Thailand Bali and Other Beaches and Islands

INDEX

2011-12-12T23:33:00.021+11:00

THAILAND

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

INTRODUCTION - WHICH ISLAND OR BEACH?

ADANG

BULON LAE

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

JUM

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

LANTA
LAO LIANG
LIBONG, HAT YAO
LIPE

MAK (MAC, MACK)
MUK (MOOK)

NGAI (HAI)

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

RAILAY, TON SAI AND KRABI TOWN
RAYA/RACHA

SAMET
SAMUI
SIBOYA
SIMILAN ISLANDS
SUKORN
SURINS ISLANDS

TAO
TARUTAO

WAI (WHAI)

YAO NOI
YAO YAI

General Thailand Information

SOME TIPS ON NOT DROWNING

WET WEATHER INFORMATION

SNORKELLING IN THAILAND

THAILAND'S BEST BEACHES

INDONESIA
Spoiling visitor on Seraya Island - West Flores

BALI
BALI - NUSA LEMBONGAN
BALI'S BEST BEACHES - incl THE BUKIT PENINSULA
BALI - LOVINA
EAST BALI - PADANGBAI & CANDIDASA
BALI RICE TERRACES - SIDEMAN

BINTAN

LOMBOK - THE GILI ISLANDS
LOMBOK - THE KUTA LOMBOK AREA

PERAMA SLOW BOAT - FLORES/KOMODO/LOMBOK

SERAYA & KANAWA ISLANDS + LABUANBJO - FLORES

MALAYSIA
Salang beach on Tioman

GEORGEOUS TIOMAN ISLAND

CHERATING BEACH

KAPAS ISLAND

LANGKAWI

PERHENTIAN ISLANDS

REDANG ISLAND

SIBU ISLAND

AUSTRALIA
Bound for Hook Island on Oetella

CRUISING TROPICAL ISLANDS ON A BUDGET

BUDGET RESORTING ON THE WHITSUNDAY ISLANDS

SPENDING TIME AT AIRLIE BEACH

BYRON BAY - BEACH PARADISE

NOOSA HEADS - MY ALL TIME FAVOURITE

TURKEY
Paragliding Mount Babadag to Oludeniz Beach

BUDGET CRUISING AND PARAGLIDING THE TURQOUISE COAST

READERS' TRIP REPORTS
Trip reporter Cocodrilo at Similan's viewpoint

Read the trip reports or submit your own

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

Questions, comments, shoot the bull.

GENERAL
Kwak joins the Worry Collective - image BEDARD

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

JUST FOR LARFS - PART 3: THE WORRY COLLECTIVE

ABOUT THIS SITE

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

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

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

Sibu Island

2011-07-24T22:31:00.039+10:00

(visited June 2011)

Not a bad first look at Pulau Sibu's Rimba Resort's location as our access boat approached the beach. Chalets are under the trees.

Visit Tioman and you will notice a bunch of other islands both east and south of Mersing, the mainland pier town. Pulau Sibu is one of the southern ones - it is much more easily accessed from Tanjung Leman which is 45 minutes closer to Johor Bahru than Mersing.

Pulau Sibu and surrounds. The island is only 10km from Tanjung Leman (modified Google Earth image).

Oblique shot of Sibu from the north. The main island, Sibu Besar, is about 6km/3km at its longest/widest. There is a surprising number of resorts - I have omitted two not functioning when I visited. The upmarket Sibu Island Resort is on the smaller Pulau Sibu Tengah to the south (top of image). Labels will be clearer if you click image to expand.

BEACHES.
(from the north)

Rimba beach is on the north coast of Pulau Sibu. This is a pretty nice stretch of sand backed by casuarina trees behind which are the chalets, bar and dining areas etc of Rimba Resort, the only place on this beach.

Rimba from the opposite end - length a bit less than 300m. Chalets continue along a grassy section behind camera. Clear water off the beach, but fairly rocky at low tide, deepens slowly.

Sea Gypsy beach. This is the first beach on the east coast from the north - joined to Rimba by a not too difficult jungle track across a low saddle. Much longer than Rimba's at 600m and with sand extending a fair way into the water at low tide. I did notice a few sand fly bites after visiting this place - not a problem at Rimba although the resort website says it can be and suggests precautions - baby oil, coconut oil.
Apart from Sea Gypsy Village there are two other resorts on this beach - Sibu Island Cabanas which was in ruins when I visited and Kambou Bay which didn't seem to be operating (although it may on the busier weekends). If you click to expand image you can see in background the headland which separates this beach from the smaller one of Sari Pacifica.

Sari Pacifica beach. I'm not sure why I didn't get a full beach shot here - but the Google image 2-down gives some idea of size etc. Sand and water very similar to Sea Gypsy's beach. The walk across the headland rocks between beaches is short and not difficult. One resort only on this 300m beach - the midrange Sari Pacifica.

This is better. I pinched this shot off Sari Pacifica's website - shows a bit more of the beach.

Twin Beaches eastern beach is directly south of Sari Pacifica but separated by a big section of headland rocks above which towers a decent sort of hill. Which is why I didn't try to reach it. I'm kicking myself now - having checked Pulau Sibu on Google Earth I now know that access is easy across a low saddle from the western bayside track - btw the sand along that side is pretty skinny and not all that attracive - but Twin Beaches sounds pretty impressive.
From Google's image and what I saw from my snorkelling trip boat the main beach seems very similar in size and appearance to Sea Gypsy's. One resort here - the Twin Beach Resort.
BTW this is an oblique angle shot from the north - the beach is actually longer than in image - at 700m actually a bit longer than Sea Gypsy.

