The secret lagoon

7th January 2011

It’s the kind of place a film-maker or a fantasy novelist would invent. A tiny island in the Andaman Sea, less than half a kilometer across with sheer cliffs on all sides. But on one side there is a hole in the foot of the cliff, visible only at low tide, through which a swimmer could swim or a kayaker could kayak. Through the hole? The whole island is hollow inside, open to the sky, a secret lagoon filled with mangrove trees, birds, roosting fruit bats, mudskippers and big crabs among the roots.

It’s called Ko Roi, and although there was one other longtail boat rocking in the surf outside when we arrived, the South African couple who were already there left and we had it all to ourselves. Magic.

There’s another more famous hidden lagoon called Ko Hong, apparently the inspiration for the book and film “The Beach”. It’s more famous, probably more idyllic, and thus sees a constant turnaround of longtails and speedboats coming from Phuket, Krabi, Ko Yao Noi and Ko Phi Phi every day. And so by my own personal definition, Ko Roi is far more beautiful for its solitude.

Ko Roi was the star of today’s long excursion. We chartered a longtail boat, put a sea kayak on top, and headed north from Lom’Lae. Ko Roi was the first stop, where we unloaded the kayak and the boatman indicated that the cave entrance to the lagoon was around the corner. We circumnavigated the whole island, giving him a huge fit of hysterics when we appeared again looking perplexed. In our defense, it’s pretty tricky to spot! Our other stops on the day were a huge buttress-root tree a hundred yards back from the beach in some truly beautiful ferny rainforest on Ko Yao Noi itself, and another island called Ko Kudu which has the same sheer cliffs and a hidden beach to chill out on. The weather turned in the afternoon and we raced back to Lom’Lae and stepped ashore just as the sky threw down a sudden bucket of warm rain.

I must mention that we have to thank Bao, our guide from Khao Sok, for telling us about Ko Roi. It isn’t a place that Lom’Lae arrange trips to, though once we mentioned it to them they agreed it was lovely – perhaps locals like it to be kept as a secret? By sheer coincidence we bumped into Bao outside his house on Ko Yao Noi yesterday. He’s a busy chap; as well as guiding for Paddle Asia he also runs a business making rotis (filled pancakes) with his wife which are sold in shops all over Ko Yao Noi as breakfasts for locals, and he was good enough to ask a shop-keeper to keep a couple back for us, as they typically sell out by 7AM. Oh yes, and he runs a mobile phone shop during the tourist off-season when there are no kayak tours.

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