❤ Not all those who wander are lost ❤: Koh Kood

I arrived for the first time in Koh Kood by pure accident, in December 2014, during my SEA trip. I really wanted to celebrate Christmas and New Years Eve on the beach of a tropical island - back in 2012, I had already been to Phi Phi, Krabi and Phuket and I decided that for no reasons I would go back to any of them this time. From Bangkok, the most common, still unexplored and easy-to-reach destination seemed Koh Tao, in the South East of Thailand. I called a friend of mine who had been staying there for a while now and he told me that the weather, in that very moment, was behaving really bizarre, rain being present almost every day. No way I was going there to get rain and grey instead of sun and tan ;-) Thankfully, he also told me that a couple of his friends had been to an island called Koh Kood only a couple of weeks earlier, and apparently they had fallen totally in love with the place. I did some researches, and actually Koh Kood was easier to reach from Bangkok than any other islands, it was just that I never heard of it before. Also, the images that I saw on the internet looked amazing, and after a couple of nights spent in Bangkok - one being totally sick, throwing-up 8 times in a row - sorry for the details, but it's good to remember also the worse things of my trip - I decided to get onto a bus to Trat and from there onto a ferry to Koh Kood. When I arrived on the island, I was speechless. The natural beauty of this island and the fact that it was still so pristine, almost empty although it was high season, made me decide to stay longer, on the spot. In Kok Kood there is only one road that links the South to the North of the island (covered for over 70% by tropical rain forest), 2 fisherman villages where you can eat the most amazing sea food, some small Thai restaurants, a couple of dive centers, cheap guesthouses and bungalows and also some expensive and fancy resorts, one pharmacy, one pizzeria, managed by an Italian guy living there for ever now, and many many wonderful beaches. Only this year (2016) they opened the first bank with an ATM - I know this because I went back to the island in March 2016 - to let you understand how much I love Koh Kood.

X-Mas as I want it

Best sea food

Fishermen village

Best sea food

In Koh Kood there are endless activities to do and the time on the island will fly by, I can promise you that. A part from the beaches, and the stunning sunsets, you have a huge lagoon that you can explore by kayak - most of the guesthouses give them for free to their guests. On the island, you also have 2 huge, holy trees to visit - combining with a walk in the forest - older than 500 years each and very important to the local community. You can bath in 3 different waterfalls, depending, of course, on the season of the year. You can organize snorkeling trips, or just snorkel from one of the local beaches of the island - the best one for snorkeling being the one in front of Paradise Divers, where you have two big bunches of rocks and many fishes and corals to see. In Koh Kood, you can also learn how to dive - indeed I took my PADI while on the island, and since I have been so deep underwater I can't wait to do it again. Not just fun dives, but also night and wreck dives- I did the wreck for the first time this year, interesting experience but not really my cup of tea - I like colors and corals better and the wreck and the nature surrounding it was way too dark for me. The National Marine Park near Koh Chang is just perfect, if you share my taste :-)

Snorkeling in Koh Kood

Holy Tree in Koh Kood

From the fisherman villages, you can also rent a fisherman boat and they will bring you to secluded beaches, not reachable otherwise. You will fish and eat your meal on the beach, surrounded by palm trees and gorgeous nature.

In Koh Kood, you can also get 1.30 hour massages for 400 bath and take Yoga classes run by an Indian teacher living there, who also manages his own restaurant - very nice food.

On another note, if your days will be filled with activities, you can't really expect the same when it comes to your nights: Koh Kood is definitely not a party island and after dinner there are only two small reggae bars where the entire island meets to drink a glass and listen to live music. My favorite one is the bar managed by Jong Jong, an incredible men who, in my opinion, understood everything in life. He opened this super cool reggae bar on this amazing island, he used all second-hand/recycled furniture to make of it one of the cutest places I have ever seen, he plays live music and sings every night, invites his guests to eat with him and his pets, mostly sleeps, gets massages and swims during the day and, most amazingly, lets people prepare their own drinks and pay by themselves during the opening hours, accessing the cash register of the bar, sometimes full of money. Basically, it is a bar managed by the guests of the island, as Jong Jong prefers to enjoy the company of the people who visit his bar instead of being stuck behind a counter making cocktails. Hell, people can make their own drinks! And he trusts that everybody will pay their share in peace and respect. I loved this concept, unthinkable for almost any places of the word, but not in Koh Kood and not for Jong Jong.

Jong Jong

Koh Kood is not a backpacker island, the tourism of this island is quite selective and family and travelers gather there to enjoy nature and tranquility, instead of loud music and big buckets of alcohol sold for 3 dollars each. Back in 2014 I celebrated there New Years Eve, we went out on a boat with the dive school, watched some fireworks from the shore and went to bed. Even in that occasion no party, just nature and ready for another day at the beach on Jan 1st!

Beach and Lagoon in Koh Kood

Sunset in Koh Kood

The BIG downside of Koh Kood are the sand-flies. I never heard about them before arriving in Koh Kood nor did I ever get bitten before, in any other tropical countries I visited. In Koh Kood I got so many bites and scratched myself so much that I got skin marks and scars that only recently went away (since 2014 - sigh). Unfortunately, there is not much you can do in order to avoid them biting you, unless you decide not to go to the beach at all! They are there at any moment of the day, not only during sunset as some people think, and especially in Koh Kood they are on all beaches. A remedy that worked for me this year was some homemade clay with aloe that they sell pretty much everywhere on the island. You must put it on the bites in order to avoid scratching, and it really works, at least it worked on me.

Advises:

I advise you to rent a scooter to explore the island, the price is between 250 and 300 bath per day.

You can find nice bungalows for 700 bath per nigh - with warm water :-) Last time I went to Koh Kood, I was staying at Ta Yai Homestay and I can definitely recommend this place - apart for the girl who runs it...she can be quite grumpy sometimes.