RESORTS
When I was trying to find a resort in this area which was easy to book (my bank is not interested in sending Malaysian ringgit cash transfers) I gained the impression there were only 2 resorts on the island. Which shows how thorough my research was - there are in fact 8, although it looked like 6 were actually operating during my visit.

RIMBA ISLAND RESORT
This is an interesting place. Its chalets are minimalist - no aircon, mostly no hot water, south sea island style with no closing windows/doors - but the resort itself has to be classed as lower midrange in price, food, service etc. And a pretty sweet place too.

South sea island style hut in the South China Sea. Spacious with enough room for an extra mattress, a small dressing room alongside the cold water bathroom. Big overhead fan only but construction materials, windows/door cut-outs (had canvas roller blinds) and frequent shading by trees thoughout the day didn't see interior get overhot. Comfy queen size bed and pillows, good mozzie net. Quiet. Most of the bungalows are clones but there are a honeymoon chalet which has hot water and a small lounge area, and a family chalet with twin sleeping areas/bathrooms and hot water. Because Rimba sell packages I'm not sure of what the cost per night of the chalets themselves are.

All the chalets have sea views - the first dozen or so beach views too. Ours here were a bit west of the beach in a pleasant garden area overlooking the seaside rocks. Most outlooks are tree-filtered but I noticed the honeymoon chalet right up the western end of the line had open views across the bay.

Everyone's looking for a bungalow virtually on the beach - you can do it at Rimba.

The bar area at Rimba had a nice outdoor deck with beach/bay views - nice place for a drink. Dinners and lunches tend to be served here on days when the resort has not too many guests. Pretty nice place for a candle-lit dinner. Small pool okay for kids (caveat - no wading section; maybe not suitable for non-swimmers) but mainly for learner-divers I think. Rimba has a dive school.

Bar interior continues the south sea island theme. Full range of booze - bit exxy with beers at rm14 + 15% etc. Good service/music. Lounging mats look out door cut-out for ----

----bay views, cool sunsets.

I didn't get a shot of the dining room but it was similar to the bar in style/materials/construction with window cut-outs for nice views adjacent most tables. All breakfasts (simple buffet style) are served here plus lunch and dinners when it is crowded or storms threaten.
Crowded times are usually at weekends when dinner and lunch tend to also be buffet (BBQ Saturday nights) - at other times the meals are set-menu 3 course lunches and 4 course dinners. I thought these were very good - taste, presentation and service at restaurant standard rather than the cafeteria style many resorts tend to have. Style is western - 100% of the guests during out stay were western tourists or expats.
Rimba seems to take extra steps to allow expats maximum time on the island. They were very flexible with their boat times (the only problem can be access to/from the beach at those extra low tides which are associated with full moon/no moon) and seemed to allow weekending guests to stay in their rooms past lunch on Sundays - this can be a bit of a hassle if you are incoming Sunday morning as we were, but fortunately quite a few weekenders had already left and they slotted us into another chalet almost immediately. Hey, we stayed in our room at no extra charge past lunch on the day we left - although it was mid-week and the place was lightly booked.

Overall I thought Rimba a pretty good place in a nice location. Extra praise must be given to the staff, largely Brits when I visited - cheerful and efficient. Carly, chief organiser, was very good.

SEA GYPSY VILLAGE
This is a bigger resort and seems to have a wider range of chalets including more family sized ones - plus a number of elcheapo A-frames aimed at the backpacker and diver market.

Sea Gypsy has maybe a half dozen A-frames. Look closely and you can see the bathrooms in back. rm50 on the website which asks Malay nationals not to book these well ahead - backpackers and divers get preference.

SARI PACIFICA
This place is a step up from the other resorts - calls itself a boutique resort and seems to be truly in the mid-range. The resort is spread right across its 300m bay with beachfront chalets plus a number of attractive hillside bungalows.

SP had a couple of tame deer hanging around. Chalets in the background are a few steps up from Rimba/Sea Gypsy - as is price of course.

TWIN BEACH RESORT
I'm really kicking myself for not getting across here to check it out. The place looks real nice on its website - similar standard to Rimba/Sea Gypsy but with a fair few aircon options.

The Google Earth view is interesting. I have the place-marker at what looks to be dining/reception - notice the chalets to the left extending to the edge of pic.
Are they tents behind the beach at right? Might be clearer when image is clicked to expand.
This is a slightly oblique shot - I have it tilted to favour the near beach - but trust me, any beach on the far side near the pier is pretty skinny.

SIBU COCONUT VILLAGE RESORT AND JUNANSA VILLA RESORTS
These places are located on a small bay on the island's west coast - the only resorts on this coast. They seem to be aimed largely at the domestic market which could make them an interesting location for westerners. Coconut Village seems to target keen fishermen.

Google Earth shows interesting location - resorts are backed by high steep hills and face a similar view across bay below camera. That small stretch of sand at right aint exactly Whitehaven Beach or even Bondi. Reef drop off near end of pier far right suggests an easy-access snorkelling opportunity.

SIBU ISLAND CABANAS
Cabanas is adjacent to Sea Gypsy and was completely in ruins June 2011. I was told the lease holder walked away and the locals raided the joint for firewood. Hur hur hur - looks like the competition decided to reduce same.

KAMBOU BAY BEACH RESORT

This is the third place on Sea Gypsy's beach, near the southern headland. Even though two local guys were hanging around I gained the impression it was not open for business. Grounds were scrappy and the beach in front had a lot of flotsam and jetsam. However I passed by on a Monday - maybe the place concentrates on the weekend crowd.

