Thailand Beaches Sans Western Tourists
"I want a really fine white sand beach with clean water and no tourists," the man said, looking at me eagerly.
"Go down to Pattani, past Pattani town, and watch very carefully for one of those tiny little roadside icon signs with the palm tree. On the east side you will see a water buffalo trail up over the hill. Following that will lead you to a nice coconut grove and a great beach with clean water .. it's called Ratcharak."
"Ratcharak?"
"Yes, sounds a little like 'lots of luck', doesn't it," I said.
"You're pulling my leg", he chuckled.
I shook my head, "There truly is a beach down there .. a great one, and it is actually called Ratcharak."
He got eager again. "What are the accommodations like?"
"Ah," I said. "You want accommodations, but no tourists."
Robinson Crusoe found that perfect beach, but he had to build his own house, catch his own food and couldn't brag about his great tan at cocktail parties
Somewhere in between and some pretty close options actually exist if you stay away from Koh Samui, Phuket, Hua Hin, Cha-am .. well, you get the idea.
Generally, you need to avoid long Thai holiday weekends and Thai school breaks.. weekdays are better still. And the prices will be lower.
Beaches If you don't know about Thai beaches, now might be a good time to understand that the cleanest water will often be the most dangerous. One of those nasty paradoxes in life.
Take the case of Thai Muang, an area on the Andaman coast between Phuket and Khaolak. The beach is absolutely georgous, the water an awesome aquamarine and crystal clear. But because the area was dredged for tin for many years, the bottom slopes very steeply. That means dangerous rip currents. It's still beautiful, but beware.
The opposite might be Kui Buri on the Gulf, or Trang on the Andaman. Both areas are extremely shallow. Several small islands stand offshore from the beach at Pak Meng in Trang. At low tide, you can probably wade out to most of them. But the area is so shallow, the beach looks dirty. Maybe because of silt deposits that dont get washed out with the tide.
Being careful what you wish for. I lived in a small moo ban cum resort in Ban Krud for a year. One night I was sitting talking to the manager. Two young European women sitting at a table nearby were so bored that they actually wanted to talk to two old ugly fat guys. Talking to two young bucks would have been a lot more more fun for them.
The young women were on holiday .. maybe a once in a lifetime experience? They wished they had opted for Koh Samui.
