Trip to Tarutao National Park, Thailand

It's an unbelievable trip... A trip which start in the early morning (6am) of the 1st day of Chinese New Year 2007... It was the 1st time that I will celebrate my CNY outside of Malaysia. The trip started a day b4 CNY, where the total of ppls who will join the trip had not yet confirmed... We contacted KF and persuade him to join us... at last he confirmed with a phone call at around 11pm and I promised to fetch him at 6am in the next morning... hour and hours passed by... At last its the moment of truth, as promised I fetch KF and EH to gather at my apartment and waiting for CH's Toyota Avanza... together with CH are TS and Seow.

We kicked off the trip from my place at around 7am and heading our way to Wan Kelian's Custom Post at Perlis and parked our car at the Duty Free Shop with a fee of RM15/night. We boarded a "song tiu" (taxi) and continued our journey to Pak Para pier, Thailand (it cost 600Bath per trip)... on the way to Pak Para, we adjusted our time to an hour late to suit the Thai's time zone. When we reached Pak Para and after a price negotiation with the ferry's tour agent we bought a total of 6 tickets for Pak Para - Tarutao - Lipe - Tarutao - Pak Para... and it cost us 900 Bath per ppl.

The ferry took off at the pier around 2:30pm and reached Koh Tarutao about an hour later. We paid 400 Bath each when we reach the island and booked two room to share among 6 of us... the rooms were without electricity and the island generator will operate from 6:30pm till 12am.... so it will be complete darkness at night... and later we found out that there were no events on the island during night time and we went to bed at 7:30pm!!!! what?! so early?? We all thought in our mind that it will be a boring trip??... so on the next morning, after some photos shooting at the island... we search for some info at the infomation counter and decided to board a ferry to Koh Lipe. The ferry arrived at the Tarutao's jetty at 2:30pm and reach Koh Lipe at 4:30pm.

When we reach Koh Lipe.... everything came alive... we saw a lot of "fa lang" (Thai for Foreigner) sun-bathing on the beach and found out that a lot of Resort along the beach too. But unfortunately, all the resorts were full :( ... luckily we managed to rent 3 tents and camp on the beach... Here, we met Mr. Kang and his family. They were very helpful and shared some of their travel experience at Thailand. After our dinner, we decided to look around and we managed to book 2 rooms with 200 Bath/ppl/night... and head to Mr. Kang's room and planned for the trip for next day. After a short discussion and price negotiation, we decided to book a long tail sampan for island hopping and snorkeling at Koh Rawi and its surrounding island. It were our long night in our tents... all of us had to deal with hot and humid condition.. and had to sleep on the hard surface too.

On the 3rd day morning, b4 we boarding the sampan, we met "Pancake", a supermodel of Thailand.... wow wow!! She drove us crazy... especially KF. We surrounded her and took photos with her.... Our island hopping and snorkeling start at 9am and end at 3pm... We visited Koh Ko Hin Ngam, Koh Hin Sorn, Koh Rawi, Koh Dong, etc... and we met "Pancake" again at Koh Hin Ngam... what a coincident! After our snorkeling, we had a walk around the village and reach Sunset Beach where we met "Pancake" again!! She was wearing a bikini and had photos shooting there.... It were our 3rd time meeting this gal in a day... ;)

After a good night sleep, we boarded a long tail sampan and took our ferry for returning home to the mainland... and on our way at the sampan, we saw "Pancake" again.... she was walking on the beach.... and KF shouted and called out her name loudly... and waved at her... she return it with a wave and a smile to us... wooo.... its a nice 1! KF surely wont forget about that.

Ok... let me share some of the tips at Tarutao National Park:-
1.) If you wish to have a short vacation (let say 2 to 3 days) at the national park, buy a tickets from Pak Para to Koh Lipe and dont stop at Koh Tarutao. Coz Koh Tarutao its a huge island and need few days to explore. Furthermore, you need to pay for 400 Bath for visiting Koh Tarutao.
2.) Pre-book ur room/s.
3.) The resorts rooms are clean and u barely notice any mosquito inside the rooms.
4.) Bring sun lotion and sun glasses too as protection.
5.) Rooms and foods are cheap... so eat all u can on the islands ;)

If you need any further info about the island, feel free to contact me.

To view more photos on the trip, please click here.