SIBU ISLAND RESORT
Because it is on the smaller separate Sibu Tengah I won't go into detail except to say the website shows an international standard resort in a nice location. Being the only place on Tengah gives it exclusivity - whereas the similar standard Sari Pacifica has access to 2 other resorts and budget food etc within 15 minutes

SNORKELLING
I don't pretend to have exhaustive knowledge of Sibu snorkelling. I snorkelled the fringing reef off Rimba resort and went on their snorkelling boat trip to Pulau Lima, a small islet about 10km south-east.

Preparing for the snorkelling trip from Rimba. 5 of us snorkellers went with 3 divers and an instructor - we were dropped at the islet while the divers did their thing at 2 nearby reefs. At rm45 for one snorkelling location this trip is not as good value as say Perhentians rm40 for 6 (better) locations.

Pulau Lima has a pretty nice beach where we spent around half an hour waiting to be picked up after checking the reef. Water clear, sand white - a bit of broken coral and some flotsam, nice views back to Sibu and the mainland. Some thick jungle in back of beach but getting shade from branches overhanging the sand was spoiled by mozzies.
I was a bit disappointed with their quality of coral and fish both off the beach and on the reef drop-off some 70m from the shore. The best stuff was actually slightly behind camera adjacent to the rocks, 30m out. Overall standard was inferior to that on Redang, Perhentians, Tioman and Kapas on the same trip.

Snorkelling off Rimba's beach was similar. The first 40m sees lots of dead and broken coral although there is no shortage of fish. I decided to go right out to the drop-off which unfortunately is a good 150-200m off the sand - check the yacht pic two shots from the end - you can see the reef edge buoy just a bit this side. If you haven't got fins this is a good work-out. I thought some sections of coral out there was as good as Pulau Lima, but once again nothing to write home to mum about. But you have to remember I'm a bit of a jaded snorkeller - having seen the world's best often, other places fail to excite.

TREKKING
Sibu websites mention trekking routes - in the plural. I did one, from Rimba to Sea Gypsy. This takes 15-20 minutes through pretty good jungle, no sustained slopes, lots of roots etc underfoot but you would get away with light-weight sandals.

Rimba to Sea Gypsy track - a pretty pleasant way to access a nicely contrasting beach either end.

The other possibility I can think of for a jungle walk is Coconut/Junansa to Sea Gypsy. Google Earth shows a track leaving the clearing behind the small beach near the former and heading east into the jungle - there is a saddle in that direction between the high hills, the other side of which is Sea Gypsy.

GETTING THERE
This entails getting to Tanjung Leman where the various resorts have ferries or speedboats to take you the relatively shot distance to the island - 20 minutes. There is a public ferry which would go to the village which is a fair distance from most of the resorts. The crossing can be very smooth or quite rough, be prepared to get wet just in case.

The accommodation websites have details of both how to get to Tanjung Leman and when their boats pick up.
Many resorts run shuttles from both Johor Bahru and Singapore - Rimba's charge in June 2011 was rm80/140 - that was for a couple not per person.
It is possible to do much of the journey by bus - Sea Gypsy's website is very good about this option.
Taxis cost was around rm140 from the TJ end - probably a bit cheaper from JB.

Because the island is popular with Singapore expats/residents and local holiday -makers/weekenders who drive, the little harbour at Tanjung Leman has an excellent and quite spacious carpark - rm8 per day. Once clear of the causeway at JB drivers are looking at about 90-100 minutes.

From Mersing the 45km would probably cost around rm50-60 in a taxi. There is a local bus which wanders off in the direction of Tanjung Leman from Mersing bus station, but I don't know what its final destination sign is and I believe it is infrequent.

The pier at Tanjung Leman harbour. This is a Wednesday shot - when we arrived on a Sunday around mid-day I was surprised at how busy the port was. Hundreds of vehicles in the car park, dozens of people on or near the pier. It seems Pulau Sibu Besar, Sibu Tengah and neighbouring Pulau Tinggi pack them in on a weekend. In back of the pier is a pavillion with small shops and restaurants - no alcohol. There is an adjacent KFC.
rm5 is charged for use of the pier - less than $us2.

MORE INFO
Google will find a heap of websites on Sibu - one of the more comprehensive is http://www.myoutdoor.com/sibu/

I try to end the page with an artistic shot - this one from Rimba. But it is poor value compared to the one from their website below.

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If you are travelling the east coast of peninsula Malaysia you may also be interested in nearby Tioman plus the Perhentians, Pulau Redang and Pulau Kapas which is the best island I have visited in years.
Perhaps you are interested in LANGKAWI too - although one side of the peninsula is usually in wet season when the other is in dry. However Langkawi's wet seasons are usually more benign - it is more an all year resort.

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If you have any questions, please ask them in THE FORUM rather than below. I don't get a chance to check all threads daily, but unless I'm travelling I'll try to monitor THE FORUM regularly.
If you visit Sibu and want to keep us up to date with a few words and pix in aTRIP REPORT, check the advertisement-free READERS' TRIP REPORTS section to see how. Your report will be mentioned on and linked from this page.

Redang Island

2011-07-19T20:09:00.047+10:00

(visited late June 2011)

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

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

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

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

BEACHES

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

East Coast beaches
(from the north)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kalong South-1 is the next beach, separated from Kalang North in the previous shot by a substantial section of rocks which looked to me to be very very difficult to rock-hop (big trouble when you reach a 4m wide gutter with deep water) above which were steep rainforested slopes with no access track. So if you stay here the only place you can walk to is the adjacent Tanjung South-2 beach which is a two minute stroll via that substantial pier-walkway in background (click shot to expand).
Wow, this is one nice beach with the usual white sand and clear water. There was one newish flashpacker standard resort Amanna Gabba on this beach, up in the area near the boat - I think this is the old Wisana redeveloped. I talked to two Brit guests, the only ones at the time, who told me they were in paradise - the isolation was just what they wanted.

