LAST VISITED MAY 2014


The orchid enclosure at Bedugul Botanic Gardens.

I've passed thru the Bedugul-Lake Bratan area several times, stopped twice for a meal or an overview of one of the crater lakes, but have never stayed in the area. So in May 2014 I made sure I spent a few nights there.


Bratan-Bedugul is in mountainous central-north Bali about 60km north of Kuta. It is on the main road from south Bali to the north coast - Bali's old capital Singaraja and the Lovina tourist strip, so the road is busy with trucks, buses and local traffic - the last can be horrific in the first 20km Kuta-Denpasar strip. As a result you are looking at 2 hours+ in the day time. Add 20 minutes from the airport.


This area has 3 crater lakes surrounded by towering cliffs or volcanic cones - collectively known as the Bedugul caldera. The original cone and its explosion must have been huge. 
Our digs, Pacung Indah at bottom, was according to booking site Agoda's map within walking distance of Bedugul. Nope - it turned out to be in the roadside village of Pacung, 10km south, a bit far to walk. This is the 3rd time Agoda's maps have let us down.


Oblique shot of Bedugul caldera from the north. Note the main west-east road from Munduk and beyond passes around the rim of the crater from alongside the L Tamblingan place-marker far right to the gap some distance below the UG of "BEDUGUL" towards bottom left. Some magic views along here.


Lake Buyan from the west. There are pix and info of Lake Tamblingan on the Munduk page.


THE BIG 3 ATTRACTIONS IN BEDUGUL ARE THE MARKETS, BOTANIC GARDENS AND ULAN DANU TEMPLE.
Note that the temple is actually in neighbouring Candikuning. This merges into Pancasari further north which extends around the northern shore of L Bratan and across to the south-eastern end of Lake Buyan. The whole conurbation is about 7 km long. However not all is housing - at least 50% is given over to market gardening and similar activities.

BEDUGUL MARKETS
This area is a major vegetable and fruit growing area so there is no shortage of produce stalls. Plenty of clothing and other retailers too. However it is smaller than I expected for a pretty major mountain center.


This is the top right hand (south-west) corner of the markets. Place with TOILET sign at left is a real nice cafe with good hot and cold drinks at fair prices and okay music. The toilet is spotlessly clean. It doesn't sell food. The guide books mention the place upstairs at the end as an Aussie-run tourist restaurant - however it was closed for renovation. Plenty of other places to grab a feed, but all orientated towards locals rather than tourists. Result - yummy food at low low prices in pretty basic seating areas.


The main road outside the markets is super busy with passing traffic and people. I sat here for 15 minutes and watched the passing parade.


We came the 10km up the hill from Pacung village on a local bemo (public minivan bus). Seat in front loaded with produce from Pacung markets which looked bigger and busier than Bedugul's. Woman with produce hopped off and went into her house near Bedugul market. Suggests price competitiveness is maybe lacking at the latter.

BEDUGUL BOTANIC GARDENS


The side road from just south of the market to the Botanic Gardens' entrance takes less than 10 minutes to walk. Along it are several budget homestays, restaurants, flower and produce stalls and this bunny rabbit retailer. Cute. Could't help notice the restaurants had rabbit on the menu - not all that common in Bali.

Entry into the Gardens is only a few dollars. They are pretty big at around 160ha and have a bunch of different attractions. I reckon if you moved fast you could cover them in a half day. We had less than 3 hours and had to be a bit selective....


No Bali attraction is complete without a temple. This is the Batu Meringgit temple not far from the entrance.


The cactus house had examples from all over SE Asia. Click expand shot for detail.


The interior of the orchid house was as exotic as the exterior (see shot top of page). 


A winding lane replicates a path thru a typical highland tropical forest (the area has an altitude of 1250-1450m)


The Treetop Adventure Park was entertaining a group of senior Indo schoolkids. There are 7 circuits here to suit a variety of ages from quite young up. I notice this area is rated "#1 Bedugul attraction" by Trip Advisor contributors. The tariff seems a bit steep at $US 24 for an adult - no doubt these kids got a big discount. http://www.balitreetop.com/

Getting onto some of the take-off platforms was an adventure in itself

If you have the time there is also a bamboo display, rose garden, aquatic garden, fern house, begonia house, bamboo collection, a giant rainforest tree, lots of traditional statues plus a number of places to eat and take it easy - and lots more.

ULAN DANU TEMPLE
Now here's a cop out. Bali has temples wherever you look and in 20 visits I've seen hundreds, including this one several times in passing transport. I'm suffering big-time from temple fatigue and decided the crowds of visitors and the fact that there is no entry did not make the half hour walk from the Botanic Gardens worthwhile.
But it sure is pretty - one of the most photographed and visited in Bali. It figures on the Indo 50k rupiah note. I ripped this shot off the Bali Tourism Board's site balitourismboard.org

PACUNG INDAH
Pacung (say Pachung) Indah would have been just about perfect by our budget standards if it was positioned closer to Bedugul. Agoda's location map had it 5km south and I mapped out a good trek up to the crater by a scenic backroad - in reality it was another 5km down the main road. 


At about $US21 including breakfast in shoulder season May 2014 our room was very good value. Recently renovated, it was spacious, clean, had a jug and flatscreen tv (all Indo channels). The mattress was old but comfy, the fan quiet (don't need aircon this high) and the rooms were far enough from the road for noise not to be an issue. The bathroom was spacious and had good hot water. If you click-expand you may be able to see the individual courtyard outside which appears new and eliminates one reviewer's moans about lack of privacy.




These 2 shots show the outlook from Pacung Indah's large roadside restaurant. Nice, but we were less impressed than we should have been because we had just come from Aditya Homestay in Munduk with its fabulous outlook.
The restaurant is set up to serve passing daytripping buses, vans and cars and could probably seat 200+ people. Food seemed good at prices above Bali budget levels but pretty good by western standards - one good deal for staying guests was the impressive luncheon buffet reduced from 8Ok idr (abt $US7) to 60k. All prices have a 21% tax added. The inclusive breakfast was not buffet but the "Australian breakfast" choice was pretty good - basically an American breakfast plus cereal and milk.
I strolled 10 minutes up and down the road and couldn't find any budget restaurants in this southern part of Pacung village.


The main road here runs up a ridge towards the Bedugul crater rim - so there tends to be pretty good rural views each side. The road is very busy during the day with slow vehicles lumbering up the hill backing up long lines of traffic. The cops up road (click-expand) didn't help by periodically stopping traffic so buses and other vehicles could enter and exit the even bigger LABHAGGER PACUNG restaurant. Joint must have some push to get the local cops doing this.


Lebhagger was on the other side of the road and the westward view was more impressive - some pretty nice rice terraces. There would be views of some volcanic peaks when the cloud cleared. Wide angle shot reduces depth/height and steepness of slopes. I like to explore areas like this but couldn't find any side lanes either side of the road within easy walking distance. 
Restaurant prices seemed much the same as at Pacung Idah.

