than on my March visit to Thailand's supposedly world-class Surin Islands.

Langkawi is the other major Malaysian peninsula holiday destination - not really worth comparing because we are talking of a different tourist season (best weather late Nov into April) - but the snorkelling is very ordinary off the beach. Better but not great on snorkelling day-trips which mostly involve big distances from base.

Thing is, if pretty good snorkelling is a major criterion in your selection of an east coast Malaysian island the only one I'd discount is maybe Sibu (and this joint has plenty of other attractions). I reckon you should decide between the others on their other attractions because you are going to find pretty good snorkelling. Remember this is written in mid 2011 and things can change (um, well I'm still of the same opinion in late 2013)

DIVING
Redang is also known as an excellent dive island with over a dozen designated sites. Once again, the Marine National Park has closed some in 2011. Most resorts have dive centres and can do dive courses and introductory dives. The snorkelling area around Tanjung Tengah headland at the main beach always seemed to have a stream of bubbles breaking the surface and they had nothing to do with tezza eating too much curry.

The board outside the Dive Shop at Redang Bay resort has a lot of dive site and other info.


TREKKING

Pasir Panjang to Berjaya - this is a good jungle trek and leads from the crowded east coast beach to the bigger of the two beaches near Berjaya in the island's north - the gorgeous Telek Dalum Besar.
The jungle is pretty good quality with chances to spot monkeys, big monitor lizards and birds. The track is well defined with no false leads, there are no sustained steep slopes (the track goes up over a fairly low saddle with a few very short steepish pinches), it is not too rough but I suggest no flip-flops or other lightweight footwear - joggers are fine. I did the return trip twice - if you keep up a steady pace you can do it in 50 minutes one-way.

In the afternoons Redang Bay resort offered the choice of a snorkelling trip or guided jungle walk along the track outlined above. I started with about 30 guests but around the half way mark to the north coast the rest decided they'd had enough and left me and one guide to complete the walk.I worry a bit about the fitness of the Asian middle-class. One 13 year old boy had to be helped across slightly rough creek crossings by a shoulder/hand holding father issuing instructions and reassurance - this kid was not disabled in any way. Hell, the typical Aussie kid the same age would be 300m ahead on the track looking for death-adders. My daughter used to find them, too - Ladette Tezza was on first names basis with ER doctors.
If you are an adolescent in this 13 year old boy's cohort please don't be offended or sulk. Just MAN UP. Otherwise sometime in the near future your golf buggy may break down on the 12th at Seletar Country Club, a 3km slog to the club house. You aint gonna make it baby.

To find the eastern start of the track, walk along this new road in back of the main beaches resorts. The "jungletracking" is signposted towards the north end roughly behind the rather flash Sari Pacifica and is the only well defined path into the thick jungle. You can see where the low saddle route is by the dip in the tree-tops in shot's background.
From Berjaya - take the steep headland road to the bigger beach, go to the far end, walk up the creek a short distance and you will see the track on the other side.

Note the new road above was still under construction in June 2011. It looks like it will go from the busy supply pier south of Laguna on Telek Bakau to behind the northern most main beach resort on Pasir Panjang. This is no small project but I was told the resorts are financing it, not the Marine Park or local/state/national governments. UPDATE 2013 - the new road finished but it looks like it is a white elephant - I walked the full length from the pier and was passed by only one tractor with guest trailer in 30 odd minutes. Most are still using the beach for access which admittedly is by far the more romantic way to reach the resorts. Area beside the road seems to have become a bit of a rubbish dump. Sad.

Pasir Panjang southwards.
It is possible to stroll to the end of Kalong North by taking the 250m paved path that goes from the end of Panjang in front of Laguna to Teluk Bakau pier, walking to the far end of the beach and taking the well defined path there the short distance across to Kalong North beach. From Laguna this would take little over 10 minutes.
But as mentioned earlier, there was no pathway from Kalong North to Kalong South and I don't recommend taking the water pipeline route I took unless you have a surfer's sense of balance and foolhardiness (it was quite a drop off the top of the pipe into some of the deeper gullies).
As I said earlier, if commonsense prevails perhaps a permanent path will be put in along the pipeline.