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

There is hope for a pathway into Kalong South beaches from the north. I found this unfinished 250mm water pipeline leaving Kalong North beach and climbing south up through the rainforest - I think the eventual idea is to augment the Pasir Panjang resorts' water supplies with a more reliable source maybe near the airport or village. I followed it for about 600m, often walking along the top when things got a bit tricky at the side - I then noticed some smaller water suppy pipes diving downhill at a creek crossing which I figured must be from small dams higher on the creek to the resorts on Kalong South, so I followed them down about 200m to the beaches. Now it would be common sense to take advantage of the area cleared for the new pipeline by putting in a permanent path, not only to ease access to the beaches but to facilitate pipeline maintenance - pathways on both Perhentian islands follow water pipelines. Actually if it was Thailand they would let the jungle swallow the pipeline. Whenever a fault happens the repair crew hack their way thru again.

North coast beaches

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

Telek Dalum Besar. Deep Water Bay's other beach is the delightful Besar (big) beach. Not exclusive to Berjaya, it can be accessed by the jungle track from the main twin Pasir Panjang beach on the east coast which reaches the creek at the far end - or from Berjaya the camera end by a paved road that goes over the headland between Kecil and Besar beaches - a steep 1o minute walk but when I first visited a truck load of guests were being ferried in suggesting that regular shuttles are the go.
This is a lovely beach, probably the best on the island - although before the resort development the twin Pasir Panjang was probably better. When I walked across for a second visit the only person on the beach was a local cop from the village - all excited about some big time football star staying on the Berjaya owner's super yacht moored 500m offshore. He thought I might be the guy simply because I was doing a few sit-ups on the sand. Me a football star? I hate soccer. Girls' game. Played by a bunch of mammas' boys/cheats. But Rugby - that's different.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TREKKING

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

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

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

Note the new road above was still under construction in June 2011. It looks like it will go from the busy supply pier south of Laguna on Telek Bakau to behind the northern most main beach resort on Pasir Panjang. This is no small project but I was told the resorts are financing it, not the Marine Park or local/state/national governments.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GETTING TO REDANG.

The mainland pier for Redang is Merang (not Marang) about 40km north of the fair sized coastal city of Kuala Terennganu. The resorts tend to run their own ferries out to the island - you are looking at maybe 70 minutes. A few resorts run their ferry out of KT piers.
The resort ferries will use piers at the beaches except on Kalong North which has no pier.
There is also a public ferry from KT but it goes to Redang's airport/village pier in the south of the island and as I say below, it is expensive to get from there to the resorts on the east coast. Berjaya is linked by road to the southern pier and will almost definitely send tranport.
Return ferry fares seemed to be about rm70 in mid 2011 but the resorts' package deals include discounted ferry transfers and help to make the packages good value compared to pricing individual components.

Very inexpensive bus transfers from/to KT airport and bus station are also offered by the packages.
Overnight buses run into KT bus station from KL and big express buses go along route 3 from Kota Bahru in the north and Cherating, Kuantan, Mersing and Johor Bharu to the south.
If you need a taxi to/from KT I think you may be looking at around rm40-50. Very few public buses seem to run down from main coastal route 3 intersection the 20km to Merang.
I think a taxi from Kuala Besut (the mainland pier for the Perhentians) would cost around rm70-80. I went the other way on exiting Redang - there were no taxis waiting at Merang pier (heaps of resort buses and shuttles in the opposite KT direction) so I got a private driver hanging around the pier to take me to Besut for rm80.

The easiest way to access Redang is by flying onto the island. Berjaya Air run daily flights from KL and Singapore - and these are not too expensive if booked a long time ahead - my flight from Singapore cost around $us1oo - maybe 75 minutes. This shot is on arrival. Immigration/customs for Singapore arrivals are done at the small terminal.

Note this not as good a deal as it appears, because transfers from the airport to the eastern beaches is a rip-off. I paid rm20 for the 3km van to the pier and rm50 for the 10km water taxi to the main beach - probably 5 times what a multi-share trip of similar distance would cost you elsewhere. At least it was less than half the rm150 Redang Bay quoted.
Note too that Berjaya guests hop on a free shuttle to their resorts - a shortish road trip, no water taxis needed.

Despite the rip-off price the water taxi from the pier near the airport did not take me to Redang Bay's beach but dropped me at the pier on Telek Bakau to the south. However the Bay knew I was coming and sent a tractor with trailer to pick me up. Driver a nice guy - also picked up a family from my water taxi struggling along with heavy bags to Redang Beach resort.
Here we have just hit the main Pasir Panjang South beach adjacent Laguna - that's the Tanjung Tengah sand-spit joined headland in back with my Redang Bay destination just around the corner.
Once that new road is built behind the resorts I imagine all transfers from Bakau pier will go along there. Less scenic but less disruptive to beach goers.

If you want to save time by flying (from KL at least) both Air Asia and Malaysian (maybe Firefly) have daily flights into Kuala Terengganu from where you can take advantage of the resorts' good value transfers.
I know Firefly does a flight into KT from Singapore every second day - I couldn't afford to waste a day waiting.

Tezza goes for the big artistic closing shot - view from the cafeteria at dinner.

