8th January 2011
I never really set the scene for our island retreat. Ko Yao Noi is a 12km long island in Phang Nga bay, a huge sheltered bay full of tiny limestone islands. Think ‘The Man With The Golden Gun’ and you’re right there. Ko Yao Noi is very laid back and nowhere near as developed as nearby Phuket or Krabi – the reason seems to be that all the beaches are shallow and rocky further out, so swimming is only possible around high tide. It’s mostly rural, with just a handful of mainly bungalow resorts and a couple of high-class ones. Lom’Lae is beach bungalows, rustic but comfortable unless you have a particular dislike of wildlife invasions!
The iconic little islands of Phang Nga bay are sisters to the crags and islets of Khao Sok lake where we were a week ago, and cousins to the limestone karst hills where we went caving back at the start of our Thailand adventure. It’s all the same north-south range of limestone mountains, high and dry in the north and swallowed by rising sea in the south.
Our day today was a relaxing amble around the island on bicycles and a final swim in the sea, so with no particular theme I’m using my blogging time to select a gallery. Although intended as a wind-down, we’ve actually seen lots of wildlife on Ko Yao Noi, and tonight I finally managed to photograph a fruit bat visiting the bunch of bananas we hung on the balcony of our bungalow.
Related Images: