Nestled like a pair of bindi on the forehead of the Phang Nga Bay in the Andaman Sea, there are two islands Koh Yao Noi and Koh Yao Yai, simply translates to Little Long Island and Big Long Island. On either side of the bay is Phuket and Krabi, the islands peacefully maintain a distance by the sea from those tourist hot spots.
Koh Yao Noi being the smaller island of the two, it attracts even less tourists. Probably among the best kept secrets, a heavenly getaway in Thailand, yet just a ferry ride away from the bustling Phuket or the city of Krabi.
I heard about this island from a friend, Sumaiya, while we were having dinner at a traditional Thai restaurant in Bangkok. The discussion was not about the destination, it was about food. She and her husband Salman are big time foodies. I asked them which one is The Best Thai food you’ve ever had at a restaurant? They hesitated with a suspicious smile, Sumaiya began, it is a bit of an unusual place I’d say, a small restaurant hidden in a little jungle, on an island that not many people go to, an old woman, Auntie Gob runs this restaurant called Sea Gypsy, it is the best Thai food I have ever had in my life!
That is a big compliment as it was coming from those two, they lived in Thailand for several years, and among the most critical critics of food. I had a holiday combined with a long weekend (Eid Ul Fitr) in May 2022, I was thinking of taking off from my work in Bangkok and going somewhere. I explored Koh Yao Noi on the map, and quickly decided about going there. I wanted a solo trip where I did not want to see many people. I wanted to disappear in peace. Noi was the perfect destination for that. To shake off people from the vicinity even more, I decided to avoid Phuket, and travel through Krabi.
In the mid 2022 the Covid restrictions were still pretty strict throughout Thailand. The mandatory one night quarantine with the ‘test and go’ arrangement was still in force. That changed everything. I was stationed in Bangkok for a few months during that tenure, everything was still pretty empty and ghostly. Adding to that, the Krabi–Noi route and destination aptly made it the solo-est of solo trip for a week. As the hotels and resorts throughout the region were just coming back to life, they were also still super affordable.
It was my first domestic flight in Thailand, and I did not know much about what to expect. I booked a ticket through the Traveloka app with a Thai Lion Air flight from Bangkok DMK to Krabi KBV, a simple morning flight taking off at 09:50. Generally I arrive half an hour before domestic flights. Who knew that wouldn’t work in Thailand! I reached the check-in counter of Lion Air at DMK exactly at 09:00, i.e: 50 minutes before the flight time. They did not let me check in! They said that I was supposed to be there at least an hour before the departure time! Typical of low-cost careers, they would find any opportunity to make you pay.
I requested them if they could book me on another flight, no luck, no empty seats, while I checked the app only one airline had a few seats left for an exuberant price. I decided to go back to the city, and peacefully find something for the next day. This is the first time I missed a flight in my life, where I am somewhat responsible. I had one other missing flight experience, although it was not my fault, rather the airport screwed it up, and the airline offered me a free ticket on their next flight. Seattle Tacoma SEA airport did that mess, while I was traveling to Vancouver from Dubai, and transiting at SeaTac, that’s a story for another time.
Anyway, I booked another flight for the next day on VietJet, it was ok, I arrived at Krabi KBV timely. There are these shared SUV services run almost informally from Krabi airport that go to the Thalen pier. I got the front seat, and a couple from Ukraine got in the back. We kept talking about the recent escalation of the war, and told them about the hidden gem of a place I am anticipating to go. They were supposed to get off on the big road near their hotel, but it started raining, so I requested the driver to go up to their driveway. That was about a 15 minute detour for me.
The drive to Thalane Bay was stunning! Each turn was a delightful mixture of tall exposed rocks through the deep green foliage, the horizon dotted with layers of mountains.
There are two main piers in the island of Yao Noi with regular public ferry service. The bigger one is the Manoh Pier down south near the little town of the island, it connects Phuket, and the other one is at the northern part called Tha Khao Pier, it serves Krabi. From Krabi, Ao Thalen pier that connects the island is quite far away from Krabi airport. It is about a one and half hour drive from the airport to the pier. The ferry runs every two hours during the day.
I reached the pier at 13:03, asked around about where to buy the ticket from, it’s a little tea stall by the pier that sells the ticket. I bought one, only to find out that the 1pm ferry has just left! Similar to the domestic flights in Thailand, they are punctual by the second. The next one is at 15:00, I missed it for just about one or two minutes. That 15 extra minutes of altruism in Krabi for the Ukrainian couple got me stuck at this pier. I will now have to wander around Thalane Bay for two hours to get the next ferry to the island.
