16 June 2019
One of the most popular day trips from Ao Nang is the “4 Islands Tour by speedboat or long-tail boat”. This full-day tour from Krabi would typically includes visits to Koh Poda (Poda Island), Koh Gai (Chicken Island), Koh Tup and Koh Mor (Tup Island) and Phra Nang Beach located at the Railay Peninsula.
Since June is the start of the monsoon season in Krabi, the weather is unpredictable. It was prudent to arrange a trip out to sea only on a day with good weather forecasted.
I was watching the weather forecast in the days leading up to our trip to Krabi. The weather forecasted for all the days during our stay in Krabi were almost similar – “cloudy with some showers” or “cloudy with thunderstorms in the morning”. I had experienced similar weather back home. Even if it rains, the rain would be short in duration and the rest of the day is likely to be fine.
I actually booked our boat trip on the day we arrived at Krabi after assessing the local weather first hand on site.
Private long-tail boats could be chartered at the booths located at Ao Nang beach. These are typically smaller boats with capacity of up to 15 persons only.
I wanted to go out to sea with a reliable and reputable tour operator, proven guides and a seaworthy long-tail boat that is large enough to take our group of 17 persons. My travel group includes kids and also elderly persons. So, safety and assurance that we would be well looked after is paramount, especially in unpredictable weather.
I contacted Andaman Camp and Cruise who runs only private trips. They responded very swiftly via email and I booked our boat trip while riding on the van to our hotel in Ao Nang. Our trip included lunch. Upon booking, we were asked to specify if there are any dietary restrictions in our travel group and how spicy we wanted our food to be.
On the day of our trip, we were picked up by our 2 guides, Ying and Mos, from our hotel in Ao Nang in a songthaew. Two trips were needed to ferry our group to the south side of Noppharat Thara Beach.
Typically, long-tail boats to the offshore islands are boarded along Ao Nang Beach. This requires everyone to wade in knee-deep water to get onto the boats. It was high tide in the morning, so we could board our boat from the quay at Noppharat Thara Beach without getting our feet wet.
The large long-tail boat with the name of the operator painted at the bow.
Based on tidal conditions for the day, our plan was to the visit the following places in this order:
- Phra Nang Beach.
- Chicken Island for snorkelling.
- Poda Island for lunch and swimming.
- Tup Island would be visited at low tide. At low tide a sandbar emerges from the clear waters linking the larger Koh Gai (Chicken Island) to the two smaller islands of Koh Mor and Koh Tup.
Journey to Railay Peninsula and Phra Nang Beach.
Our first destination was to be Phra Nang Beach, located on the Railay Peninsula. Railay is not an island but it felt like one. It is actually a peninsula located just south of Ao Nang. With three of its sides surrounded by the sea and a range of steep limestone cliffs that cuts it off from all roads to the “mainland”, the only way to get to Railay is by boat.
There are four main beaches at Railay – Railay West, Railay East, Phra Nang and Tonsai. Based on my previous trip to Railay, I knew that Phra Nang Beach is the best for swimming. There is also an interesting Princess Cave at Phra Nang Beach.
The boat ride from Noppharat Thara took about 20 to 25 minutes. The sea was slightly choppy as the boat sped towards Railay. Those who sat in the shaded cabin got slightly wet from the sea spray. I chose to sit on the bow to enjoy the sun and chat with our guide. The bow was the driest part of the boat.
I enjoyed the boat ride as it felt good to be out in the sea again with the sun on my back and wind in my hair. It was also good to see the excited and happy faces of my travel companions.
We could not land at Phra Nang Beach due to the high tide. Our boat landed us on Railay East Beach instead. This beach is flanked by mangroves and limestone cliffs. The water was calm and shallow, so disembarking at Railay East Beach was very safe.
Disembarking from our long-tail boat at Railay East Beach.
Although we were among the first to arrive at Railay East, we were soon joined by a few other boats, including some speedboats. Railay East Beach got pretty crowded.
From Railay East Beach, a short trail led to Phra Nang Cave Beach. This trail was beneath the overhanging limestone cliffs and was quite a scenic walk.
We spotted monkeys along this trail, to the delight of the kids in my group and some adults too.
Phra Nang Beach
At high tide, only a small stretch of Phra Nang Beach was visible. This was so unlike the Phra Nang Beach I experienced on my previous trip during low tide.
There were just too many people packed onto a small part of the beach. If I were to visit Krabi again, I will only come to Phra Nang Beach during low tide when more of the white sand beach is exposed and accessible.
