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Published: January 15th 2012
Our plunge pool
A view from our villaWe left Hyderbad to fly to Bangkok on a very short red-eye, landed at 4:55AM and then took another flight to Phuket from Bangkok. It was very surprising to see the very large Boeing 747 used for such a short flight (1h).
It took us another 45 minutes in the car and 30 mins on a speedboat to arrive at the secluded and isolated island of Koh Yao. We jumped off the boat to the beach and were welcomed by the hotel manager Niina, who is from Finland and with whom we became great friends during out stay. We checked into
Elixir Resort, situated in the south part of the island and consisting of beach bungalows. Our hut was on the hill and included a beautiful patio, plunge pool and an outdoor shower! The resort was absolutely beautiful with the Thai food served being a real treat – very fresh seafood!
Our days in Koh Yao were very relaxing; we spent a lot of time reading and hanging out by our plunge pool. At the same time we also did a few other fun activities. On our first day we were introduced to a Finnish game of
Mölkky. The game
is about throwing a piece of wood at other pieces of wood with numbers on it and achieving exact 50 as the first team, it was quite fun, especially that we played it with a few people from Finland who stayed in our resort.
One of the highlights of our stay was the village tour with a local guide Suchat. He picked us up in the morning and drove us around the island. We saw so many things in just 4 hours: rubber production cycle (from the rubber tree to the local rubber factory), coconut collection (local villagers buy monkeys for 50K baht and the monkeys are trained to take down coconuts, it is an amazing spectacle to watch), fishing village and beautiful views from both east and west side of the island. It was quite fun to buy freshly caught prawns (caught in the AM, bought at 11:30 AM) and then have them cooked in a soup and curry in a small restaurant by the side of the road. We also learned about Koh Yao, which is a very small island of 8,000 people and 99% Muslim. It seemed like our guide new everybody!
During our village
Coconut brunch
Coconut milk brunch, yummy. tour we met Tim and Lindsay, fellow travelers from America who we made friends with as well. They came by our resort on the next day to hang out by the pool. We will meet up with Tim in Chiang Mai as well. He is a travel writer and offered us a lot of tips on Laos and Cambodia.
On the next day we took a half day trip to a very small island for snorkeling and relaxing on the beach. The scenery was truly breathtaking.
One other highlight was when our resort manager Niina came by to hang out with us during a thunderstorm and brought a whole picnic basket of fruits, drinks and soft drinks. We had a blast, grabbed dinner and ended the night with a party at the resort dive shop – which interestingly employs only Czechs and Slovaks!
We have spent a truly relaxing 4 days at Elixir, weather was beautiful, the staff was extremely friendly and it was exactly what we were looking for at the beginning of a long trip – relaxing / honeymoon-like experience. Off to Koh Lanta!
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Linda
non-member comment
who knew!
Czechs and Slovak stronghold in Thailand- who knew! And at a dive shop, no less :)