Unsullied simplicity of Koh Tarutao
With about eight million international tourists winging in each year to Phuket's gridlocked glamour, many smart travellers are seeking out quieter islands.
So, anyone up for the extreme opposite of the Phuket-Samui-Phi Phi experience? Mu Koh Tarutao archipelago on Thailand's far southern Andaman coast is a 52-island national park that's lush with jungles and looped with beaches, and home to bizarre tales of pirates who operated out of there during World War II.
Koh Tarutao, the archipelago's main island, is reached by a two-hour speedboat trip from the mainland port of Pak Bara. You disembark to an untrammelled shore - not an ATM, bling resort, tailor's pimp or jet ski in sight.
Instead, Tarutao gives you arms-wide expanses of silica sands, a bottle-green sea, a bungalow, jungle roads to cycle and, at the end of the day, a cold beer and plate of pad Thai at a beachside canteen. What more do you want?
The uninhabited Koh Tarutao- Koh Adang archipelagos are as far south as you can go before hitting Malaysia (Langkawi Island is just kilometres away). Their towering rock formations and crystal waters are part of Thailand's first national marine park and, with the exception of Koh Lipe, are still off the radar for large groups and massed day-trippers.
The reward for making it all the way here from the frenzy of Bangkok or throng of Phuket is the pure simplicity of the place. The bonus is sea eagles, macaques, monitor lizards and mercifully "unimproved" beaches.
Koh Tarutao, the largest island (152sqkm), has bungalow clusters near the national park headquarters at Phante Malacca Bay and on Ao Molae and Ao Son beaches. The bungalows are basic and cost about $20 a night. Mine, on the beachfront, has an ageing but adequate bathroom, clean double bed with mozzie net and, booming in the rafters, the world's loudest gecko. We get five hours of electricity each night. Book in advance, or hire a tent from the park office and camp under the stars and son talay sea pines.
It wasn't always so languid. At one time Tarutao was Thailand's version of Devil's Island. Between 1938 and 1949, up to 3000 criminals at a time were incarcerated here, with a 30km-wide sea moat full of sharks and crocodiles separating them from the mainland. Malaria added to the torment. Housed separately to the common prisoners was a group of rebel Thai officers and aristocrats exiled here after a failed coup.
During World War II when Thailand was occupied by Japan, food supplies from the mainland were severely rationed and starvation set in. Some prisoners and guards turned to piracy in the nearby Strait of Malacca, with their raids on passing Malay and Penang trader boats becoming increasingly bold and violent. So successful were they at pillage that even when the war ended they continued raiding, until being routed in 1946 by a 300-strong British Royal Navy force.
Today you can cycle or hike to Ao Thalo Wow, where the main prison stood. The original structures are long gone but walkways lead to several reconstructed buildings and good signage tells the tales of life and death in this tropical purgatory.
If you've revelled in unsullied Tarutao and its character-building early nights, then nearby Koh Lipe might either appeal or appal. Lipe (pronounced Lee-pae), Thailand's southernmost island, was not included in the Tarutao National Park as it was already home to Chao Lay sea gypsies who, over time, have leased much of their land for tourist developments. An hour's boat ride south from Tarutao, you step on to Koh Lipe's busy Pattaya beach and are funnelled into a hyper-Thai consumption gauntlet known as Walking Street.
Pizza, convenience stores, dive shops and cool bars come at you. The side streets are alive with restaurants, stalls and lodges. There's not a macaque or monitor in sight. Instead, you find gappers and rappers, little motorbike taxis, great seafood, burning sunsets, walk-out reefs, snorkelling trips and hot water in the shower. Ornithology here would be the Eagles, not sea eagles but it's still fun. The lagoon is the colour of Tahitian turquoise and Devil's Island was never like this.
FACT FILE
The national park entry fee is 200 baht ($6.50). Accommodation is available through Thai National Parks. dnp.go.th.
The best time to visit Koh Tarutao is November-April. For more information, visit kotarutao thailand.com and kohlipe.net.
