Perhentian Islands.

Last visited Sept 2013

Dad and daughter prepare to check the fish-feeding frenzy at Turtle Bay - Perhentian Besar.

Long the backpackers' haven, the Perhentians are now becoming a must-do for a fuller range of travellers. Makes sense - the attractions are user-wide: everyone is looking for white sand beaches, clear water, good snorkelling and nice scenery. And problems of the past like higher than normal crime seem to have been eradicated by some heavy policing - and in July 2011 the usual high season overcrowding was not apparent. Recession in the northern hemisphere may not be all bad.

LOCATION
One of a number of attractive island sites in far north-east peninsula Malaysia. Kota Bharu is the nearest airport although Kuala Terengganu is a good one to fly out of if you also visit Pulau Redang and Pulau Kapas after the Perhentians. Pulau Lang Tengah is another good one to visit along the way - it is the small island between the Perhentians and Redang. Kuala Besut is the main mainland pier for the Perhentians. Scale - it's 150km from the Kota Bharu placemark to the Puala Kapas placemark.

MAP
One of the best comes from the efficient De Penarik Beach Travel & Tour booking website. Looks like they got help from the Marine Park Department.

WHICH ISLAND?
The BIG ISLAND (Besar) has:
- better snorkelling off the beach
- more higher range accommodation
- arguably the best beach
- camping sites
The SMALL ISLAND (Kecil) has:
- a better travellers' scene
-more budget accommodation
- better trekking
- more chances to get away from the busy scene

But the islands are so close it's easy to choose a resort on either and jump across to the other to check the scene - water taxi price between the Long Beach on Kecil and the pier at Perhentian Island Resort was only rm10 in July 2011.

Alternatively, why not do as I did in my 1999, 2011 and 2013 visits and split your stay between resorts on both islands? You are moving to a new island and resort, but it only takes 5 minutes and minimal expense.

PERHENTIAN BESAR.

Modified Google Earth image to show places I have stayed over the years plus walking tracks. There are no roads. More detailed beach, walking and snorkelling maps can be found down-page.

BESAR BEACHES

The southern west coast beaches

(from the south)
The southern most beach has no resorts. Snorkelling seemed popular both off the beach and from boats at the far end.

Taken from the same rocks as the previous shot, Teluk beach is next one north. This is where the steep jungle track from the south coast's busier Flora Bay hits the east coast. Teluk is the site of the Teluk Ke Ke camp site.

2013 change - the small unused pier in the previous shot seems to have been enlarged and was certainly busy in Sept 2013. The fishing families appeared to be living in tents behind the beach, although a previously closed "resort" type building on the northern section of the beach behind camera now seemed to have local families in occupation.

Teluk North has also had a lot of work on its pier. This is shot from the walkway to the next beach north, Abdul's/Tuna Bay - the previously closed JD Palace which now seems to be the abode of fishing families is to the left of camera.

Abdul's beach is separated from Teluk by stairs and a short walkway. A longish pier from which this shot was taken halves the beach with Abdul's situated on this southern section. The pier did not exist on my '99 visit and has detracted from the beach's appeal, but this is still a pretty nice area. Okay snorkelling around those patches of coral in shot but not comparable to the other side of the pier. Actually I'm pretty sure Abdul's has moved location and was at the north end of the combined beach in '99. Abdul's is a lot flasher too - but still has some budget bungalows along with a big bunch of flashpacker standard places.

Abdul's Beach from the southern end

I decided to make Abdul's one of my stays on the 2013 trip. A pretty sweet area - I'll try to talk Lady Tezza into doing a trip report when she gets a chance.

Tuna Bay. Same beach north of Abdul's pier - it actually curves around the far corner for another 100m or so: the beach is still good and the snorkelling is some of the better stuff I have seen off the beach in Malaysia or Thailand in the last few years with some pretty good coral varieties and fishies. No shortage of piscines hanging around the pier either. Some nice resorts along here - check De Panarak's map up page. Tuna Bay resort is the most highly rated Besar accommodation on Trip Adviser at the time of writing. At the far end it becomes difficult to continue moving northwards - the 250m walk-way I used in '99 over an extended rocky section seems to have fallen or been swallowed by the jungle. I think at low tide you could wade around the rocks but the tides did not suit my visit this time. UPDATE 2013 - I found a jungle track along the water pipeline which goes across to Mama's beach to the north. More details in the TREKKING SECTION.

Tuna Bay beach 2013 - the actual resort is at the corner in background. Structure at right seems to be some kind of National Park educational institution - had lots of high school age students hanging around, taking lessons, snorkelling, having meals. Beach still pretty white - I think my latest elcheapo Olympus's colour balance is less than sweet.

Tuna Bay north - this smaller section has been separated by either ABC or Sea Horse resort extending right to the sea far background - I shot this from the stairs up to Cocohut Resort so you could maybe look at it as Cocohut Beach.


The northern west coast beaches

The northern west coast beaches - submerged sand on coral shelf make Mama's and Coral View West look more impressive than reality. Coral View North and particularly the Perhentian Island Resort beach have plenty of sand at all tides.

Mama's beach is immediately past the difficult to pass rock section morth of Tuna Bay and is the poorest on the island - non existent at high tide but given to untidy tidal flats with broken coral and sharpish rocks when the water goes out. No matter, the best beach on the island at Perhentian Island Resort is a little over 10 minutes walk away. I stayed at Mama's in '99, not thru choice but because it was the only place I could get into in those crowded days with fewer resorts and difficult forward booking. Not a bad place. UPDATE - I had a few meals here in 2013. Pretty good budget food and the place still seems popular.

Mama's skinny beach widens about 100m north into what I call Coral Resort's western beach. In fact it looks a lot nicer here than reality - mainly because it has the same low tide blues as Mama's. In '99 that small creek crossing the beach mid-way along (click to expand shot) was dire with pollution. It was considerably improved in 2011 and virtually non-existent in 2013.
Coral Resort has a second beach around the other side of that far headland - seen in the next shot...

Mama's/Coral View west beach is  not a known turtle hatchery (Bubble's and [not surprisingly] Turtle Bay are), but this little dude and some mates were scuttling around at twilight, just a bit behind the camera in the previous shot, probably adjacent Reef Resort's restaurant.

...Coral Resort's northern beach taken from the Perhentian Island Resort pier - the sand is a bit coarse with broken coral and it also suffers the low tide blues, but overall not a bad little beach. If you are not happy, the best beach on the island is less than 5 minutes up those stairs to the left.

Coral Resort's northern beach in 2013 - sorry about the less than sharp image; the elcheapo Olympus doesn't have a high-end image stabiliser for when a passing bikini babe makes me nervous - but it does slip into my shirt pocket with room to spare. 
In the lowest quarter of the tide it is fairly difficult to enter the water on account of lots of broken coral underfoot but there is a sandy patch to right of camera where the dive shop parks its boat. I found snorkeling pretty ordinary coral-wise to right of camera and behind towards the Perhentian Island Resort pier, but it was not bad around and past that offshore rock background far right.
I made this resort my first stop this trip, will try to get a trip report done soon.

Best beach on the island - in front of the Perhentian Island Resort. This is shot from the walkway between Coral Resort and PIR. If you click to expand you can better see the walkway bottom right and part of this bay's pier bottom left. Because the pier is at the end of the bay it does not detract from the appearance as much as say Abdul's.

Another shot of the beach at PIR. Lovely fine sand, very clear water deep enough at all tides except against the far headland. Note this beach is not exclusive to the resort. You can easily access as far away as Mama's, add a 10 minute jungle trip from the north end of Tuna Bay/Abdul's beach and several guests from my Flora Bay (south island) resort in 2011 took the 25 minute jungle track to spend time on this beach. The best way to access from the more distant locations would be by water taxi - plenty come over from the other island. 


North coast beach
Turtle Beach is the only west coast Besar beach you cannot access on foot. But it is popular with beach fans who get a water taxi to drop them off for a few hours. Similar sand and water to PIR and some okay snorkelling off the rocks to the north-west - better close to the rocks than out where the snorkelling-trip boats park.


South coast beaches.
Flora Bay is the longest beach on the island. Unfortunately it suffers quite badly its full length from the low tide blues with very shallow water a long way from the beach at low tide. The falling tide exposes large expanses of mostly sand flats but broken rocks appear some distance behind camera past Arwana Resort's pier. Pretty appealing nevertheless back in '99, it now has perhaps a few too many resorts.
Snorkelling off the beach is very ordinary but Shark Point is at the far end of that distant headland - a 350m swim from the beach (don't ask me how I know) is a very popular spot with the daytrip snorkelling boats because of pretty good coral, fish including some bigger ones and plenty of harmless reef sharks.

