Koh Phayam paradise
The little island of Koh Phayam drifts just off the coast of Thailand and seemingly in the waters of amnesia.
If most Thais have forgotten this 35sqkm dot in the Andaman Sea, it is because they've never heard of it.
Related: GUIDE TO THAILAND
Our speedboat skitters towards jungle-covered Koh Phayam (pronounced "pie-yam"), about 30km from the west coast port of Ranong. I see no condo towers or paragliders snagging its skyline. "We have nothing like that yet," a Thai passenger tells me. "And I hope we don't get them."
We land at the island's only "town", a low-key collection of markets, cafes and dive shops. There are no cars or real roads, few bars, no spas and little karaoke yowling - yet.
My hotel transfer turns out to be a Thai woman called Lemon who balances me and my bag on the rear of her motorbike.
We wobble west across the island on a narrow concrete path shaded by cashew trees. Phayam's accommodation consists of mainly bungalow resorts and I'm in Bamboo Bungalows, run by a mellow Israeli, Yuli and his Thai wife, Nute.
Before farang visitors came in any numbers, the islanders worked (and still do) at cashew nut farming, rubber cultivation and fishing.
"It was a Robinson Crusoe place back then," says Yuli, recalling the island when he arrived in 1997. "Foreigners were as rare as hornbills. There were only five resorts; now there are 35. We had the place almost to ourselves until about six years ago."
The resort looks out from beneath a fringe of palms, pandanus and casuarinas. Three kilometres of wide, clean sand arc to the north and south. I spot 15 or 20 people along it - a high- season crowd on Aow Yai Beach.
I grab a surf kayak and paddle out into the lazy blue swell. A small closeout wave breaks there all day long - hardly classic surf but still it's a wave and fun.
Phayam's like that - big on naps, long walks, longer reads and sometimes a trip to "town" to the Multi Kulti bakery or a beer at Oscars bar.
I hire a motorbike for 200 baht ($7) a day and explore the island, all ten-by-six kilometres of it. Phayam's roads amount to just 2.5km of 2m-wide concrete ribbon which runs over hill and scrubby dale, one path going east-west across the island and the other running north.
Branching from these, unsealed sidetracks cut through the bush to the beaches at Aow Yai (Big Bay) and Aow Kao Kwai (Buffalo Bay).
I head for the isolated northern beach of Aow Kwang Peeb, navigating a precipitous track carved into the jungle hillside. It drops me down to a perfect emerald bay with a sandy shoreline, where I dive straight in for a swim. Later I cruise home on a path fragrant with the fermenting musk of windfall cashew fruit.
I am revelling in an island whose appeal is defined by what it lacks - ATMs, watch-floggers, beer bars and taxi mafia.
As a traveller you may know the feeling of returning to a shore remembered for its wild beauty. You find instead an ironically named "wireless" world of cafes where travellers sit transfixed before screens in a zone where tweets trump actuality. So far, Phayam has avoided this fate.
May no copywriter hex it with the "P-for-Paradise" word because, as Marcel Proust gloomily decreed: "The only paradise is paradise lost."
Back at Bamboo Bungalows I lap up the cold beer and delicious tiger prawns and squid. My fellow guests are what you might call mature backpackers, mainly Europeans, couples and singles, with or without kids. Ironically, there is even a good internet connection.
Yuli jokes: "Guests complained when there was no internet, so I got it. They complained it was too slow, so I installed free wireless.
"The younger backpackers go to the 'bar islands'," adds Yuli, referring to demised paradises like Koh Samui, Phi Phi, Tao and Phangan, islands now awash with parties, tattooed limbs and pizza parlours.
Phayam is frequently described as being like Koh Samui or Phuket 30 years ago - a cliche freighted with troubling prophecy. Hopefully, "success" will be as blind to Phayam as the 2004 tsunami that flowed right past it.
FACT FILE
• Getting there: There is currently no air service to Ranong. Coaches depart Bangkok's southern bus station for the nine-hour, 568km journey to Ranong. Other coaches leave from Surat Thani, Chumphon and Phuket. At Ranong bus station take a motorcycle taxi or songthaew pick-up to the Koh Phayam speedboat pier, Saphon Pla. During high season, boats leave three times a day for the 40-minute trip that costs about $15. Koh Phayam is a year-round destination but is monsoonal June-October, with November-May best.
• Accommodation: Bamboo Bungalows offer four accommodation options, from basic cabins to reasonably luxurious cottages. Rates from about $20 to $60 a night. www.bamboo-bungalows.com
