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Exploring Koh Yao Noi in Sawasdee Thai Air Magazine
The best of Thailand February 2007
Idyllic Island
Isolated or overflowing, peaceful or too popular,
Isles in the Andaman Sea suit every taste.
The newest in hip
Frankly, I’m not someone who enjoys lazing about on beautiful Thailand islands, doing nothing doesn’t jibe with my manic modus operandi and besides. I’m well beyond the age where sun bathing could possibly have a salutary effect on my skin.
So when presented with an offer to explore the relatively unknown Koh Yao Noi, one of the 44 small island in the middle of Phangnga bay between Phuket and Krabi , my initial reaction was decidedly lukewarm.
Hang on a minute. I told myself. You just had a hip replacement in Bangkok and while you’re walking amazingly well considering, it’ll be at least another month before your back to usual frenetic self. If this is as unspoiled and charming as everyone says. Perhaps a wee chill-out is exactly what you need.
Armed with a cane and some residual recalcitrance, I presented myself at Bang Rong, the older of the two piers – Ao Por is the newer one – from which boat depart Phuket for Koh Yao Noi. The moment I exited the overpriced airport taxi onto the tiny Quay area, I felt transported back several decades.
Apart from a couple of backpackers, I was the only foreigner among the predominantly Muslim women and children waiting for the 1 pm boat. Of the 4500 or so inhabitants of the island around 99 per cent are Muslim.
It being lunchtime, I was tempted by the Koh lam sold by a smiling vendor from a basket on the back of his motorbike. This once ubiquitous of pit-fire bamboo stalks stuffed with sticky rice, red beans and sweetened coconut milk has virtually disappeared from Bangkok, however, like many fellow passengers-in-waiting, I opted for the more substantial fare served at a simple bamboo-hut restaurant opposite the pier. For a mere 25 baht – including rice, raw vegetables and ice water – I could choose any two Southern – style, seriously spicy curries from mouthwatering array.
Expecting to be touted onto one or the other of the two identical green wooden fishing boats waiting at the rudimentary pier, I was surprised when nobody hassled me, I discovered the owner were brothers anyhow. During the leisurely one-hour, 100-baht ride to the island, everyone aboard smiled and chatted, especially Prawat a middle-age Koh Yao Noi resident making the crossing with his grandson. The rambunctious gamin posed outrageously for my camera proffered his sticky snacks and learn up comfortably against me. What a delightful change from most Thai kids who generally scream and burst into tears at first sign of me.
Once docked at Manok pier on the southeastern end of Koh Yao Noi, Khun Prawat and the captain helped me across two boats and up steep stairway. A hand full of si lor drivers were waiting to ferry passengers in their tiny open trucks with two rows of benches in back. One broadly young man called Lee agreed to drive me to my first stop, KoYao Island Resort, in a “few minutes”. He wanted to wait for the next boatload of potential rides. We both knew his time designation could mean anywhere from five minutes to 30 and, of course, antsy me wanted to depart as soon as possible. “Oh go ahead and take her now.” Urged Khun Prawat in his best I-am older-so-you-must-obey-me manner, So Khun Lee and I headed off.
The round-face and jovial Khun Lee was born on Koh Yao Noi, but left in 1984 when his parents moved the family to Bangkok in search of work. In the ensuing years he visited the island often as a respite from the frenetic pace of Bangkok life and move back definitively in 2005. We bounced and clattered along the narrow, partially paved ring road that runs halfway up the east coast of Koh Yao Noi, where the better lodgings are situated, before it crosses over and heads back down to west coast. The road will soon be widened and completely pave, though the northern portion of the island, which includes national parkland and one hotel only accessible by boat. The Paradise Koh Yao should retain its remoteness.
In between pointing out the pristine rice paddies and rubber plantation on his peaceful tropical island – electricity only arrived at 1997 – Khun Lee was busily greeting almost every vehicle driver he passed. “Everybody knows each other and we always joke meuh, he explained. Literally to “raise hand”, the phrase means “wave”. Dropping me at my hotel, he said if I needed anything, be it an island tour, local meal or whatever, I shouldn’t hesitate to contact him. The offer was genuinely heartfelt.
Thirty minutes after arriving at Koh Yao Island Resort, I knew the surfeit of serenity would soon have me climbing the walls. The 15 stucco and thatched-roof bungalows are set on a long grassy expanse of bay front studded with coconut trees and a new infinity swimming pool. Widely separated, each bungalow faces an uninterrupted bay vista and boasts an airy indoor bathroom, large outdoor lounge area with daybed, chairs and a writing table. A romantic hideaway for couples definitely, but not for a single, hip replacement coveree. The menu proposed a large array of Thai dishes, but I surmised, correctly I later discovered, they’d be too tame for my reality-based palate.
“Please pick me up at 5 o’clock,” I begged Khun Lee by phone at 3 pm. Because of my serous shopping addiction, our first stop was the evening market in Tha Khai, the biggest “town” and site of the Koh Yao Noi government office. Originally the island’s seven small villages, or moo bhan, were classified by number of other distinguishing feature. Elders remembers today Tha Khai as Nawik because long ago the large electricity generator was located na (in front of) the wik (cinema in Southern Thai parlance). Similarly, the town’s tree-way intersection, sam yeak Tha Khai, because sam yeak seven after the island sole 7-11 opened there five years ago.