Bubble's Beach on its own little bay on the eastern side of the south coast is another that can only be reached by water taxi - unless you are staying at Bubble's Dive Resort, a rather attractive flash-packer/lower mid range joint behind the trees at the far end of the beach - which was one of the few resorts I saw in 2011 which looked to be running near capacity. This is a pretty good beach with nice sand although not as fine as say PIR's, clear water, deep enough water at low tide and pretty good snorkelling off the beach. Some effective shade from beachside trees most of the day.



TREKKING ON BESAR
If you check the first Google Earth image on the page or the maps below you will see that it is possible to do a circumnavigation of all settled parts of Besar excluding Bubbles by combining jungle tracks with beach walks. The total would take 2 hours or so - if you are not that keen, the smaller sections join some pretty attractive places.

Flora Bay to Perhentian Island Resort/Mama's

The best formed track in recent years runs from the western side of Arwana Resort. But the thin green line lower center is approximately where the older track ran from mid-beach - there was no apparent departure point in 2011/2013: probably behind a resort. The thin grey line bottom center is the concrete path which runs from behind the western Flora Bay resorts to the water plant - in '99 you could access the main cross island track from the water plant too.

This is a reasonably easy walk with only a few steepish slopes and can be done in flip-flops or other light footwear although better shoes are always a good idea. This track in '99 used to leave about mid-beach at Flora Bay but now there is a much clearer and signposted entrance on the western side of Arwana Resort a bit inland from the litttle mosque. The first 10 minutes behind the beach is a trifle hot but once you hit the jungle area there is plenty of shade. After another 10 minutes of mostly not too steep climbing over a low saddle you reach a downgrade where the track splits - for PIR's lovely beach (5 minutes) take the right branch which dives downhill to some squarish metal water towers and then past some of PIR's cheaper A-frame hillside bungalows to emerge beachside near the pier.
To get to Mama's take the left branch which then loops left slightly uphill and continues past the back of Coral View Resort to descend to the rear of the very last huts on the southern end of Mama's - 10 minutes from the junction. By the condition of the track, few people use this section - it is much nicer taking the coastal route between PIR and Mama's.

This is about the roughest section of the track to Mama's - I think it was put in as an access track for the water pipelines which run between an artesian water plant behind Flora Bay beach and Perhentian Kecil village (it looks like the pipeline goes along the seabed between the two islands).

Mama's to Cocohut/Tuna Bay

It appears that sand extends right along this section of coast in the above image. However in all 3 of my trips the sand between the two short horizontal red lines was deposited on the seabed rock shelf along with a lot of broken coral, bouldrs etc and even at lower tide times, water too deep in parts for easy wading extended right to the jungle-side rocks.
In '99 there was a concrete and timber walkway between the 2 beaches but this had been swallowed by he jungle by 2011 - however I figured the locals would want to move between these areas without the expense of a water taxi and went looking for a pathway in 2013....

The locals have made it pretty easy for me - this sign is on a pumping station shed at the far southern end of Mamas'beach - it points towards a pretty clear track leading uphill into the jungle alongside a water pipe. This track undulates a bit but is not too challenging - at one stage the water pipeline splits with a smaller pipe staying lower - I stuck with the bigger pipe because the track seemed better formed. After about 10 minutes....

....it pops out behind camera here adjacent the highest/most northern of Cocohut's chalets. The smaller pipeline emerged at the lower left of shot.
Cocohut looks a pretty nice flashpacker level resort for those who don't mind a bit of a climb from the beach.

Flora Bay to the southern eastern beaches
Go to the far western end of Flora bay and look for the concrete path which runs from there to the water plant behind a lot of the Bay's accommodation. About 50m from the beach end of the concrete you will see a sign JUNGLE TREKKING to the left.
This is a real tough one - super steep for 10 minutes on each side and with lots of rocks and tree roots which make flimsy footwear a no-no. Very good jungle though. Near the Teluk Beach the track splits but any one of about 4 branches will get you to the sand. This track is a good workout but the beaches at each end are well worth it.

2013 improvement when going in the opposite direction:the departure from the western Teluk side is much clearer now - this is towards the southern end of the beach.

ARWANA RESORT
This is a midrange place at the far eastern end of Flora Bay. I decided to stay here because it also has a dorm - the combination of a dorm, a fabulous pool and a nice comfy lobby with lots of chairs and fans where you can sit around into the night and read etc is pretty appealing after several weeks of backpacking. The fact that it could be pre-paid in aussie dollars on Agoda added to the appeal.
Arwana has Eco Resort in its full title but I could see very little eco about the place - no solar panels, wind turbines or even recycling bins. One poster about preserving soft corals. Unlike a lot of Perhentian accommodation you can buy a beer here. Not sure about wine/spirits/cocktails.

Arwana from its pier. Note the beach here is not great - virtually non-existent at high tide yet the boat left of shot was sitting on sand at lowest tide. However the sand widens at high tide about 70m to left of camera, although the low-tide blues still prevailed. Big pool behind lobby/restaurant area in shot is surrounded by 3 storey modern blocks of rooms and there are some rather nice beachfront chalets to left of camera. Dorm area is to the far right behind other accommodation.
Food by way of buffets - most guests are on packages. I wasn't but still found the 18rm brekky pretty good value (egg tragics note, no egg station). I can hoover enough down at a buffet brekky to make lunch superfluous. A couple of very good value beach restaurants within 150m to left of camera for other meals which at Arwana were less value than brekky - more like 35rm.

Part of Awana's lovely pool. Nice water fall to right, pool big enough to make lap-swimming a non-tedious way of burning off buffet calories. Sun lounges neat for swanking it out with a bottle of duty free whisky from Singapore's great budget terminal while checking out the mid-range heart-breakers. Such ladies don't suffer the Macca's/Krispy Kreme lateral expansion to the extent of post Y2000 backpacker babes.

The dorm area is in a shady area between Arwana's eastern most modern wing and the eastern headland of Flora Bay. I think this may have been put in to attract divers to the dive school, but I found I was the only western guest and they gave me a 2 double bunk room all to myself. Lots of locals in other rooms but as far as I could work out, nearly all seemed to be staff.
My room big, clean, comfy, quiet - my only complaint was the outside bathroom needed a good clean-up which I asked for twice to no avail.
Value? Well my $aud18/rm55 a night could have gotten me a reasonable fan chalet at nearby budget joints - but they didn't have the great pool or comfy lobby. And by this stage of the trip I'd stayed at plenty of budget chalets. Viva la change.


BEER ON BESAR
For some years between my first 2 visits it was hard to get a beer in the Perhentians, but a change to a less fundamentalist regional government has eased the situation somewhat. In the southern western beaches area Tuna Bay has beer. If you are staying at the northern end of the western beaches you will find a beer at Reef Resort and Perhentian Islands Resort. At Flora Bay Arwana had beer in a separate area and at least one of the beach restaurants close to the west could do the job. I didn't look further. Bubbles with English owners probably has beer but I forgot to check. Note booze aint cheap - 2013 prices were between rm12/14 for a 330ml can. I hate beer in cans!


PERHENTIAN KECIL.
Interestingly the small island isn't that much smaller than the big one. As a matter of fact, if lengthy trekking is your thing this island is much better. Fewer beaches to choose from - but there are some nice ones, including a few great get-away-from-it choices.

KECIL BEACHES

East coast beaches
Kecil's famous Long Beach. Old Perhentian hands will bemoan the development - if you click the shot to expand you will see the 2 storey concrete constructions mid beach and the mega pier at the far northern end. Those beach umbrellas/mats are a bit European too - but really there is not too much shade at this beach and at rm10/day - rm2/hour they are not bad value. Anyway there is still plenty of bare sand to lay a towel or sarong. Note the relative lack of people at 2pm on a fine day at the very end of June.
I think the Malaysians could take a hint from busy Thai island beaches and organise their boats into dedicated and more compact buoyed-off areas.
Note the wind-turbines high on the hill in the background - the path to D'Lagoon goes past these.

This is the section of coast behind camera in the previous shot - ie just south of Long Beach. I noticed on my 1999 visit that at low tide this area developed into a series of small sandy coves for a good 400m - ideal for sunning. The tides were wrong to show these on my latest visits - but this area was quite popular with snorkellers above quarter tide - there is some coral starting someway off the rocks and plenty of fish in the sandy area.