It was Eid day. I discovered that Krabi is a muslim majority area, specially these northern parts near Thalane, mosques, audible azan, hijabi aunties on motorbikes with colourfully dressed little ones on the back seat—the Eid festivities were quite visible.
The Thalane bay and the pier area is pretty, surrounded by shallow sea, hills and forests. Saw a few groups in kayaks in the water, very tempting. I was thinking if I would leave my bags behind, and jump on a kayak until my 3pm ferry arrives, only if I would have dressed for kayaking, I would have done that.
The ferry was better than what I expected. It had two 250 cc engines, pretty fast, with modern navigational equipment. At ฿250 for a 20 minutes ride to the island the ticket seemed comparatively expensive, I believe because of those petrol hogging high performance engines.
An auntie in a burkha on the ferry started talking to me, she asked where I am from, and if I am visiting the island, I asked the same if she is visiting as a tourist, she said no, she is visiting her family who lives there, it is part of their family ritual during the Eid. I noticed she was carrying cooked food in tupper-wares and gifts for children. She asked me where I am going to stay on the Island. I told her about the bungalow next to the pier, she exclaimed and said, oh you are going to stay at Anne’s? I said yes! She continued, Anne is a lovely person, you will enjoy staying at her facility. I have known her ever since she came to the island, and set up her cottages by the sea. Tell her you met auntie Marium on the ferry.
Realised, it is a tightly knit community, probably everybody knows everybody here, including the guests and frequent travellers to the island. Once the ferry hit the Tha Phra pier, I helped auntie Marium with carrying her bags up to the taxi. She was genuinely thankful. Then she said, let me find Anne for you, she probably is right here somewhere by her shop. She found Anne, brought her to me, Anne is a chirpy young woman with sparkly eyes full of energy. The first thing she said was, how could you manage to miss two transports in a row, a flight, and then a ferry, I was waiting for you since yesterday! I said, good things take time and effort, with a coy smirk, she laughed. She knew about the missing flight and ferry as I kept texting her about my progress and ETA.
Anne is probably in her late twenties. She grew up in Bangkok, graduated from a university in the city, and she never spent much time outside Bangkok. Until one morning, she decided to quit her job, leave everything behind, and start living in the island. She showed up with a backpack, and never left.
I followed her to a pretty little wooden bungalow right by the sea, it is just about two minutes walk from the pier. She showed me around the place. I got one of the few detached two storied bungalows, on the upper deck it’s one big room with a balcony by the road and the sea, with a little kitchenette and a bathroom—couldn’t have expected anything more. Once she left, I made tea for myself, and sat down by the balcony staring at the ocean. I thought, is this heaven on earth or what?
Browsing through the area, to my happy surprise, I discovered that Sumaiya’s favourite Sea Gypsy restaurant is right next to Anne’s bungalows! There is a lovely little beach and a tiny island in front of it, with boats and yachts anchored and moored across the bay on a backdrop of layered series of hilly islands throughout the horizon. There is also a yoga-shala nearby with accommodation facilities, checked out their weekly activity calendar and other workshop schedules—it seemed like it is quite a happening yet secluded place.
I was exploring the map to find if there is anything interesting nearby, saw a marker called Tha Khao Waterfall, and a visible street towards it on the map. In reality, it is not exactly a street but a trail through the forest. It was empty, I was the only person walking down the trail, and sometimes the forest is quite thick, and the sunlight does not penetrate easily in some places. Walking alone was a little scary. Before I could reach the water-fall, the trail ended in a dark, treacherous looking thickness of shrubs and foliages. I decided to come back. Later when I checked the comments by other people on Google Maps, everyone said, it is pretty easy to go there! Probably I took a wrong turn, and ended up in a dead-end of the forest.
Hungry, the last time I ate was a tiny sandwich in the early morning at DMK in Bangkok. Straight walked back to Sea Gypsy, and met ever smiling aunt Gob, the owner of the place who also lives there for more than thirty years. She’s originally from Bangkok, she and her husband moved here right after they got married. Her husband passed away about two decades ago, she continued the restaurants on her own, and a bunch of cats. It’s a pitched roof wooden house with a large front-yard full of trees, almost as if a cabin in the middle of the woods.
