I have thoroughly enjoyed my three visits to Bangkok, but I’ve always longed for the opportunity to explore the beauty of Thailand’s nature. I was definitely not disappointed by what we saw just an hour’s flight south.
Part 1: Dec 6-13 - Phuket
Possibly the most famous beach destination in this country, Phuket is a popular post-conference stop and I came with a long list of recomendations. We ignored those that directed us to party hotspots and instead settled in chill Kata Beach. It’s a beautiful horseshoe of golden sand full of cheap, delicious restaurants and no real grocery stores. That made cooking at home was a bit of a challenge, but after all the meals in Bangkok, we did as much as we could.
Our first full day was the weekend, so we took the opportunity to visit one of those infamous party towns, Patong by bus. The beach there was packed with activities like jetski rentals and parasailing. We just spent the day swimming, walking the beach, and exploring the town. After a gorgeous sunset, we strolled the lively main street for a tiny taste of what its nightlife was going to be. Cheap shots, loud music, red light establishments and gimicky foods like scorpion on a stick. Not our scene, even when we were in the right age bracket.
There were plenty of activities to keep us busy in Kata. After trying SCUBA five years ago in the Great Barrier Reef, we got the chance to try that again, just swimming right off the beach. While it didn’t quite compare to that first world class dive, there was a lot to see and it is a magical feeling being under water.
We could walk to two other neighboring beaches too. To the north, 3km Karan beach which is more open to the sea and has bigger waves to play in. On the south side, Kata Noi, smaller and fully surrounded by posh resorts, but with some pretty great snorkeling on its rocky edges.
We even got a hike in, a steep track to the Giant Buddha on the hill above town. There was enough breeze up there to beat the heat, plus glorious views over those four beaches and to the opposite side of the island.
Part 2: Dec 13-15 - Phi Phi Islands
A short ferry ride delivered us to a small island called Phi Phi Don. It is the largest and only publically inhabited island within the Phi Phi archipelego. Its town is small enough to walk every street within half an hour, if you don’t stop for bars, massage, scuba, tattoos and pot shops.
The beaches on either side of the town weren’t much to write home about. Shallow, cloudy, and teaming with boat traffic. The boats, delivering tourists to other beauty spots throughout the Phi Phi islands, are the real reason to visit these beaches. We hired one of the long tail boats to take us to some incredible snorkeling bays, as well as Maya Bay, made famous by the movie The Beach. You can’t swim in that one as it is a reef shark breeding area, and we were able to spot some baby sharks swimming in the shallows.
We saw more wildlife from the smallest boat of all, a kayak, including a manta ray jumping an impressive height out of the waves. We kayaked as far as the aptly named Monkey Bay, which was too overrun with tourist-fed macaques. After my experience in South Africa, I absolutely could not enjoy the pristine white sand there.
Part 3: Dec 15-21 - Au Lang
Technically back on the mainland, Au Lang beach is another jumping off point to various tiny islands. It is still touristy, but a lot more of a city with regular groceries and businesses mixed in with the tour operators and souvenirs. We spent our first couple work days just making visits down to the local beach, whose water was less clear, but surroundings more stunning than Phuket’s.
In one direction, there were huge resorts and a hiking trail absolutely crawling with monkeys. In the other, a mile of rougher sand literally crawling with crabs. We also saw lots of shore birds and a big water monitor.
Unfortunately after a couple of weeks in Thailand, Nathan fell victim to the stomach issues that come with enjoying the street food and drinks. He had to sit a day out, while I took a quick taxi boat to an absolutely breathtaking beach accessible only from the water. Surrounded by limestone cliffs, it was built for outdoor activities like rock climbing and spelunking. In my flipflops, I managed to walk to one lookout point with a small cave, but otherwise enjoyed sea level. I swam to another beach and back, walked the tiny strip of town, spotted more wildlife, ate my picnic and grabbed the taxi boat back in time for work.
It was such a good time and good deal, that we took a similar trip together the next day. This time it was an hour long boat to Hong Island, which had a beautiful lagoon, a steep stairclimb to a 360’ lookout, and a nice snorkel beach.
On our final day, we joined a group tour that stopped at seven tiny islands just off shore. At low tide, three of the islands are connected by sand bars to walk between them. There were some really amazing snorkel spots on that tour too, including one at night, with bioluminescent plankton!
The food in the tropical paridice was really lovely. Heavy on fresh fruit, seafood, whole coconuts, and curries, I was a happy girl. One of the signature dishes here is a banana pancake, an Indian flatbread rolled around banana and either sweet (nutella, peanut butter, sweetened condensed milk) or savory (egg, cheese) fillings. Au Nang was especially Indian influenced with dosa and lovely masala tea, a welcome change from the too-sweet Thai drinks.
Despite tummy troubles, jelly fish stings, urchin quills, threatening primates, and cruel humidity, we loved our couple weeks island hopping in the south of Thailand! I would be delighted to find myself back in this region of the world again some day. For now, it's back to Bangkok, a Taiwan layover, and onto the USA!
