A trip to Koh Yao

We left in the afternoon to catch the ferry from the North of the island - Bang Rong Pier. Looking at the timetable there seems to be a speedboat or a Long tail to the - starting at about 7:30 in the morning and the last one back is about 16:30.

The bicycle was the biggest piece of luggage that we had and Jemma was more than happy with the wind and the noise. The trip was about 45 minutes and we first stopped at Koh Yai Ya at Klong Ho Pier.

Then we sped to Koh Yao Noi where we left the boat and looked for some transport. We turned on our phones and looked for a place to say - HotelsByMe is a popular one because it located us first in relation to the island. 

We took the taxi to Pasai Beach where we started to look for somewhere to stay - I am happy that the 'exclusive' hotel was full and the driver took us to Koh Yao Beach Restaurant Bungalow. Think that it was 1,400 Baht but Jemma fell in love with the mosquito netting over the bed and so it was set.

We returned to our spot last year - Villaguna Restaurant - for lunch / dinner - a lovely spot but not as busy and the food was not as good as previously. After lunch / dinner we travelled up the island as far as Six Senses but then the hill seemed to be too steep...

Getting up early I went onto the beach to take some photographs of the sunrise... Then we all got up to find breakfast, this was not an easy exercise - Jemma was not taken with the roadside cafe and we followed the road until we reached Koh Yao Island Resort for breakfast - a fabulous breakfast and location.

Jemma was excited that she could have bacon for breakfast and then there was the Monitor Lizard that she found in the gardens.....

We left and cycled back to Pasai beach where Jemma was more than excited because there were local children playing in the water - this was great for her.

Then we met a local fisherman who was using his drag net for crabs - Jemma loved watching him pick them off the nets - even asking him whether she could help pull in the nets.

We showered and changed and then we made our way to Ko Yao Bay Pavilion - this was certainly an exclusive hideaway - we got lost three times!!!! We stayed at the Champa Villa with a private pool - luxury was certainly the dice we had thrown here.

We had dinner here and the Banana Bud Salad was immaculate - thank you.

Returning to our villa we relaxed in our hammocks but did not last long because it was an early start to the Island trip the next morning.

The islands trip was certainly something which you must do and I would agree with all of the reviews that you MUST leave early to avoid the 'rest of the tourists'.

The first island which we arrived at had a group of tourists who had obviously been there all night.

We walked along the beach and met another fisherman with his drag net. It was at this point that there were a number of other fishing boats arrive with a couple of speed boats - it was time to leave.

The next island was Lao Landing island (เกาะเหลาลาดง) - it was quiet still - our fisherman was quite happy keeping one step in front of the others...

The next stop was mind blowing - in fact i think that i have visited this location previously with John Gray Sea Canoe - Koh Hong (เกาะหอง).  

Because it was high tide we were able to enter into the Hong on a long tailed boat - or a canoe - beautiful.

Jemma and the fisherman then fished for cockles in the mud....

The last stop was beautiful and the water was clear BUT there were a lot of tourists - Than Bok Khorani National Park. The park actually is a Marine Park so is actually a number of islands so locating where we actually were was not easy.

Beautiful - again - definitely worth getting up early :)

We were taken back directly to Ko Yao Bay Pavilion so we chose to immediately go for a bicycle ride.

 We found an ice cream and bakery with air-conditioning - Koh Yao Bakery & Ice Cream.

Cycling around some of the island we crossed a bridge which had been painted purple and was donated to the local people by HRH. A wonderful bicycle ride and we returned.

Suddenly we realised we were late - the penultimate speed boat was at 16:00 and we might not make it - we loaded the bicycles onto a motorbike 'carry all' and we sped BUT missed it. 

We sat at the jetty hoping that the last one was running and it was :)

We left Koh Yao smiling and hoping to return.

View Trip to Koh Yao Noi in a larger map