JATILUWIH RICE TERRACES


This area is another place often visited by Bedugul tourists. It is about 25km ssw of Bedugul, is rated the best in Bali and is an UNESCO heritage area. I had seen the best in East and West Bali so I was pretty keen on checking the best of the lot. One advantage of Pacung's southern location was that Jatiluwih was only 14km away and I intended to do a detour on my trip down to Sanur on exit day. Unfortunately logistics interfered - maybe next year. Image from bali-agung-tours.com

There's a lot more to do in the general Bedugal area - water sports on the lake, visits to market gardens, fruit and coffee growing areas, climbing, cross country cycling. yada. A visit to the Git Git waterfall a short walk off the main road as it descends to the north coast is time well spent - there is a pic on the main Bali page.-------------------------------------------------------

IF YOU SEE MISTAKES OR HAVE EXTRA INFORMATION, PLEASE POST IT BELOW. BUT IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS PLEASE POST THEM IN THE FORUM WHICH I CHECK MOST DAYS WHEN NOT TRAVELLING - WHEREAS I SELDOM REVISIT INDIVIDUAL LOCATION PAGES.


BACK TO INDEX.

Visited July 2014


It's generally considered that metropolitan Barcelona is bordered by the Mediterranean, the 2 rivers north and south and the range of hills on which Tibidabo (please excuse spelling on map,but it is very time consuming to change) is most visible from the city. The airport is a relatively short distance to the south of the metropolitan area. I forgot to add a scale - it is 8km from the Tibidabo place marker to the Beaches place marker - metro Barcelona is compact. North of course is straight up. It is 120km in a north-east direction to the south-west Mediterranean French border.


Some places mentioned on this page.

 As said elsewhere, Barcelona claims to have the best big city beaches in the world and as a Beaches blogger I had to check this out.

BEACHES

Barcelona has 9 beaches over a 5km stretch from Sant Sebastia in the south to Llevant. Banys Forum further north is an enclosed swimming area with no sand but lots of other attractions. Note these beaches did not exist in their present form before the '92 Olympics - they were created to increase the attraction of the city. I've experienced Sydney post-Olympics: not too many initiatives have given a major long term benefit. But these beaches have for Barcelona, being heavily used by locals and tourists alike. The most accessible to visitors are the first 4 from the south, but very good bus and metro transport means any beach is no great stretch. Forget about the bus and metro - a good walkway runs in back of the beaches with plenty of restaurant/bars, workout areas and rest stops and its an entertaining stroll to do the stretch. This is people-watching paradise - bikini babes, hunks, jocks, naked people, fashionistas, joggers. in-line skaters, skate boarders, surfer dudes, volleyballers, basketballers, fitness freaks, beach-footballers, beach-tennis players, lovers, street entertainers, hippys/new-agers,/freaks and normal families.
I've added Placa Catalunya to the Goolgle Earth image because it is tourist central.
Lower image from Barcelona Yellow which is a pretty good general resource.





For some reason I only took one pic of Barcelona's beaches, so I pinched the lower one from Barcelona Yellow. Both give a good idea of the beach scene. Behind the people showering in the top picture is one of the Chiringuitos - beach bar/restaurants. Each beach features one or two of these and they are very popular. Naturally you will pay a premium, but prices are not over the top. I seem to remember 2.2 euros for a healthy glass of wine. 
Each beach has at least 2 fresh water showers - outsiders soon get used to semi-naked (or in the case of Mar Bella, completely naked) people splashing about under the spray. All beaches come with one or two lifeguard towers, access for the disabled, change/toilet blocks, water safety/quality posters and one or two have extras like workout equipment (how I miss the chin-up bars from my local beach when travelling), skating ramps, beach volleyball areas, wind surfing sections, equipment hire etc. 
All is not perfect - the "golden" sand is in fact yellow-brown, it is coarse grained (I personally don't mind this - much easier to clean feet after the beach), the water is not particularly clear and the surf in summer is crap, restricted mostly to wimpy shore breaks (winter storms probably bring good surf). A good point (probably) is that for some reason tidal range is tiny - seems to be a half-meter at the most. I liked the fact that the walkway behind the beach was patrolled by frequent police and the occasional first aid van.

MAR BELLA
This is Barcelona's official nude beach. It is the third beach north of the Olympic marina which kind of divides the beach strip into two parts. Mar Bella is easily reached by metro from Poblemou station about 2 blocks inland on the L4 line and by using the H16 bus which serves all the beaches every 12 minutes.
The nudists mainly stick to the area in front of the dunes but such was the crowd when I called by that they extended past this region which represents about one third of the total beach area. Note like all Spanish nude areas "textiles" are welcome - although there were fewer here than most other clothing optional beaches I visited. Mar Bella has the life guard tower, showers, beach bar/restaurant etc I've outlined higher on the page.
Barcelona Yellow's pic above is a bit misleading in that when I visited weekend days in high summer (July) the beach was absolutely packed. This was somewhat disconcerting to me because although I'm a longtime naturist and have visited many clothing optional beaches, my usual location back home is a 12km strip of country-area sand where the nearest people (maybe nude/maybe not) are usually at least 300m away. BTW the mixture of locals to tourists at Mar Bella seemed to be 80/20 - by the white patches on display quite a few travelers seemed to be keen to sample some all-bare sunbathing for the first time. Good for them.

So does Barcelona have the best big-city beaches in the world?
Depends. If you judge it on sand quality, water clarity and surf, Sydney for one kills it. I've never been to Rio, Perth, Durban or Cape Town but I have an idea they would trump it too. So possibly would quite a few others. But if based on facilities, ease of access and closeness to tourist and residential areas the claim is probably quite justified.

OTHER BEACHES. Note Barcelonans and visitors have a host of further beach choices. The coast for 50km or more both sides of Barcelona is a continuous string of beaches. Natural beaches and nice ones with good access out of Barcelona - train lines run along them. Plus 60-70km north gets you into the sheltered coves of the breathtaking Costa Brava.
Codolar beach, Tossa de Mar, Costa Brava


BARCELONA GENERAL
It's not my aim to do a travel guide to Barcelona - plenty of websites and books do this well. Instead I'll make a few observations and outline a few of the places I went.
Pluses: a compact city with excellent, frequent inexpensive transport. The T10 multi-transport ticket is great. Bicycle friendly if that's your thing. I am not a frequent big city visitor but it seems to me that there are more inexpensive tourist accommodation offerings than at most western touristy big cities. Not that the place is lacking in high end joints. I liked the abundance of street restaurant/bars with inexpensive food and drinks and usually the chance to sit at a pavement table for a slight premium. In my Australian state stupid liquor licensing laws sees a shortage of these type of places. Barcelona is tourist friendly with good signage and other services plus a wide range of attractions in a compact area (you could easily walk to most) and some very appealing destinations in the nearby hinterland. The locals are friendly. They seem careful drivers and are super attentive at pedestrian crossings.
The downside: Barcelona has been rated scam central in tourist surveys. One guy tried the bird-crap/pickpocket routine on me. Alerted by Wikitravel's excellent advice (see STAY SAFE at the end of this page) I told him to get lost. Unfortunately Wiki did not mention the short-change routine, probably because anyone with half a brain would not fall for this. On my first day a railways ticket seller took advantage of my unfamiliarity with fares and the currency to pull the slow change trick on me: handing out coins, with-holding notes until I gave him the look, and still with-holding one so I walked away short 5 euros. You may scoff at a 5 euro loss but I'm income low - there had to be a reason I stayed in a tent and several backpacker joints during my Spain visit. Anyway, I believe in karma - one day the sky will fall in on this spiv and he'll probably moan: WHY ME?. 
On the plus side acts of violence in Barcelona are reportedly rare (why am I thinking of violence right now?) and I must say I did not see one fight (try doing that for just an hour in central Sydney on a weekend night) or feel intimidated in the early hours in lonely areas.
My other criticism is that the metro underground tunnels and platforms were extremely hot - near 40 celsius by the feel. Plus there are too many steps without escalators which make lugging heavy bags around in the heat a hassle (I think if you walk a million miles you will usually find an elevator, so all is not lost for disabled people).