I ordered the most typical ‘qualifier items’—a bowl of chicken green curry with rice. And, hands down, this is by far the best Thai food I ever had. If not anything else, it is totally worth making another trip to this island just for eating at Aunt Gob’s. To add to the sweetness, she always offers a complementary little dessert, not sure if it was for everyone or for me, but after every meal, she brought something new everyday, with her ubiquitous big smile with a shyness of trepidation in anticipation of a comment. That hesitant smile is probably just out of sheer modesty, she probably is sure about the masterpieces she cooks as always.
It is often assumed that Thai people must be nice to tourists specially, it is not the case, they are even nice to each other when there are no tourists in the vicinity. I have observed they are equally and genuinely warm and smiling when they are greeting each other throughout the country. I hope this cultural attribute never changes for them, it is such a delight to observe and learn.
The most popular mode of transport in the island is motor-bikes. There is a grocery store near the pier that has everything including, rentable motor-bikes and kayaks. I went to the shop run by an old woman. I asked about renting a bike, she said, yeah, go pick one and start driving, it would be 200 baht per day, pay when you return it. I said, do I need to sign anything, submit any deposit, and are you going to give me the key? She laughed and said, we do not do those in the island, you just take the bike, they are all filled with enough fuel for a day, you can also keep it as long as you want, the keys are already there hanging with the bikes. I smiled and said, what if I disappear with your bike? You don’t know me! She said, I know enough, you arrived yesterday evening, staying at Anne’s, you met Marium on the way to the island, you are from Bangladesh, you are probably here for a week. And almost everybody knows which bike belongs to whom on the island. Also here nobody locks their bikes, everyone leaves their key behind with the bike, you can do the same. Ah lovely!
I planned to rent a bike the next day, and decided to get a kayak instead. This would be my first time kayaking in the sea. All my previous kayaking experiences were in the lakes with peaceful water.
There is a narrow creek that enters the island through the pier. A concrete deck with stairs goes down to the water in the creek, this is somewhat the easiest spot for dropping the kayak in the water. At around 4 in the afternoon, I started rowing.
As anticipated, kayaking in the sea is a whole different ball game! It was also quite windy, with clouds looming in the sky, the waves were quite high and strong. It takes about three to four times more effort to row in the sea than in a lake. After around half an hour of rowing, I reached a lovely beach all to myself. I sat down there to embrace the isolation.
I saw an island a little far from the shore, and decided to row all the way there. Meanwhile, the weather and the water both seemed to be getting angrier, and this time I was having to row against the tide and wind. Whenever I was getting too tired to row, I simply let the kayak float and follow the path of the wind. Sometimes the waves got so strong as if it would topple and flip the kayak. I somehow managed to stay afloat.
I continued to row to the island, and when I finally hit the shore, it turned out to be a dangerously rocky one. With the waves coming in strong, the kayak including myself were hitting hard on the rocks. It was not possible to tie the kayak somewhere, nor did it seem safe to walk on those rocks with sharp edges.
I decided to quickly go back. It has been almost one and half hours since I took off from the creek. After rowing for around half an hour more, I reached the pier, kept rowing towards the creek, only to find out to my surprise that the creek is no longer navigable! It has dried up due to low tide! The pier itself is quite high up from the surface of the water, and there is no easy way to dock a kayak and climb up. Now what?
I was rowing in circles around the pier like a moron to figure out how to go back to civilisation. Luckily I was carrying my phone, and it somehow had one bar of network. I called Anne, and told her about the situation. She said she will send someone to rescue.
A man with no shirt showed up on the pier shouting in Thai. I tried to make him understand that I needed to be picked up from the water. He glanced at a big parked boat. I rowed near it. He dropped a thick rope from the boat and asked me to tie it to the kayak. I did, then he threw another rope, I climbed the rope to get on the boat. Then we picked up the kayak. Phew!
Apparently there is a cyclone forming in the Bay of Bengal around the Andaman sea, not very far from the islands. The wind and tides are a little unpredictable. When I went to pay for the kayak rental, the grocery store lady tried to tell me that it could have been dangerous, I shouldn’t have disappeared for that long, and I should have checked the low-tide timing. Well, who knew that the creek dries up during the low tide!
The next morning I rented a bike, I got a Honda Click 125i. There was an interesting land formation I saw on the map. At the western edge of the island it looks like a tiny peninsula with a thin patch of land connecting to a tinier island. I decided to go all the way to the edge. A part of the drive was through a muddy road through a forest, I was the only person in the vicinity. When I reached the end of the peninsula, I parked my bike, and I noticed there is an extra turn in the key-hole that apparently enables an additional lock. I decided to lock it as there was absolutely no one around, and if I went down to the water and came back to see my bike gone, I would have to walk miles through the forest to go back to the town.
