A slice of heaven in Southern Thailand

In March 2016, and immediately following a weekend climb up Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, a week in Thailand was on the cards. A little jaded with the usual destinations, I suggested we find somewhere a little off the beaten track. The ‘undisturbed paradise’ which most of us suspect no longer exists.

So the good lady consulted some friends with some local knowledge and drew up an itinerary which would see us visit Koh Muk and Koh Kradan, two tiny little islands in the Southern Andaman Coast region.

Getting to Koh Muk (Mook?) required a flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok, a flight from Bangkok to Trang, a night in Trang City, a 30 minute taxi from Trang City to the ferry pier, and a boat ride to Koh Muk.

And that wee boat ride took us directly to Sivalai Beach Resort. And if there was ever any doubt as to whether all those connections were worth it, or whether undisturbed paradise exists, those doubts were dispelled before we’d even felt the powdery sand beneath our feet.

The resort sits on a spit of sand, surrounded on three sides by a gently sloping beach, fringed with gently swaying palm trees. With pristine white sand, sparkling turquoise waters and a stunning blue sky, it is picture perfect. If paradise exists on earth, this is as close as I have ever come to finding it.

The resort’s chalets are right on the beach. As you wake in the morning, you can see sand, sea and sky directly at the foot of the bed. Step off the terrace, onto the sand, and you’re in the sea in a matter of seconds.

Obviously it is not completely undisturbed – it is a resort after all – but it is sufficiently discrete to make it feel completely off the beaten track. It strikes a perfect balance between comfort and seclusion, without any sense of mass tourism. And at this time of year, it was far from busy.

The island is small – about seven square kilometres. Half the island is National Park, with cliffs and mountains in the centre and west, a few isolated beaches, and the three-sided beach at Sivalai in the east. It has one small mosque, a school, a clinic, 2 ATMs, and a police box. All businesses are locally owned and there are no global megabrands…no McDonalds, Starbucks, 7-11. And it’s predominantly Muslim, which means there isn’t much nightlife. All of which makes it all the more appealing to me…not a single stoned raver in sight.

It also means there isn’t a lot to do apart from sit on that gorgeous beach, and wallow in the shallow water that slips gently away to the sea. Day after day.

We did get off our butts on occasion and hired a wee motorbike to explore a little. That led us to the western side of the island and a beach known as Haad Farang. Given that farang is the (derogatory) Thai word for foreigner, I’m not sure that the name is entirely complimentary. But it’s a spectacular setting, with heavily forested cliffs surrounding the small bay. There’s also a lovely restaurant (Charlie Bar) situated slightly up the cliff at the left hand end. It’s a perfect spot from which to grab a beer, gorge on fresh prawns, and watch the sun set over the Andaman Sea.

The other must-see on Koh Muk is the Emerald Cave (Tham Morakot). So we hired a feller and his long-tail and headed out to see what that’s all about. We puttered around to the west side of the island, where the sheer cliffs drop spectacularly into the ocean. Pulling alongside another boat, he killed the engine and gestured towards a barely discernible opening at the foot of the cliff-face. Equipped with some fins, mask, snorkel and torch, we made our way towards this opening, and then carried on right through.

The cave runs for fifty metres or so through the cliff, with just two or three feet headway, and for the most part it is pitch black. But then the light increased and we emerged into bright sunshine, into a lost world. There’s a small turquoise lagoon and an equally small beach, completely encircled by forested limestone cliffs towering above. It is utterly, gobsmackingly, beautiful.

But it is also very popular and in truth a little busy. Search online and you’ll find pictures of some lucky souls who managed to be there alone; and good luck to anyone who can achieve that.

After three or four days in Koh Muk the stress was getting too much. It was time to decamp somewhere even quieter. So we found a boat, and made the short ride over to Koh Kradan, another colossus in the pantheon of Thai islands. It covers an area of just 2.4 square kilometres. Now that is small. There are no roads, no stores, and no ATMs. There isn’t even a local village.

The only infrastructure are the few resorts offering accommodation, one of which, The Sevenseas Resort Koh Kradan, at the higher end of the albeit limited range, was to be our home for the next three nights. The rooms are spotlessly clean, well-appointed and spacious, but don’t quite have the beach-bum feel of Sivalai.

And to some extent, the resorts have got you by the short and curlies. On Koh Muk we spurned our resort restaurant each night and went out in search of smaller, more local alternatives. On Kradan, we ate outside of the resort once, in a disappointing Italian restaurant on the beach; and resigned ourselves to paying inflated prices for dinner in the resort on the other two nights. Kradan is not a cheap option – but then we’re not backpackers either.

In Koh Kradan’s favour, it does have a rather beautiful beach (voted the ninth best beach in the world by Guardian readers in 2016). It’s a long, narrow, beach of powdery white sand, running for two kilometres down the eastern side of the island. The views across to Ko Ngai, Ko Muk, Ko Libang and numerous other limestone karsts are absolutely gorgeous.

At high tide, the beach virtually disappears. But at low tide, the gradual shelf extends seemingly for miles – it feels like you could walk back to Koh Muk. We’d spend hours wallowing around in the shallow waters, surrounded by the abundant sergeant fish. There wasn’t much else to do.

As I’ve said, Koh Kradan is small. We walked as far as possible down the beach, and it didn’t take long. We walked across the island to Sunset Beach, and that didn’t take long either. 

If there was little to do in Koh Muk, there really is nothing to do on Kradan. And even in paradise, there is a limit. So I left the good lady on the beach and booked myself in for a couple of dives.

I hadn’t been diving for a long time, and wasn’t wholly sure how competent I’d be. But it turned out there was only me, the dive instructor and the boatman. So a little one-on-one attention was always going to compensate for a lack of confidence.

Now I couldn’t tell you where we went – I don’t think I’ve updated (or even seen) my logbook since my very first dive – but it was all very comfortable and relaxing with good visibility, pristine coral and plentiful marine life. After which, the instructor decided I was sufficiently competent to manage a cave dive. As we entered the cave, and turned back to look the way we’d come, the light streamed down through the cave entrance, beautifully silhouetting the numerous fish milling around. Stunning. We then surfaced inside the cave, in little more than an air-pocket, had a look at some rock formations that have never seen the light of day, and made our way out again. In truth, it was probably not the best dive site on planet earth, but having not dived for a long time, it was just what I needed to reignite my enthusiasm for diving.

And then it was back to the beach to wallow in the shallows again.

I’m sure there are other places more beautiful, and certainly more luxurious; more worthy of the label ‘paradise’. But Koh Mook and Koh Kradan gave us exactly what we wanted. Not too far from home in Hong Kong. Sufficiently developed to provide a degree of luxury and comfort. Yet sufficiently off the beaten track to avoid mass tourism. A little slice of heaven.