The Tarutao Marine National Park consists
of 51 islands
near the Thai - Malaysian border in Thailand
´s south off the west coast Satun Province.
At Pak Bara at the end of highway
4052 is the pier to start the journey to one
of Thailand's most attractive National Park.
Koh Tarutao is about 1 hour with the ship
from Pak Bara. The ship for Koh Tarutao and
Koh Lipe, is the same for both islands. The
passenger for Koh Tarutao leave this ship
for a long tail boat about 300 meter
offshore Koh Tarutao.
At Pak Bara pier departure for Koh Tarutao
and Koh Lipe is every day at 1.30 pm. During
high season one more ship is operating but
only in the morning around 10 am. At Pak
Bara one can also find a small ship leaving
for Langkawi Island in Malaysia.
The Tarutao Marine National Park could
geographically be divided into 2 parts.
First
the islands around the main Tarutao Island
(Koh Tarutao) and second the islands
scattered around Adang (Koh Adang) and Rawi
(Koh Rawi) island further off in the Andaman
Sea.
Declared a national park in 1974 Tarutao
was the Kingdom's first marine national
park, its a clean, pristine environment full
of beauty above and under the water surface.
Limestone formations and granite boulders
form a dramatic visual environment, beaches
are plenty and you probably will easily find
one for you only.
Tarutao Marine National Park boats southern
Thailand Ao Molae Beach Thailand
 
Tarutao Marine National Park boats southern
Thailand Ao Sane Beach view from the sea and
towards the sea
The Tarutao islands are covered with
dense thick jungle all the way down to
the beach where they form a natural boundary
to the light fine sand of the beaches. On
one of the islands a community of "sea
gypsies" offer to stay in some "home made"
bungalows. A nice atmosphere, somehow
becomes a bit boring after some days. This
"sea gypsies" are practically the same
people who live also in the Myeik (Mergui
Archipelago) in southern Myanmar (Burma).
Ko Tarutao was used as a prison for
political and other prisoners during the
first democratic attempts in Thailand until
the 1940s.
On Ko Tarutao is the national park
headquarter with a couple of bungalows run
by the forestry service. The adventure
Tarutao National Park Headquarter Sunset at
the Beach southern Thailand
hungry can explore caves - crocodile cave on
Ko Tarutao -, waterfalls - Lu Du waterfall
is about 1 hour walk and Lo Po waterfall
about 1 hour and a half -. Isolated beaches
and jungle treks through virgin rain forest.
It is one of the few places in Thailand
without human intervention.
Try to avoid to stay in the houses of the
park headquarter, if you do stay there you
must bring your own soap, toilet paper and
towel with you, this items are not supplied,
they tell you on request.. go and buy it in
the shop ! Electricity is only on from 6 pm
to around 12 pm, no ventilator before and
after.
The “self service” restaurant is very
average but the prices are top, around the
same like in Patong Beach, Phuket.
If you have a problem, the guy at the
reception - the one with the moustache -
tells - you are a stupid farang - etc.,
strange philosophy anyway.
There are a few bungalow cluster at the
other beaches, but to go there is a
problem, the park headquarter controls the
long tail boats to go there, they charge the
foreigner 800 baht for a 20 minute ride. The
usual price elsewhere is about 300 baht. If
one complain they tell, their engine is a
car engine and this consumes much more
petrol than the usual diesel engine, their
problem is they think unfortunately all
others have a similar peculiar thinking
pattern like they have.
I really hope that someone on Bangkok brings
this people under control before they can do
more damage by running wild, this is ugly !
Tarutao
Something squirmed past my foot. Something
wriggled under my armpit. And what was that
nibbling at my calf? Treading water in a
turquoise pool at the foot of Lu Du
waterfall on Tarutao island, I pulled on a
mask and snorkel to investigate.
I was surrounded by large, black fish " a
few at first, then scores, multiplying
as they emerged from shadowy corners. Soon
the pool teemed with slippery, inquisitive
life. A snake " thin, brown, about a metre
long " glided into the water from a
limestone ledge. The dip that had seemed the
perfect antidote to a two-hour hike through
the steamy jungle was fast becoming a
reality TV show trial. Enough was enough: I
scrambled ashore.
Any island that has been a political
prison, a hideout for pirates, a
heavily-policed National Park, and a
location for the American reality TV show
Survivor, was bound to hold a few surprises.
It certainly took the Hindus by surprise in
the 1st century AD on their perilous sea
migrations from India into Southeast Asia.
They decided that Koh Tarutao, 22km off the
south-west coast of Thailand and cut off by
monsoon seas for half the year, was cursed.
Those who entered its thick jungles tended
to go mad, or die. What they didn't know was
that the delirium and death were brought on
by malaria, which no longer poses a threat.
However, it's still advisable to bring
plenty of insect repellent and a mosquito
net.
Just in view to the south is the
Malaysian holiday resort island of Langkawi,
yet Koh Tarutao feels a million miles away
from it, shielded from encroachment by its
Thai National Park status.
This 26km-long island with its palm- and
casuarina-fringed beaches, mangrove swamps
and jungles is one of the 51 islands that
make up the Tarutao National Marine Park,
three of which have ferry connections to Pak
Bara on the mainland. Koh Adang and
Tarutao Marine National Park boats southern
Thailand Beach Panorama
Koh Lipe, the other islands within a ferry
ride of Pak Bara, are surrounded by pristine
coral reefs. The Tsunami Reef Action Fund,
set up by the Sustainable Ecosystems
Institute, has cited the archipelago's
sheltered position behind the Sumatra
peninsula as the reason why last December's
tsunami, which slammed into resorts further
north around Phuket, caused 'little or no
damage' here.