I thought the northern end of Long Beach was far more attractive - nicer cleaner sand, fewer boats/people/umbrellas - although the water was shallower off the beach as the tide dropped. A real good old time beach bar restaurant, The Pit Stop, at left of image.

Dave Elliot sent this fabulous shot of Long Beach back in 1994. You can see why some old-timers get so upset about development. My 1999 visit saw the beach more developed, but closer to this shot than my 2011 pic 3 up-page.

2013 - Long Beach seemed not greatly changed from 2011 - the start of the cross-island track near the southern end seemed easier to find and there was more rubbish lining the near-beach part of this track. The biggest change was here near the northern end where Bu Bu Long Beach has expanded. Beachfront restaurant at its front-left was advertising seafood bbq for rm160++ per person and bottles of wine for rm240++. Western prices in a 3rd world country. I didn't call in.


D'Lagoon has the only other east coast Kecil beach (well, the village has a beach but it isn't too touristy). D'Lagoon is way up the northern end of the island. The bay in front used to have really good snorkelling but had sadly deteriorated this last visit - the best stuff was close to the rocks immediately right of camera. Beach doesn't suffer too much from low tide problems and has sand out into the water at such times. Note there are 2 usually deserted east coast beaches, Turtle (10 minutes walk) and Adam and Eve (20m) accessed from D'Lagoon - great for sunsets or just some seclusion. D'Lagoon's biggest negative for some will be its isolation - a pretty strenuous 1 hour+ trek from Long Beach or a water taxi each excursion.

D'Lagoon Resort seemed to have the highest concentration of budget travellers of all the accommodation I saw. This is shot from the restaurant behind beach - a pretty relaxed place to hang out. Note that apart from budget and flashpacker chalets D'Lagoon also has a dorm.

D'lagoon 2013 - that 2-storey structure under the palms mid-beach seemed new or expanded from my last visit.

September 2013; new southern east coast resort under construction just past the north end of the village - check the tiny beach at right.

A few hundred meters north of the previous shot, another much bigger construction was in its early stage. No beach here - maybe they plan to ship some sand in; maybe a nice pool or two plus regular shuttles the 5 minutes north to Long Beach will do the trick. 
I called by both new constructions when walking the village-Long beach route - no indication of proposed names.

West coast beaches

Northern west coast beaches

from the north
Kecil's Turtle Beach - a very short flatish jungle track walk from D'Lagoon on the adjacent west coast. If you click shot to expand you can better see a fair bit of rock and broken coral on the beach, the shallowness of the water off-shore in this mid-tide pic, and how clear the water is. Killer sunsets.

Next south is Adam and Eve Beach - longer, better sand which extends into the water and deeper water off the beach. This is reached by a signposted short side-track off the main trekking track between the wind generators (sign post after about 20 minutes) and D'Lagoon (15min) - don't be tempted to take the two unposted side-tracks closer to D'Lagoon if coming from that end.

For want of its correct name, I'm calling the next one south Wind Turbine Beach on account it was used as an unloading point for materials to build the wind turbine/solar panel farm some distance south up a very steep road graded by the contractors. I didn't call in here, being hot and tired from the already steep climb out of the Adam and Eve beach area to near the top of the steep road - this shot was sent to me by mudshark82.

I saw a few other patches of sand from a passing speedboat further south on the northern half of the west coast but these are only accessible from the sea - maybe I should have kayaked up from Coral Beach but I gotta admit I was feeling a bit lazy. Here's a chance for all you intrepid trip reporters to send info and pix and see yer stuff published.


Mid west coast beaches.

Not too many people know about the 3 small beaches I've labelled Shari Las, including me until my latest 2013 visit. Senja Bay and Shari La resorts are the two places I've stayed at on Coral Bay.

Midway down the east coast, Coral Bay is Perhentian Kecil's second most popular beach. Pretty nice sand, clear water and a big range of accommodation - extending to the rocks in far background and behind camera (this is shot from Senja Bay Resort's restaurant which is at the southern end of the beach).
Biggest negative is the low tide blues - it gets pretty shallow a fair way from the beach at low tide. However no unattractive rocks or mud flats are exposed.
Snorkelling in 2011 was not mind blowing - there were some interesting patches of coral in the buoyed-off swimming enclosure a fair way off the beach to left of camera but a lot of dead and broken stuff closer in. Plenty of fish to keep piscene fans happy.

Coral Bay and Long Beach are quite close - connected by this well paved 10 minute path with moderate slopes (it was a much more interesting jungle track in 1999). Building activity at each beach end had made the start/end a bit confusing, but look for signs at the far northern end of Coral Bay near the pier and near the southern end of Long Beach. Taking just about any track inland at the latter will get you onto this path. UPDATE 2013 - a lot clearer now.
Note you still need a torch at night.
Inevitably building has started to extend itself along this track and being off-beach there are some nice bargains for newish places. One joint, Tropicana towards the top of the saddle had dorm rooms for rm15 (that's about $us5) and pretty nice individual fan rooms at rm40 (late June 2011). Next visit I wouldn't be surprised to find accommodation and restaurants the full length of this path. (2013 - nope, the biggest change is near the beach as seen below.....)

....Ombak Resort, a new seemingly lower midrange place which starts beachside and extends back maybe 200m to here. This place was under construction in 2011 and is probably the flashest on Coral Bay, although Shari La has some sweet seaview aircon chalets.
Note that immediately behind camera is....

....Ewan's cafe which had a crowd every time I passed by. Tucker must be pretty good. They have some neat looking budget huts to the left of camera.

These are what I'll call Shari La beaches 2 and 3. #1 behind camera is a bit bigger and has some nice shade and resort sunlounges behind the beach. Access is from the resort although you could kayak or swim around from the main beach or pier. Note Shari La has no security goons and is very relaxed so outsiders could simply take the passage to the right at the bottom of reception stairs and find their way to these beaches.
The beaches themselves are nothing to get excited about besides seclusion. I snorkelled and found coral very ordinary. The fish scene was not bad and should keep non-hardline snorkellers happy.
I made Shari La my third stop on the 2013 Perhentians visit - will try to talk Lady Tezza into including it in her trip report.

Southern west coast beaches

Um, well Petani/Impiani is really on the south coast, but its accessed via the west coast track.

Mira Bay is 25 minutes south of Coral Bay along the surprising good coastal walking track. This place is very appealing - nice sand which extends quite a distance into the water, no apparent low tide blues and one budget resort - click to expand to see some of their chalets more clearly. I'm penciling this one in next visit - it is less isolated than D'Lagoon with Coral Bay and Long Beach restaurants and bars an easy 25 and 35 minute shaded jungle-by-the-sea walk away. Note about one third of the beach is hidden by the rock/headland on the right of shot - but this is still a compact beach. 
2013 - well I didn't stay here latest trip, but called by again. Looked to have the biggest concentration of traveller-types of all the places I visited on both islands (although the closest I got to D'Lagoon, another popular travellers' haunt, was offshore on the arrival speedboat when we dropped some guests off).

Petani/Impiani Beach is another 10 minutes further south along the track. Technically this is not east coast but on Kecil's south coast. It may well be the nicest beach on Kecil - quite long (those rocks on the sand in far background are actually only a little past mid-beach, and divide Petani beach from Impiani) - lovely water and no low-tide problems, sand maybe not as white as some but real clean and going a long way out into the water before rocks/coral take over.
Arguably you are more isolated from the action of Coral and Long Beaches, but the coastal track continutes 10-15 minutes to the village where there are plenty of shops and restaurants, and this beach is getting pretty close to the south-east and southern beaches of Besar for not too expensive taxi boat trips. Petani Beach resort close to camera is budget/flashpacker standard - the new Impiani (see below) when it opens seems destined to be more upmarket.

All the old bungalows at Impiani had been pulled down and these rather nice looking jobs seemed about 70% complete. Big race for high season completion probably - this was shot in the last days of June which suggests they are a bit behind.

Sept 2013 - Impiani up and running, and progress marches on with a new joint under construction at right. No indication of name.

TREKKING ON KECIL
Walkers on the small island can get a real good workout - a lot of it thru pretty attractive jungle areas.

The Northern Track

This leaves the Long Beach-Coral Beach track pretty close to Long Beach (look for the electricity lines to the wind generators). You can also access from behind some of the beach resorts if you know where to look. The first half hour is mainly a steady climb up to the generators - a narrow jungle path in some areas, a heavily eroded vehicle track in others and a better surfaced vehicle track towards the top. Slopes are mainly moderate but there are a few short steep pinches.