BARCELONA BUS TURISTIC
With limited time I figured one of the best ways of seeing the many attractions was by using the Bus Turistic. Frequent departures, multi-language audio commentary and 3 different routes make this hop-on hop-off service user friendly. If you purchase more than one route you can spread them over 2 consecutive days which is what I did. If you can only afford or have time for one route, check the online info to see what appeals - my feeling is the blue route is most attractive although if you visit the Sagrada Familia independently (which is dead easy - it is not a long walk from Placa Catalunya and there are closer metro stations) the red route may be better value.
A word of advice: before boarding ask if there are any changes to the route. My red route tour without warning completely skipped the Montjuic area which I considered the most interesting part of the trip. This was because a Harley Davidson convention that morning blocked the bus' usual access to the mountain. So we fanged down Parallel avenue and sat around on a bus stop at the port with our fingers up our dates for 20 minutes"to maintain schedule". When I asked why they didn't access the mountain by the many other routes they claimed they were too narrow for the bus. What a load of toss - I was staying in the access area and the roads were plenty wide enough with big trucks and tourist buses constantly passing thru. But it may have taken a few minutes more and Bus Turistic didn't want to upset their schedule (not that the schedules don't get off - you often seen 2 buses running nose to tail instead of at the 4 or so minutes interval).
Fortunately I had wandered around Montjuic a few days before and so have some info lower on the page. But I deliberately missed some sections because I knew the Bus Turistic did them.

LA SAGRADA FAMILIA
I'm not a big fan of architecture and found Bus Turistic's overemphasis on the modernista buildings along the route slightly boring. But there is nothing boring about Gaudi's unfinished masterpiece above - it's gobsmacking. You pass by here fairly early on Bus Turistic's blue route and following advice I stayed on the bus, did the full route and then hopped off next circuit at whatever grabbed my interest. This certainly did - I spent a pleasant half hour+ going around all 4 sides. The biggest trick in the crowded area (this joint is stuck in the middle of a suburban region) is getting far enough away to get the whole structure in - and my camera has a reasonable wide angle lens.

I didn't go inside. Check the line of people. It is about 1000 (10am), reasonably early, yet this line went down the side of the block and around the corner - at least 300m. I hate queues. Now a whole bunch of online travel operators offer SKIP THE LINE Sagrada visits. But I'm a tight-wad. I didn't fancy paying a premium over the people in line's E17 to see the interior. A nice Brit lady on the bus to Tossa scolded me - she said the interior was way more mind blowing than the exterior and made the impressive interior of the Barcelona Cathedral in the Gothic Quarter (see below) seem third rate. All the same - E17 or more buys a lot of beer.
And "SKIP THE LINE" seems cheating from my Aussie egalitarian point of view.

MONTJUIC
This is a pretty impressive area, partly because it is the only high area close to central Barcelona and partly because it contains many of the structures used in the '92 Olympics plus lotsa parks and gardens, older historical buildings and some key museums/galleries.

The harbour cable car arrival point is not the highest spot on Montjuic but has a pretty good outlook, The middle tower is near the World Trade Center at Port Vell and the starting point is a tower hidden behind (but easily seen in the shot below), near the beach at Barceloneta. I didn't ride on account I'd read of huge queues. There is another shorter cable car further up the mountain. You can also access the high area by tramway, city-bus, Bus Turistic (usually) and a funicular. I walked up which is good exercise. 
btw the beach strip starts backgroound shortly to right of frame and extends well past left of frame in the shot above and well past the distant high building in the shot below..

The castle/fort is at the highest point, is huge and impressive. But there was an admission fee which this tightwad didn't want to pay. In background is the port area which extends several km towards the airport.


The exterior of the Olympic stadium. Looks older than a 90's structure on account it was built for the games in the 30's which were transferred because of the Spanish Civil War. Interior was all new in the 90s. Many other Olympic facilities nearby.


There are some grand old buildings on Montjuic. This is the Museu National d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) which is one of several galleries and museums in the area. 


The outlook north from MNAC is pretty impressive. You are looking down the avenue de la Reina Maria Cristina towards Pl Espanya which is a second tourist/transport focus after Pl Catalunya. 
The high point in the backgroundnd is Tibidabo which is considered the inland extent of Barcelona. It is less than 9km from the coast - as I said, Barcelona is a pretty compact city (although the conurbated towns stretching up and down the coast make it appear a hell of a lot bigger from the air and increase Barcelona's city population of 1.5m to over 5m).

TIBIDABO
Just about all metropolitan Barcelona can be seen on the above pic. Montjuic is far left background. Note my elcheapo Olympus doesn't stitch these panoramic shots together all that well, but you can get a fair idea. Panoramic shots usually click-expand nicely.


There are a church, communications tower and an amusement park on top of this 512m mountain. The area is popular on weekends. You can drive and bicycle right up but public transport is pretty good - the L7 train from Pl Catalunya, followed by either the historic blue tram or an adjacent city bus, both of which take you half way up the mountain thru some pretty swish housing areas and drop you at the funicular for the final half. I felt like a trek and so walked the final stage - stroll up the road for 10 minutes to a car parking clearing on the left. Take the dirt track from here. If you stick to this track you can go 30km north-west so take the first uphill branch. After a half-hour or so this reaches the road again (you have short-cut a considerable distance) and it's another 15min to the top. There are no heartbreaking slopes although it is a good workout. You will see other trekkers and a few mountain bikers. Plus road bikers on the tarmac sections - a good workout for the keen rider.


Looks like fun.


LA RAMBLA
Barcelona's walking boulevard starts at the Columbus monument adjacent Port Vell and runs north-west for about 1200m to Pl Catalunya. It is the place take a stroll from early evening until late - half the tourists in town and a lot of locals tend to be out and about. People watching is great: all those types I mentioned when describing the beaches' walkway can be seen with the exception of bikini babes and naked people. Fashionistas and street entertainers are present in greater numbers. No shortage of trendy places to eat and shop along the way. Take care - La Rambla is ground zero for pickpockets and scammers (image Barcelona Turisme)



THE GOTHIC QUARTER
Barcelona's old quarter of narrow lanes, oldest buildings etc is adjacent La Rambla on the north-east.

This is an area of narrow pedestrian lanes (um, this image seems stretched - dunno how that happened)....


.....A few slightly wider roads although no-one tried to get a vehicle thru here when I passed by at abt 2000 one week evening. The Gothic Quarter is a tourist magnet with lots of trendy shops, restaurants, bars, accommodation. It is a desirable place for locals to live: Sophie, one of the delightful staff at Parallel One Backpackers' was excited she was moving to a new flat here.


The old quarter also has a few open spaces. This is the area in front of the cathedral. 5 minutes stroll south is a similar square lined with restaurants and bars.


Barcelona Cathedral is no Sagradia but to me is a pretty impressively arranged heap of stone and glass. And the thing has been finished for over 600 years.


The interior doesn't hurt the eyes either. A top point for meanies like me - entry is free.