REDANG BAY RESORT - 2011.
When Reef Resort ignored my booking requests I had another look at accommodation and decided to stay at REDANG BAY RESORT on Pasir Panjang North. This was largely because this place has a dorm which suits my budget-traveller finances better than flasher places.
I found it difficult to pay a deposit on account this joint (and many other Malaysian resorts) don't do credit cards but prefer direct telegraphic transfers into their bank account, which my bank is not too excited about. But I found a site, De Penarek Beach Travel and Tour which does take credit card payments and seemed very prompt and efficient. This outfit can book all other north-east coast islands and is located opposite the Kuala Besut pier (to the Perhentians) arcade.

Redang Bay resort. That's the bar in the middle. The block at left has reception and the dive/snorkelling shop at ground level with the dorm rooms on top. The beachside block at right contains a private restaurant with the upstairs seating area from which I took the Tanjung Tengah beach shot up page. Behind this are a couple of small stores. The bigger 2 storey block behind has a huge upstairs dining area - needs to be huge, this joint feeds 300 people at once.
The main accommodation wing is set behind - a 2 storey kinda 60s motel-style block up the left side with nicer single storey chalet rooms on the other 2 wings. A small pool is in the middle - only about 15m long but real popular with the families (and no doubt useful for the dive school beginners).

Redang Bay is an interesting joint. It seems like a holiday camp for lower middle income Malaysian and Singaporean families/couples. Not too many westeners here - I was the only one for most of my stay. I don't know what management's business plan is but it sure works - the place was packed the 4 non-weekend days I was there. No vacancies whenI decided to see what the non-dorm accommodation was like.
But the dorm did have vacancies - on my first 2 nights in one of the fairly spacious 2 double-bunk rooms I had a room-mate, a Malaysian guy doing a dive course. The other 2 nights I was by myself. I got the idea the dorm was mainly built as cheap accommodation to attract divers - the dive school classroom was at the end of the corridor. It didn't seem to attract other backpackers - there was a handful next door at popular Redang Lagoon but they were pretty scarce elsewhere. As were other westerners - flash Laguna seemed to have most but still less than half its total guests.

BTW the dorms were clean, had aircon and the 4 bathrooms had hot water showers. However rooms on the courtyard side of the block get extremely loud music from the bar until the early hours. I moved to a room the other side of the corridor - much quieter.
Redang Bay's management and staff are efficient and keep in pretty good humour considering the large number of people they are dealing with. The dining area workers are heroes.

Part of the big upstairs dining area or "cafeteria" as Redang Bay calls it. This is the smallest crowd I saw, late in one of the 2 hour breakfast sessions. At its busiest every chair was taken in the greater area - I reckon 300 diners. Staff managed to keep dishes and coffee/tea/juices well stocked, clear tables, clean up spills and handle the other disasters inevitable with so many people.

All meals are buffet style and to Asian tastes not western. The dishes change daily - particularly at lunch and dinner. My notes say meals ranged from "ordinary" to "sensational" in taste - the sweet and sour fish one dinner was as good as I've had. Anywhere.

Quantity is no problem and I was amazed by the amount of food these people could sink. I exercise hard and can hoover huge amounts of tucker at a buffet but these folk left me for dead. Hell the place also did afternoon tea - I would take a slice of cake with my coffee, most of these dudes had 5 slices of cake. The gluttons 10. Demographers will tell you the US and Australia have the world's highest rates of overweight/obese people - about 60% from memory. Okay, that's for the whole popularion - but if you confine it to the middle class, the Singaporeans and Malaysians would win hands down - 80% are seriously circumferentially-challenged.
If you fit this expansive demographic don't be offended or sulk. Just praise God your country has plenty of tough sleek urban/rural poor to recruit for the armed forces. Otherwise you are history in any future conflict.

People-watching here is interesting. There are beautiful Indian-Malaysian/Singaporean girls in quite sexy outfits at one table and at the adjacent table women in full burqas.
One young 20s something babe in contemporary clothes loaded a piece of bread with butter and jam and then stuck it into one of those continuous conveyor-belt toasters. WTF! Naturally it jammed up (unintentional pun) and one of the staff had to dismantle and clean the thing, much to the disgust of the young woman and others waiting - it was obviously the resort's fault. Got me thinking, has this girl never done her own toast? Does mommy or the maid do this at home? Thing is, this resort was more for the Camry/Corolla lower middle-class (can they afford maids?), not the BMW/Lexus set who are swanking it up down at Laguna or Sari Pacifica.If you identify with our clueless toaster, don't be offended or sulk. Just LEARN SOME BASIC LIFE SKILLS. What’s gonna happen when Indo and the Philippines develop economically and the supply of cheap maids dries up? Better marry a tycoon, sweetheart.

