I have procrastinated enough with my travel posts, now I am finally on it and you will get to read about all the places I visited in the last few months. Thailand will always be memorable because we decided to have a reunion there after three long years. I will be talking about Bangkok and Pattaya separately on different posts.
We stayed in Pattaya for a day and left for Koh Larn the next day. After checking out from the hotel our friend who had come to meet us for sometime dropped us to the Pier. We met her after 3 long years, once we were done with the goodbyes we got our tickets which was just 30 Baht (yes, that cheap). It takes around 40 minutes from Pattaya. Although Pattaya is a beach city, Koh Larn is a better option if you want a peaceful and relaxed environment.
Koh Larn is a perfect getaway from the busy streets of Pattaya. The word “Koh” basically means an “island”. Koh Larn is around 7km long and 2km wide. If you have a time constraint (which we had) and cannot visit the islands like Phuket or Koh Samui, this is the place you should visit. It is just around two hours away from Bangkok and around 40 minutes by the ferry to reach Koh Larn. There are speed boats available too but it is much more feasible for people in large groups to hire speed boats. Once we boarded the ferry, it didn’t take much time for it to take off. The ride from Pattaya to Koh Larn is beautiful as you get to see the water change. You can see the colour of water turning crystal clear when you are near Koh Larn. People usually go to Koh Larn in the morning and return back to Pattaya in the evening but we decided to stay there for the night.
Accommodation is pretty cheap in the island and there are not too many people in the island, we booked our hotel before reaching there. Once we got to the Pier we walked to the hotel as it’s located only 400m from the Pier. Once we reached The Castello Resort the manager informed us that they provide taxis for pick ups and drops, also they provide taxi options for beach drops and pick up for free. Our accommodation was very simple and acceptable for a night stay. what I really liked about this place was its homely environment. At first I did not like the food as my lunch was really bad but our dinner turned out to be extremely delicious. So, staying in this cute little place wasn’t really a bad option.
There are around six beaches in the island. All the beaches have white sand and clear azure water. We were dropped to Tawaen beach by our hotel taxi. Tawaen beach is dotted with tiny restaurants and shops along the beach. It is the biggest amongst the other beaches in the island. We relaxed there for an hour, after which we walked around a little and found out that we could rent motorbikes and explore the entire island. Since neither of us knew how to ride motorbikes one of the bikers offered to ride us around (of course, we had to pay him for that!) Although it was really cheap I would recommend not to try this as its not very safe. We were really lucky to find someone who didn’t take advantage of us.
Apart from Tawaen beach which is the busiest on the island, there are two other beaches which attract a lot of tourists. Samae is quite popular and I have read that Nual attracts a lot of nudists although we did not spot any.Plan your stay as you like, we mostly relaxed and took long walks on the beach. There are many water sports that you can choose from. I would recommend a overnight stay on this island. Staying up late chatting with my friend, gazing up at the stars in the night sky, feeding stray dogs, hearing the fading voices of the locals at night, all of these made it totally worthwhile to stay overnight on this tiny island.
HOW TO GET THERE : The easiest way to reach Koh Larn is from Pattaya. You need to head to Bali Hai Pier and then take the Koh Larn Ferry or a speed boat which is easily available there. The first ferry departs Bali Hai pier at 07.00 am and the last ferry departs at 06.30 pm.
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