Thailand Bali and Other Beaches and Islands

Had Khom (Coral Beach), north coast of Ko Phangan (click to expand)

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 - plus quite a few really nice beaches which don't meet the no/low development rule.

Donald Duck Bay, Similan Island #8

National Park Headquarter Beach, Similan Island #4

Nui Bay - southern Ko Lanta

Ao Si - Ko Jum

Relax Bay (Hat 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

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 - Image - http://www.laoliangresort.com/

Had Thong Reng, east coast of Phangan - site of the new Tree House moved from Ko Chang

Ao Pudsa/Tubtim - Ko Samet

Bang Bao, Ko Kut

Nai Yang, Phuket - Image: Arun Estate

Small beach just west of Pansand Bungalows, Ko Bulon Lae - Image: Pansand Resort

Loh Paret, Ko Yao Yai

Ao Jak, Ko Tarutao

Ao Malaka, NP headquarters beach, Ko Taruato

Eastern Beach, Ko Ngai (image Fantasy Resort)

Eastern beach at NP headquarters, Ko Adang.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

SAMUI

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 a shot 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's interactive 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 Sadet, Tong 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 is THONG 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.

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. 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.

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 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, 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?

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 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 a 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.

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.

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 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.

BO PHUT east of Mai Nam has a string of mainly midrange and better places on its western half. The beach is not too bad at all, but maybe a step down from Mae Nam.
In the middle 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 neat road runs north off that parallel to the beach for a few hundred meters with access to beach restaurants etc on one side and some nice resorts on the other.
Bo Phut seems to have fewer budget accommodation places these days.
South of this area is the fishing village with some good seafood restaurants. The beach and water are not real great here.

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.

BANG PO 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, 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 Po.

THE SOUTH COAST
Ao Thong Krut (aka Thong Tanote Beach) 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 Kao, 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 WEST COAST
I didn't get a chance to check the west coast this trip. 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.
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.

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.

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.
You can also visit Ko Tan to the south of Samui.

WATERFALLS
Most accessible are the Namuang falls in the central south. I visited in a previous trip and found the lower falls underwhelming (only 18m high) and didn't have time to access the upper falls (you have to walk for about 30 minutes), but people this latest trip said the 80m drop is worth it. Apparently there are some other attractions like elephant rides along the track.

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 termingal 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 35km 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.

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.

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 Mae Nam around 1100-1130.
You can also cross from Phangan and Tao by speedboat - dearer, often bumpy, but saving bulk time.

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.

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.

Monday, August 24, 2009

PHANGAN PART 2

HAD SALAD, THAN SADET PLUS NEARBY BEACHES

Taking it easy on Had Sadet (click to expand pix)

My Phangan page was one of the oldest on the site and badly needed updating, so I got back in August 09, revisited a lot of the spots I'd seen before (new pix and updated info on Phangan Part One page) and stayed at two beaches lots of people on the travel forums have been pushing - Had Salad and Had Sadet. I also explored neighbouring beaches to get a fuller knowledge of other places in the area.
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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 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
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 to Lucky 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. 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 Resort which 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.

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.

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, 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. 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.

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.

Bungalows on the sand at Had Khom. These belong to Coral Bay Bungalows.

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THAN SADET
For the second part of the latest 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 Cliff is 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 JS Hut 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.

Fabulous view from Silver Cliff Bungalows' restaurant - almost 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.
A fair few daytrip boats put in 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 Plaa's 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 House and 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

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.

Some nice scenery from the east coast ferry as it makes its way down to Had Rin on the way to Samui. This is Had Wai Nam - Had Thian (east), the new agers'/detoxers'/retoxers' beach is just over the low saddle to the south

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.

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.

Friday, June 5, 2009

East Bali - Padangbai and Candidasa

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.

PADANGBAI

The 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)

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. Note there is now an ATM inland from the pier on the main access road. 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 Inn 1, 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 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.

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

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 UPDATE - JULY09 : Apparently this ATM only takes Indonesian cards!

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 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.

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 nearby Water Palace which has great gardens, many pools including one in which tourists can swim.