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

Khao Lak Updated

2011-01-06T18:12:00.049+11:00

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

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

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

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

THE BEACHES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bang Niang beach right and Khuk Khak beach left.

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

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

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

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

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

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

PAK WEEP/ BANG SAK BEACHES
The PAK WEEP beach at Similana, looking onto Cape Pakarang Similana Resort .
Note the excellent and oft-praised Similana which closed down some years ago for redevelopment was still closed with no sign of any work in March '11.

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

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

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

Cape Pakarang, Pak Weep and Bang Sak

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

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

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

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

The 8000m of 4 lanes plus parking is a bit of an overkill, but if the tsunami relief funds were there, why not make the most of them for future needs?
Lots of convenience stores, shops, travel agencies, restaurants, bars, banks/atms/money changers etc along here - plus quite a few cheaper upstairs rooms (warning - a fair few long distance trucks and buses thunder thru at night).
Less noisy are some rooms behind restaurants just before the four-lane narrows to two heading north - signs out front announce them. I had one behind Gekko Restaurant in March '11 - at 400 not great value for a basic joint - but clean, had hot water.
More of the same in streets leading away on both sides, particularly right of pic towards the beach.
I was disappointed in restaurant prices on my latest visits - seems this place is under the influence of cashed-up northern Euro midrange and better travellers with their still overvalued for the moment but not for long EURO - main street restaurants in towns like this are usually the price-effective places to eat and yet I found none with mains below 100 (I'm used to paying 80 or so in budget bungalow restaurants - less in main street joints).
Similarly the short 2km taxi trip from BAAN KRATING into town was costing 300 baht. Hell, I want to go 20km for 300 in other Thai places. But no doubt 300 for 2km is cheap in Germany. Not to mention Sweden and Norway.
2km? I walked.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rooms up this alley behind Gekko Restaurant just south of the bus stop on the inland side of the main street next to the 7/11. Sign partially hidden by tree suggests this is really called Khao Lak Inn. No matter, Ghekko staff will show you the room. If restaurant is closed in a.m, walk up the alley to people in back. Number of other similar places a little further south of here. When looking for these places, if you are north of the Siam Bank you are too far north.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Inland from Bang Niang is Chong Fa Falls.

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

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

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

THINGS TO DO IN AND AROUND LAK

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

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

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

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

NATIONAL PARK VISITS - I have already mentioned the trek down to the headland white sand beach from NP HQ. The inland sections of the park to the north and south also have treks and a couple of okay waterfalls for a splash around.

KHAO SOK NATIONAL PARK is maybe 60km away and can be daytripped from Lak.

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

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

GETTING TO LAK

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

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

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

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

++ In late Nov 2010 I approached the limo counter inside ARRIVALS at Phuket Airport with 1500 b in my mitt. I knew the current website price was 1700 - the guy showed me a price list with 2000 - I showed him my 1500 and said I was heading outside to the taxi counter. He accepted 1500 instantly. No Beemers or Mercs - my limo was a current Camry. Nice ride just on one hour 9pm, would take a bit longer daytime. Going the other way I saw a desk, main street in Khao Lak town Nov 2010 offering car and driver to Phuket airport for 1000.

Lots of people travel up from KRABI to Lak. Using public buses sees an indirect main road route and often a need to change buses. Good news is that a minibus goes a direct shorter route using good county back-roads, starting abt 1100 and taking around 3 hours including one rest/eats stop. Cost in March 08 was 300 baht and any guesthouse or travel agent in Krabi town/Railay/Ao Nang etc can book you on, with a pick up shuttle around Krabi town to the depot where you wait around for 10-30 minutes while they organize things. You can also be picked up at the new Krabi pier if you have come off a PP or Lanta ferry. I’m not sure if they send a connecting shuttle out to Ao Nang for pick ups.

GETTING AROUND LAK

As said before, taxi prices tend to be geared towards European ability to pay.

Regular songthaews run up and down the strip, but maybe not as regular as a lot of people would like. There are heaps of songthaews parked beside the road with their drivers hopeful you will charter them as taxis.

Full size Takua Pa to Phuket and Surathani to Phuket all-stops buses also come thru every 30-40 minutes.

I found one of the best ways of accessing more far flung parts of the area is by hire motorcycle. You can maybe double the 150 per day you paid on Phuket.

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

SIMILAN ISLANDS

SURIN ISLANDS

PHUKET

KRABI-RAILAY-AO NANG-TON SAI

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

Ko Bulon Lae updated

2010-01-04T17:01:00.012+11:00

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

Ko Bulon Lae is a small and attractive island about three-quarters of an hour by fast boat out from Pak Bara in the south Andaman. Its best-know neighbours are Ko Tarutao to the south and Ko Lipe to the south-west, although they are not exactly close.
Bulon was laid back when I visited in March 07 and again in early December 09, but reports say it gets pretty crowded at the peak of high season (Bulon has a loyal band of north Euro returnees - apparently they have the two main resorts booked out at peak way ahead).
There are no real roads, just a few tracks of which only the main route between the main beach area and the village is paved. We saw no motorised vehicles of any kind. I was surprised by the lack of motorcycles - once a track is paved this is usually the come-on for locals to get one. We saw only one dog. Lots of cats.

For the sake of clarity it is easiest to divide Bulon into two areas - THE BEACH AREA in the north-east, and the PANKA VILLAGE AREA over the hill to the west. Both areas have travellers’ accommodation, and The Beach Area also has a small village area but I think it's mainly resort workers' accommodation.

I couldn't find a map showing all resorts so I added detail to Google Earth's image. Their point adder tends to spray the letters/labels around a bit, but they are as close as I could get them to their symbols.

