Perfect blue skies. Perfect blue seas. The Thai island of Koh Kood is an affordable and accessible alternative to the Maldives, with the bonus of the world’s best cuisine.
Thailand’s islands are rightly popular destinations. Koh Samui and Koh Chang are perhaps the most visited; Koh Phangan is famed for its full moon parties. Many spend a lifetime dreaming of visiting such tropical exotica and, on the whole, these islands are pleasant, if crowded, destinations offering decent food, drink, sun, surf and diving. You might want an alternative.
The highlight of any island trip is always the ferry journey that gets you there. The sea breeze, the sounds of the water and the leisurely pace plug straight into calm. If you’re unlucky, you might be herded onto a speedboat, sat behind dirty glass and subjected to a Thai soap opera for the duration of the crossing. Stanislavski who? If you have a choice, always opt for the slow wooden boat.
When Koh Kood mercifully appears on the horizon, the side of the island facing the incoming boats presents only a small port backed by dense forest. Upon disembarking, a Thai woman with a whiteboard calmly points to the name of your hotel and a pickup truck with a hard bench in the back. Thais call them songthaews. Getting bounced around in one is part of the Thai experience.
You can do worse than stay at a glamping site called The Survival. Its gimmick is spacious teepees in age-of-exploration beige, comfy beds and reassuringly cool aircon. Showers and toilets are communal, uncrowded and well-maintained. The boat may get you there before check-in, but cocktails and larb gai on the beach make up for it.
If you’re unlucky enough to be someone who sears and sweats rather than glows and bronzes, you’re going to need industrial grade suncream and a hat. Dress for the cool you have, not the Italian cool you have no hope of emulating. Bring very dark glasses if you’re sensitive to bright light – even a decent pair of Ray-Bans will struggle to reduce the glare.
If you grow bored of cocktails, sunbaking and doomscrolling, you might give some thought to something more active, such as seeing the island. Diving, scuba and snorkelling trips can be booked at any resort. The water around nearby Koh Raet was full of tourist boats in the late afternoon.
A mainstay of any Thai adventure is renting a dubiously maintained motor scooter. The added thrill of not dying makes it all the more satisfying. Check the brakes before leaving your resort. The island’s interior is a modern road cut through forest. The roads are quiet and largely traffic-free. The only drama is the monkeys fighting in the trees.
The island of Koh Kood is located in Trat, on the south-eastern side of Thailand, close to Cambodia. It is the last of a string of linked tropical islands. You can easily get a boat from one of the other islands – a cocktail on the Cococape pier on Koh Mak is a worthy stop on the way through. Alternatively, book a resort package that includes pickup at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.
The island can be easily explored in a leisurely paced day. You’ll see beaches and resorts, endless piers and the occasional deepwater port. Koh Kood is an Instagrammer’s playground. Look for the shoals of fish. The island has only its tourist good-life ecosystem and moves to the rhythms of the lapping ocean. The only mild annoyance is the choice of music in some of the resorts. Yes, you’re going to hear Gloria Gaynor singing about surviving and a lot of Hotel California. Given that islands swarming with hostile uncontacted natives do still exist, mild Ed Sheeran exposure is getting off lightly.
The island offers little in its interior besides a few waterfalls. Don’t expect much, as these run dry during the tourist season. The size of the well-eroded boulders in the dry riverbeds suggests they must be spectacular during the monsoon. The Thais have a peculiar love of waterfalls, alcohol and unsafe behaviour, so be cautious of how others are behaving.
Pick any beach, resort or bar when you fancy a break. Thai food is genuinely the finest in the world, and most menus will contain explanations in simple English that fail to do the cuisine justice. Authentic Thai food is an order of magnitude better than what’s served in restaurants across the world. If you hunger for the familiar, most places can knock up a fine burger or a decent pepperoni pizza. Vegetarians and vegans might go hungry. While most food is cooked to Western preferences, be aware that the Thai palate – especially in its colourful drinks – leans heavily towards sugar.
Learn the phrase ‘mai pet’, meaning ‘not spicy’, and be mindful that the Thai definition of this is still often hazardous to the Western bowel. Avoid finely chopped chillies and those soaked in the condiments served with the food. You run zero risk of food poisoning, but adverse reactions to chilli are another matter entirely. Avoid it unless you like bathroom interiors.
The day done, return to your resort for the sort of sunset Monet dreamt about, a swim in that ocean and the obligatory fire show. Thai sunsets are always spectacular; the water here is warm, clean and unusually free of both jellyfish and surfers. The fire shows, usually at weekends, consist of young men twirling fire around on ropes, freely demonstrating why none of them seem to have any body hair. It’s a massive cliché and largely inescapable. An evening meal and cocktails on the beach round out the day nicely. The kitchens and bars close early. Bring repellent, sleeves and trousers for the night. Nocturnal things hunger too.
Of course, awareness of your surroundings is always wise. Thailand is generally very safe, but violence does flare up, usually between locals over alcohol and petty matters. Lone travellers need not be concerned.
If you’ve ever pictured walking out onto a wooden pier overlooking perfectly clear blue seas, under equally blue skies and shaded on all sides by coconut palms, then Koh Kood is for you. It offers Maldives-like experiences at a fraction of the cost, against the background of all of Thailand’s other sites and sights. There are plenty of wannabe desert island getaways around the world, with eco-obsessions and imported sand. Koh Kood is what they all aspire to be: the genuine article.
Lee Russell Wilkes 