While I'm wearing my critic's cap I gotta talk about THE WASTE. Check this sign on the wall of the cafeteria. Can't help being racist here - as the script at bottom suggests, it's aimed at Chinese guests. This is something I've seen with middle-class Chinese diners in Thailand and Indo too (never been to China itself, too busy checking SE Asian islands for you dudes) - they load up about 5 plates with huge amounts of food - and leave about 30% uneaten. I figure it is a cultural thing - showing they are wealthy enough to waste food. My Malaysian dorm friend said such signs are widespread in KL restaurants.
BTW, despite the sign there was plenty of food left on the table at Redang Bay cafeteria.
If you fit this food-waster profile don't be offended or sulk - just remember THE WORLD IS FACING AN IMPENDING FOOD SHORTAGE. Hey, sleek times ahead! You could become THE BIGGEST LOSER.


UPDATE SEPT 2013 - Redang Bay has cement-rendered its main block. Gives a much more contemporary look compared to the old dark-stained wood finish.
I noticed Coral Resort and Redang Beach Resort had some impressive new or upgraded blocks too.

SARI PACIFICA - 2013
On my return trip I had Lady Tezza in tow. She is not a great fan of dorms or the 3 daily buffet/2 snorkelling trips package deal, which cut our options considerably. Of other places which were still available on the popular booking sites The Taarus was way too expensive, Redang Holiday Resort badly situated and Laguna had become a cult destination following an appearance in a blockbuster Chinese lurv movie. So despite some misgivings gained from less than positive user reviews, Sari Pacifica got the nod. My conclusion: either this pace had lifted its game or some people protest too much. Maybe both. One thing I will agree with the less than gruntled: the place at $us100 incl breakfast was overpriced.

Sari Pacifica's impressive reception/restaurant block towards the northern end of the beach. Big pool is between block and beach. No shortage of sunlounges on a fairly busy Malaysian long weekend holiday. Beachfront villas stretch about 150m to the right - behind are the garden villas situated around a lagoon.


The Garden Villas were not individual but in blocks of 4. Our Garden Villa room was huge with ante rooms for storage and vanity + a big bathroom and balcony. It had all the inclusions and comfort expected of a 3/4 star room. We heard no disco noise from the adjacent resort, a previous user-complaint. The lagoon, another source of complaint (''smellly swamp") was a work in progress but was not smelly and starting to look pretty good with blue tinted water from the plastic lining and a water feature. Lilly pads etc coming? The units themselves had received a recent exterior repaint. My reservations match previous complaints:  the house keeping manager should get the bullet. Hard to see areas in our room had not been swept and things like the emptied ashtray had not been cleaned. There was no toilet paper.


Outlook from the upstairs dining area. Pool big and unlike previous user complaints, clean (green shade here due to cleaning chemicals). Cool pool/beach bar out of shot to right. 
Spacious lobby/reception below had many comfy chairs etc. Staff performance here excellent. 
Ditto in the restaurant except for the breakfast egg guy who kept disappearing. Inclusive buffet pretty nice first morning, fairly ordinary after. Other meals are buffet but overpriced for Malaysia - lunch rm38++, dinner rm48++. We had these at Sand Fly and similar along the beach.

 Beach sun lounges good place to spend time.....



GETTING TO REDANG.
The mainland pier for Redang is Merang (not Marang) about 40km north of the fair sized coastal city of Kuala Terennganu. The resorts tend to run their own ferries out to the island - you are looking at maybe 70 minutes. A few resorts use the public ferry out of the downtown KT Shahbandar pier and then transfer people around to the beach from the village/airport pier in Redang's south on a shuttle barge.

Public ferry shuttle barge


Public ferry bigger and faster than all resort boats bar maybe Laguna's. Aircon. The longer distance trip into KT we took in 2013 seemed as quick as 2011's to Merang without the need for a further bus/taxi shuttle.
Fishing type boat at left seemed to be unloading snorkellers - maybe Redang Holiday Resort guests.

The resort ferries use piers at the beaches. Redang Laguna and a few other resorts use the pier at Teluk Baku just south of the main twin beaches and shuttle guests around on tractors.

Return resort ferry fares seemed to be about rm70 in mid 2011 but the resorts' package deals include discounted ferry transfers and help to make the packages good value compared to pricing individual components. The KT public ferry was 55rm in 2013. If you are heading for KT or a bus south this is probably a good deal - for the airport KT is no closer than Merang.