RESORTS: A-BULONE B-PANSAND C-MARINA D-SCHOOL E-VIEWPOINT F-SULAIDA G-CHAOLAE H-PANKA I-JIAB J-BULON HILL K-JUNGLE HUT

Note the only paved section of track is over the hill from just east of J-C to the village entry just west of F

If you go to GOOGLE EARTH its Bulon image is at a much finer resolution than most of the Thai islands. You can see individual bungalow roofs etc - 6 49 north - 99 32 east.

THE BEACH AREA

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

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

The east coast section of the beach - I waited until high tide on a King Tide day (full moon) for this shot. You can see the erosion taking place at left with undercut trees etc. This is the northern (non-bungalow) section of Pansand's beach area - at low tide there is a good 20 metre wide section of sand here.
In the far distance at right you can see the spit at the corner of the island. Behind those casuarina trees is the camping ground. Hidden behind undercut trees closer to camera is the beach in front of the "village green" - it's pretty nice here too at high tide.

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

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

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

Chez Tezza at Pansand.

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

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

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

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

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

Note you may find the beach in better condition if you visit later in high season 09/10 - fine weather re-establishes beaches - I noticed a build up of at least 10cm of sand in the 4 days I was there. But the definite long-term trend is the reverse - there was already one set of concrete piers where a beachfront bungalow had gone when I first visited in 07, and my neighbouring bungalow has water under it at high tide.
Don't be turned off by the condition of the beach in the shot - once the tide started to drop there were some real nice patches of sand, and at high tide very sandy nice spit area is only 300m away. Bulone Resort's website has some shots of their beach at low tide which look to be fairly recent.
Some pretty nice swimming in the bay off the bungalows and there is a fringing reef with enough coral and fishies to keep novice snorkellers interested.
Bulone also has what they call Seaview Second Line bungalows - these are similar to the ones in shot but are mainly ranged around the perimeter of the spacious grounds - not too many have sea views.

I also stayed in one of these inland "seaviews" in 07 - it was a big, clean spacious job but I was a little disappointed in that it didn't have inclusions like towels and toilet paper (sure to be available now - competition is hot), the grounds were not all that tidy or well lit (very orderly now) and the price seemed way high (but I'm used to high Andaman prices these days). Price-wise Bulone's bungalows are a bit cheaper than Pansand's but don't include breakfast - light eaters would wind up roughly equal in total cost, heavy brekka fang-merchants like me end up ahead at Pansand.
I do think Pansand's grounds and restaurant are more attractive, the staff better and the area a bit better protected from the blustery north-easterlies which blew for part of our stay. Beaches are about equal, swimming/snorkelling a bit nicer at Bulone and the view/outlook at Bulone a bit better. Bulone has 24 hour electicity. There is a small store with internet available most of the day and evening. Overall I slightly favour Pansand but it is close. Others may think the opposite.

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

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

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

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

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

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

VIEW POINT RESORT is the first accommodation you reach soon after the descent into the village starts and is one of the nicer places to stay on the that side.
Built on a steep, heavily landscaped hillside sloping from the main track down to Panka Noi Bay, most bungalows have some sort of view. There is quite a range of bungalows here and they showed me a real nice attached bathroom job for 300 back in 07, considerably less than the beachside places were asking.

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

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

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

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

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

About half way along the track to Mango Bay is JUNGLE HUT with 2 rows of traditional backpacker style bungalows.
This neat looking place looked brand new in 07 but was closed in March - I was dismayed that maybe it had gone broke. But locals assured me that it has been operating when things get busier. Has an attractive open restaurant adjacent the track. You would be looking at 5 minutes to the beach at Mango Bay, maybe 15 to 20 to the spit area.

Back where the track from Mango Bay hits the outskirts of the village we talked to a nice local lady who had 3 brand new bungalows in a spacious area. No guests as yet, but looking forward to high season. Asking 350 - tel 085 0772769 - JIAB BUNGALOW.

GETTING THERE
From the Mainland - the nearest pier is at Pak Bara. Most websites show one speedboat service each way (400 per passenger Dec09), operated by PBS Speedboat - although there seemed to be two services while I was there. These went on to or came from Ko Lipe.

I didn't see the old slow ferry and can see no mention of it on the websites, but the lady running Bulone Resort's restaurant says it still runs - out around 1400, back around 0830 next day. I did see a low slow boat heading for the sheltered unloading place at Monkey Cave Bay around 1600 one afternoon. A guy off this boat told me it was the slow ferry as far as he knew. It headed back soon after with what seemed a load of passengers so perhaps they have a new smaller slow ferry than the one I used in 07, running a different schedule - and the websites etc haven't caught up with this yet.

See my Ko Lipe page on details of getting to and from Pak Bara. Pansand's getting there link below is good too.

From Ko Lipe - see above - 600 per passenger Dec09.

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

Some websites include www.kohlipethailand.com/ferry - andaman island hopping - and Pansand's getting there.

Note that the speedboats all seemed to be unloading their passengers into longtails at sheltered Bat Cave Bay in the south of the island this latest visit - which did have stronger than normal north easterlies making conditions a bit rough for beach landings. But the lady at Bulone restaurant reckoned they still use the beach in calmer conditions.
The longtail was charging 50 baht per person to transport to the resort beach. I don't know if they go around to the village area (and landing there would be impossible in the lower part of the tide).

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

Leaving Bulone for Lipe.

