On our first days in Phuket, I was trying to find some activities to do with the kids. At a tourist information booth I came across a flyer for a little tour specifically for kids (what they will do to sell you a tour!).
The plan was to spend a whole day on Khai Nok island. The original trip was made of 3 stops: Koh Khai Nok, Koh Khai Nai and Koh Khai Nui. However the wind was very strong and the waves were huge so we just stayed on the first one!
The day trip
When we got to our meeting location, I thought there would be many families with kids. I was hoping that my kids could have had the opportunity to have someone new to play with, but it was only us!
The speedboat ride was a real adventure. My 10 months old was having the time of his life on the wild waves, he was giggling and jumping on my lap! However we were surrounded by people that were feeling sick.
We arrived to this tiny island and it was packed with people!!!! Oh my gosh, I thought it was crazy. I was also a little concerned for how our day was going to go. As I mentioned in past posts, other tourists are my worst nightmare!
The areas where the fish swam were packed with people trying to snorkel and kicking each other, I got hit 4 times! I was so upset for bringing my kids here! This is peak season in Thailand, so what did I expect?! Of course it was super busy! What I didn’t realize was that the island is a stop over for most tours, specially the ones that go to Phi Phi island because it is so close to shore, so of course it is busy!
Don’t get me wrong, the place was AMAZING. The water was crystal clear, the sand was white and full of shells and there was a wonderful breeze. However I couldn’t deal with all the people! Luckily our guide recommended that we stay only at this island the whole day and told me that by noon it would get very quiet until 2 pm. She was so right! By 12 it was a whole new world. We could swim peacefully and Cosimo took millions of pictures of fish. Emma built sand castles all over the place and Luca just went wild trying to eat shells.
We had a private covered area where we had lunch and could hide for a while when the sun was too unbearable. For the rest of the time we were in the water. These 2 hours of peace made up for the morning mad house!
Again I can’t stop saying how wonderful Thai people have been to us. Also during this tour our guide helped me with Luca. She also gave me the chance to eat and took care of feeding him. We have been so lucky with this trip and all the wonderful people we have met.
A few interesting facts about Khai Nok Island:
No one lives here. It has the same schedule of a shop. It opens at 9am and closes around 5pm, they have a few places to eat and a few market stands that sell clothing and beach stuff.
We arrived at low tide and by the afternoon the high tide was coming in, so most of the beach was covered. I took this shot of my kids to show the 2 different currents coming in on both sides of the beach. I thought it was so cool!
Marine officials have banned tourist activities at coral reefs near four islands: Koh Tachai, Koh Khai Nok, Koh Khai Nui and Koh Khai Nai. More then 60 speedboats carry tourists to these islands daily, harming the natural resources and accelerating the dangerous coral bleaching process. Beaches that usually would accomodate around 70 people have been overflowing with as many as 1,000 tourists at the time. 80% of the reefs have been destroyed by boat anchors, swimmers and snorkelers. I’m not sure from when this ban is going to be in effect on Khai Nok, but I hope it will be soon, it was beautiful being there but it would be so disappointing if the reef gets completely damaged.
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Check out the lovely hotel we stayed at Seapines Villa Liberg!!!
