Hey Hive! Hope you are having a good start of your week. Doesn’t seem like i’ll be traveling anywhere soon since Thailand is in a pretty rough shape with the virus situation. However I still have some nice places to share with you from around Phuket. Today I’ll show you around Koh Khai Islands.
Koh Khai Nai
Koh Khai Islands are a pretty popular group of small Islands very close to Phuket. The more famous ones are Koh Khai Nai and Koh Khai Nok because of their long white sand beaches and amazing turquoise waters.
Koh Khai Nai was the first one we visited. Here, unlike Similan islands, flying a drone wasn’t a problem. The place was quite empty as well, because the big tours didn’t seem to come here or at least not at the same time we did. We had a private speed boat this time around, so we were the ones deciding where and when to go.
These lonely trees at the edge of the islands were quite interesting. There was a thin and long path of rocks leading towards them and I saw that in two different islands.
The wooden bars and restaurants take up a big part of the island. There was even a buffet in one of these. They are fairly simple made from wood and bamboo and fit quite well with the natural paradise.
After flying the drone for a while we moved to the backside of the island where there were some interesting rocks in the water. The water here was more greenish, as it is in most places around Thailand. SImilan Islands were really the only ones so far that had that vivid sky blue waters. Nonetheless the waters around Koh Khai were crystal clear and very beautiful.
Climbing up wasn't too hard. The rocks weren't too too slippery on the bottom and the only harder part was the very top. Shortly after I went up - everyone else did too. There were lots of crabs climbing aboard as well so we had to watch our step.
After taking some photos and videos here I headed back to get some more drone shots of everyone climbing the rocks. Tried a bunch of videos going close by and between them but mostly failed.. Not confident enough in my driving skills yet.. I’m pretty sure if I do a quick run between the rocks I might crash and kill the drone. :D
We had some smoothies and snacks here before heading towards our next destination. I had Roti - which is a traditional Thai dessert that is pretty sweet and not at all healthy, but I saw them making it and really felt like having one.
From here we went to a snorkeling place in between Koh Khai Nai and Koh Khai Nok. It is near another very small island that had a wooden building built on it as well. It was quite interesting and I managed to get to it with the drone for some better photos. This island was even smaller and didn’t really have a beach line. It was surrounded by rocks for the most part and snorkeling here wasn’t that amazing - not at all compared to Similan Islands, but I didn’t really expect much.
This is the island we stopped by for snorkeling. We were quite far away from it and I decided to swim all the way to it, thinking there would be more marine life near the shore. No luck there, turned out there was this big rock with lots of coral on it, right underneath our boat. I saw it as I was swimming back..
Our next stop was Koh Khai Nok, where we spent the rest of the day and had some late lunch.
Koh Khai Nok
This island was quite similar to the other one with the exception that the beach line pretty much surrounded the wooden bar/restaurants. The front was again a very long white sand beach line and the back was where the rocky area was.
We had some lunch here and boy did they make my Ka Pao spicy..I did want to go for a swim after but everyone seemed tired already, the sun was pretty strong and the day in general was pretty hot. Since i didn’t want to go all by myself I just went around exploring and taking more photos.
The area with the rocks was pretty nice. The rocks were creating this little path towards the sea that made it quite cool for taking photos. Most rocks on the shore have turned green. There were a lot of people coming through here. A big tour group just left when we arrived and after that the place was somewhat populated but not too crowded.
This day was a lot more relaxing. We woke up a lot later than the previous day, when we went to SImilan islands. We were the ones dictating how long we want to stay at each place and didn’t feel like we rushed at any given time. That’s the best way to do things and since it was 6 of us - Nat’s dad and some of his friends tagged along - it wasn’t much more expensive than a normal tour.
Here's the small island right next to Koh Khai Nok as a bonus. This one as well had some trees growing in between the rocks.
The Koh Khai Islands are definitely worth a visit if you are staying in Phuket. It is a short trip by speed boat - 15-20 min from the east coast of Phuket. The beaches are really nice and as of right now the crowds there are fairly small. It isn’t a place for snorkeling - at least not nearly as good as most places in Thailand, but it is a great place to go relax.