Blogs from Ko Jam, South-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia

After our misadventure at Charley Barley's, we set out for Koh Jum, a less populated and more relaxed island nearby. We arrived around 9:30 a.m. on January 4th and immediately found a much nicer place to stay than before called New Bungalows. The island, as well as the family-owned group of well-kept-up bungalows, had been recommended to us by a couple we met on our last night in Vietnam, and we were very grateful for their advice! We got settled in before exploring the island a bit. We ultimately found it to be much less busy and touristy than Koh Lanta. There were only a handful of cars, a few tiny villages and only one major paved road. Within our first few hours of being on the island, we met numerous friendly locals and tourists, ate ... read more

This island and it’s laid back way of life is really beginning to grow on us. Alan, an American we met at our resort, was renting the tree house there so of course we just had to climb up and see it. It’s right at the front overlooking the beach. From his veranda there was an amazing view of the many neighbouring islands. A perfect spot to watch sunset. I don’t think I could take the ladder on a regular basis though especially as there is no bathroom so after ‘ lights out’ it could be tricky. I don’t suppose Tarzan had that worry, mind you he wouldn’t have been sat in a bar drinking Chang beer until 10pm! Today we made the crazy decision to swim to the closest island, it didn’t look too ... read more

We are off to the island of Koh Jum today. I'm not sure if we will get internet. The island doesn't even have a pier. We take a ferry close to the island, and another boat meets us and takes us to the island. We will probably be there for 3 days then head to Koh Lanta which is a little more popular. Koh Jum only has 1500 inhabitants on it. All there is to do is snorkel, suntan and walk around! ... read more

Ko Jum ist wohl die am einfachsten zugaengliche "einsame" Insel Thailands. Sie liegt ziemlich genau auf der Mitte zwischen den beiden touristisch gut entwickelten Zielen Ko Lanta und Krabi. Dennoch ist Ko Jum auf andere Art und Weise meilenweit von dem ausgetretenen Pfad entfernt. Ko Jum wurde vom Tsunami 2004 hart getroffen, viele Bungalow-Anlagen wurden zerstoert. Mittlerweile wurde alles wieder aufgebaut, ohne aber dabei den Fehler der Ueberentwicklung zu machen, wie das bei dem bekannteren Ko Phi Phi der Fall war. Nach Ko Phi Phi fuhr ich uebrigens im Rahmen eines Schnorchelausflugs. Ko Jum beherbergt neben einem Fischerdorf nur wenige Bungalow-Anlagen, die meist sehr einfach sind. Es gibt keinen inselweiten Strom. In meiner Anlage kam der Strom vom Generator und wurde lediglich von ca. 18 bis 22 Uhr angestellt. Die Anlagen stehen weit voneinander entfernt und ... read more

KOH LANTA We decided to go back to Koh Lanta for a few more days but we stayed on a different beach this time. We stayed on Klong Dao beach. It was a nice wide beach with very soft sand. This beach is aimed more at package holidaymakers, with more families and buggies racing around the beach. The accommodation was more expensive but we found really nice bamboo bungalows for 350 baht called Mermaid beachfront bungalows. KOH JUM What do you do in Koh Jum? Nothing, It's brillant, so peaceful and all there is to do there is collect shells or just sunbathe. The beach has a lot of shells on it and most days it felt a bit like being on a deserted island, with the beach totally to ourselves. We stayed in the Andaman ... read more