Koh Kood Island

Koh Kood

I visited Koh Kood Island in Thailand from 16-18 Dec 2005 with K.Jarunee, K.San & Siew Huey. We signed up for a 3D2N package with Bai Kood Shamala Resort. For more info. on the resort, pls visit their URL at http://www.kokood.com/kokood/Bai%2DKood%2DShambala/.

Koh Kood Island - picture taken from the resort

Bai Kood Shamala Resort's Package

Included in the THB 5,650 / person (~S$250) package are as follows :

1. 2-way speedboat transfer from the pier to the resort (about 2hrs though usually it can be reach in an hour if weather is good)
2. accomodation in a beach front bungalow (4 person to a room with air-con, heater and TV)
3. all meals (including b'fast, lunch & dinner); food served by the resort's in-house kitchen. Food serving was generous and sumptous; free flow of drinks and free top-up of any dishes allowed
4. a snorkelling trip (which was replaced with 45min Thai massage due to choppy waters)
5. an outing to a nearby waterfall by the resort's powerboat
6. free use of the kayak provided by the resort. The package is very value for money.

Feedback on the resort package : Very value worth. The resort is located in a very exclusive corner of the island food and offers a stunning, unobstructed view of the sunrise and sunset. The food is delicious. Each meal ends with a generous helping of fruit platter comprising of pineapple and water melon. The pineapple is very sweet, very delicious. The resort staff were extremely friendly and approachable and can converse adequately in English. I highly recommend this resort package to anyone considering a vacation retreat in an island away from people. This place is not commercialised at all, uncrowded and the package is very reasonably priced.

The resort's jetty

me relaxing at the sun-deck chair

Speedboat ride to resort

The speedboat ride took us 2 hrs (usually reachable by 1 hr) due to strong wind and rough sea. As we were the last batch to board the speedboat, the only seats remaining were in the last row. Throughout the ride, the salty sea water kept splashing on us. We were absolutely drenched as we were unprepared. It's very cold and chilly. We were wet from head to toe and the wind was so strong. We were still shivering when we landed.

Well at least we reach the shore safe and sound despite the rought ride. Shortly after we landed, we heard the news that a speedboat carrying 20 people capsized in Koh Phi Phi. So we were lucky to survive the tough ride.

Activities at the resort

Day 1 - Kayak, swimming at waterfall

The resort is located in a very secluded, exclusive area on the island. A lot of privacy and as it's not the Thai long weekend, there were no crowd. There's probably < 20 pple staying in the resort.

Shortly after checking in to room, i took the kayak out and paddled for about 45 mins, surveying the island's surrounding. There were quite a number of other older resorts situated at close distance to our resort.

When I return from the kayak trip, it was time for lunch. Lunch was sumptous.

Program after lunch was an outing to a waterfall nearby by powerboat ( i realised the next day that the waterfall is reachable by kayak within 30mins). At the waterfall, an elderly lady volunteered to lend me her life jacket. I took up the invitation and jump into the waterfall for a swim. I was delighted to see a rainbow at the waterfall.

A picture taken on the powerboat, on the way to the waterfall

I chatted with the elderly woman & her friend after taking a dip. They were on the trip with their children. Surprisely, the 2 elderly women spoke frequent English and Mandarin with me. One of them was of the same surname as me and she shaked hand with me.

Of the 4 of us who went to the water, only I went down to take a dip in the waterfall. The rest just hang around and took pictures.

K.San had a fall and his wound bleeded profusely

Unfortunately, juz before sunset, K.San injured himself, probably trip over some rocks/big stones. He sustained a very deep cut on his left lower leg and was bleeding so profusely that the folks at the resort have to send him to a nearby hospital on the island. So all of us went along with him. The resort folks were very kind and helpful. Not only did they attended to K.San promptly, they even transported him to the hospital and picked up the tab for the hospital bill.

Following K.San's injury, our original plan to watch the sunset together and take pictures of the beautiful sunset has to be adjourned to the next day which was alright.

Day 2 - watch sunrise & sunset, more kayaking, swimming near the resort and massage in the late afternoon

Day 2 morning, I woke up early and managed to catch the full view of the sunrise. After bfast (American bfast - ham, bread with butter & jam, 2 sunny side up, orange juice and coffee/tea), I went out on a tri-kayak (a kayak that can seat 3 people) with the other 2 ladies (K.Bee and K.Ann - both of them were also on a 3D2N package and arrived on the same day as us) to the waterfall. Unfortunately, we did not bring along any footwear for our kayaking trip and to access the waterfall, we need to trek through a 2 km route. Thus, we didn't get down from our kayak. Aiyah, what a waste.