MY DIGS IN BARCELONA
I had 5 days in Barcelona coming into Spain and 4 going out. I spent both periods in the Sants-Montjuic area, the region just to the city side of Monjuic, partly because its narrow streets have a host of inexpensive accommodation and bar/restaurants and because it is relatively close to most things. A few minutes walk got me to 2 metro stations or onto Monjuic mountain; the closest part of La Rambla was a little over 10 minutes; the big station at Pl Espanya was about 15 minutes; so too was the nearest beach (Barceloneta) and Pl Espanya was about 20 mins. Frequent citybuses run up and down Parallel av, its northern border.
Coming in I stayed at Pension Piero aka Atlas Hostal (a hostal is not a hostel - but equivalent to a pension) a very quiet clean good value place 2 minutes from Parallel metro station; going out at Hostel One Parallel, a backpacker joint which has won several awards including Europe's best backpacker a few years ago and World's most social backpacker this year. I can attest it deserves such awards, largely due to the hard work of host Angel and his fabulous staff. Only complaint was that facilities for hand washing clothes were poor, something common in big city backpackers.


DAY TRIPS OUT OF BARCELONA.
There are so many, I won't try to list them - take a look at a trip-provider like viator.

I took one trip with viator, to the Pyrenees. 

With public transport being so effective I self-catered for 3 other day trips....

- to fabulous Montserrat (image Only- apartments.com)   PAGE DONE

-to the beach areas of Stitges.......

....and  L'hospitalet de L'Infant

Each of these is worth a separate page. I'll link them when done. tezza 06 August

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last visited July 2014


Near Nuria - Pyrenees mountains

I first saw Spain back way back in Franco's time - I was staying in south-west Mediterranean France and had 4 spare days before picking up my girlfriend (now wife) in Rome. Seeing I was so close I decided to head west. Fanging down the Spanish autoroute, I saw a sign for Tossa de Mar.I knew de Mar means of the sea, so I hung a left and headed down this amazingly twisty road to the coast. Tossa blew me away - the perfect picture-postcard Costa Brava holiday town. Ever since I've had more time to travel I've been looking for a decent fare into the area. Singapore Airlines came through at last - into Barcelona which is about a 70 minute bus trip south of Tossa. On account Barcelona is a major traveller destination in itself, has a bunch of attractive places nearby and is the logical departure point for Ibiza and Mallorca islands, the decision was a no-brainer.
Plus Barcelona claims to have the best big-city beaches in the world. Well hell, this is a BEACHES and Islands blog - just gotta see that. So is the claim true? More on that later.

Places mentioned on this blog. Okay, San Sebastian is not exactly near Barcelona. But it is known for its beaches and as a major surfing area  so is a magnet for a beaches freak an ex-surfer like me.

BARCELONA

I'll link the other locations as I finish each page. May take a few weeks tezza 06 August

IBIZA
MALLORCA
SAN SEBASTIAN
TOSSA DE MAR
MONTSERRAT
PYRENEES
L'HOSPITALET DE L'INFANT
SITGES

Visited July 2014


Montserrat is a small but conspicuous mountain area about 30km north west of Barcelona (image Spain Info  http://www.spain.info/)


The area gets thousands of visitors each day, not so much for the trekking which was my attraction, but because of the spectacular monastery built by Benedictine monks half way up the mountain. The first church was constructed in the 12th Century, but the present buildings reflect later construction and reconstruction starting 1854 after periods of unrest such as when Napoleon's army sacked the joint. 20th century additions include museums, transport termini, apartments and restaurants. This is the most important religious retreat in north-east Spain and the presence of the statue of the Virgin of Montserrat (the Black Madonna) attracts people from all over the country plus international pilgrims. (image David Crockett)

I FORGOT MY CAMERA!
I realized 10 minutes after leaving my Barcelona hostel that I didn't have my camera. Not to worry, it was a cloudy drizzly day and I figured vision would be pretty misty up on the mountain, and knew that Google images would have a bunch of clear shots taken by more skillful photographers than me, often with better cameras than my elcheapo Olympus point and shoot. I have no problem in using others' pics as long as I acknowledge the shooter and link their site. If they subsequently object, there are plenty of substitutes. btw you wouldn't believe how much of my pics and text has been ripped off without acknowledgement - often by commercial sites.

How bad was the vision when I visited? Well right on top at distant Sant Jeroni the place was enclosed in cloud. Lower down vision was limited to a misty 15km across the surrounding lowlands. Closer areas were not too bad. For instance the above shot is taken from the Path of Les Bateries and I got a 75% slightly misted view of the monastery from there although the higher areas were not very clear.

SOME ADVICE TO PEOPLE WHO COME WITH DAYTRIP TOUR OPERATORS
When I returned from my initial trek to St Jeroni it was early afternoon and I noticed crowds had more than quadrupled. Judging by the number of big tourist coaches in the vehicle parking areas down the mountain it seemed many had come on commercial day trips. Most of these give a guided tour of the basilica and then allow a few hours free time. Many customers seemed to use some of this to fang up and down the 2 funiculars to get a some more distant views of the monastery and the mountain. A word of advice: the views immediately after getting off the funiculars are not bad but if you are prepared to walk a few minutes along the adjoining trails you will be rewarded with much better outlooks. A few slopes along these but no heartbreakers. Surfaces reasonably good.

This is a view of the monastery (Heather has used a little bit of telephoto) from the viewing platform adjacent the funicular terminus at Sant Joan - not bad, but if you take the track hard right out of the terminus and walk for 5 minutes it is so much better. 10 minutes is better again. (image  http://www.heatheronhertravels.com/)

Rewarding viewpoints close to St Joan upper funicular station. For technical reasons I find it hard to construct a distance scale on Google images with big height variations - the straight line distance from the terminus to the camera image far left is 600m.
This upper left track continues to Montserrat's highest point, St Jeroni (1236m). You are looking at maybe 2 hours return. The lower left goes in a big circle with some fine valley and plain views. You can also join other tracks to get back down to the monastery, one by the Santa Cova  (the cave in which the Virgin of Montserrat was found). The track to the right also goes back to the monastery - a side route will take you via the Santa Cova. Free maps detailing these routes and more in various languages can be obtained at the information office in the main structure opposite the rack-railway and cable car arrival points.

CAREFUL AT THE HAIRPIN
On the top right path to St Jeroni it is easy to make a wrong left turn only 2 minutes from the terminal. Here you come to an acute corner - the majority of people, me included, took the narrow downhill track. This will get you to St Jeroni, but is longer, rougher and doesn't have those fabulous viewpoints a short distance up the other wider better surfaced track. Later close study of the direction sign at the corner showed it was technically correct but a bit misleading in the way its arrow pointed.
btw the start of the St Jeroni track is hard right from the exit at the rear of the terminus, not side as I've shown.

DAY TRIPPERS AND THE SANTA COVA FUNICULAR.
The Santa Cova funicula (image http://www.funimag.com/)

Most day trippers will take this short, steep drop from the monastery. However you do not arrive at the cave where the image of the black virgin was first found. This is another 25 minutes walk. It is a nice walk with some fabulous views of both the monastery plus down into the valley and over the plain. It is also lined with about a dozen impressive works of religious art in stone including stuff by Antonio Gaudi and Josep Limona. But the path has some major slopes which gave this very fit dude a pretty good workout.

The chapel built around the cave where the statue was found is small and cute and has free entry (image rosesandjessamine)

 The black madonna statue there (mid right) is a replica - at 300mm max it is tiny. The original statue has been moved up to the basilica at the monastery where it is queue for view (image Sacred Destinations).