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 May 09 the fixed taxi price from the airport was 300k to Canidasa and 280 to Padangbai. This means one of the drivers who hang around Kuta touting rides should do it for maybe 50k less although most Candi accommodation quotes 300 to 350 for their pickup service at the time of my visit.
You can go by local public transport but this would mean changing bemos several times and would take all day.
Shuttle bus operators are the best low budget option for travelllers - Perama has several trips per day - usually Kuta to Sanur to Ubud to Padangbai to Candidasa.
Cost in May 09 to both destinations was 60k - current prices and timetable
http://www.peramatour.com/bali_Shuttle.php
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.

Plenty of people come in to Padangbai from Lombok - slow ferry, Perama’s direct slow boat to the Gilis and the fast boats to the Gilis. I have also come across from Padangbai in the past with a bunch of surfer dudes in a chartered fishing boat. Quotes this latest May 09 trip started around 300 so you could probably do it for 250.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Bali's Best Beaches - the Bukit Peninsula and Others

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).

Dreamland Main, 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 on my main Bali page of the monster seaside residential-retail structure which has replaced them. BTW, this was unfinished in my latest May 09 visit, although some guests were swanking it out in the horizon pool overlooking the beach.
But if your thing is sun-lounges, beach-umbies and a host of beautiful people to spec out, this may be just the thing. Certainly the sand and water is way cleaner than the Kuta strip. There was a warung back of sand and I was impressed with just how modest its food and drink prices were for a place which has headed way upmarket.
The surf far right in the background (the image is a bit small, but that's all Blogger gives) is the awesome Impossibles a few hundred meters north of Bingin. Hard core surfer dudes should enquire about Impossibles Surf Camp which is a Chocky’s type place half way down the cliff overlooking the break. I just tried Google - no luck. It certainly isn’t Padang Padang Surf Camp which looks more upmarket.
Note you can walk down between Bingin and Dreamland along the beach at low tide - at high water the headland tracks are not too hard to navigate.

Some of the places at Bingin have stepped up from the basic surfer digs. Actually some of the best views are from places out of sight built on the top of the cliff. Google for Kembang-Kuning Ocean View Bungalows (flash packer - note 300k was the price they gave me in May 09) and Mick’s Place (midrange) As you can see, the beach here is nothing to get excited about and with a pretty rocky entry to the water. Pretty nice swimming around in the relatively calm lagoon between the reef and the shore though.
If you can’t hack multiple steep steep steps, pick some other place.

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 matress, 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.

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 20minutes 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. 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.
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 the inland side of the golf course - but check Google Earth and make yourself a map - the Bukit is criss-crossed with a confusing plethora of tracks, lanes, roads. At lowest tide you apparently can walk the water’s edge from Dreamland. 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.

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.
(Several shots of Dream Beach and Mushroom Bay plus accomm and access info on this page)

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. (2 shots …down page)

I rate SANUR BEACH as 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.

The NUSA DUA/TANJUNG BENOA strip has some nice sand areas, but unlike Sanur, I find the groyne development here a bit intrusive. There are certainly some very nice international style properties to stay at along here.

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. It had a fair bit of natural flotsam and debris when I last checked it. However I haven’t visited for several years and maybe the local resort people etc are manicuring the beach now.

There is a pretty nice white sand beach just south of the harbour bay at PADANGBAI on Bali’s east coast. 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 only 2 small warungs on the beach now, 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. 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 visited, admittedly some time back not too long after the second Bali bombing.

I haven’t visited THE NORTH-WEST COASTAL AREA of Bali but I believe the beaches are not black sand, are comparatively deserted and laid back with a few nice budget places to stay. An area to head for on my next trip.

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.
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 (May 09) visit 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 10km 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. This is a beach on a small island near Sarpe in East Sumbawa. 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.

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

South of Kuta main the beach is divided by break-walls and groynes into shortish sections. When I last did it about 5 years ago it was still possible to walk all the way to the airport thru the Tuban area. 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.
Last trip I had half a day before my flight. I got a Perama bus 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, 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.

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.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Seraya and Kanawa Islands and Labuanbajo town, west Flores.

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.

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.

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 backgound) and a fair way north on the mainland coast towards Seraya.

GETTTING THERE Several 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 Labuanbajo 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.