The wind turbines, sadly not in operation the whole time I was on the Perhentians despite nice wind. However the compound also has a big area of solar panels (foreground) and judging by the hum from the nearby transformers, they were working well.

Note the track to D'Lagoon continues along the fence behind camera (this was taken from the northern end of the solar farm) from where it starts dropping very steeply down a vehicle road. There is also a very nice observation platform of which you can just see part at left of shot - this has good views of the north of the island but sadly not to the south. There is a fantastic stairway which runs from this platform way down to the sea on the upper left coast - don't be tempted to take this as a short-cut to D'Lagoon. See next pix for detail.

After 10 minutes walk down the very steep road you will see a D'Lagoon signposted track leading into the jungle to the right - this winds and drops (no super steep slopes) for another 30 minutes to the resort.

Pretty impressive set of steps from wind turbines to sea on western side. Click to see observation platform up near wind generators and how sea end of the pier has fallen victim to monsoon season sea wave attack.
Go down these steps by all means if you fancy a swim in crystal clear water as one couple were doing when I visited, but don't think like me that it looks only a 15 minute rock-hop across to D'Lagoon behind camera. I don't know why I do this - as a former point-break surfer, I hate rock-hopping.

The trouble with rock-hopping is that unseen transverse gutters from the sea can cause you to climb up/inland - which happened twice along this route. I started the rock-hop off the first flat section of walkway from the water way down there - notice I am now up a fair bit closer to top of stair level. If this wasn't a good enough work-out, I then came to a patch of inpenetrable jungle undergrowth at the top of the second gutter - if there is one thing I hate more than rock-hopping it's bush-bashing - trip roots, thorns, red ants pouring down my shirt etc. Anyway, what looked like 15 minutes turned into a 90 minute saga.

The South-West Coastal Track

This runs all the way from Coral Bay around to the village in the south-east of the island. Maybe an hour in total for a good walker. It is a real nice jaunt - shaded by jungle most of the way but with the sea adjacent and some nice beaches along the way, very good surface, handrails on the few sections of stairs, surprisingly flat for the first section to Mira Beach, not too much worse from there to Petani/Impiani beach, a few steeper but not heartbreaking sections the next 10-15 minutes to the village.
To get to the start, push past the chalets on the rocks immediately south of Coral Bay's beach.

Part of the south-west track. Note water pipeline which runs all the way from a well just behind Turtle Beach in the far north-west of Kecil to the village in the far south-east.

This section of the village just north of the pier has a lot of eats stands to cater for snorkel trip boats which pull in for lunch. There is a strip of restaurants and shops out of pic to the right. The village is quite big and has a sizable school and interestingly, a block of flash looking new town houses yet to be occupied just behind the pier - don't tell me Johor Bahru's rich are investing in island condos. There is a fair strip of sand to the south - a bit daggy with old unused boats and fishing industry junk, but no doubt it could be cleaned up for the new inhabitants.

The village is not tiny and the backstreets show the typical island lifestyle of the locals.

Village to Long Beach Track
I wasn't aware of this (De Panarik's and guide books' maps don't show it) but my taxi boat driver from the village to Long Beach pointed out an exposed new section thru the trees close to the village which looked very similar to the south-east track.
However this does not make it right thru yet - I went looking at the Long Beach end and all I could find was a small, very rough and steep track along the power lines heading towards the village from where they cross the Coral Bay-Long Beach track. I gave up after 10 minutes - I had done the two other Kecil tracks just before and was in no mood to go slogging up some steep rough jungle path.
A local business owner said yes, you could get all the way to the village, the new track will extend itself along this this way but at the time of my visit (late June 2011) a recent land-slip had made progress along the narrow track additionally difficult.
UPDATE LATE JULY 2011 - mudshark82 who is currently in the Perhentians sent me this info about the village to Long Beach trek: There are certainly some rough parts to trek but there is a big blue pipeline running through the jungle, I followed that for a bit as it had a rough footpath alongside it. Then I got to a point with a tough uphill climb where several trees had been cut down. At this point I was slightly concerned that if I had to go back the way I came I wouldn't make it down on my feet.
Once I reached the top of the clearing I followed a path made by a truck or construction vehicle, my guess, at least 2 years ago. Although tricky at parts this eventually led me to The rear of Rock Garden (?).
think this trek would be much more difficult going the opposite way, but not impossible. There are a handful of points where I had options of different routes I could take and I went with what looked best.
This is one for the adventurer!

Update 2013 - I figured maybe the path had to be finished so I tried again, this time from the village end. I had to make my way past the two new construction sites north of the village......

The path north of the village goes around the inland side of this one.

And will most certainly pass on the coastal side of this one. Tip, follow the power lines.

....from where a very similar paved path to the south-west track (looked about the same age) headed north thru the rainforest very close to the coastal rocks, following the power lines. This was a  nice easy walk but after about 10 minutes IT JUST STOPPED. Looks like the dudes ran out of money....

....but I found a reasonable bush track heading north....

....This bush track wasn't too bad going but after about 5 minutes it kinda disappeared. I had a look around - I could see a water pipeline about 50m higher in the rainforest but when I slogged up to it there was no bush track running adjacent. I later figured locals maybe walk along the top of the pipeline.
So I headed down to the rock platform (there was a poorly defined route heading down, looked like some people had headed that way). Not a good idea - it was reasonably easy going for about 10 minutes, but then I hit a series of gutters cutting into the platform which made me climb way up the seaside rocks and in a few cases into the rainforest for some of my hated bush bashing. After about 50 minutes of that I could see Long Beach but it was still a good 700m away with a few more gutters between. Time to give that the big miss.....

..I headed up into the rainforest at a point where I could see the water pipeline not too far away. From there I did 10 minutes or so of walking along the top of same. THIS I DON'T RECOMMEND. The pipeline is about 250mm in diameter and the top seemed reasonably cleaned by other other walkers, but things can get real tricky when you come to some rainforest vegetation laying over the pipe - at one point I slipped and was lucky not the fall off and break my neck. 
So as soon as I saw the power lines higher in the jungle again, I crossed over and followed the rough walking track alongside. This dropped and climbed, at one stage running beside Rock Garden bungalows which is the southern-most resort at Long Beach (although considerably south and higher than the sand). Finally after climbing more than dropping the power line track came out at the cross island path between Long Beach and Coral Bay, about 300m in from the former.

Time-wise the exercise was a joke - it had taken me about 80 minutes to walk from Coral Bay down the west coast around to the village and then north to where the east coast walking path disappeared - it then took me another 80 minutes to go the last 20% to Long Beach.

But I'm not giving up. Too many people from the village work at Long Beach/Coral Beach for there not to be a quicker/less difficult walking route. With the help of Google Earth, mudshark82's comments above and my own observations along the way, I reckon I might have it figured out....

....Only a few minutes along the nicely paved track north of the new developments near the village I noticed the power lines turned hard left and headed steeply uphill into the rainforest. There seemed to be a reasonably cleared section alongside for walking. I didn't head up there - the paved coastal path seemed at that stage by far the easier route. But this is definitely the power line path I later took close to Rock Garden resort. Who knows what the intermediate section is like? This is the big chance fer you intrepid trekkers to find out and send a report. And a few pix. See yer stuff right here, trendsetters!!

BOOZE ON KECIL
Plenty of bars and restaurants on Long Beach can provide a beer etc. Coral Bay has beer at the internet joint towards the south of the beach just short of Senja Bay resort. Not sure about newer places like Ombak resort and Ewan's cafe. From memory, D'Lagoon resort had beer. Not sure about the southern west coast places.

SENJA BAY RESORT
When I shifted across to Kecil from Besar in 2011 I stayed at Senja Bay Resort. I chose this because I wanted to base myself at Coral Bay that trip (I stayed on Long Beach in '99) and because Senja is one of the few non expensive places on the island you can pre-book direct via their website by credit card - most joints want an electronic transfer into their bank account which my Aussie bank is not interested in - btw I later found De Panarik's website an excellent way of booking these north east islands by credit card - I used that for Puala Redang).

