Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sleeping & Eating
Accommodation in the park is available for all budgets. Book online at
www.dnp.go.th
or
with the mainland
national park office
( 0 7645 3272)
at Hat Khao Lak. Tour agents in Hat
Khao Lak also arrange overnight to multiday trips that include transport, food and lodging
at the park - these cost little more than it would to go solo.
On Ko Miang there are sea-view
bungalows
(2000B;
)
with balconies, two dark five-
room wood-and-bamboo
longhouses
(r 1000B;
)
with fans, and
tents
(2-/4-person 300/450B)
.
There's electricity from 6pm to 6am.
Tents are also available on Ko Similan. You can pitch your own
tent
(per night 80B)
on
either island.
A
restaurant
(dishes 100-150B)
near the park headquarters serves simple Thai food.
Getting There & Away
There's no public transport to the park, but theoretically independent travellers can book a
speedboat transfer (return 1700B, 1½ hours one way) with a Hat Khao Lak snorkelling
operator, though they much prefer that you join the snorkelling tour and generally discour-
age independent travel to the Similans.
Agencies in Khao Lak and Phuket book day/overnight tours (from around 3000/5000B)
and dive trips (three-day live-aboards from around 15,000B) - this is about how much you
would pay if you tried to get to the islands on your own steam. You can try to link up with
a dive trip and pay for the excursion sans diving equipment, but operators will only co-
operate if their boats are relatively empty.
TOP OF CHAPTER
Phang-Nga Town &
Ao Phang-Nga
With turquoise bays peppered with craggy limestone rock towers, brilliant-white beaches
and tumbledown fishing villages, Ao Phang-Nga is one of the region's most spectacular
landscapes. Little wonder then that it was here, among the towering cliffs and swifts'
nests, that James Bond's nemesis, Scaramanga
(The Man with the Golden Gun),
chose to
build his lair. Wanted assassins with goals of world domination would not be recommen-
ded to hide out here nowadays, since the area is swarming with tourists in motorboats and