Although I did not really enjoy Phra Nang Beach this time, my travel companions who were the first time visitors seemed to enjoy themselves.
Besides shooting lots of photos of themselves in the water, they also went to check out Princess Cave (Tham Phra Nang Nok) with the thousands of lingams or carved wooden phallic symbols. These are offerings left inside the Princess Cave by locals.
Chicken Island (Koh Gai)
After about an hour at Phra Nang Beach, we returned to our boat at Railay East Beach. Refreshing canned drinks and bottled water were handed out as we sped across the waves to our next stop, Koh Gai or Chicken Island.
This island apparently got its name from an unusual rock stack that looked like the head of a chicken when viewed from certain angles.
There were already a few other boats moored outside an area marked by yellow buoys. These buoys outlined the area that is designated for snorkelling. Our boat moored just outside the marked area like the other boats.
The guides handed out face masks and life vests to those who wanted to do snorkelling. A few in my travel group had not snorkelled before but they were game to try.
The water at this point was about 10 to 20 feet deep with some coral reef beneath. But there were not many fish and sea-critters to see except for some striped damselfish fish nicknamed Sergeant Major because of the stripes.
Poda Island (Koh Poda)
After an hour of snorkelling, everyone was looking forward to lunch.
Our boat tried to land at a tiny secluded beach at Poda Island, nicknamed the “secret beach”. This white sand beach was surrounded by tall cliffs, emerald green water and isolated.
This would be a nice and quiet place for a picnic lunch. However, the sea condition was not suitable for a safe landing so we abandoned the site.
We finally landed at a long stretch of white sandy beach on Poda Island that was away from most other tour boats. There was only one other long-tail boat with a small group and they left soon after.
We had the whole beach to ourselves!
Our guides unloaded a bamboo table, some floor mats and a few boxes containing our lunch from the boat. We set up our picnic under some trees and under the watchful eye of a uniformed park ranger who was tasked to collect the National Park fees and ensure visitors kept the park clean.
Note: Fees are 400 baht/ adult and 200 baht/child, payable to the ranger at the island.
The lunch provided by Andaman Camp and Cruise was very good. We had plates of steamed rice with Thai dishes including curry beef, deep fried chicken, soup, mixed vegetables, egg and mushroom, curry vegetables and dessert wrapped in banana leaves. We also had plenty of cold canned drinks and bottled water too. Somehow, meals taken outdoor at a picnic always tasted better.
We had time to swim, goof around and snap plenty of photos on the beach on Poda Island.
Finally, it was time to head across to Tup Island. We could actually see Tup Island and Mor Island across the water from our beach on Poda.
Tup Island is joined to Mor Island by a sandbank. It is best to visit these islands at low tide.
During low tide, we could actually walk across another sand bank from Tup Island to Chicken Island. The area between the islands is called Talay Waek (also spelled as Thale Waek) which means ‘divided sea’ as the water is separated by the long ridge of sand at every low tide.
Shortly after our arrival at Tup, our guides set up a picnic table again and served up plates of cut pineapples and watermelon. This attracted the resident monkey named Johnny. Johnny was chased away by the resident National Park ranger before he could hijack our fruits or our belongings. We were informed that Johnny is the only monkey on Tup and there is another monkey living over at Chicken Island.
The tide was receding and soon enough, we were able to wade across the Talay Waek to Chicken Island. Park Rangers were stationed on Tup and Chicken Island to ensure no one crosses this stretch of water at high tide. Even at low tide, we could feel the water flowing across our feet as we “walked on water” from one island to another. It would be dangerous to attempt this crossing at high tide. We did not stay long at Chicken Island. The kids did some exploration of the rocky beach on Chicken Island before we crossed the sandbar again back to Tup Island. This time, the tide had receded further and more of the sand was exposed. We left Tup Island at about 3.30 PM. Our guides were concerned that if we leave too late, our boat may get stranded on the shallow beach. Tup Island was the last island we visited. From there, we headed across the open sea towards Ao Nang and Noppharat Thara Beach. The sea was choppier compared to the morning. This time, everyone was drenched by the spray from waves crashing against the bow of the boat as our boatmen steered the boat carefully through the rough sea. The youngest kid in our group did not enjoy the thrills of a rocking ride back to shore. We landed at Klong Haeng River, on the north side of Noppharat Thara Beach. From there, we were ferried by songthaew back to our hotel. Overall, we had a wonderful trip out to the beautiful islands off Krabi. Although it was supposed to be the rainy season, we were blessed with very good weather on this fun-filled and memorable day.
Tup Island (Koh Tup and Koh Mor)
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