100: Ko Tao – The Island
Guess it’s time to do a bit of bloggin again, especially since it’s gonna be blog 100 😉
So lets talk a bit about Ko Tao then…
It’s a nice relaxed Island for a start, a magnitude better than Ko Samui if not more 😉
They (the Lonely Planets and Rough Guides that is) say Ko Tao is less developed than Ko Samui and mainly a Dive Spot with basic huts and little to do. I think this info is pretty out-of-date. Ko Tao is a fab place to hang out. The beach where I stay (Sairee Beach) is a nice long stretch of white sandy beach. Very clean and very nice, clear and clean water. Great for swimming and some nice snorkelling spots just a few meters into the sea.
The Beach is fab, just the right amount of restaurants and it has never been overcrowded here, be it on the beach itself which is usualy pretty thinly populated) or in the restaurants along the beach. It’s a nice stroll at night too with petroleum lights all along the beach to mark the restaurants. Seafood, Barbeques but also plenty of good western food is available everywhere. As a matter of fact the western food here is very nice indeed and I have been eating it more frequently than usual. (El Gringo has some excellen Chimichangas:-)
In Town (2 mins off the beach) there a a few posh places to eat and a bunch of others including a fab Thai Restaurant called Tongs which has great food at ridiculously low prices. I also hear people say Choppers Bar has great steaks but I have not tried them because its a bit too busy there with people drinking through the night, parties and football broadcasts.. Not my thing..
For conveniences there’s a 7/11 supermarket, a bunch of chash machines, pharmacies, some western bakeries (baguettes, panini, sandwiches as well as corissants, muffins etc..). A bunch of clothes shops and misc goodies, some tatoo shops (nope I aint gonna get one) and a few Thai massage places.
I tried a some of them but most were pretty disappointing apart from one, Ban’s Thai Massage opposite Choppers.
They do some incredible Thai Massages where they hit the right spots with every single move. It can be a little testing cos they do hit the sore points and work on them so a little pain is part of the deal;-) Still it helped a great deal with my sore back and Ban’s is another entry on my growing list of excellent Massage places…. Oh, price as usual 300 Baht per hour (4.5 pounds or about 6 Euros).
The Beaches
Travelfish.org have this map which is quite good
Sairee Beach in the west is the longest beach and the most popular one. My resort is on the norther end of that beach just before it makes the small left bend on the map..
Apart from Sairee I saw a bunch of other from the Dive Boat (Mango Bay, Laem Thien, Au Leuk) of which Mango seed best On foot I explored the south-west. Mae Haad south of Saree (the Pier is here) is not worth considering due to the pier which adds noise and pollution. The southern stretch of Ko Tao is great though. I walked along the coast from Ao Kul Jeua via Ao Chalok to Ao Thian Ok which is also called Shark Bay. There are some tiny little secluded Beaches there with some Bunglaows, definitely away fro the crowds 😉 Shark Bay is a very nice beach, no bungaows really just a nice stretch of beach and great snorkelling…
I will talk about the Dive sites in a seperate blog but to summarise there is no doubt that Ko Tao is a very nice spot to hang out. The weather has been great throughout the 2 weeks I have been here sofar but it is getting very hot now (mid march).
It’s definitely NOT an empty or little developed island. the roads are appalling I admit that (you cannot really drive around the island on a motorbike, 4-wheel drive car is the only option because of the state of the dirt tracks)
Anyway – sidetracking… To me it seems like a good place to avoid the crowds but still have plenty of convenient places to eat/drink and the beach is excellent of course..
Last but not least prices are extremely low, food, drinks and accomodation is much cheaper than Ko Samui for sure!
Oh there is also a posh resort north west of Ko Tao on Nang Nyang? Island, a group of three tiny tiny islands connected by a sandy stretch of beach… Looks fab there..
Tags: Koh Tao, RTW 2005/2006, Thailand
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