 Is it worth the walk? Well for all but unfit people, I'd say yes. For them, a stroll a short distance along the path to one of the viewpoints is time well spent.
btw if you are keen you can take the walking track back up to the monastery instead of waiting for the funicular. I found it steep but not a heartbreaker - takes about 15 minutes and has more wonderful outlook points.

Another point to daytrippers. Montserrat is pretty high and way cooler than the Barcelona you leave. It's a good idea to bring something warm to slip on. And if you plan to do much more than 5 minutes walk along each track, some suitable footwear is a way better idea than the sandals or smart street-wear many fashion conscious ladies were sporting.

TEZZA'S TREKKING
As said, I didn't come for the monastery/religious stuff, or the views (although the latter are a bonus). I came for the trekking. I really enjoy an uphill slog thru the bush. With wrecked knees from too much jogging in poor shoes/no shoes when young, I'm not so keen on the downhill parts.
To repeat: grab a trekking map/instructions in your language from the information office in the main structure opposite the arrivals termini. This place is busy but the efficient ladies soon gave me what I needed.

I first shot up the funicular to St Joan and took off on the path to St Jeroni. This was about 2 hours return. I then had a look around the other tracks from St Joan to get the info for those nearby day tripper viewpoints mentioned above. After which I decided to head back to the monastery - down the La Serra Liaga/Les Bateries tracks - maybe 45 minutes. Some great views along here. And big time sore knees. I then shot down the Santa Cova funicular and walked across to look at the Holy Cave chapel, returning uphill to the monastery  - 50 minutes from the funicular.
Slopes mostly gentle to moderate but you get a good workout on the last 10 minutes up to Sant Jeroni and both ways on the Santa Cova track. But none of what I call heartbreakers - where really fit dudes say STREWTH!! or similar. Track surfaces not too bad - pretty stony in parts but no trip roots or wading in streams - joggers will cut it but not flip-flops or fancy day shoes. Signs reasonably good despite my boo-boo at the first hairpin going to St Jeroni.
I'm used to lots of wildlife from trekking the Australian bush (I keep a pretty keen eye open because some of it is lethal) but I saw virtually no animal or bird life on the Montserrat trails despite the vivid claims in the trek notes.

Stairs in the final section to Sant Jeroni give a good workout. Hey, a jogger passed me here. Strewth!!
(image David Crockett)

VIEW FROM THE TOP
As already mentioned when I reached the very top at St Jeroni it was encased in cloud. Disappointing - I'd heard you can see Barclelona, the Pyrenees and even Mallorca on a clear day. But I figured Google images would have some good ones. Well there were none from dudes with the big lens picking out Mallorca or even Barcelona. Below are some of the better ones I found:

Some of these shots click-expand nicely (http://blocjordi.wordpress.com/)


 (Wikipedia)


(Raidlight)


(David Crockett)

On a clear day the panorama from lower down can be pretty good. Check this shot from the La Serra Liaga/Les Bateries route:
(Barcelona home)

THE BASILICA
You will have to queue in tourist season to get a close up of the transferred Black Madonna statue, and I hate queues. But I found access to the basilica itself hassle and cost free. The interior is pretty impressive:
(Barcelona home)

GETTING THERE
Dozens of tour operators offer day trips - if you are time-short you can do a half day visit.
I went independently. I found the R5 line at Pl Espanya metro station (enter on the north side of the big square and head north-west) where 2 dudes have a Montserrat counter. I bought a combined train, rack railway/cable car (your choice, but you have to commit to one and can't mix and match), funicular return ticket for 27euro - this is a discount to buying individual tickets along the way and also includes 2 free metro rides. They sell other deals including the full monty which gives you entry to all the museums etc. The trains leave hourly, take just over and hour and connect with either the cable car at the first Montserrat stop (Aeri Montserrat)  or the rack railway at the next stop (Monistrol Montserrat). The Sant Joan and Santa Cova funiculars up at the monastery run about every 20 minutes.


The dude at Espanya said the rack railway from Monistrol has the best views so I took it instead of the cable car. WARNING: coming back down don't blindly follow the bus daytrippers and get off at the intermediate stop - this is the bus/car park area and is some distance from the R5 Monistrol railway station. If you make this mistake you will have to sit around for another hour for a train which goes right down, although trains run down to the intermediate station every 20 minutes or so. Don't ask me how I know this.
 (image http://margaretmuirauthor.blogspot.com.au/)

THAILAND

Post-sunset shot at Ko Adang National Park headquarters beach.

INTRODUCTION - WHICH ISLAND OR BEACH?

ADANG

BULON LAE

CHANG (big Chang eastern Gulf)
Little Ko CHANG, Andaman side
CORAL ISLAND

JUM

KANCHANABURI
KRADAN
KRABI, RAILAY, TON SAI
KHAO LAK
KHAO SOK NATIONAL PARK
KHO KHAO
KUT (KOOD, KUD)

LANTA
LAO LIANG
LIBONG, HAT YAO
LIPE

MAK (MAC, MAAK)
MUK (MOOK)

NANGYUAN
NGAI (HAI)

PANYEE/PANYI
PATTAYA
PHANGAN
PHANGAN PART 2
PHANG NGA BAY
PHAYAM
PHRA THONG
PHUKET
PHI PHI
PHI PHI NEWSPAPER ARTICLE BY TEZZA

RAILAY, TON SAI AND KRABI TOWN
RAYA/RACHA

SAMET
SAMUI
SIBOYA
SIMILAN ISLANDS
SIMILAN ISLANDS LIVE-ABOARD
SUKORN
SURINS ISLANDS

TAO
TARUTAO

WAI (WHAI)

YAO NOI
YAO YAI



General Thailand Information

SOME TIPS ON NOT DROWNING

WET WEATHER INFORMATION

SNORKELLING IN THAILAND

THAILAND'S BEST BEACHES



INDONESIA
Spoiling visitor on Seraya Island - West Flores

BALI
BALI'S BEST BEACHES - incl THE BUKIT PENINSULA
BALI - AMED
BALI - BEDUGUL AND LAKE BRATAN
BALI - CANGGU
BALI - JIMBARAN
BALI - NUSA LEMBONGAN
BALI - NUSA DUA, TANJUNG BENOA AND GEGER BEACH
BALI - MEDEWI
BALI - MUNDUK
BALI - LOVINA
EAST BALI - PADANGBAI AND CANDIDASA
BALI- PEMUTERAN AND MANJANGAN ISLAND
BALI RICE TERRACES EAST - SIDEMAN
BALI RICE TERRACES WEST - KEBUN VILLAS
BALI RICE TERRACES TIRTA GANGGA + WATER PALACE


BINTAN

LOMBOK - THE GILI ISLANDS
LOMBOK - THE KUTA LOMBOK AREA

PERAMA SLOW BOAT - FLORES/KOMODO/LOMBOK

SERAYA & KANAWA ISLANDS + LABUANBJO - FLORES



MALAYSIA
Salang beach on Tioman

GORGEOUS TIOMAN ISLAND

CHERATING BEACH

KAPAS ISLAND

LANGKAWI

LANG TENGAH

PERHENTIAN ISLANDS

REDANG ISLAND

SIBU ISLAND



AUSTRALIA
Bound for Hook Island on Oetella

CRUISING TROPICAL ISLANDS ON A BUDGET

BUDGET RESORTING ON THE WHITSUNDAY ISLANDS

SPENDING TIME AT AIRLIE BEACH

BYRON BAY - BEACH PARADISE

NOOSA HEADS - MY ALL TIME FAVOURITE



GREECE
Paradise Beach - Kos

GREEK ISLAND HOPPING



TURKEY
Paragliding Mount Babadag to Oludeniz Beach

BUDGET CRUISING AND PARAGLIDING THE TURQUOISE COAST
THE NORTH AEGEAN COAST
THE SOUTH AEGEAN COAST




SPAIN
Bay just south of Portas Vells, south east Mallorca

NTRODUCTION
BARCELONA
IBIZA
MALLORCA/MAJORCA
MONTSERRAT


READERS' TRIP REPORTS
Trip reporter Cocodrilo at Similan's viewpoint
Read the trip reports or submit your own


THE FORUM
Yon Cassia has a lean and hungry look (image Deco Dermots)

Questions, comments, shoot the bull.



