Kayaking trips in Trang, Southern Thailand
We
prefer to be straight up and honest instead of sugar-coating when it comes
to the destinations we promote. Trang has changed a lot over the years.
Mass tourism has finally gotten a stranglehold on what used to be an awesome
off-the-beaten-path destination. This is by no means a problem indigenous
to Thailand, it’s happening everywhere.
The ability to run true nature tours is getting more and more difficult in Southern Thailand, especially running a kayaking trip that involves tropical islands. It’s not yet impossible.
Trang is a big area and there are still islands that get almost no tourism traffic. We plan on modifying our itineraries to include these more less-visited islands.
Check out our online map of Trang.
Day 1
You’ll visit Ko Talabeng, a large island with small secluded beaches and a few shallow caves to explore; Ko Lapu Le is another nice island and it's different enough from Ko Talabeng to warrant exploration.
You’ll spend the night on Ko Lanta Yai.
Day 2
We'll
drive the southern end of Ko Lanta Yai and visit one of my favorite little
towns in Southern Thailand. It's called Old Lanta Town. It's incredibly
clean and the weathered wooden buildings are quite charming. Many of the
locals have nice flowers in the front of their shops/houses. There are
a couple of wonderful restaurants as well. Our favorite one is built out
over the water. They make yummy fruit shakes too.
Just to the east of Old Lanta Town is Ko Bubu (yes, a rather silly name). It’s a short paddle out to Ko Bubu. There are bungalows on this island, so we'll spend one night there. Birds, including Oriental Pied Hornbills, frequently visit the island in the morning and evening. The bungalows are very fancy, but they're clean and the restaurant makes some tasty dishes.
Day 3
From there, we'll paddle back to Ko Lanta Yai and travel by road to Pakmeng Resort. This is my favorite bungalow operation in the South. The bungalows are very clean and they're set in a lovely garden setting. The restaurant is one of the best around.
Time
permitting we’ll paddle in the mangrove channel behind the bungalows.
This is a good place to see Brown-winged Kingfishers, a beautiful bird
with a bright orange chest, a blue patch on its back and a heavy deep-orange
bill. They’re common here. There are plenty of other birds in the
mangrove too.
Day 4
The following morning we'll paddle out to Ko Muk. Even though this islands is getting pounded by hundreds of tourists every day during the high season (Dec - April), it's still so pretty that I can't take it out of the itinerary. There are towering limestone karst cliffs around half of the islands and rolling hills on the other half. If we're really lucky, we'll be able to paddle into the Emerald Cave without a zillion other people.
We’ll spend the night again at the Pakmeng Resort.
[End of our four-day program]
Days 5 & 6
On
our six day program, we'll include a visit to Ko Libong. This island has
the largest herd of Dugong (Sea Cows - similar to the Manatee) in SE Asia.
The villagers have taken this herd under their care and they're very serious
about protecting them. No fishing is allowed anywhere near the sea grass
beds.
The island also features a mangrove channel that cuts all the way across the island.
Additionally, there are some nice trails on this island in case you'd like a change from paddling all the time.
There are some very nice bungalows on Ko Libong. Just like almost everywhere else in Thailand, the coral isn’t in very good shape, but there are still some patches that haven’t been damaged.
We’ll return to the mainland and deliver you to either the Krabi or Trang Airport or take you back to Phuket.
[End of six-day program]