I got me a big fan/hot water room with breakfast for 100rm a night. This room was probably a bit overpriced, but was certainly spacious and clean and had a great view. The breakfast was basic - 3 bits of toast and jam plus unlimited tea/coffee but for 3rm you could get a plate of eggs (or other stuff off the menu at various prices) to supplement is. The alternative included Asian breakfast looked more filling. Other meals in the big panoramic restaurant overlooking the bay and beach were very good value and pretty tasty. The restaurant showed movies at night. No booze but the adjacent internet place sells this and the host has heaps of info about the island.
Senja service was pretty slick and cheerful. Note they will only service your room if you ask.

Senja Bay - at the far southern end of Coral Bay's beach. The restaurant is the bigger building 4th from right, the internet joint the blue roof place far left. My chalet is unseen on the 4th level way up in the trees. If you click to expand you will be able to see the small A frame chalets directly behind the sand on the left - at 100rm you are definitely paying for position. There are more expensive aircon chalets for the flashpackers and low midrangers on the lower hill levels. Beach pretty nice here, some sun lounges under trees which give shade for much of the day. Real nice sunsets. Note there are some nicely positioned budget travellers' resorts along the rocks for about 150m right of shot.

Another Dave Elliot shot - this time from '02. No Senja and few other places. Okay, Coral Bay is now pretty much built out - but you can get similar to the above in 2011 a half hour's walk south at Mira and Petani/Impiani.


View from my high balcony at Senja Resort. Coral in front of resort pretty ordinary except for a few patches way out near sunbathing platforms. Plenty of fish. Very shallow a fair way off shore at low tide. Apparently snorkelling and diving out around those islands are pretty good. Senja has a dive outfit. Steps up to my chalet a good fitness workout - solidly constructed and well lit at night.



GENERAL INFO

SNORKELLING IN THE PERHENTIANS

I reckon good snorkelling should have nice coral or something special like turtles. The map above reflects this. But plenty of people just like lots of fish to check out - from that viewpoint I could add many other good places. Note with the decline of D'Lagoon all the top places visited by the snorkelling boat trips are off the big island.

Looking for turtles in the channel between the two islands. Successful too - I waited until the guys saw one and then jumped in.
We followed two separate ones for a several minutes each over a period of about 20 minutes. One was quite big and when I dived down (the water is only about 4m deep here with a mainly sandy bottom) I noticed he/she had two sucker fish attached to the underside. This big one chose our period of observation as a time to swim to the surface for one of the infrequent intakes of air, which gave the surface snorkellers an extra thrill.

I was impressed by the coral and fish at the Perhentians, much better than anything I have seen in Thailand in the past year, and second only in Malaysia to the national park HQ snorkelling zone at Pulau Redang.
Best Perhentian snorkelling off the beach I saw was on the northern side of Abdul's pier on Besar, followed by that island's Bubble's beach. I don't really count Shark Point as off the beach unless you are a ratbag like me and want to do a 350m swim without fins each way - but when I got out there were well over a dozen snorkelling trip boats and a couple of dive boats. I saw 5 reef sharks and some nice coral in the 20 minutes or so I stayed in the good zone. There seemed to be a greater number of bigger fish in this area too. Note very poor broken/dead coral and very shallow water even mid tide closer the beach in this headland zone.

Kecil's D'Lagoon which was impressive in '99 has sadly deteriorated. Stick close to the right side rocks about 40m out for the best stuff.

The best way to experience snorkelling at the Perhentians is to take one of the plentiful snorkelling day trips which typically visit 5 or 6 sites over a period of 3 hours or so for a reasonable 30 to 40rm (June/July 2011). Most resorts and a lot of travel desks and bar/restaurants can lay these on.
The snorkelling trip I took that visit was operated by Arwana Resort on Besar - unlike most, it does 3 sites and hopes you will sign up for the afternoon or next day's trip for another 3 sites. We visited Turtle Bay, went turtle-spotting mid-channel off Abdul's pier and then put in at the pier to check the stuff both sides.

Independently, I've also swum out to check coral/fish off the beach at Coral Bay and D'lagoon on Kecil and Shark Point, Coral View and Bubble's on Besar. Nor to mention lots of repeats at Abdul's/Tuna bay when I stayed on that beach in Sept 2013.

Malay tourists (you can tell by the flotation vests) check the coral near the pier at Tuna Bay. At low tide this started just 2 meters from the shore and was too shallow to easily float across. Very good quality for SE Asia.

I saw people engrossed in snorkelling at several other spots not known for good coral - but there always seem to be plenty of fish around, and for many people these seem the more interesting attraction.

Multi-tasking off Bubble's Beach - looks like dad wanted to go snorkelling, mum wanted him to mind the toddler. So dad had junior strapped to his back complete with neat sun-hat. Kid seemed perfectly happy to check the above-water scene and assist with the kicking while dad scoped out the coral and fish.
This is a bit different from my darlin' Anna who around the same age insisted on a set of swimming goggles and would cling to my shoulders as I headed for the bottom. She could last for 30 seconds or so before she let go and shot to the surface for the big breath. Then when I surfaced she would abuse me for going too deep. Daughters.

Less discerning people don't care if the coral isn't great. As long as the water is super clear and there is enough fish around they are happy - as this lady near Adam and Eve beach seemed to be for an extended time.


GETTING AROUND
You can access most beaches on the same island by walking track. However sometimes these are indirect time-consumers or a real steep slog, so in such cases and for swapping islands it's real neat that the water taxis seem plentiful and reasonably priced.

Taxi price boards like this are all around the island. (except the village) - prices are pretty good (although note they are for one person - it doubles for two but I would negotiate for a big group - 4 people  don't consume x4 the fuel or time as one), less than half those at Tioman for the same distances.
Naturally prices to particular places will vary according to what beach you are on - this 2011 board was at Flora Bay on the south side of Perhentian Besar.

CAMPING
Both camp sites I saw were on the big island - Besar. But Thai locals seem to pitch their tents anywhere so probably you could do the same for one of the quieter beaches on Kecil.

Dining area of the Teluk Ke Ke camp site at the southern west of Besar. Lots of space behind in a shaded area for tents. Nice beach here and adjacent - see shots up page.

These tents were pitched at the eastern-most resort on Flora Beach - Everfresh. Note the very steep jungle track across to the other side of the island starts just inland from these tents.


CRIME AND CROWDING
Recent traveller forums have had bad press about high crime levels in the Perhentians. An island business operator said things were very bad until the season before last - and despite what local apologists said, much of the stealing and drug taking was done by island dwellers, not blow-ins from the mainland.
After sustained complaints by island business interests and victims, mainland police did multi raids involving dozens of cops and sustained every day for over a week. They were pretty heavy handed and hauled away any non-tourist who was found in possession of large sums of foreign currency, passports etc or had cameras and other consumer items they could not produce receipts for. End of problem.

This sign just outside D'Lagoon resort is probably a carry-over from the bad old days. However it's pretty good advice at any time, anywhere. I'm always reluctant to let my bag out of site when swimming at Bondi Beach in Australia.

High season crowding has also been a feature of recent past years with travel forums advising people to book ahead. Not so my visit - all accommdation seemed to have plenty of spare capacity with maybe the exception of Bubble's Dive Resort. But perhaps the very end of June is a bit early in the season? I doubt it - the forum's say any time from the start of June to early September usually sees overcrowding. I reckon the northern hemisphere financial crisis has a lot to answer for - if people and governments spend beyond their means there has to be some downside.
There will be more than some - I'm writing this in mid July 2011. I reckon the Euro as we know it will not exist within a year.
UPDATE LATE JULY 2011 - maybe I spoke a bit too soon. mudshark82 who is currently in the Perhentians tells me things have picked up with visitor numbers and there are very few vacancies at Long Beach and Coral Bay.
What a difference 3 weeks can make. I still reckon the Euro zone as it is now is a goner.
UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2013 - um, well the Euro is still with us and membership of the union hasn't changed. The eauro also hasn't depreciated anywhere near as much as it should. But I reckon we will have continuing crises for many years to come. The whole idea of monetary union without fiscal and political union is unsustainable, the product of arrogant dreamers.

RUBBISH MANAGEMENT
Looks like the Marine National Park which administers most of the Perhentian Islands has instituted a back to the mainland trash system to avoid unsightly/unhealthy island land-fills. I saw a similar boat at Pulau Kapas which is also within the Marine National Park.


GETTING THERE
Many people fly into nearby Kota Bharu from where airport taxis can take you direct to Kuala Besut, the mainlnand pier for the Perhentians for a reasonable sum. There are booking agents at the airport can organise transport including boat tickets and book you accommodation.
In 2013 we flew in to KB late at night, stayed in a local hotel and caught a taxi down to Kuala Besut pier next morning for rm60.