GENERAL
Kwak joins the Worry Collective - image BEDARD

JUST FOR LARFS - PART 1
JUST FOR LARFS - PART 2: STONES FROM THE JOKER IN THE GLASS HOUSE (1 thru 11)

JUST FOR LARFS - PART 3: THE WORRY COLLECTIVE

ABOUT THIS SITE


LADY TEZZA'S TRAVELLING JAPAN
Fashions for sale in Takeshita dori - Tokyo

The basics - Osaka - Kyoto - Hiroshima&Himeji - Takayama - Tokyo - Kyushu - Daytrip to Mt Fuji National Park - Accessing your money - Other helpul stuff

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If you have questions, please don't post them below - I seldom get to scroll down this far. Put them in THE FORUM which I try to check most days when not travelling.

last visited July/August 2014



LOCATION
Tossa de Mar is one of the Costa Brava's nicer locations, about 100km from both Barcelona and the French border. The nearest airport is at Girona although frequent buses connect Barcelon'a El Prat airport and the town.


BEACHES


TOSSA DE MAR TOWN BEACHES

                                          Platja Gran
This is Tossa De Mars' main town beach, a 400m long strip of pretty clean sand which gets busy in high season. Water quality for a town beach was quite good. The beach has lifeguards, showers, first aid facilities etc.
A different perspective of Platja Gran can be seen in the shot top of page - it is of course the first beach. 


Cala Futadera from the main road. Beach has clean fairly coarse sand, very clear water. It is a nudist beach but most of the people there when I visited were textiles, a lot of them from those boats. As can be seen the area is very popular with boaties......

Visited July 2014



Sitges is an attractive seaside resort near Barcelona. It has long had the reputation as a top location for gay and lesbian holiday makers but these days can be best regarded as an all round destination.
Sitges is located about 35km south west of Barcelona - close enough for a day-trip which is how I did it. Hence this page has not as much detail as most others.


The town area has 11 beaches, 10 of them west of the harbour, flanked by a nice walking promenade. In the photograph I have place-marked the beaches which have photographs on this page plus famous Basso Rodona - the gay beach. I pinched the map off Gay Sitges Guide.

I took this on the approach road to the marina looking south west - all 10 beaches in the map above are in the area down to that white building far background left (Hotel Terramar) which will be clearer if you click-expand. So will the "cathedral" (actually a church - the Church of Sant Bartomeu i Santa Teclas aka La Punta) on the headland which is conspicuous from all these town beaches.
It's over 3km in a straight line from camera to the Hotel Terramar.

Image Wikitravel Sitges
I include a lot of 3rd party pix on this page because I originally intended to include Sitges and some other day-trips out of Barcelona as part of the Barcelona page - and so only took a few shots when visiting. But later I realised the other places had too much info and needed their own page - so all day trip locations ended up stand-alone.

BALMINS
The very first of the 10 beaches west of the marina is Balmins - a gay/mixed nude beach. The far half tended to be almost exclusively gay when I visited - the near half a mix of gays, lesbians and other nudists. I was underwhelmed by this beach - it has a very flat profile which meant 80% of the sand was wet despite the fact that this coast has a tiny tidal range. Consequently people tended to be jammed together. A small stream runs across the beach - consequently the sea water was not particularly clear. My shot doesn't show about half the mixed nude area - as said on other pages, I try to limit where I point my camera on/near nude beaches.


TERRAMAR
This is shot from the other end of the series of 10 beaches. The camera is between Les Anguines and Terramar beaches - that is Terramar behind the paddle boats. I thought this area was pretty nice - by the time I got down here the wind had come up and the more exposed beaches were a bit unpleasant but the curve of the beach plus the breakwall/groynes of the final 3 beaches gave them good protection. Note not crowded - and this was Saturday in July.

THE MIDDLE TOWN BEACHES
Town beaches are not my thing but the first 3 beaches south-west of the church are not bad. They seemed to have plenty of sand, beach bars, showers and lifeguards and were fairly crowded. The backing esplanade reminded me of Barcelona with an entertaining parade of passers-by of all types.

AIGUADOC
The 11th town beach is way up the other end again, on the FAR side of the marina. 
Refreences claimed this beach is also popular with nudists but my visit saw none and a decidedly family/couples atmosphere. There was even a big elementary school excursion. Nevertheless the Spanish are so relaxed about beach nudism that you are likely to find them anywhere - and no one seems to give a damn. 
I liked this beach - it had okay sand and water and a nice atmosphere and the walk thru the marina from Balmins was good value for pleasure-boat nerds like me (image Panoromio - Josep Maria Alegre)

BEACHES OUT OF TOWN
There are 17 beaches in total in the Sitges area.
I checked the area immediately north-east of Aguadoc by trekking the steep cliff-side track for 20 minutes or so. There was one tiny boulder beach at the foot of a steep climb down, plus some very nice villas along there, but the train line comes very close to the sea - eventually forcing the track to end. I saw some lovely beaches from the train which runs along the shore in the 20km north-east of Sitges - with several railway stations for visitors who do their location homework - otherwise you would need a car or moto along the parallel C31 coast road to access these places.

South-west of town are the rather well known twin beaches of Platja del Muerto -about 2km past the Mirrimar Hotel. A  big confession: I didn't make it there: I got about half-way when I realised the very blustery weather was deteriorating further - it looked about to storm. This, plus the fact that I'd seen no-one since the golf course, made me think continuing might not be the best use of my time. Nevertheless I'll add what I have learnt about these beaches.

I made it as far as the Atlantida night club. Note there is a small creek to cross on the eastern side of the golf course - not too hard if in dry season (summer). That big snaky resort next to the Terramar Hotel is the Sunway Playa Golf and Spa. 
For people wishing to minimise walking it is possible to catch a taxi to the Atlantida (a side road comes in across the golf course and under the train tracks), There is limited parking if you have your own car or moto.
Note the walking track across to the beaches from Atlantida is rocky and has some steep slopes - some people chose to walk along the rail lines. The websites urge caution - the trains rock thru here at 130kph.

PLATJA DEL MUERTO 1
This is the first beach - a mixed nudist/gay beach apparently, in a small cove. The beach is pebbles. Note the beach bar/restaurant this end (images above and below GaySitges.com)

PLATJA DEL MUERTO 2
GETTING TO SITGES
The different Sitges websites cover this well so I'll just do my experience. I came down from Barcelona's Estacio de Franca in under an hour for about 4.30 euro. Fairly frequent trains, even more so from Passeig de Gracio and Sants. Take care at Sitges railway station ticket office for a  middle aged guy who may try to short change you - uses the "slow to hand out change" technique. Only dummies would fall for this. Don't ask how I went, I can't talk about it.

