Beach Bumming in the Gulf of Thailand

Among the biggest tourist draws in Thailand are the white sand beaches and crystal clear waters in the southern part of the country. During the past few decades, these previously remote islands have become some of the most popular locations for beach vacations in the world. Most visitors focus on two major sets of islands: those on the Andaman Coast (west of the mainland), and those in the Gulf of Thailand (east of the mainland). The Andaman Coast is home to infamous beaches like Phuket, Koh Phi Phi (seen in the movie The Beach), and the hippy hangout of Koh Lanta. Many of these areas were also devastated by the 2004 tsunami, and are still in the process of recovering. While we stopped over in Phuket for one night on a flight connection, we didn’t explore these islands extensively since they are in monsoon during May and June, and tend to be rainy and cloudy. On the other side of the country, the sunny Gulf of Thailand consists of three islands – Koh Samui, Koh Phan Ngan, and Koh Tao - all of which we visited while island-hopping. Below is a summary of our time in the Gulf of Thailand, and the experiences we had on each island.

Flight from Phuket to Koh Samui

Koh Samui

Phuket on the Andaman Coast and Koh Samui in the Gulf both have a reputation as built-up, commercialized, glitzy beaches. For this reason, we decided to spend a little less time on Koh Samui than on the other islands. We spent our first night at Buddha Beach on the north shore of the island, which had golden sand and a few local restaurants. We settled on this location since it made it easy for us to catch the ferry to Koh Phan Ngan the next morning at 8AM. On our way back, however, we stayed at the beach of Ko Samui: Chaweng. Known to be one of the most beautiful locations in Thailand due to miles of white sand shoreline, Chaweng was one of the beaches that began the initial influx of holiday tourism is Thailand. While Koh Samui was absolutely beautiful, it was difficult to appreciate since Koh Samui is so built-up. Five star resorts “own” stretches of beach, everything is over-priced, and Burger King/McDonalds/Pizza Hut are all on the same block. We stayed here on the last night since it’s also known as a good party beach (which it was – Australians will visit Thailand for week-long all-inclusives similar to how Canadians visit Cuba). However, despite the island’s natural beauty, it was far commercialized and felt more like Miami Beach than Asia. We were glad that we spent our last night there, but had no regrets spending most of our beach time elsewhere.

Big Buddha Beach

Koh Samui Airport Terminal

Koh Phan Ngan

Koh Phan Ngan is best known for the full-moon parties that happen about once a month (also the less popular half and black moon parties) at Haad Rin. We weren’t around for the Full Moon, so instead spent our time at the relatively untouched northwestern part of the island. We spend our time on Haad Salad (Salad Beach), at a resort with a stunning view of the bay called Cookies Salad Resort. We spent most of our time relaxing, eating, drinking, sitting on the beach, and wading in the crystal clear water. We also spent a day in a bay just north of where we were staying called Koh Ma, which is known to have some of the best snorkelling on the island. We hitched a ride in the back of a bumpy pick-up truck from a Cookies employee, and spent the day underwater with tropical fish and stunning coral. Koh Phan Ngan was definitely the most laid back of our destinations, especially since there were relatively few tourists, but tons of beach space, beachside bars, and palm trees.

View from Balcony

Stormy Koh Ma

Koh Tao 

Koh Tao (named “Turtle Island” in Thai for its shape) is the most remote of the islands, and is one of the most renowned scuba diving and snorkelling locations in the world. The only location that gives our more scuba diving certifications each year is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Koh Tao is definitely the most rugged of the islands, with rocky, dramatic shorelines and a laid back beach atmosphere. After debating where to spend our time on the island, we decided to stay at Ao Leuk, a small bay owned by a single family, famous for its snorkelling and shark sightings. After a bumpy pick-up truck ride through the main beach town Haad Sairee to the secluded bay, we were dropped off on the beach. There were hardly any other travellers at Ao Leuk – other than day-trippers that came to see the beach and scuba dive, the only people that kept us company were local Thais and our friendly Swiss neighbour on a solo backpacking journey. We absolutely loved Ko Tao, and spent all day every day underwater, and nights having dinner and beer on (next to empty) beachside restaurants. During our time in the water, we saw schools of thousands of fluorescent fish, coral formations as big as houses, and (possibly) a shark. Unfortunately, we didn’t have an underwater camera, but probably got more out of the experience because we were more focused on exploring than snapping good photographs. Koh Tao was definitely our favourite island, and the one we’d most like to visit again.  

Eco-Touring in the Foothills of the Himalayas

The main draw of northern Thailand is the natural beauty of the mountains outside of Chiang Mai. One of the most popular eco-tourism activities is a guided multi-day hike to visit remote hill-tribes. However, after hearing from other travellers that these were usually a (sometimes exploitative) rip-off that didn’t live up to the hype, we opted to do a few other eco-based activities instead.

1. Hiking a Waterfall

Instead of hiking for days through the mountains, we managed to squeeze in a shorter excursion to a waterfall. In the jungle canopy, we followed slippery stone steps up the side of a waterfall that seemed to go on forever. The waterfall was steep and narrow, and went even further than the steps ascended up the mountain. The short but strenuous hike allowed us to gauge how vast the mountains are – walking through a small fragment of the area, gave us some perspective on how vast and expansive the Himalayan foothills must be as they extend further north.

2. Elephant Riding

We also organized a trip to an elephant sanctuary recommended by our guesthouse. Elephant tourism is extremely popular in northern Thailand and on some of the islands in the south, but we wanted to make sure we went with a company that treated the animals well. There are many tour companies that are known to mistreat their animals or treat them like “circus” animals. The sanctuary that we visited (not mentioned in any guidebooks) was set in a valley surrounded by hills, where we came face to face with a dozen female elephants. From our experience, the elephants seemed happy, well-treated, and had seemingly close relationships with their individual caregivers (or mahouts). For the day, we learned about Asian elephants, fed them, rode them bareback through the jungle, and gave them baths. Even though I got the “aggressive” elephant Pai Coon (who kept trying to hit me with bamboo), it was a one-in-a-lifetime experience.

 3. Ziplining

One of the things that I looked most forward to when planning our trip was the chance to zipline through the jungle. After looking at a few different tour providers, we opted to spend a bit more and go with the Flight of the Gibbon, featured on the Amazing Race. On the drive into the jungle, the driver put on a taped clip of the episode. The experience was definitely one of the highlights of our time in Thailand. We spent hours flying down some of the largest ziplines in world, standing on platforms surrounding massive trees, “freefalling” and sliding into nets, abseiling, and getting 360 views of the forest canopy. One of the highlights was seeing a family of resident gibbons swinging through the trees, and getting free (and clean!) T-shirts after zipping around the mountains was like winning the backpacker lottery.