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Koh Tao's Bays and Viewpoints: Shark Bay, Freedom Beach, Tanote and the Quiet East

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Koh Tao's Bays and Viewpoints: Shark Bay, Freedom Beach, Tanote and the Quiet East Our first Koh Tao guide covered the island as a whole — diving, snorkelling, Sairee Beach and the quiet bays in outline. This one goes deeper, bay by bay and viewpoint by viewpoint, because Koh Tao rewards people who move. The island is only about seven kilometres long, yet its coast is a string of separate bays, each cut off from the next by granite headlands and steep green hills, each with its own mood, its own water, and its own reason to go. Sairee, on the west coast, is where most people sleep and eat. The bays in this guide are where most people should spend their days: Shark Bay and Freedom Beach in the far south, Chalok Baan Kao as the south's easy-going base, Ao Leuk and Sai Daeng on the south-east, Tanote and Hin Wong on the wilder east coast, and Mango Bay in the far north. Above them sit the viewpoints — John-Suwan above the southern bays, Mango Viewpoint in the centre, and the hig...
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Eating on Koh Samui: Night Markets, Walking Streets and Southern Food

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Eating on Koh Samui: Night Markets, Walking Streets and Southern Food If you eat only in beach restaurants on Koh Samui, you will eat well — and you will miss the island. Samui's real food life happens in the evening, on streets that close to traffic, in markets that set up on a different night in a different town, and in small morning markets where the day's fish, curry paste, herbs and fruit change hands before most visitors have had coffee. The good news is that Samui, spread around a ring road of roughly fifty kilometres, has a market somewhere almost every night of the week. The trick is knowing which night belongs to which town, what each market does best, and what to order when you get there. This guide puts it together: Fisherman's Village in Bophut on Friday, Lamai on Sunday, Maenam on Thursday, Chaweng's nightly food economy, Nathon's local evening market, the morning fresh markets that feed the island, and the southern Thai dishes that make Samui differe...
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Location: Ko Samui, Ko Samui District, Surat Thani, Thailand
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Koh Phangan's North and West Coasts: Haad Yao, Haad Salad, Mae Haad and Bottle Beach

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Koh Phangan's North and West Coasts: Haad Yao, Haad Salad, Mae Haad and Bottle Beach Most people hear one name when they hear Koh Phangan: Haad Rin, and the Full Moon Party. That beach, in the far south-east, is real, and for a few nights a month it is very loud. The rest of the island — and in particular the north and west coasts — lives a completely different life. Up here the roads climb over green hills and drop to a string of pale bays: Haad Yao, a long, easy beach made for families and long stays; Haad Salad, a smaller cove with a reef you can snorkel from the sand; Mae Haad, where a sandbar walks you out to the little island of Koh Ma; Chaloklum, a working fishing village in the north; and, reached by boat or by a jungle path, Bottle Beach — Haad Khuat — the isolated bay many regulars call the island's most beautiful. This guide covers that quiet side properly, beach by beach, with the practical detail you need to choose a base, time the tides, and move around without ...
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Location: Ko Pha Ngan, Ko Pha-ngan District, Surat Thani 84280, Thailand
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Koh Samui's Quiet Coasts: Choeng Mon, the South Shore and the Sunset West

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Koh Samui's Quiet Coasts: Choeng Mon, the South Shore and the Sunset West Most visitors meet Koh Samui on its east coast — Chaweng's long curve of white sand, Lamai a little further south, the airport road, the busy ring road. That Samui is real, and it is fun. But it is not the whole island. Turn away from the east and Samui changes pace completely. In the north-east corner, Choeng Mon keeps a calm, sheltered bay a few minutes from the airport yet a world away from the strip. Along the south shore, the road leaves the resorts behind and runs through fishing villages, coconut groves and shallow, tidal beaches where the day is set by the sea, not by a timetable. And on the west coast, at Taling Ngam and Lipa Noi, the island faces the sunset, the mainland hills and the scattered islands of the Ang Thong chain, and evenings are the main event. This guide covers those quiet coasts properly — where they are, what each one is actually like, who they suit, and how to fit them into a...
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Location: Ko Samui, Ko Samui District, Surat Thani, Thailand
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