Despite my shopping proclivities, I was overjoyed to discover an island virtually devoid of tourist-related commerce, especially given the hyper-commercialization of so many other formerly pastoral Thai spots. I did find two beautiful patterned Indonesian sarongs at one open-fronted store that catered to a local Muslim clientele. Likewise the “market” consisted of small displace of local produce and fresh fish set out on long rectangular tables in front of a few individual shops. The fish comes from Phuket, explained Khun Lee; all locally caught fish is sold from the back of motorbikes. He also informed me that the island’s three principal income-generator, were fishing, rubber growing, and small-scale commerce. A late-afternoon tropical rain shower and oncoming darkness prevented us from exploring the island’s center, but Khun Lee treated me to a watery sunset
With so few visitors, this small island is encircled by secluded and scenic beaches.
Vista from a dead beachside road near the top of the island.“Beach” is a mutable concept on Koh Yao Noi because extremely low morning and evening tides transform its narrow strips of sandy coastline into huge brown expanses of exposed shells and scurrying animals. Privately, many locals hope the island’s serious lack of sandy white swathes of beaches will help stave off any rush to rampant overdevelopment.
Heading down to civilization we crisscrossed tiny villages illuminated only by the bulbs and fluorescent tubes inside homes; rural Koh Yao Noi has no streets lighting. Nocturnal joke meuh consists of blinking your head lights. I saw young boys practicing Thai boxing at make shift gyms, while the older ones played twilight soccer on dirt fields. The Muslim religion prohibits alcohol and the population’s teetotaler lifestyle and serious work ethic may account for the blissful absence of noise and raucous nightlife.
Khun Lee capped off his stellar tour by driving me to the tiny Koh Yao Lam Sai Resort & Seafood overlooking the sea. After much cajoling – drives don’t usually mingle socially with clients – Khun Lee shared my embarrassingly cheap and scrumptious four-dish seafood feast.
After subsequent day of serious inactivity, during which I did graduate from using my cane, I was definitely ready to move on. It’d be worth hiring a translator, or taking the lessons, to experience the authentic slice of Muslim fisherfolk life offered by the 25 families who participate in Koh Yao Noi Home stay programme (www.kohyaohomestay.com). The leaders of this great community,
Based organization, founded 12 years ago to teach villagers about ecotourism, speak some English but they won’t be with you 24/7.
My “family” consisted of 43-years-old fisherman Hem, his shy wife La who keeps house and work cutting rubber and sewing, an elusive 13-years-old daughter and seven cats. Their spacious seven-room concrete house sits at Pa Sai beach and can accommodate up to five guests at a time in two rooms. I’d barely picked mine before Khun Hem and Pirat were shooting me into a pickup for my three-hour tour of the island.
As we drove past vast rubber plantations, the guys stopped to teach me the minutiae of rubber planting and harvesting: trees take seven years to mature and 25 years of useful production before being turned into furniture. They showed me huge wood chicken wire fish traps near the Khao, the pier to Krabi and drove across the deserted interior passing still more rubber plantations and rice fields. Apparently rice cultivation is a side line, not a major income source.
The next stop was a Muslim fishing village set on stilts along Ta Ton Da. I strolled up and down, joking with the women who relaxed on their porches. Birdsong from the many caged specimens hanging above them filled the late afternoon air. We headed back to civilization passing a huge rice paddy and some local athletes out for their evening runs. Khun Pirat and Kun Hem rivaled Khun Lee in the yoke meuh department.
Back home in bathed, my first traditional Thai shower experience is 12 years, and sat down to Khun La’s yummy meal of steamed fish, prawn with beans and vegetable soup. Khun Hem proposed a post-dinner excursion to a one time shadow puppet performance, but I demurred because of our 7am fishing date the following morning.
The process of throwing out 31 three-metre nets tied together is extremely photogenic, but after watching Khun Hem and his young Brother laboriously hauling the nets back into the boat while extracting whatever shrimps and fish lay in them, I didn’t envy them their arduous calling. When Khun Hem doesn’t have guests, he fishes from 6am to 3pm. This time he left the net piled neatly and put-putted his wooden long-tail boat to Koh Pak Bai, one of the many islands visited by the hundreds of Krabi tour boats plying the archipelago their passengers made do eating rice and one topping out of a Styrofoam container while we feasted on Khun La’s lovely lunch served from a four-tiered stainless tiffin box
If, unlike me, you’re good at relaxing, your only stressful decision will be where to say in light of a wildly divergent range of choices. Opening in June on a hill adjacent to the koyao island is the new evason hideaway & spa at Yao Noi, with prices in ranging up to $10,000 a night with 56 uber-chic private villa. Each bamboo and bleaches wood hideaway offers a private butler, TV and wireless internet, while the most expensive also boast a wine cellar, gym and large private pool.
Down a quiet private road near the southern end of Koh Yao Noi, Lom’Lae Beach Resort (www.lolae.com) offers 11 bungalows with the old-fashioned simplicity of the original island huts updated with modern touches like walls that open onto the bay, stylish coldwater bathroom and lovingly prepared homecooking. For US$20 to $30 a night it’s great value. Next door at Koyao Bay Pavilions, three impeccably designed private villas each boast a separate isle and luxurious outdoor bathroom. Their rates, which start at US$140, include breakfast – the best coffee I drank anywhere on the island – and a two-hour massage.
Five days on Koh Yao Noi had so subdued even me that I didn’t want to return to the hubbub of my normal life.
Fortunately I discovered a wonderfully painless route back to civilization aboard a wooden long-tail boat belonging to the lovely Elizabeth and Sun of www.krabi-island-tours.com. I changed my return flight from Krabi and Elizabeth helped arrange a personalized day trip that included a pickup from Lom’Lae and excluded kayaking, camping, snorkeling or any other post hip-surgery strains. The loquacious former tour guide has great story about local life. Her ever-smiling husband Khun Sun cooks the best local food I ate on the trip. Docking at Ao Nang was a shock after the friendly simplicity of Koh Yao Noi and a day spent with Elizabet and Khun Sun but alas, paradise never lasts forever.
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