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L'Hospitalet de l'Infant is a laid back seaside resort town about 140km south west of Barcelona. Because the trains don't usually waste time I visited as a day trip but if I come back to the general Barcelona area I aim to stay a few days here. It is a pretty nice place and there is no shortage of holiday accommodation.

Hospitalet is on a section of the coast is known as the Costa Dorada. This starts roughly above the 0 on the distance scale - Hospitalet is pretty much central on the Costa Dorada. Tarragona is the biggest city in the area - tends to have a fair bit of industry particularly chemical in nature and a busy port but nevertheless some nice beaches. Fact is the whole coastline is made up of a string of nice beaches and resorts - the train line from tends to stick immediately behind the beaches for a large part of the journey.

BEACHES
L'Hospitalet de L'Infant has two long main beaches separated by small headlands encasing a smaller beach, the name of which I can't find.

PLATJA ARENAL
I shot this from adjacent the harbour break-wall looking south-west. Arenal at 2200m long takes some time to walk. The promenade at right runs the first kilometer. Even though I'm not a fan of looong beaches (except for mind-blowers like Queensland's Whitehaven) this is a pretty nice strip of sand. The silica itself was the typical Catalonia fairly coast coarse grained* yellow brown stuff and seemed reasonably clean. I'm not sure about water quality up here near the harbour but down the beach it seemed okay without being the crystal clear stuff I saw on the Costa Brava or at Ibiza and Mallorca. I visited on a nice Sunday in July and the beach was more crowded than this, but not overcrowded. The opening shot top of page also shows Platja Arenal.
*I've said elsewhere that this is no bad thing - it doesn't tend to stick to feet as much and is less subject to wind blow.

PLATJA DEL TORN
I was just reading on a camping review website that del Torn is arguably the best nudist beach in Spain. I can't judge it on a national level on account I haven't traveled widely in Spain, but I do rate it my second favourite naturist beach in Catalonia (after the Costa Brava's Cala Boadella - yep, a more compact beach).
Del Torn isn't exactly short either at 1500m. I thought the water clearer here than at Arenal. The sand was similar but there tended to be a fair few pebble rocks close to the tide line, particularly further south. These got really hot around mid-day.
It doesn't look all that crowded in the shot but I reckon there was close to one thousand people scattered along here. As typical in Spain, quite a few were "textiles" and the naturists didn't give a damn. Families and couples seemed to be the go, maybe boosted by the very big El Temple del Sol naturist camping area which is hidden by the first 400m or so of dunes in this shot.


I cropped the previous pic to show the above chiringuito (beach bar/cafe) about one third of the way along the beach. This place was so crowded around 1400 that I had to prop myself  at an outside drink stand - no problem, it was nice out there. One of the reasons for the crowd was maybe the two sisters looking after the bar - clad only in sarongs, they had the most stunning figures and brownest skin I've seen for some time. The other girl serving the tables was not exactly a drunk-scarer either. I reckon the girls are a smart ploy by the owner to keep male patrons hanging around/buying more drinks. I hung around/bought more drinks. 
I've been a naturist for many years but for me it was kinda novel to see naked people entering a restaurant. The idea is to wrap a towel/sarong around or put on a pair of shorts before you sit down. Tezza staggered in after a 20 minute walk back down the hot beach clad in his usual sun-avoiding long sleeved business shirt under Aussie bushman's hat and over $3 knock-off Billabong board shorts from the Bali bazaar (years of 10 hour surfing days in a period when I couldn't afford sun screen or rash vests has blitzed my skin - don't mind limited sunbathing these days but unnecessary sun exposure I avoid) and no-one gave a damn.
There is a second chiringuito on the fore-dune abut 2/3 up the beach.


I found this small sub section of del Torn, way up the far southern end most pleasant mainly on account it was sheltered by the high rocks at right from the onshore breeze. About 100 other people thought the same. This is a compact area only 70m across (image Google Earth as are all the modified "maps" on this page). Lots of pebbly rocks between the two beach areas were quite hard on bare feet, particularly when the sun heated them.


I've explained previously that I'm not keen about waving my camera around nude beaches unless I can get distant shots like the above. However I was too lazy to climb up here so I had to pinch this one from HERALDO.es

Here's a nice one of the main beach from the same rock featured on Tripadvisor.

GETTING BETWEEN ARENAL AND DEL TORN
I stuck to the shore line going south. At first the going was easy, over a section of rocks/sand and across a short beach. But the next 200m or so was not so simple with the rock shelf very rough underfoot - you need sensible footwear here. Fortunately there were no big vertical changes or wide sea gutters as is usually the case when I go rock-hopping in unknown places.
On the way back I cut up through the camping area which is much easier - see below.


White track going south - as said I don't know the local name of beach x (maybe it is Cala d'Oques as in the first camping area: then again the southern-most area of long Platjay Arenal may be called this). Beach x is only abt 180m long. Proximity to the camping areas saw it fairly crowded with a 50/50 spit of nudists and textiles (El Templo de Sol is a naturist camping area - it's pretty big with less than half showing on this modified Google Earth image).
Yellow track going back - up a good set of stairs and then a path thru a small section of El Templo - nobody seemed to mind passers-by along here.

GETTING TO HOSPITALET
I'll leave you to google options (you may find it better to google "Tarragona" - stuff on Hopitalet's access seems a bit limited) - I'll simply outline my experience as a day-tripper.
I caught a train on the RENFE line from Barcelona's Estacio de Franca railway station. The train starts there and also picks up at Paaseig de Gracia and Barcelona Sants, but by the time this early Sunday train had left Sants it was standing room only. Lots of people got off at the big Port Adventura adventure park just south of Tarragona but that is 90 minutes into the trip - a long time to stand. If the train has no problems the total time to Hospitalet should be around 1 3/4 hours.

The return trip was a bit of a circus. The train was having problems and was over 30 minutes late into Hopitalet. Click-expand and check the digital temperature readout upper left - 38C. Just after I shot this we were told the train was going no further. We transferred to a later train which was even more packed once we got aboard. Unfortunately I had to stand the 60 minutes into Barcelona. I'm am older dude and spent the time glaring at some little fat kid sitting in the geezers'/disadvantageds' seats with his family. Didn't have any impact but I do love to try on a good stir, even when unsuccessful. Not that I cared - my fitness routine has me in better shape than 90% of 13 year olds let alone circumfentialy-enhanced ones (I am so fit I got muscles on my boogers) so standing for extended periods is no problem. Plus my head was up near the aircon vents: such was the crowd the readout showed 30C. 
In all I got back to Barcelona over 2 hours later than I thought. Maybe Spain's economic woes are having some impact on railway maintenance.

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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.

visited November 2014

Sunset from The Beach - Maya Bay attracts thousands of visitors but not too many are around this time of day. Shot should click-expand nicely


The unsettled national park island of Phi Phi Ley is about 6km from the pier at Phi Phi Don, 50km from Phuket's main pier, 40km from Krabi town and 30km from Lanta's Saladan pier - image Google Earth


Trip destinations and route (modified Google Earth)


My plan is to stay on every island in Thailand with affordable accommodation. The problem with Phi Phi Leh/Ley/Lay/Le is that until recently it was impossible to stay overnight on this National Park island. A few years back someone started overnight camping trips there - that doesn't seem to have lasted, but it is now possible to do a one night Maya Bay Sleep Aboard visit. I've done lots of sleep- aboards in various parts of the world and enjoyed them immensely, so I jumped at the chance.