You can travel to Kota Bhuru from KL and Singapore by the jungle railway. The KB station is not right in town but transfers are good.

Most people entering from Thailand via Sungai Kolok (Golok) make their way to Kota Bharu and then catch a taxi or bus to Kuala Besut. Kota guest houses can organise taxis or minibuses for travellers. SP Bumi also run a bus direct to Kuala Besut from the bus station.
I reckon a better way from the border is a direct taxi to the pier - particularly if you can share the cost with other travellers. The direct route cuts across the inveted L shape border-Kota Bharu-pier route - and avoids Kota's traffic.

From the south on express buses to Kota Bharu from KL, Johor Bahru, Mersing, Cherating and Kuantan ask the conductor to let you off at the junction on route 3 for the side road to Kuala Besut from where waiting taxis will take you the 15km to the pier. There is also a local bus takes this road but it runs infrequently.
It is also possible to catch local buses from as far south as Kuantan direct to the pier but this would involve at least 4 changes, condiderable time gaps and the buses can get super crowded and very very slow.

SP Bumi run a local bus from Kuala Terengganu bus station to the pier about every 2 hours.

In 2011 I came up from Merang, the pier for Puala Redang. I grabbed a private transport guy (there were no taxis at the pier) who took me the one hour tip for rm80 which I thought was reasonable value. Um, maybe not - in 2013 I did the reverse trip in a taxi for rm70.

The pier at Kuala Besut is quite close to the main road bridge across the estuary. There is an arcade with a bunch of tour operators leading to the pier and a heap more on the street adjacent. Any of these can sell you boat tickets (and arrange accommodation if you have not booked) - each place seems to run its own speedboat and these depart fairly regularly for the half hour run. However return boats run at the set times of 0800, 1200 and 1500. Tickets cost 35rm one way/70 return. If you have a return ticket let your accommodation know the day before you depart - it doesn't matter if you have changed resorts and/or islands. Tip - if there is a big crowd waiting for the return boat and you need to make a bus or flight, make sure you are towards the front of the loading queue - otherwise you may have to wait 20 minutes or so for a backup boat.

Typical island link boat at Kuala Besut. You may have to wait a while for at least 8 or so passengers but this has never taken long on my trips, and the latest was shoulder season non-weekend.


GETTING AWAY
Accommodation places, restaurants and travel desks on the island have a wealth of information about onward transport from Kuala Besut. They can organise pretty standard stuff like KL or Kota Bharu but can also get you to Taman Negara, into Thailand, the west coast of peninsula Malaysia etc.
BTW on my 99 visit I managed to make the late morning bus out of the Thailand border town of Sungai Kolok to Bangkok by taking the first boat out of the Perhentians and a shared taxi direct to the border - this bus goes up the east coast of southern Thailand and I jumped out on the outskirts of Surathani in time to get down to the town pier on the river for the night ferry to Phangan.
I noticed this latest visit a Thai rail timetable at Senja Resort which showed a late morning train out of Sungai Kolok to Bangkok which would also allow you to make the southern Gulf island night ferries by exiting the train at the station west of Surathani.

If you want to catch a taxi or local bus from Kuala Besut's pier, turn right out of the pier's arcade and walk about 100m to the parking area. In 2011 I caught a local SP Bumi bus here (it doesn't wait but comes down the pier road and does a U-turn in the parking area) to Kota Terengganu for Puala Kapas - 2.2 hours to cover maybe 120km but only about 10rm.

If you are island-hopping to Lang Tengah or Redang you can save a lot of time chartering a boat (there is no regular service at the [late 2013] time of writing). This would not be cheap - people suggested rm 450/500 - but the alternative of going back to the mainland (rm35), catching a taxi to Merang (rm70) and then a ferry out to the other island (rm55 to 70) starts to add up for more than one person and is pretty time consuming. For sure you would need the 0800 boats from the island to make the Lang Tengah/Redang ferries which tend to leave around 1100. If you just miss one, ask around for the Mingstar boat which seems to leave a bit later.
If you travel direct from Perhentian by charter boat I suggest you start reasonably early - some days the sea breeze kicks in and is strong enough by 1100 to ensure a rough, wet trip.
Note a lot of dive joints on Perhentian advertise trips to Redang - you may be able to hitch a ride for a price.

Comimg the other way there are fewer boats on Redang and way fewer on Lang Tengah, so you might find charter costs higher.

Local fishing boat about stock up on supplies by putting in at the village pier on Kecil.

Lady Tezza's trip report of the Perhentians.


WARNING UPDATE
April 2014
Somtan2000 who is the convenor of the excellent travel site TRAVELFISH, recently posted this warning in his forum section:
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I'm midway through a Perhentians research trip and just want to give a bit of a travel warning for Perhentian Kecil (the smaller, "party" island).

I was told of numerous cases, this season (which really only started a month or so ago), of female travellers having their drink spiked at bars on Long Beach -- particularly the beach bars squatting on the beach down in front of Lemon Grass -- and the women subsequently being attacked and/or raped.

Care should also be taken walking the paved trail from Long Beach to Coral Beach (the one that goes past the Tivoli/Perhentian Tropicana Inn backpacker factory) late at night. It is near totally unlit and walking it alone at 2am while trashed, without a torch and wearing a bikini probably isn't wise. Don't walk it alone, and use a torch (even a smartphone screen will suffice).

Petty theft (again mostly at the bars) but also from guesthouse bungalows is also a problem. Be sure to lock your windows and door before heading out for the evening.

Drugs are all over the shop -- I was offered weed, ketamine and cocaine from a couple of local guys while having a drink down at the beach bars.

Both the drug dealing (in my experience) and the assaults (I was told) are primarily by local guys.

It is imperative that you keep an eye on your drink and stay in control.

If you are assaulted, I was advised to suggest you should file a report with both the police in Kuala Lumpur and with your diplomatic mission and not to bother with the police inKota Bharuor Kuala Terengganu. Personally I'd make the report in KT and KL, but I'm just relaying what business owners on Perhentian Kecil advised me. Kota Bharu is the closest town should you need medical assistance following an attack -- you can get a taxi direct from the port town (Kuala Besut).

Feel free to repost this to other travel forums if you wish.

We'll be writing more about this in the coming weeks, but I just wanted to get this headsup out now.

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If you are thinking of visiting the Perhentians you might also be interested in nearby PULAU KAPAS, the nicest island I have visited in years and the even closer PULAU REDANG, which is not exactly shabby. Not to mention the even closer LANG TENGAH.
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NOTE - IF YOU SEE ANY MISTAKES OR HAVE EXTRA INFORMATION PLEASE POST THEM BELOW. IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION PLEASE ASK IT ON THE FORUM PAGE ACCESSED VIA THE INDEX WHICH I CHECK MOST DAYS - I DON'T VISIT THESE INDIVIDUAL ISLAND PAGES VERY OFTEN.
IF YOU VISIT THE ISLANDS AND WANT TO UPDATE US CHECK OUT THE READERS' TRIP REPORT SECTION VIA THE INDEX.

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Ko Phra Thong

Visited March 2011 - last updated January 2013.
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  Most of Ko Phra Thong's west coast is similar to this section near Golden Buddha Beach Resort.

Ko Phra Thong is one of the least developed islands in Thailand from both the domestic and tourist point of view. When I visited in March 11 there was one high end beach villa place, two budget bungalow joints with another soon to open, and a village homestay operation. Domestic activity seemed mainly confined to a couple of fishing villages. I only saw one small agricultural operation. This is the place to go for those wanting to get right away from it all.

Phra Thong is a reasonable size at around 100 sq miles and is mainly sand deposits in the west and extensive mangroves in the east. Similar Ko Kho Khao is directly south and the mountainous and rainforested national park island of Ko Ra is just north. These can best be thought of as the northern Phang Nga province islands, although they are a hell of a long way from Phang Nga town - modified Google Earth image.

Mainland base for Phra Thong is Kuraburi on the coastal highway, better known as the base for the Surin islands. Most boat transport to Phra Thong leaves from the mangrove pier shown, although some also depart Kuraburi pier further north.

Area map from Andaman Island Hopping shows regional roads but not those on Phra Thong itself. More detail will come from expanding the image (click) and an even bigger image by clicking the link. Interestingly, Takua Pa is called Talaat Khao on this map.

