Off the North West of the island of Koh Tao, there lies another much smaller privately owned island of Koh Nangyuan. Since being on Koh Tao for the past couple of months now, I’ve always thought to go visit Koh Nangyuan as I’d heard spectacular things about it. Of course it has popular spots for diving and snorkeling, but it also has a bit of hiking and provides beautiful views looking back on Koh Tao. To get there however one must either go on a snorkel/diving tour or hire a taxi boat. Since I was on my own I couldn’t justify paying the price for a taxi boat, however I knew that Anna (my neighbor in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica and whom I’d visited in Scotland and she’d visited me in Italy) was coming for a 5 week trip to Thailand. So I waited for her to come to do some of the activities that aren’t near as fun solo as with a traveling buddy.
When Anna first arrived we were absolutely lazy. I stopped doing Muay Thai, we slept in until 10 every day, had cocktails nightly on Sairee beach and generally lounged about. When I’m on my own I’m in travel mode which means saving every penny and taking advantage of every day. But when a friend arrives who is on vacation mode, the spending increases and the relaxing skyrockets! Isn’t that what people do on vacation?? After the first week however we snapped to and started actually planning activities that extended beyond reading books and napping on the beach. Afterall, there is literally so much to do and see on this teeny 21 square km island that it’s impressive!
One of the activities I saved for her visit was to visit Koh Nangyuan. But instead of going there the “conventional” way, we opted to kayak there :). Deb and Rick (friends I’d made on the island who own my favorite coffee and sandwich shop on the island, Through the Looking Glass) suggested where to go to rent the kayaks. So semi-early one day after a couple of cups of coffee, Anna and I made our way to Wind Beach for the kayak rental. For 600 baht we rented a double kayak complete with life jackets and a dry bag for the entire day. We were supposed to give something as a deposit for the rental (passport- though recently I heard it’s actually illegal for people in Thailand to hold your passport, monetary deposit, room key, something!) but as we didn’t arrive THAT prepared, after a few minutes the guy simply said, “no problem, just write your name, where you stay on the island and where you from”. Good thing!
We packed the kayak with our stuff and a large plastic bottle of water, snapped on the life vests and headed out to sea! I’d only done sea kayaking once before in my life and that was years ago in Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica in a single kayak to boot. Riding in a double kayak is a teeny bit different. First off communication is KEY!! For if one person is paddling right and the other left, well no one would get anywhere! Since Anna is similar in nature to myself however, even when we did goof up or get out of sync, we simply laughed it up and got back in communication. It did take probably the first 10 minutes or so for us to completely organize ourselves with our respective duties on the kayak (Anna in the back would call out commands- left, right, steering!!- and I in the front would look out for obstacles) but once we did we rocked it out!
The morning sea while not insanely choppy did have quite a few waves to overcome. The channel between Koh Tao and Koh Nangyuan is often frequented by passing dive boats, tour boats and taxi boat traffic which added to the waves, but we took it all in stride. Currents were another thing to contend with as we found ourselves often being spun toward land so we had to paddle to the left much more than to the right, which of course exhausted that side faster.
We crossed the channel safely however and then were faced with a new question… Where are we supposed to park this thing over there?? We weren’t given any instruction when we left so who knew where it was appropriate to land… The first little bay area we reached, just next to the pier where the boats came in, was where we decided to go and we very slowly and carefully navigated our way to shore. I say “slowly and carefully” because just beneath the surface were tons and tons of coral and sea slugs/cucumbers! We had to paddle very shallowly as well so we wouldn’t knock any corals and navigating became a bit trickier to avoid the living marine life. We thankfully made it to shore without incident to marine life however and pulled the kayak to dry land.
It just seems that each beach that I’ve been to in Thailand just gets more and more beautiful than the next. Koh Nangyuan is no exception!! The structure of the island is essentially two small island connected by a sandbar which on either side exists beautiful ocean bays full of a ridiculously lush array of sea life! We immediately had to get in the water to cool off and do a bit of snorkeling. The snorkel didn’t last terribly long that first time however because the fish in that particular bay kept nibbling at us… Guess they knew we were new to the island, lol!!
As we emerged from the first “dip in the pool” we were approached by a Thai gentlemen who obviously worked on the island. He asked if we were the ones with the kayak and then said we had to each pay 100 baht to be on the island… It was then that we were told that this island was privately owned and hence there was a fee to walk about it and play in the waters surrounding it… We did come with plenty of money, but it would have been nice to know in advance of this extra charge. So I’m sharing it for future travelers! Also, I don’t know if for the taxi boats, if the charge to get there includes or not the 100 baht fee to be on the island… In any event, just be aware of this additional cost.
Moving on. The small island bit to the South had a walking trail that led around the edge of the island to a beautiful viewpoint, so we headed off on it to check it out. Mind you, it is possible to sleep on the island so as we skirted along the very shady (i.e. sketchy) barely still standing wooden plank path, we were passing several pleasant-looking bungalows. We went to the viewpoint that was on the southernmost tip of the island and then had to turn back as the wooden path was falling apart and almost demolished in bits beyond a point, and headed up the trail that led to the top of the island for another viewpoint.
Though it was very hot and the walk was completely uphill, it really wasn’t a terrible walk by any means and not terribly high either. The only struggle really was competing for space at the top on the rocks to be able to take pictures without other in them! There seemed to be quite a few impatient people really who wanted to simply scramble to the top, took ages getting “just the right shot” with them in them and then hauled down. So needless to say it took us a bit of time to get some shots, and once completed we leisurely made our way down.
At this point it was time for a nibble of food and as we sat down at the only restaurant on the island with our plastic water bottle in tow, it was then we noticed the signs just about everywhere that read “NO PLASTIC BOTTLES”…. Ooooppsss!!!! Apparently plastic containers are NOT allowed on the island and all beverages from the restaurant are served in glass containers. Again, just another little tip for future travelers:) We were never yelled at for having the bottle however and we made a very big point of being sure to carry the bottle home with us, regardless of it being empty.
After the nibble it was time to check out the North end of the sandbar to see what kind of snorkeling action we could get there. Don’t worry mothers we did wait about a half hour after food to go swimming 😉 The North end of the sandbar was lined on both sides with umbrellas and beach chairs and seeing as the sun was out in full force, we opted to pay the 150 baht for the set-up. This part of the island was by far my favorite and it as quite evident it was the favorite of just about everyone else there too. The water was crystal clear and reminded me of the waters I’d seen at some of the beaches on the Island of Elba off the Tuscan coast. I lovingly started to refer to that bay as the “kiddie pool” as the waters were very calm, quite deep, but so clear you could simply stand on the edge and see all the marine life. All sorts of fish (including puffers!!), sea urchins, anemones an cucumbers could be found in a relatively small area. The bay was large enough however to accommodate several dozens of snorkelers and several classes of divers working on their refresher course. It was absolutely spectacular snorkeling that I spent at least an hour exploring.
The rest of the day was simply spent reading under our shade, dipping in the kiddie pool to cool off, snorkeling and generally relaxing. Around 4 we decided to head back to Koh Tao to turn in the kayak and though the waters were calmer in the afternoon, we did have some harrowing moments as the boat traffic (we must have hit rush hour) was a bit on the ridiculous side! But after about 45 minutes and dodging about a dozen boats or taxis, we made it safe to shore and headed straight to the Wind Beach bar for a nice cold beer. We watched the sunset while sipping on our beers (though it was quite cloudy at that point so not the best sunset sadly) and I even bought a beach dress from a traveling sales lady. Though we were both exhausted from our day of activities, we had plans for the night as well… It was time to check out the Lady Boy Cabaret!
Ramblintraveler 