Koh Maphrao

Phuket Island: Koh Maphrao(Coconut island)

Phuket Island: Koh Maphrao(Coconut island) Koh Maphrao or Coconut Island is a small island (2.5km x 1.5km) located 500 meter off Phuket’s east coast. Koh Maphrao is a peaceful place with tours and homestay with local families available. Koh Maphrao is still rather undeveloped due to the fact that there’s no electricity on the island apart from private generators. The village has a restaurant where local specialties can be sampled. For the more adventurous, mountain bike tours are on offer, and for those who cannot bear to leave, there is limited accommodation in the hills so Koh Maphrao is a nice place to visit if you’re looking to discover authentic local life. You can rent a bicycle at The Village Coconut Island Resort and follow the unique road through Nature and past typical wooden stilt houses.

Phuket Island:Koh Maphrao

Activities

visiting the fishery villages
walking along nature trails
fishing and biking

How to get there

Ferryboat services to Koh Maphrao are available at Laemhin pier in Phuket.

KOH RANG YAI

Phuket Island:Koh Rang Yai

Phuket Island: Koh Rang Yai 2012

Koh Rang Yai is a small picturesque island that is located 5 kilometers east of Laem Hin on Phuket. Its western side has a 1 kilometer long beach that is frequented in the afternoon by day trippers coming back from visiting the ‘hongs’ of Phang Nga Bay.There is a restaurant, a little bar and some bungalows. Swimmers will notice something unusual about Koh Rang Yai: the southward current gently transports you parallel to the whole length of the beach and the water is almost at body temperature.

Phuket Island:Koh Rang Yai

The beach looks very idyllic with trees overhanging above. There are a few sunloungers dotted along the beach so you can lay back and chill out between the occasional dip in the sea. At the center of the main beach is the pearl farm and shop.

Phuket Island:Koh Rang Yai

Activities

Snorkelling on the coral reefs
sea kayaking
mountain-biking
playing miniature golf
visiting the island’s pearl farm.
Fishing
Airgun Shooting Range
Volleyball Courts

How to get there

For travel to Rang Yai Island, boats may be hired from Laem Hin Pier, just outside Phuket Town or from Phuket Boat Lagoon.

Koh Naka Yai and Naka Noi

Phuket Island:Koh Naka Yai and Naka Noi

Phuket Island: Koh Naka Yai and Naka Noi

The Naka Islands are just off the northeast coast of Phuket. There are two islands, Koh Naka Yai (Yai = big) and Koh Naka Noi (Noi = little). There are some lovely beaches around the two islands and they are well worth a visit for those who enjoy exploring Phuket's attractions. The most common way people visit the Naka Islands is as part of a Phang Nga Bay daytrip.

Koh Naka Yai

Most of Naka Yai's beaches are broad and sandy, and along its eastern shores the views out across Phang Nga Bay are simply breathtaking. It has four main beaches and a few other slivers of sand. The two big beaches on the east coast have great views across to Koh Yao Yai and to the northeast are the distant towering limestone karsts of Phang Nga Bay.

Phuket Island:Koh Naka Yai and Naka Noi

Naka Noi

Naka Noi is known as the 'Pearl Island', as it's a site where rare South Sea pearls are cultivated. This island has a single long beach which runs around the north and western side of the island. Any trip to Naka Noi will inevitably include a tour of the pearl farm

Phuket Island:Koh Naka Yai and Naka Noi

Activities

swim

sunbathe

take strolls along the beach.

Phuket Island:Koh Naka Yai and Naka Noi

How to get there

Long-tail boats may be hired for the day at the rickety Ao Po Pier on the east coast of Phuket (to get to the pier, take route 4027 east from the Heroines' Monument, then turn right at the sign for Ao Po and follow along for a few kilometers). Naka Yai is also part of many daytrip itineraries, with many boatloads of snorkellers and swimmers stopping off at the long eastern beach for a few hours in the afternoon.