More detail of Ko Phra Thong. Ban Phra Tong in the north east is known locally as Ta Pae Yoi.
There is a small village at the southern pier called Thung Dap.
The west coast of Phra Thong is 95% a lengthy beach similar to the opening shot. About 70% from the south end the beach is broken by a small attractive sandy bay - the tourist accommodation (apart from Lions' Village homestay) is clustered both sides of this bay.
There are only three villages. The biggest and main entry point to the island is what the tourist webpages call Baan Phra Thong (local name is Ta Pae Yoi). Baan Lions in the north was rebuilt post tsunami by the Lions Club international with help from the Swiss government. There is a small village at the southern pier called Thung Dap.
Roads are narrow concrete tracks just wide enough for a 4 wheeled vehicle (although I saw only one, connected with a road maintenance gang) - yellow on the image. Plus narrow unpaved tracks, often sandy - white on image.
That red line at bottom shows scale - 5km long.

This is an oblique Google Earth image from the north of the small bay area and its immediate surroundings I modified it to show location of the resorts and the island's dive centre. High end Golden Buddha at top - budget resorts below. The Beach Bar mentioned later is roughly where the O of NO NAME (correct name Phra Thong Bay Bungalows) is on the image.
Oblique shots tend to bring out high areas - so you can see how flat Phra Tong is.
Those ridge/swale lines actually indicate small parallel dunes, mostly covered in savanna type scrub. Each line indicates where the coastline was some time in the very distant past.


THE BEACHES.

North Beach.

This is the view north from where the path from the budget bungalows hits the beach. It's about 4km to the north west corner of the island which you can see if you expand the image (click). Those mountains belong to Ko Ra, the next island north.

This beach is okay only - a fair bit of flotsam and jetsam on the beach when I visited, tends to get shallow left of camera low tide. Much nicer beach areas a short walk behind the camera.

But not immediately behind:
Swinging 180 degrees shows this view - nice enough but not oh wow. Far right is part of one of two small offshore islets off this section of beach. I'm told snorkelling and diving is okay around these and people hire kayaks from BLUE GURU DIVE to check them out. The top section of this beach before the small headland to the next bay (about 60% across shot) gets lots of exposed not so yellow-white sand at low tide. Knob 75% right is Hornbill Hill from where the shot top of page was taken. Hornbill is actually at the SOUTH (far) end of the next bay to this (see below), maybe 20 minutes walk from camera. Nice walk.

Next Bay

A flat track across the small headland shows this - the southern end of the bay which interupts the east coast beach.

This has got to be the prime beachfront on the island, nice sand, deep water low tide in this southern section (and in the central part, most of which is out of shot and not in the next one). Come back in the future and there will be a flash resort. Maybe not too soon - Ko Kho Khao immediately south has 20 km of mainly undeveloped attractive beach. And much easier transfers from the mainland. Plus rumours of an upcoming airport on the site of the WW2 Japanese landing strip.

This is the northern end of the bay - the sand continues right up to Hornbill Hill at right. Heaps of water at high tide as in this shot, but I noticed low tide exposed lots of sand (not dirty) against most of the beach in pic. Golden Buddha Resort is behind the right half of the trees in shot - associated Blue Guru Diving has a beach location about 65% across shot.

Blue Guru Diving's beachfront dive shop. Although associated with Golden Buddha Resort, this outfit can also arrange accommodation at one of the cheaper options such as Mr Chuoi's or the Lion's Village homestay. It can also do this for non divers. As a matter of fact Blue Guru's website KO PHRA THONG is probably the best all round website on the island and is not confined to diving activities. Besides being such a laid back location, this outfit has the advantage of closest dive operation to the world class Surin islands and Richelieu Rock. I wandered past here one afternoon, the boat was gone and a sign said: GONE TO EXPLORE NEW LOCATIONS.

South Beach

This is a very simlar shot to the one top of page, snapped from the same viewpoint on Hornbill Hill. The beachhouses of Golden Buddha Resort are behind the trees for about the first 500m, and the beach itself stretches approx 10km down to the south-west corner of the island. As far as I could tell there is nothing apart from a few fishermens' huts behind the trees along this stretch.

Hornbill Hill, which must be the highest point on all Phra Thong, is actually part of Golden Buddha Resort. They have built a short steep walkway up to this viewpoint with rope assists. There is a small picnic shelter up top. To right of image is a small section of rocks in the water I thought would be worth a snorkel, but visibility was very poor. A turtle conservation scheme guy told me it was pretty clear the day before - it had rained hard during the night and a creek empties into the bay just to the north of this headland.
When I took this shot there was a group of 5 westerners staring intently at the water. I thought maybe they were into some sort of Buddhist meditation but it turned out they were volunteers for the conservation scheme doing a turtle count. These people were staying at Lions Village homestay and motorcycling/bicycling out the 7km or so to do 4 hour spotting shifts.

Golden Buddha Resort is a pretty interesting operation. It consists of 25 privately owned beach houses in a very large garden compound (often 50m or more between houses) which the resort leases out to holidayers. These are not cheap and don't have aircon. There is no pool. But each is different, and are built to a high standard. And definitely have exclusivity and serenity of location when compared to say the similar Railay Beach Club.


OTHER ACCOMMODATION

Mr Chuoi's
When I was doing research on accommodation the only budget beach place on the island I could find was run by Mr Chuoi (say Chewy). You can book his joint thru Blue Guru Diving's website, but I got super-helpful Am of TOM AND AM TOUR in Kuraburi who arranged my Surins transfers to ring him, book a bungalow and arrange the cheapest possible transport. The latter was important because I really couldn't afford the 1000+ each way my research had suggested.

Chez tezza - Mr Chuoi has a dozen of these Moken-style bungalows strung away from the beach track on the northern side opposite his restaurant. Each must be 25 m apart so it is quite a haul to the restaurant if you are in #12. But super quiet. Prices 500b and 300b in March '11.

I went for a 500 one. Very spacious - there was a king size bed and room for another double if needed. Clean, in good condition, bed-pillow-net okay, some simple furniture, big bathroom with western toilet flushed by bucket, good shower and bidet. No basin or toilet paper but towel supplied. No electricity (Mr Chuoi supplies a very good battery powered lamp) and no door lock but provision to fit your own. The main differences in the 300 bungalows appeared to be the fact they were older and did not have the simple interior/front veranda furniture.

Mr Chuoi's restaurant is located adjacent the beach track about 250m from the beach itself.

Divers from Blue Guru told me this place has the best inexpensive food on the island. Besides the divers, the restaurant also attracted guests from Golden Buddha, Lions' Village homestay and some locals from the main village. I'm no gourmet but I certainly couldn't complain about taste, quantity or service. Prices were pretty good, maybe 10-20% higher than average budget bungalow restaurants.
ph 084-8559886, 087-8984636

Mr Chuoi is a bit of a character, cheerful and obliging. I took this from his motorcycle-side car on the way from the pier.

Phratong Nature Beach Resort.
This is a new place open less than a year when I visited, but already having had one name change from Phratong Seaview. Perhaps because being immediately on the ocean side of Mr Chuoi's it's still 150m from the sea which is hidden by casuarina trees and scrub - so no seaview. Nevertheless it is run by a lovely guy and his family, and the bungalows are definitely a step up from Mr Chuoi's. One diver staying there said the food was excellent too.

Rather attractive restaurant. About 10 bungalows, smaller than Mr Chuoi's but not squeezy and with electricity and hot water (the latter so rare in any budget bungalow) for 600. I think Mr Chuoi has some good competition here. www.phratongnaturebeach.com ph +66 884515531

No Name (actually Phra Thong Bay Bungalows)

This brand new joint was just short of opening when I called by in March '11. Pretty nice position alongside this little lagoon behind the beach. The restaurant is maybe 50m closer the beach and is genuine sea-view.

I call it No Name because when I talked to the owner he said he hadn't decided yet. Bungalows will be 800b and are maybe a step up again from Nature Beach although I didn't ask about hot water. I haven't any contact info but maybe Blue Guru Diving's website may get some when the place is operating. (UPDATE JAN 13 - just found out this place is called Phra Thong Bay Bungalows. Google will find the website).

Lions' Village Homestay

The village built post-tsunami by Lion's Club International.