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

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

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

KO LIPE

KO ADANG

KO TARUTAO

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

Langkawi

2009-12-15T21:00:00.001+11:00

Pantai Cenang, Langkawi's most popular beach (click all shots to expand - might depend on your browser).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

KO LIPE

KO ADANG

KO TARUTAO

----------------------------------------------------

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

Thailand's Best Beaches

2009-09-09T12:59:00.013+10:00

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

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

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

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

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

Oops - what a difference 6 hours can make! Not so great at low tide - but it took me a year and a revisit to find this out. Doesn't phase me - I aim to spend some time here on some future trip, has some real relaxed bungalow joints..

Donald Duck Bay, Similan Island #8

National Park Headquarter Beach, Similan Island #4

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

Nui Bay - southern Ko Lanta

Ao Si - Ko Jum

Relax Bay (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 - check my Phangan page for low tide shot.

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

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

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

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

Ao Pudsa/Tubtim - Ko Samet

Bang Bao, Ko Kut

Nai Yang, Phuket - Image: Arun Estate

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

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

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

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

Loh Paret, Ko Yao Yai

Ao Jak, Ko Tarutao

Ao Malaka, NP headquarters beach, Ko Taruato

Eastern Beach, Ko Ngai (image Fantasy Resort)

Eastern beach at NP headquarters, Ko Adang.

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If you disagree or have extra information, please fire them in below. If you have questions, please ask them on THE FORUM which I check most days. I only visit individual island pages occasionally.
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SAMUI

2009-08-30T13:30:00.002+10:00

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

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

KO TAO

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

PHANGAN PART 2 - revisited June 2010

2009-08-24T22:39:00.033+10:00

HAD SALAD, THAN SADET, HAD THIAN, BOTTLE BEACH PLUS NEARBY BEACHES

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

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

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HAD SALAD (Haad Salad, Hat Salad) is in the north of Phangan's west coast (map).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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AROUND HAD SALAD

Captions are a bit small - click to expand

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

Had Kruad (Khruat/Gruad etc) is a small bay just south of Had Salad. Keep walking along the dirt access road which Cookies' driveway joins and in a few minutes you will reach the first driveway 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.

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

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

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THAN SADET
For the second part of the 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.
UPDATE MARCH 2010 - my friend Eddie made this comment: "PLAAS - Did you see the inside of Plaas bungalow?? Worth atleast 1000 baht but available for 300 to 400 baht."

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
UPDATE JANUARY 2012 - I just got news that Tree House has lost the lease to their land - the lease-holders have sold out to an upmarket developer.

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.

Labels a bit small- click to expand. You will also be able to see the walking track from Than Sadet to Thong Nai Pan Yai.

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HAD THIAN (TIEN) EAST COAST

I was so taken with the look of Had Thian when my Thong Nai Pan to Samui ferry called in August 2009 that I decided to spend some time there next Phangan visit - June 2010.

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

Google Earth image of Had Thian and surrounding beaches' location - I cranked up the vertical exaggeration a bit much on this shot, but the mountains in SE Phangan look almost as impressive in reality. Click image to expand.

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

Never a dull moment at The Sanctuary.

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

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

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

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

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AROUND HAD THIAN

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

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

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HAD KHUAD - BOTTLE BEACH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Note there are more pix of Sadet, Salad and many of the other places on this page on the Phangan Part One page - plus info/pix on a lot of other Phangan locations, transport info, when to go etc.

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.

East Bali - Padangbai and Candidasa

2009-06-05T20:17:00.008+10:00

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

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

PADANGBAI

Last visited September 2011The town bay at Padangbai has the Lombok vehicle ferry pier to the right and a neat range of mainly budget accommodation places lining the beach road on the left. The Blue Lagoon snorkelling area is the smaller bay far left and the white sand ocean beach of Bias Tugel can be seen just to the right of the main town bay (image Karangasim Tourism)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Travellers will find no shortage of accommodation in the general Candidasa area.
I’m no gourmet but people tell me there are a handful of fine-dining restaurants in and around town. There are certainly plenty of tourist standard eats-joints. This is no place for party animals, although live music is found at one of two restaurant-bars in the main street most nights.
There are plenty of money changers, at least one bank and there is now an ATM on the sea-side towards the Kuta-Denpasar end of the main street not too far from the Perama office 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 UPDATE - 360 in August 2010). 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 o9 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.

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If you are considering East Bali perhaps you might be interested in BALI'S BEST BEACHES, THE MAIN BALI PAGE and the nearby GILI ISLANDS and LOMBOK which can all be accessed via THE INDEX

IF YOU SEE MISTAKES OR HAVE EXTRA INFO PLEASE POST BELOW. BUT IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS PLEASE POST THEM ON THE FORUM PAGE - I CHECK IT REGULARLY BUT MAY ONLY READ THIS PAGE ONCE IN A WHILE.
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http://www.balitripadvisor.com.au - Bali Trip Advisor, your one-stop travel guide for everything you need for your Bali holiday.

Bali's Best Beaches - the Bukit Peninsula and Others

2009-06-01T16:20:00.026+10:00

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

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

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

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

Dreamland (aka New Kuta Beach) pretty early and not yet crowded with daytrippers. This used to be the pick of the Bukit - a gorgeous beach behind which were lots of neat elcheapo losmen built for surfer-dudes to catch some shuteye plus some laid back warungs where you could sink a Bintang or 5 checking the surf. How things change - have a look at the shot 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. UPDATE - got an August 2010 shot on the main Bali page showing the completed thing. The architect should be shot.
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 (click image to expand) 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.