Phang Nga Bay

Phuket Island: Phang Nga Bay and more

Phang Nga Bay is a 400 km² bay in the Strait of Malacca between the island of Phuket and the mainland of the Malay peninsula of southern Thailand. The marine national park covers a total area of approximately 25,000 acre in Amphoe Mueang Phang Nga, Amphoe Takua Thung, and Amphoe Ko Yao.The large bay contains more than 40 islands. A distinctive feature of Phang Nga Bay are the sheer limestone karsts that jut vertically out of the emerald-green water. There are many river estuaries around the north of the bay. Mangrove forests line the bay's coastline and the banks of the many rivers. James Bond Island and Koh Panyee are just two of the more famous spots in this bay.

Phang Nga Bay

James Bond Island

James Bond Island: The area came to world attention in the 1974 James Bond movie 'The Man with the Golden Gun'. This famous landmark, called Koh Tapu ('Nail Island'). The entire area surrounding this island with its signature rocky pinnacle is indeed spectacular, but most of the tours bus visitors up the main highway for an hour on the same well-worn itinerary. All the tour boats include this island on the itinerary so it tends to get busy during the day. One other striking feature of the island is a huge slab of rock that many thousands of years ago, sheered away from the cliff and slid down onto the beach forming a wedge shaped passage (it housed the entrance to Scaramanga's lair in the movie). There is a cluster of trinket stalls by the beach. The two best ways to view James Bond Island are from boats or from the small beach on Koh Ping Ghan.

Koh Ping Ghan

Koh Ping Ghan is an island on the beach that derives its name from the fact that a stone mountain split in two and the smaller part slid down, so that its base was buried into the soil while the top parts still lean against each other. The scenery behind Khao Phing Kan is very picturesque with "Koh Tapu"('Nail Island').

Phuket Island:Koh Panyee, Phuket Thailand

Koh Panyee
(Photo Credit: Carrie Kellenberger)

Koh Panyee

Koh Panyee is a fishing village in Phang Nga Province. It is a popular place for a seafood lunch. There are shacks, restaurants and houses where the villagers live are built on stilts over the surrounding shallow sea. Within this watery community you’ll find a village school with its own playground, a mosque with a gleaming dome and minarets to call the villagers to prayer and, most famously, a floating football pitch. The villagers of Koh Panyee are very friendly and also very accustomed to interacting with visitors. The latest development on Koh Panyee is the construction of bungalows that offer overnight accommodation for as little as 300 baht.

Koh Panyee (Photo Credit: Isidro Lopez-Arcos)

How to Get There

rent a long-tail boat from Surakul pier for around 1,700 baht for three hours. One boat can carry up to ten people

Credit

http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/asia/thailand/phuket/koh-maphrao-island-thingstodo-detail-228511/
http://www.phuket.com/phuket-magazine/koh-maphrao.htm
http://thai.tourismthailand.org/static-page/staticpage/page-00035
http://paddlinginphuket.blogspot.com/2011/05/koh-maphrao.html
http://paddlinginphuket.blogspot.com/2012/01/koh-rang-yai.html
http://www.knowphuket.com/islands/koh_rang_yai.htm
http://www.knowphuket.com/islands/koh_naka_yai_noi.htm
http://www.knowphuket.com/islands/phang_nga_bay.htm
http://www.phuket-travel-secrets.com/koh-rang-yai.html
http://www.phuket.com/island/nakanoi.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phang_Nga_Bay
http://www.tourismthailand.org/See-and-Do/Sights-and-Attractions-Detail/Phang-Nga-Bay-or-Ao-Phang-Nga-National-Park--582
http://www.phuket.com/island/phangnga.htm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/thailand/4944417/Phang-Nga-Bay-Thailand-One-minute-wonder.html
http://www.bloggang.com/viewdiary.php?id=naaaa&month=08-2008&date=05&group=4&gblog=8
http://www.thaiwaysmagazine.com/phang-nga/phang-nga_attractions_town.html
http://www.thailandforchildren.com/thailand-islands/phuket-family-holidays/koh-panyi-floating-fishing-football-village