When thinking about Thailand, most people think about Phuket, Koh Samui, Koh Phangan or Chiang Mai. These places are mostly overrun by tourists, even though there are places where you will actually find a remote beach. During a flight to Lisbon in January 2016 I read the KLM aircraft magazine about two islands that were called a “hidden paradise”. They are located on the eastern coast of Thailand, just at the border to Cambodia: Koh Mak und Koh Kood. I decided to visit Koh Mak because it was the smaller of the two and check out Koh Chang, the biggest island at that coast and probably the most popular.
Actually the KLM magazine was right: Koh Mak is a hidden paradise. There is no airport, so you will have to travel to Trat by Bus or plane. As flight were really expensive, we booked a bus from Ekamai Bus Station in Bangkok. It takes about 5-6 hours but you will see some parts of the country that are not touristically explored. We were the only tourists on the bus what made the expectation of going on a remote island even stronger. From Trat we caught a taxi to the pier and the speedboat. After almost 8 hours we finally arrived in our expected paradise.
The island is actually small and we were so impressed as it actually looks like the beaches shown in movies about plane crash survivors. We had booked our accomodation in advance so we just caught a taxi to ride across the island. After the days in Bangkok it was so good to breathe the clean air and already catch a glimpse at the beauty of the island. At Ao Pong resort we actually felt like on another planet. The resort calls itself “The most chill place” and that is what it actually is.
