A tourism boom over the past thirty years has made Thailand the busiest tourist center in Southeast Asia, with 28 million visitors annually.
That’s a problem, especially in Phang Nga Bay, near Phuket, which was so overrun with tourists that it was closed to visitors in 2018.
You can understand why young backpackers are so attracted to a country that offers sun, sea, dirt-cheap yet excellent hostel accommodation, lively bars, party boats that sail around the islands to dance music and the legendarily hedonistic Full Moon parties.
But is it possible for someone in their 50s, whose private hell is a party boat, to find a corner of Thailand that hasn’t yet been overrun by gap year students?
Of Thailand’s 1,430 islands, you can probably name only a few. Koh Yao Yai, an island on the west coast near Phuket, is so unknown that even Thais on the mainland have never heard of it.
Enjoy: Fiona McIntosh travels to Koh Yao Yai, an island on the west coast of Thailand, near Phuket, that is so unknown that even mainland Thais have never heard of it. Above you can see the island’s ‘showstopper’ beach – Laem Haad
Fiona describes Laem Haad beach (above) as a ‘long headland of bright white sand and coconut palms’
While Phuket these days is full of glittering resorts, mega-villas and wealthy Russians decked out in designer clothes, that all changes the moment you speed away from the jetty on a bumpy boat ride across the Andaman Sea.
Along the way we pass a constellation of small islands covered in rainforest, with ribbons of sandy beach and few signs of life apart from rickety wooden fishermen’s houses.
The twin islands of Koh Yao Yai and Koh Yai Noi lie next to each other, separated by a narrow stretch of water. Although the latter is smaller and more developed, from a distance Koh Yao Yai looks like it is nothing more than jungle-clad hills descending to the sea.
Fiona checks into Anantara Koh Yao Yai (photo), the island’s first five-star hotel
Fiona says Anantara ‘has all the hallmarks of five-star luxury’. Above is one of the hotel’s lavish villas with rainforest showers and private plunge pool
Just 35 minutes after leaving Phuket’s bustling jetty, we arrive at the island no one has ever heard of. “Welcome to Koh Yao Yai,” says our guide as we step off the boat. ‘This is what Phuket looked like forty years ago.’
The island is a 30 kilometer long, thin stretch of concentrated jungle with a few small rubber and coconut palm plantations, a few small villages and some very beautiful and very empty beaches.
Because the small island’s population is 90 percent Muslim and many of the small restaurants and cafes do not serve alcohol, this means the young, partying crowd is spoiled for choice. Koh Yao Yai is so crime-free that it doesn’t even have its own police station. As one local told us, you can leave your moped on the side of the road with the keys in the ignition and when you come back it will still be there.
The hotel is ‘designed to sensitively blend with the undulating coastal landscape’
Fiona says you can visit the island’s mangroves to spot native hornbills, or take a jungle walk
Until recently, accommodation options on the island were limited to a handful of budget and mid-range hotels and self-catering villas. But this year the island welcomed its first five-star hotel, the Anantara Koh Yao Yai.
While it is in some ways a shame that progress is finally catching up with this beautiful unspoilt island, the hotel has been designed to subtly blend into the undulating coastal landscape – rather than standing out with bright lights and glitter.
The resort has all the hallmarks of five-star luxury, from opulent villas with rainforest showers to private plunge pools, a hydrotherapy spa and huge, indulgent beds that are a far cry from the palm mats I once slept on thirty years ago.
A buffet breakfast is served in an airy pavilion restaurant next to the freeform pool; you can order lunch on your sun lounger on the sandy beach overlooking a calm, clear sea; and in the evening you can choose to dine with local dishes, Japanese or a BBQ. I was also quite relieved to see cocktails, wine and beer flowing freely.
You could choose to sit and relax at the Anantara, but that would be a shame. Our hotel guide Jo took us on two adventurous excursions around the island on mountain bikes and a jeep.
We bumped along a quiet road, past farms, some lonely water buffalos and gangs of monkeys watching us from the tops of rubbish bins, past banana, palm and cashew nut trees to the island’s showstopper: Laem Haad. On this long spit of bright white sand and coconut palms, the only other people we saw were a sun-bleached French couple in their sixties, clearly having a wild old time during their adult gap year.
The hotel can also organize jungle walks through the hinterland, kayaking through mangroves to spot native hornbills and snorkeling and diving trips to nearby islands.
It is also worth tasting traditional Thai food. Jo took us to try the delicious banana-stuffed roti at an unassuming roadside stall, and in the evening we dined at the local open-air restaurant Chill Chill @ Pai, where we both had a sensational Thai green curry, loaded with seafood and a round of cocktails for under £20 ($25.12).
That French couple clearly had the right idea. How wonderful to relive the gap year experience, with all the adventure, culture and excitement of youth, but with good beds, air conditioning and no bugs. Even better is to do it in a place that is still wild and naturally beautiful – and where there is not a single party boat in sight.