Ko Nangyuan

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Last visited July 2013


One of the more spectacular locations in the Gulf, 3 small islands - 2 with considerable height - joined by a sweet sand spit.


Nangyuan is a short distance off the north-west coast of Ko Tao - the nearest point of which is only 600m from the island.

I first visited Nangyuan over 15 years ago - when I was disembarking the ferry at Mae Had on mainland Tao a sweetheart handed me a flyer about this fairly new resort nearby which had good introductory prices. Later, not over impressed with Chalok Ban Kao on Tao which was inferior to today, I decided to go check Nangyuan out. Glad I did, pretty nice place. I have since visited twice - both in my travel-lite (no camera) days meaning I had nothing to show you here. I intended to stay a few days this latest 2013 Tao visit but unfortunately all the affordable accommodation had gone several months in advance, so I had to refresh my info by way of a daytrip instead.

The biggest change since my early visits is the number of daytrippers visiting. Nangyuan was always popular with people popping over from Tao and even coming from as far as Phangan and Samui on speedboats - but I never saw the beach with more than a hundred people - maybe half of them island guests. Hell, there's more than that on the pier in the shot above - taken about 1530 when a lot of the around-island snorkelling boats (below) are finishing their few hours call-in.

....the last few meters are a tad tricky, and....
....a bit of a log-jam because.....
....there's not a lot of room at the summit, and naturally with an outlook like this, people tend to linger. Here's the thing, if you are staying on the island there will probably be just you up here before 1000 and after 1630. The whole place is pretty serene when the daytrippers are not around....




The viewpoint is one of the higher rocks on the southern island. There's quite a lot of accommodation there - most tend to have pretty good sea and sand spit views.


A little past chez tezza at left (hey, I notice from this angle that it is now a duplex) is the really flash joint at right. 
Maybe this is the island owner's joint - note Ko Nangyuan is now owned by Thailand's richest man - the dude who owns Singha.


The opposite northern island looks to have fewer bungalows, but in fact there's a whole bunch obscured by trees in the central and eastern areas (right). My bungalows on both later visits were high up to the right, with magnificent views down over the bay at right. It was sweet sitting out on the balcony after sunset with a bottle of elcheapo Thai rum, watching the lights of the night diving class flash and swirl.
I pinched this shot off http://www.nangyuan.com - my sea view was a little more immediate.

Interestingly, a look at the website shows my choice of bungalow back then, the Sea View Standard Fan, hasn't changed much apart from the addition of a TV. At a 2013 high season price of 1500, this cheapest option aint exactly a bargain for the southern Gulf, but plenty of inferior places on Phi Phi and some other Andaman islands ask as much.
Note the resort here calls itself Nangyuan Island Dive Resort - but non divers have always been welcome and these days way outnumber the dudes/dudettes in the neoprene suits.


The central "island" hasn't the height of the others. It contains the restaurant, some beachfront accommodation, a new to me beach bar, the dive school and to right, some new accommodation (I don't know if this is for guests or staff) plus the new arrivals pier. This is considerably larger and in deeper water than the old one which can still be seen about one third across shot. And it needs to be, seeing the big Lomprayah catamaran now calls in. The new set-up has greatly eased boat congestion - at the time of year this was shot, the beach in the far bay would in pre new pier days be packed with speedboats and longtails. These now use the big pier and then mainly tie up offshore some distance away (or if they are longtails from Tao, go back to base).


The new pier. Visitors pay an entry fee of 100baht - that Singha dude aint the richest guy in Thailand by accident


More change - the restaurant is considerably bigger now. It needs to be considering day visitor numbers. Must look a bit deserted at breakfast and dinner - the resort itself would be flat out to have more than 200 residential guest. And there is a second restaurant - see down page.