Very inexpensive bus transfers between Merang and KT airport or bus station are also offered by the packages.
Overnight buses run into KT bus station from KL and big express buses go along route 3 from Kota Bahru in the north and Cherating, Kuantan, Mersing and Johor Bharu to the south.

If you need a taxi to/from KT I think you may be looking at around rm40-50. A few public buses run past Merang from KT but you will have to walk the last few hundred meters from the road bridge over the pier inlet..
I think a taxi from Kuala Besut (the mainland pier for the Perhentians) would cost around rm70-80. I went the other way on exiting Redang - there were no taxis waiting at Merang pier (heaps of resort buses and shuttles in the opposite KT direction) so I got a private driver hanging around the pier to take me to Besut for rm80. UPDATE 2013 - maybe this was a bit dear: I did the reverse trip latest visit for rm70 in a taxi from Kuala Besut pier.

The easiest way to access Redang is by flying onto the island. Berjaya Air run daily flights from KL and Singapore - and these are not too expensive if booked a long time ahead - my flight from Singapore cost around $us100 - maybe 75 minutes. This shot is on arrival. Immigration/customs for Singapore arrivals are done at the small terminal.

Note this not as good a deal as it appears, because transfers from the airport to the eastern beaches is a rip-off. I paid rm20 for the 3km van to the pier and rm50 for the 10km water taxi to the main beach - probably 5 times what a multi-share trip of similar distance would cost you elsewhere. At least it was less than half the rm150 Redang Bay quoted. I doubt that flight times would coincide with the public ferry's inclusive shuttle mentioned above. It certainly didn't back in 2011
Note too that Berjaya/Taarus guests hop on a free shuttle to their resorts - a shortish road trip, no water taxis needed. No doubt these days shuttle vehicles are waiting to take people to the new Redang Island Resort. I read on a Redang tourist website that this was at one stage being run by Berjaya.

Despite the rip-off price the water taxi from the pier near the airport did not take me to Redang Bay's beach but dropped me at the pier on Telek Bakau to the south. However the Bay knew I was coming and sent a tractor with trailer to pick me up. Driver a nice guy - also picked up a family from my water taxi struggling along with heavy bags to Redang Beach resort.
Here we have just hit the main Pasir Panjang South beach adjacent Laguna - that's the Tanjung Tengah sand-spit joined headland in back with my Redang Bay destination just around the corner.
Once that new road is built behind the resorts I imagine all transfers from Bakau pier will go along there. Less scenic but less disruptive to beach goers.
If you want to save time by flying (from KL at least) both Air Asia and Malaysian (maybe Firefly) have daily flights into Kuala Terengganu from where you can take advantage of the resorts' good value transfers.
I know Firefly does a flight into KT from Singapore every second day - I couldn't afford to waste a day waiting.

ISLAND HOPPING - some people island hop from the Perhentians or Lang Tengah.
There is no regular ferry so for Perhentians this is a case of having to charter a small boat - I'm told rm450+ is the go. I'm personally not keen on long trips in small boats - if doing this I'd try to make an early trip before any sea breeze gets up and makes things rough and wet.
Lang Tengah is much closer and the good news is that the Mingstar boat mentioned above seems prepared to divert to Lang Tengah on its Merang-Redang trip to shuttle guests across.
Mingstar boat is fast and weather proof. Trip from Lang Tengah took less than a half hour and cost rm70 (2013).



Tezza goes for the big artistic closing shot - view from The Bay resort's cafeteria at dinner.

For a heap of maps, dozens of underwater and other pix and some good general info take a look at wonderingstar's wonderful Redang snorkelling page at http://whatsthesnorkellinglike.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/malaysia_redang/

------------------------------------------------------------If you are thinking of visiting Redang you might also be interested in nearby PULAU KAPAS, the nicest island I have visited in years - and of course the PERHENTIANS. Not to mention the closest island, LANG TENGAH.
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NOTE - IF YOU SEE ANY MISTAKES OR HAVE EXRA INFORMATION PLEASE POST THEM BELOW. IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION PLEASE ASK IT ON THE FORUM PAGE ACCCESSED VIA THE INDEX WHICH I CHECK MOST DAYS - I DON'T VISIT THESE INDIVIDUAL ISLAND PAGES VERY OFTEN.
IF YOU VISIT REDANG AND WANT TO UPDATE US CHECK OUT THE READERS' TRIP REPORT SECTION VIA THE INDEX.