After returning from kayaking, it's time for lunch. Lunch was delicious still. The only complain we have about the food provided at the resort is that there's too much squid. We have squid for almost every meal and most of the time it appears in more than 1 dishes. Very high cholesterol lah.

After lunch, I did some reaching by the beach bcos it's too hot to swim or kayak (bad for the skin). Afterwards, we find something to do - we fed the fishes near the jetty with bread. There were many many fishes. Some dull looking while they are some colourful ones too. The colourful fishes - some have yellow and black zebra like stripes, some were swordfish looking type with long bodies and long nose (pardon me for not knowing the name of the fishes). We even sighted parrot fish. Later, we couldn't resist and we jumped down into the sea to get near the fishes. I took the opportunity to practise some swimming in the open sea as i came prepared with my google.

As Snorkelling was on our original itineraries, we were actually equipped with our snorkelling gear. Thus, to get a better view of the fishes, we put on our snorkelling mask and started snorkelling around the jetty. ha ha ha....

Remarks : We couldn't proceed with snorkelling as planned due to the choppy water. The resort compensated us with a 45 min Thai massage instead. It was my first shot at Thai massage after having worked in Bangkok for 1 year.

After Thai massage, the next activity was watching the sunset. It took place at about 5.30pm and K.San was all geared up to take pictures of the spectacular sunset view. He had his tripod all setup and waiting for the sun to set only. (Note : K.San is a professional and accomplished photographer. Photography is his hobby. He works as an IT professional in a consulting firm.)

One of the resort's staff kayak out to the sea and K.San suggested that i should take the kayak out to watch the sunset. I responded to the suggestion and did just that. Wow....fantastic suggestion. The feeling of kayaking towards the sunset and watching the spectacular unset from my kayak was great. It will remember that feeling for a long time.

After the sun has set, I kayaked back and within 100m from the resort jetty, a couple in another tri-kayak capsized. The guy managed to swim back to shore safely while the girl was straddled. K.San asked me to peddal towards her. I peddaled towards her, took her oars from her and asked her to hold on to the edge of my kayak. However, her weight was apparently too much for me to handle and although i used all my might to peddal, I could only managed a few strokes. I then asked her to help ease the load by kicking water with her legs. It helped. When we reached the shore safely, the couple were very grateful and both came over to thank me and the guy said to me "thanks for saving my girlfriend's life". I felt good. gee....gee..... but it's just a little mini-rescue effort lah. Nothing great that I've done.

Day 3 - return boat ride from resort to pier delayed from 9am to 1pm due to choppy water

Due to rough sea, we couldn't depart at 9am as planned. So the resort compensated us with lunch - seafood fried rice (not the elaborate lunch like the past 2 days which was alright with us bcos we feasted to much the last 2 days, should take a break now). Due to the delay, we have 4 hrs more to spend at the resort. So everyone went around taking more photos again.

For the return speedboat ride, me and Siew Huey have to split up with K.Jarunee and K.San. Me and Siew Huey took speedboat No.4 while K.Jarunee and K.San took speedboat No.5. Me and Siew Huey were lucky to be among the first to board the boat and we enjoyed the early bird advantage to pick our seats. We chose to seat on the first row behind the speedboat driver. Turned out that that's probably the best seat on the boat. We stayed dry throughout the trip though the sea was even rougher than the earlier one we took to the island on Day 1.

The passenger behind screamed and made a lot of noise initially bcos the water was choppy and the water splashing was extensive. Poor guys....we had our share on day 1 then. Yaks.....

K.Jarunee did not get sea sick on the return boat ride as we all took the anti-motion sickness pill sponsored by Siew Huey before hand. Poor K.Jarunee vomitted and suffered a lot when we took the Day 1 speedboat to the island as she did not take any pills before hand. Guess we didn't anticipate the ride would be that bad.

Encoute to BKK, we stopped by a shop to buy some local foodstuff and had our lunch. We reach BKK around 8+pm on Sunday.

Conclusion

Despite the tough and high risk speedboat ride, the journey was worth it. I thoroughly enjoyed myself on the 3D2N trip. Thanks to K.Jarunee and K.San for organising the trip.

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