Locals run a homestay here. The turtle conservation volunteers were using it during my stay, as were Tyler and Aimee - students of Blue Guru. They told me their room was comfortable, the people lovely and food options good - although they were real fans of the grub at Mr Chuoi's.
Note the living areas are elevated to give some protection if another disaster occurs. Blue Guru Diving's website has more info.
About one third of the new houses are empty. Apparently the take up was less than expected - some people stayed on the mainland and others moved to the main village where the local head teacher has a nice new very solid looking 3 storey building - the highest structure on the island. He refuses to staff the brand new smaller school at Lions' Village.
There is a small inlet a short distance from the village which acts as a harbour for village longtails. The longish North Beach is not too far away with several marked walking tracks to access off the main road.


AROUND THE ISLAND

I hired one of Mr Chuoi's motorbikes and checked the island out. At least I checked all the paved roads which I found are nearly 100% confined to the north half of the island.

Cut down 80s Honda a real bitzer. Mr Chuoi calls it his FORMULA ONE. Front brakes only, 4 speed shift with auto clutch, ignition wired permanently on, just kick it over - to stop engine there are 2 wires with ends exposed; touch them together and the engine dies. There was a newer better bike but it was almost out of gas. Formula One was so light it went like a rocket and used virtually no gas. All the locals giggled and pointed when I rode by.

Landscape in shot is typical of more western parts of the island. There are more trees in eastern areas. Virtually no agriculture in the northern part of the island as far as I could see - one small farm seemed to be growing fruit. However my public ferry back to the mainland had a fair few bags full of nuts going to wholesalers in Kuraburi.
Road is typical of the paved tracks - picture is shot mid-island and this road turned into a sandy track about 500m behind bike. I'm no motorcyling expert so I gave that a miss. When I was turning around some locals went by on a trailer towed by a small tractor - ideal for the soft sandy conditions. I later noticed Formula One had knobbly tyres, just the thing for soft sand. Mr Chuoi who is a bit of a bike enthusiast probably uses it as his sand track fanger.

This is the main village. It's a pleasant enough place, spread along the shore in the island's north east with a few shops and restaurants. Fishing seems the main activity. Houses must have been rebuilt since the tsunami yet there seemed to be no attempt to elevate them. But the people do have that nice new concrete 3 storey school for refuge. I guess they are relying on the siren system on the tsunami alert towers working properly. Or that there will be no repeat.

The beach bar - Horizon Bar and Restuarant. This is only 50m south of where the track from Mr Chuoi's and the other budget bungalows hits the beach.

The bar tends to attract a good crowd around sunset (which at this time of year was behind islands in background) - that's dive student Tyler from Canada (here studying for an exam) and his wife Aimee, plus French dive-instructor Marion. We were later joined by other dive students and Todd, an Aussie-Kiwi who runs a charter catamaran doing daytrips mainly for Golden Buddha holidayers. In background are some guests from Golden Buddha.

Junior guest from Golden Buddha knows all about relaxing island holidays.

The beach bar is run by a young affable local P.Nu. Beer prices are pretty reasonable, a bit cheaper than Mr Chuoi's. This guy can put on a good feed too - on my last night about 8 of us had a banquet-style meal with excellent bbq fish and a fair few other plates for 180 each. Some older villagers took a nearby table for a meal (must be good - this is a fair haul from the village) - Mr Chuoi wandered down later and had a beer with them.


GETTING THERE

Blue Guru's website talks of chartering a longtail which costs 1700 to Golden Buddha and 1400 to Lions' Village. Mr Chuoi later told me a longtail charter to the main village would cost 1000 from the mangrove "pier". This is fine if there are other passengers to split the fare but too much for me alone. I wanted to get out there pretty late in the afternoon, so Mr Chuoi suggested to Am at Kuraburi who was doing the talking for me that I take the banana boat which he would organise to pick me up at the southern "pier" for 400.

The southern pier aint no pier at all - just a small mangrove inlet where you step off the bank into your transport. That's the banana boat being poled in to pick me up. This baby is just big enough for one passenger - has a small longtail motor but is real hotrod - banking thru narrow mangrove corners at 60kmh like one of those Florida swamp racers and fanging across open bay at 80! Ride a bit hard on the bum in the small chop out there. Took about 15 minutes to reach island. Mr Chuoi waiting at main village pier to take me to resort at no extra cost.

I'm glad I got Am to organise this - I would have difficulty in explaining which pier I wanted to a motorcyle taxi guy and getting a good price. Am called one over and negotiated 70 baht (people told me they paid up to 200 to get to the main Kuraburi pier for the Surins which is a bit closer to town - although the booking agencies in town will take you for free in a pickup as part of their Surins transport package).
The taxi guy dropped me at a house near the pier where lovely local ladies made me a cup of coffee. The banana boat guy arrived in a pickup after 10 minutes, jawed with the ladies for 5 and then took me down to the inlet about 3 minutes walk away. None of these people had a word of English, which matches my Thai language skill. But as usual, things worked well.

The public longtail on the return trip.

On return Mr Chuoi told me I could get right back to town for 300 total if I was prepared to leave the resort at 7am. Suited me - I wanted to make Khao Sok with a fair bit of daylight left. I ended up on this public longtail which left the main village at around 0730 with about half a dozen women and kids and a load of bagged nuts. We went back to the same southern mangrove "pier" where a songthaew was waiting to take us into town. Along the way it picked up more passengers and nuts, went to a wholesaler in Kuraburi who weighed the nuts and payed out, and then dropped me off at the bus station.
Now like a dummy I didn't ask what time this boat returned to the island. Maybe there is no set time. I didn't see anything about this boat in my research prior the trip.
UPDATE - Chris who runs Blue Guru emailed me that this boat's timing depends on high tide. I assume that is high tide at the mainland mangrove "pier" - the town pier on the island would not have this problem. Now high tide comes roughly an hour later each day so no strict timetable can be given. Because the boat has to get in and out it is probably timed to arrive an hour or two before peak tide and leave the same gap after. Chris told me it got too hard to co-ordinate this plus transport from town with incoming people which is why his website now only quotes the 1400/1700 job. He also told me he hopes Baan Lions will organise a direct cheap public boat from the mainland sometime soon.

Public longtail begins to move into mainland mangrove inlets from the open bay.


KURABURI

Kuraburi is the mainland base town for the Surins and islands like Ko Phra Thong and Ko Raya - it's about an hour by bus north of Takua Pa and 2 hours south of Ranong. Distance between the two white arrows is 750m.

The town is a strung along the main highway with a main street shopping area about one half the length of Khao Lak's main centre. It's a pretty quiet place with good variety of stores, a couple of 711s, one bank with ATM, several trip booking places and a few places to stay. There is a night food market runs just right of the L for TOM AND AM TRAVEL.

Accommodation.
If heading from south to north, one option would be to ride thru the shopping street on the main road and as soon as you reach the bridge at the far end check the two bungalow places on the inland side (the further of the two you have to go down a 200m track from the road). I stayed in the further one last month, forget its name - it's associated with Tom and Am Travel who have a shopfront left side heading north in the middle of town opposite the road into the bus station, and also a desk at the bus station. It had basic rooms with bathroom for 300 asked - I got 250. Very quiet.
A guy tenting next to me in the Surins stayed at the joint the other side of the bridge - said real nice bungalow for 400 odd including basic breakfast.
If you get out at the bus station the first of these places is little more than 5 minutes walk.

There are some other places back behind businesses in the central town - I remember a sign showing bungalows in back near Barracuda Dive's shop. Barracuda also has a desk at the bus station. BTW there is a mum and pop trip booking agent on left side of the lane leading down from the bus station - seemed to have good contacts but poor English.

If you want flashpacker-lower midrange accommodation look for the signs alongside the main road about 8-10km south of town in twisty hilly jungle country for Kuraburi Green View Resort. If on a bus, ask the conductor/driver to stop the bus when there. They are very reliable.

I also copied this info when doing research for my trip - I don't know who the poster was:
In Kura Bury there is a very good place to stay my husband and I have stayed there several times Boon Piya resort,
179-180 M1 T Kura is on the main road in Kura Buri tel 01-7525457 . It is very simple but very clean with you own shower and loo , little bungalows and the owner Panich who runs it is a very nice man . It is used to be about 800 bath the night and there is a nice place next door for breakfast in the morning.
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If you see mistakes or have extra information, please fire them in below. If you have questions, please ask them on THE FORUM which I check most days. I only visit individual island pages occasionally.
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IF YOU VISIT THE PHRATONG YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN NEARBY LOCATIONS LIKE KO KHO KHAO, PHAYAM, LITTLE KO CHANG, KHAO LAK, KHAO SOK, PHUKET AND THE SURINS - PAGES ON EACH CAN BE ACCESSED THRU THE INDEX