I was a bit dismayed at the restaurant prices. On my previous stays the prices were always 10-20% up on typical island bungalow prices - now we are talking 50-100+%. You can click expand the image to see for yourself, but I'll select some comparisons (remember we are talking 2013 prices here) - Phangan Dive Resort/typical island bungalow: small Singha beer 105/70 - hot coffee 80/30 - vegetarian pizza 220/95 - fried rice 150/70 - steamed rice with pork garlic and pepper 150/110. 
Now most of these prices are still value compared to western joints, but I have stayed in several upper midrange Thai resorts way flasher than Nangyuan Dive Resort - all had food considerably cheaper. As to quality - I didn't eat so I'll leave that to Trip Adviser etc reports.
The spit has changed too. I've already mentioned it tends to have a lot more people from 1000 thru 1630. There is certainly plenty of room for them. More so these days because the other big change here is a lot more sand - on my previous visits the closest northern most section far right of image would be submerged at high tide. New guests staying on the northern mountain would be rowed across with their luggage. After that they needed to wade across if the tide was high - sometimes up to waist deep. Because some guests were not all that keen on this, a second restaurant to right of camera could provide meals - the food/service was very good because the couple running it seemed to be competing with the main restaurant. It is still there and looked like it still operates at breakfast and dinner.
Note high tide spit flooding can reappear - some rough weather can remove sand pretty quickly.


No matter what part, the spit is a pretty nice place. This is down the far (southern) end from the previous shot.
And yes, this is one of those white sand beaches a lot of people seek (my elcheapo Olympus' colour balance may be a bit dodgy) - I have it on my THAILAND'S BEST BEACHES page as one of the better ones. 
Nicest part for swimming would be above right in November/April when the north-east monsoon blows - at other times when the south west monsoon dominates the area at left in the previous shot (the north-east bay): this was the situation when I visited - note how smooth and protected the water is in that shot.

SNORKELLING


The best snorkelling off the beach on my previous visits was in the north-east bay - there were some nice little coral bommies scattered across the sandy area not far from the beach and the fish were so used to being hand-fed they would crowd around whenever someone entered the water. Things had deteriorated latest visit -DO NOT FEED THE FISH signs (fair enough) saw way fewer piscines and there was so much fresh sand that the close to shore coral seemed covered. Things improved about 100m out but the water there was maybe 3m deep which is a bit much for surface snorkellers to see detail.
Back in the day there was interesting stuff further out along and around the headlands but I didn't have a chance to check this latest visit.
The western bay chez tezza end was next best off the beach and had no shortage of people checking the scene latest visit. But frankly I was disappointed - lotsa dead broken coral near the beach; a bit better further out and with a few fish - but nothing for hard-core snorkellers to write home to mum about. No doubt novices would find plenty to interest them.

DIVING
As mentioned, this resort was started as a dive resort where non-divers were welcome. These days the opposite seems to be the case. The fact is Nangyuan is a major dive site with several good reefs etc adjacent the island. These attract dive boats from nearby Tao and even Phangan/Samui. Nangyuan's dive school has the advantage of being able to go off the beach for some sites (check the divers 2 shots up, probably a learners' class). The island's dive school naturally has a boat for more distant locations.
Dive boats working over one of Nangyuan's reefs.

GETTING THERE
The good news is that the Lomprayah big fast catamaran now calls in at Nangyuan on its Surathani-Samui-Phangan-Tao-Chumpon and reverse runs. The fastest access from Bangkok is probably flying to Samui, jumping on Lomprayah's free shuttle from the airport to their pier at west Mae Nam and then going the 2 hours up to Nangyuan.
Chumpon is a lot closer and I think I saw a poster or maybe their website saying Lomprayah has a tie in with one of the smaller airlines via Chumpon. Bucks down people will find Lomprayah's coaches from Bangkok (one comes overnight) which go direct to their ferry pier some 30km south of Chumpon would be the go. Some people prefer the sleeper train - Lomprayah have a Chumpon office not far from the station from which they run a free shuttle to the pier.
Other companies run day and night ferries from both Chumpon and Surathani, but only to Tao - from where you will have to get a boat over to Nangyuan. Check the Tao page for more details.
Speedboats run from Samui and Phangan, mainly for daytrippers but I have used this in the past to access and stay on Nangyuan - in rough weather this is not a comfortable or dry trip (don't ask how I know) and because the drivers tend to roll off the throttle, probably slower than Lomprayah and some of the other fast ferries.
In the past, the resort has had a free shuttle for guests several times a day across to mainland Tao. Mae Had town is worth checking - looks a bit daggy but the streets leading inland from the piers have a full range of shops and services these days. And if you give yourself a full day or so, there are some very nice spots on Tao to check. Once again, have a look at my Tao page. If the free shuttles no longer run or are ill timed for you, you should be able to cut a good deal with the many longtails which bring daytrippers across from Tao and would otherwise return empty.

If you have comments, see mistakes or have additional information, please post it below. If you have a question, please ask it in the FORUM - I rarely check these individual pages whereas I try to check the Forum most days when not travelling.

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