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

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 mattress, mozzie net in good condition, fan quiet. Electricity 24 hours. I paid 80K rupiah (about $us8 at the time) - current room pricing can be seen on the website.
At high tide the waves smack into the lower front of the building - actually wavelets because when the swell is big (often) the reef dissipates most of its size. Can sound pretty busy at night.
Chocky provides an airport pickup service which if you are coming in at night like I did is essential - Bingin is down some obscure side roads, which stop about 200m from the buildings - and finding the right lanes from there and the correct set of steps to descend would be impossible for newcomers. Chocky charged me 160K compared to an airport taxi to anywhere on the Bukit for 120K, but took me back to Kuta for no extra at the end of the stay.
If you are going to come up by hire-motorcycle from Kuta, check Google Earth first and draw yourself a map. But make sure it’s daylight, and watch out for cops checking for Indo or International Driving Licences endorsed for motorcycles.

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

Distant Dreamland from the clifftop at Bingin - an easy walk at lowest tide. Once again, some nice flashpacker and midrange places on the clifftop.

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

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

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

…..but no extra if you are quick enough to grab this neat little platform.

There is a neat little beach at the foot of the cliff at Ulu - actually there isn’t too much sand left at high tide. This is where the surfers enter the water.

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

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

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

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

Tide has dropped a little more.

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

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

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

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

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

OTHER BALI BEACHES

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

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

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.
Shots of Dream Beach and Mushroom Bay can be seen on this 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.

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

The NUSA DUA/TANJUNG BENOA strip has some nice sand areas, but unlike Sanur, I find the groyne development 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 called Bias Tugal. Maybe 200m long, book-ended by headlands and backed by a steep rain-forested hill - a major part of which had been cleared in May 09 for a mega Korean owned hotel. There are a few small warungs on the beach, and the ladies running them told me the hotel does not have title to the beach, but I bet there will be multiple beach-lounges and umbies when it opens.

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

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

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

THE NORTH COAST BEACHES on the coastal strips around AMED and LOVINA are black sand. Nevertheless the series of little bays which make up the Amed strip are very scenic and relaxing. Lovina had a rep for Kuta type hassle in the old days but was pretty relaxed last time I 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 10+km all the way to Canggu, although you may have to ford some streams in wet and early dry seasons.

Not exactly Kuta - my camera's card was full by the time I got there in 2009. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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http://www.balitripadvisor.com.au/ - Bali Trip Advisor, your one-stop travel guide for everything you need for your Bali holiday.

Seraya and Kanawa Islands and Labuanbajo town, west Flores.

2009-05-30T17:13:00.004+10:00

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

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

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

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

These dudes tended to come sniffing around in the afternoon. There was no sign of Seraya’s infamous aggressive male buck - I think he may have pushed his luck and got venisonised. These guys were very shy, as were the many goats who also came wandering. However it may be not a good idea to go away from your bungalow with the door open. That tree provides nice shade and was very popular with daytrippers. Most days saw at least 2 boats bring these from Labuanbajo.
Sunset and island view from the hill at west end of the island. This is easier to descend than the slightly higher hill near right - use better footwear than flip-flops. The cleared headland at rear right is part of the mainland - the far eastern tip of the island is the lower headland in front of this. I walked one end to the other in under 40 minutes. The rear of the fishing village can be seen just left of the far headland - from the resort walk along the beach and take the track aound the left lower side of the hill farside of the buildings. The best coral is along the drop-off into the deep water, particularly adjacent the restaurant (where those boats are). This is about 120m from the beach. The coral is okay but nowhere near as good as Kanawa Island. The dark area closer the beach is an area of sea grass with some interesting marine life.

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

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

KANAWA ISLAND
Kanawa is about the same distance from Labuanbajo, but due west. It is also a budget resort - at first glance it looks a bit more expensive than Seraya at $us15 for a single, but prices include transport - so things work out much of a muchness. There is no one-day supplement.
The booking office is in Labuanbajo main street across the road from the steps up to Gardenia Hotel, and very close to Perama's office.

Kanawa’s bungalows are not absolute beachfront and you could land a second rower. The restaurant is the building closest the water mid shot. The sand in front is a bit dust affected and not as attractive as Seraya. The reef drop-off at the end of the pier is an okay place to snorkel, but some of the best Asian coral I’ve seen starts at the nearest curve of the beach on left and runs towards the camera. It deteriorates past the near-end of the beach. This section can be seen below.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SO WHICH ISLAND IS THE BETTER?
Depends on your priorities:
BEACH - nicer, much wider on Seraya. Both beaches seemed to be cleaned each day, but the between-beach area in front of Kanawa’s restaurant had a bit of litter first day.
CORAL - outstanding by my experience of Asia on Kanawa, considerably better than Seraya.
BUNGALOWS - much better position and slightly more attractive on Seraya. RESTAURANT - better position, wider choice and considerably cheaper on Seraya. Service a bit better on Kanawa.
EXCLUSIVITY - want your own desert island? Kanawa has no fishing village and seemed to get no daytrippers. It seems to attract fewer guests.
TREKKING - Kanawa by a long shot. The hill area is great. It’s a pretty ordinary walk across Seraya to the fishing village.
ASPECT - Kanawa faces south and picks up the south-east trades. It also has more extensive views of neighbouring islands and the mainland. Seraya faces north - it still seemed to pick up a nice breeze most times but not as cooling as Kanawa.

Thing is, I doubt you’d be disappointed whichever you picked. But why not do as I did and visit both? - as said earlier, boat times are such that you can come in from one island and go out to the other a few hours later. Note too 5 of us wanted to get a late boat back into Labuanbajo from Kanawa - after a bit of bargaining we managed to charter one for $us15.

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.

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

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

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