Even though Tarutao let in the reality TV
cameras in 2002, the park keepers have
successfully held the private resort
developers at bay, and only a few in-roads
have been carved. Rough roads and dirt
tracks link the National Park headquarters
at Ao Pante on the north- west coast to four
other ranger stations at Ao Sane, a
favourite egg- laying site for turtles on
the west coast, Ao Ma Kham further south,
and the former prison sites of Ao Talo Wao
and Ao Talo Udang on the east coast.
Tarutao's formidable reputation made it
the perfect choice to house political
prisoners during the early 1940s. The
island's perils were hyped up by the guards,
who deterred the convicts from escaping with
tales of shark and crocodile attacks. Very
little remains of the prisons today, just
some rusty relics in the visitor centre at
Ao Pante, including an enormous wok, a
cannon, some leg irons, and photographs of
the more important political prisoners "
leaders of two coup attempts from the 1930s.
Among them were So Sethaputra, the author of
the first Thai-English dictionary; the
grandson of King Rama VII, Sittiporn
Gridagorn, who developed a new cucumber
strain during his captivity and became
minister for agriculture after his pardon;
and Luan Sarapiwanit, who called the guards'
bluff about the sharks and crocodiles, swam
out to a fishing boat and escaped. He later
became minister for education; imagine if
Ruth Kelly had had to undergo such trials.
Supplies of anti-malarial drugs and food to
the prisons dried up during the Second World
War and in 1944 wardens, jailors and
convicts turned to piracy, raiding ships in
the Straits of Malacca. The attacks became
increasingly frequent and ferocious as
necessity turned to greed and the booty was
smuggled to the mainland and sold.
After the war, British troops were sent
in from Malaysia " then British Malaya " to
root out pirates hiding in the estuaries and
creeks. Little time was wasted in
closing down the prisons after that, but
pirate attacks continue to this day.
It was easy to imagine the prisoners' fear
of crocodiles when my girlfriend and I took
a long-tail ride with a boatman named Hat up
the mangrove-fringed estuary of the
Pante-Malaka river to 'Crocodile Cave'. Hat
was one of 15 boatmen from poor villages
around Satun province selected by the
National Park to spend the November-to-May
dry season transferring tourists from the
ferry to Ao Pante's pier at low tides.
A sea eagle took flight from a rocky islet
as our long-tail clattered up the river, and
we moored near the cave mouth. Braving the
rickety floating walkway by Hat's
torchlight, we half expected scaly torsos
and gnashing teeth at any moment. Hat's
words, 'No crocodile, not for 20 year!' did
little to calm our nerves as he cranked up a
generator and a row of bulbs blinked into
life, waking bats. The cavern walls were
corrugated like a pipe organ, and in our
guide's imaginative patter stalagmites
became 'a camel' and 'an old man's head' as
he led us up to our knees in cool, squidgy
clay. On the way back to Ao Pante, Hat
pulled the boat in by some mangrove roots,
and whispered 'monkey come, monkey come!'
and sure enough, a crab-eating macaque
clambered tentatively through the mesh of
roots and leapt on board to steal a
strategically placed biscuit.
It was easy to see why Tarutao was chosen
by CBS as the location for Survivor: the
proximity of the fauna on the island is
alarming. Cicadas in the evergreen canopy
chirped as loudly and incessantly as car
alarms. Wild pigs foraged under the cabins
while we slept. An enormous king cobra
slithered into a river bank behind Ao Jak
beach on the way to Lu Du waterfall " a
route that writhes in the memory for its
abundance of serpent life.
The 3km trail to Lu Du starts at Ao Sone,
marked out with tags tied to trees. You
can easily lose the trail, so you may find
yourself clambering up the river for much of
the way, which can add hours to the hike.
Green snakes bask on rocks and flee across
the river with frightening alacrity as you
approach. You reach a small waterfall with a
deep pool before you get to Lu Du, which is
more pleasant to swim in than the larger,
fish- and snake-infested pool I found myself
in at the end of the trail.
By the time we clambered back down from Lu
Du to Ao Sone, the thought of walking the
8km road to Ao Pante was too daunting. You
can camp at Ao Sone, but we flagged down a
passing fisherman in a long-tail boat, who
ferried us
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up the coast. En route, a grey
inflatable speedboat passed us
carrying five men in army fatigues
clutching rifles. They were park
rangers patrolling for illegal
trawlers and dynamite fishermen. Our
humble skipper posed no threat with
his nylon fishing line and battered
cooking pot.
But the rangers' appearance was
no sham: in 1981, 10 rangers in
a long-tail boat were surrounded by
illegal trawlers, and came under
heavy gunfire. They had to be
airlifted to safety. Since then
they've raised their game, and have
learnt to behave like a small army.
Ever since Tarutao was declared a
National Park in 1974, the
rangers have fought battles on many
fronts. First, it was with farmers
who had moved from the mainland to
cultivate rubber plantations and
coconut groves. Two rangers were
killed in ambushes, and the richest
settler only agreed to leave once
he'd clinched a handsome pay-off.
The coconut palms are still
there, providing shelter to a
newly built row of smart two-bedroom
National Park bungalows, which
visitors can rent for 2,000 baht
(pounds 27) a night.
Balancing tourism and conservation
is now the chief concern of the
National Park. |
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As many as 10 private bungalow
resorts have sprung up on Koh Lipeh.
The National Park must prevent
further encroachment while
maintaining the tourist trade, and
protecting the local Urak Lawoi
people. |
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