The water down there was stunning. The play of the tides to submerge the little connection to the tinier island was something I could keep watching for hours.
When I came up, the bike was still there, of course, but an extra lock I enforced hid the key-hole with a shutter. And I do not know how to open it. I tried everything! Luckily there was a slow and faint data network there. I sent photos and a little video recording of the lock and key to some friends, but nobody could help. Now I am stuck with a motorbike, several miles away from the nearest locality. While I was trying to open in every possible way with the key, I realised the bottom of the key-ring has this weird shape that seems like it fits in the locked keyhole, and it turned out to be the way to open the keyhole! Holey mother of…!
On the way back, I took a detour, and decided to explore the other sides of the island. Ended up crossing a fishermen’s village, impoverished, yet looks nice and organised. Clearly they do not have much to spare. I ate at a tiny road-side restaurant there, and I was the only tourist there. There was no menu, no price chart. No one can speak English. I just looked at what other people were eating and asked about similar things. The food was delicious, mostly fresh fish they might have recently caught.
The next day, Salman and Sumaiya came over to the island from Bangkok. They settled in a fancy hotel, stunningly beautiful with great food and an outstanding cafe nearby. Tha Khao Pier is a bit far from that hotel, so I moved to a place nearer to their hotel. This area has a significantly high number of the majestic hornbill birds, the de facto mascot of the island.
The next few days we splurged a little. Yet, our dinner destination was fixed, Aunt Gob’s Sea Gypsy. Now on two bikes we kept exploring new corners of the island, each one is a version of another fairy tale heaven.
One morning we planned to rent a long-tail boat and go to Hong Island. It is quite a popular destination, the backdrop of a few Hollywood movies, with a picturesque composition of mountains, forests and pristine beaches.
The Hong Island nature trail is short, yet diverse and beautiful, it often goes deep into thick forest, and opens up to glimpses of the sea and the mountains. The climb to the highest view point of the island is quite a tall one, although it has stairs all the way up, it will make you sweat. The view up there is worth every step you climb.
We hopped on to a few more smaller islands, secluded beaches, jumped into water wherever we got a chance. The last destination was the point where Koh Yao Noi almost meets its big brother Koh Yao Yai. A patch of navigable water separates the two. During low tide they steal a glance at each other in the calmness of water much closer than the rush hours. They keep whispering to each other about the intrigues of how to keep people from Phuket and Krabi away from these waters. I hope they succeed in their mission.
I had to leave, as I ran out of my out-of-station time, and had to report back to Bangkok. Salman and Sumaiya stayed back on the island. The next day in Bangkok, I received a very odd phone call from no other than Anne from the island. She was panting, and her words were entangling as she was speaking. What I could decipher was, my friends (Salman and Sumaiya) on the island had been in a bike accident!
I asked how bad it was. She was afraid to describe, but apparently Sumaiya suffered heavily on her belly and lower abdomen. Salman is also badly injured throughout his legs and arms, bleeding heavily, with probably a few broken bones. She was especially worried about Sumaiya. I probed, how are you sure it’s them? Where did you get the information? She said, it is the talk of the island already, she knows they are my friends.
Momentarily, I got a call from Salman, it did sound ominous. They were on the way to the hospital. The only healthcare facility on the island is a little tin-shade clinic to do the justice to the infrastructure, not exactly a hospital. The manager of their hotel took them to the hospital. Anne rushed in as well, she called me again from there, worried sick about both of them, she was panting while describing what they were trying to do there. She mentioned they were doing an ultrasound test on Sumaiya’s abdomen, to find out if there were any internal injuries. Anne kept informing me about the progress of the situation.
Anne confirmed, all their injuries seem to be at muscle and bone levels, no internal organs got affected, that was a sigh of relief! The hospital did not actually have any better facilities beyond generic first aid, the staff were overwhelmed and clueless. With the help of the hotel manager they were moved back to the hotel. That was an awful night. The beds of the hotel soaked in blood, as Salman was describing it to me later that night.
The next morning they were moved quickly on a speed boat to the Phuket branch of Bangkok Hospital, a top notch facility in Thailand. I decided to take leave from Bangkok, and go back to Phuket. I found a nifty little hotel near the hospital in Phuket town, the next few days I spent mostly at the hospital.
I originally had a loose plan on going to the islands through Krabi and coming back via Phuket, that way I could have seen both sides of the bay. Later I decided to avoid Phuket altogether, and got myself a return ticket from Krabi. Fate didn’t let me skip Phuket after all.