**sleeping on the beach -"don't tell anyone!" says the young Thai tour leader. As if - with at least one travel-blogger and a whole lot of people who are going to write reviews for their booking company and others. btw I got the impression with the fairly slick dinner/post dinner entertainment/sleeping organisation and the indifference of national park staff to our presence  that this sleeping on the beach was not to much an unusual occurrence.

It took about 30minutes to motor across to Ley. First stop was off the Viking Cave. These days the public can't access it (I went in on a day trip in the late 80s) but our boat's tour leader gave an interesting talk about the birds' nesting and why it is called Viking (birds' nesters, trapped by bad weather in the past, spent the time painting - apparently viking style paintings).

The tide that day was too low for the usual snorkeling in nearby Phi Le Bay, so that was postponed until the next day and we........

.....motored around to Maya Bay.

Still a reasonable amount of boats and people for 1730 but nothing like the ridiculous jam you get earlier in the day, as can be seen by....


....this pic, shot around 1000 in March 2013 from my Phuket to Phi Phi Don ferry ,which always does a circumnavigation of Phi Phi Ley before docking. Click-expand for detail.
This ferry is called the Phi Phi Cruiser - half the passengers are day-trip people - the circumnavigation of Ley is the only exposure they get to the island and this is as close as they get to The Beach. I personally would be unhappy - there are better day-trips out of Phuket.

A quick unscheduled snorkeling session in the north of the bay before we headed for the beach saw sadly deteriorated coral since my last session there in the late 80s - some fish to look at however.

And then to The Beach......

From the south - time 1900


And the north. Note smaller beach background left easily waded to at low tide. Tour guide said water in that region good for spotting harmless small black tipped reef sharks. 


A bit later


Later still


These days, the area in back of The Beach has a series of paths thru the tropical scrub - didn't exist in the late 80s, but that was before THAT movie. National Parks has set up at least two canteen areas where you can buy basic eats and drinks (including beer - for the past 5 years or so NP has had a no-alcohol rule, this was the first I've heard of the relaxation of the ban - later comfirmed at Ko Rok). There are 2 toilet/shower blocks behind The Beach too.

One of the paths leads to the other side of the island where a platform gives you a look at an east coast inlet.


Platform/inlet from the boat next day


This shot shows the behind-beach area fairly well. The clearing we ate in is close to the beach right of center. Most of us slept in in a sandy section off the beach against the far right headland - wider than it looks from shot's angle. The east coast inlet can be seen background center.
(image dreamerattractions.com - but this site seems to be currently defunct)


National Park canteen foreground - our boat people set up dinner in area behind, used structure background left as guests' bag storage/boat's utility storage area. Pessimist tezza checked region in shot for shelter - figured if it rained there was enough sit-up shelter for us, forget about stretching out. No mattresses bought ashore anyhow.

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 2015

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. This isn't a bad pic to expand (click).
** not any more baby - in May 2015 I found 3 security guards and a dog at the gates which were locked. I was coming from the Balangan side and had already had a hell of a time clearing the cliff path up from the beach of thorn-studded vines deliberately placed there to discourage users. Looks like someone has big plans for this area - 3 guards and a dog seems overkill to me but maybe there are land-grabbers/squatters active in Bali. The guards let me climb over the gate but said don't come back - on return I cut across the golf course above that white quarry area on the headland which has numerous NO TRESSPASS signs. You can wade around the headland but only at lowest tide - even then it can be a wet experience if the swell is up. Alternatively there are some dirt tracks in back of Balangan beach which eventually link to the new roads around the golf course-Dreamland area but taking them will triple your walking time. Check Google maps.

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.
**not any more baby part 2 - in May 2015 I found several new developments in this area had thrown walls across the way. I climbed them going (at 2m. not all that easy for 105 year olds like me) - coming back I went the long way, sticking to the roads. Once again this more than doubles the walking time. Print yerself a Google map - I got pretty confused an I thought I knew this area reasonably well.
At lowest tide you can walk along the foot of the cliffs between Dreamland and Bingin reasonably easily.


STAYING AT BALANGAN 
There has always been a number of dirt cheap very basic  surfers' rooms behind some of the beachfront's many budget restaurants.....
....In May 2015 I noticed one of them had gone upmarket a bit with a pool - the lady suggested abt $us25 which is considerably lower than the places with pools behind the beach - google NERNI WARUNG


Also new to me in 2015 was the motel-like Balangan Paradise Hostel. This is immediately past the top of the steps from the northern end of Balangan beach - you can be on the sand within 2 minutes. It does feature on booking sites like Agoda but I reckon you would need to book early - place looked real popular with surfer dudes. I think those bales on the roof would have magic elevated views of the beach and point-break.

A bit further back from the beach than Paradise and more central....
....is a small enclave of flashpacker/lower midrange resorts (names will be clearer if you click-expand). All within 5 minutes of the beach, they are immensely popular - I could only find one with a vacancy despite looking 6 months ahead of May 2015....

MAY 2015
....which was BROTHERS' BUNGALOWS and turned out to be a pretty nice place. I have a full report with plenty of info and pix/maps on THIS PAGE

AUGUST 2012
I was pretty keen on spending some time at Balangan on that 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 (SCROLL DOWN PAGE_ 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.

Be careful when booking Balangan accommodation. In May2015 there was a bunch of new resorts and villas in the area - but some calling themselves Balangan resorts etc  were 5+km up the long access road which runs from the height of the Bukit plateau to the beach. Check the location maps on booking sites - and check more than one map (Agoda's maps have mislead me at least 3 times in various areas in the past)


Not all new places are badly located - these villas are within 10 minutes walk of the beach.


FEB 2012 - travelfish now has a very good site on Bukit accommodation from budget thru flashpacker into lower midrange.
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.


I really like the scene in back of the beach where beach boys are selling beer, hiing out surf-craft etc

Sunset packs them in


HEADING NORTH ALONG THE BEACH FROM KUTA

This is the sequence of locations heading north along the beach from Kuta. It is possible to walk (and bicycle when the tide is down) all the way to Canggu in dry season - in wet season the 5 or so streams you cross could become tricky (inches deep only in dry season, may disappear completely).


The Kuta/Legian border is usually regarded as opposite this gate at the beach end of Melasti St.** This is about 25 minutes walk along the beach north of where you access opposite Poppies Lane, Kuta central.
**although inland from the beach, the booking sites are calling places along Legian Street almost as far south as Poppies Lane, Legian resorts. I suppose it is the name of the street.

These days Legian is very similar to Kuta. Maybe slightly fewer people and the sand is a bit darker, but the same guys hiring out beach lounges, umbrellas, surf boards and selling ice cold beer, the same sunset scene etc.

Seminyak is thought to start at the small rivulet just north of the conspicuous Double Six luxury resort. The next section of beach, what may be considered south Seminyak, is fairly busy and had some great sunset on beach bars with live music.


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.


You will know you are at Canggu when you see these fishing boats, the first along the beach from Kuta....


....kite surfers, increased numbers of board surfers, and the rocks. This is maybe 2hrs relaxed walking north of Kuta opposite Poppie's lane.


 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 in 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.