Life in Thailand: A Day Trip to Koh Larn

Sang Wan Beach on Koh Larn Island, Thailand

Koh Larn is a beautiful tropical island with clear waters and white sand beaches. Here, you can lounge around in the sun or under the shade of an umbrella while sipping your coconut smoothie or mai thai. Feeling tired? Dig your toes into the warm sand and take a leisurely nap! This is the dream of most tourists who want to visit a tropical island. And these same tourists when exploring Thailand will usually visit Bangkok and Pattaya. And did we mention that Koh Larn is located a short ferry trip away from Pattaya?

Koh Larn is a small 5.6 square kilometer (2.2 square mile) island located thirty minutes from Pattaya beach by ferry. The island has about eight main beaches readily accessible to the public, with the most beautiful beaches facing the open ocean on the Western shore. Shops, restaurants, and various Thailand-style resorts can be found in the main town and beside most popular beaches. The main town faces the mainland and has built up around Na Baan Pier. One of the largest and most beautiful beaches is on the western face of the island at Tawaen pier. Hordes of tourists can be found exploring the more popular beaches like Tawaen as part of larger tour groups at all times of the year. However, by taking a songtaew (in this case, a converted green pickup that acts as an informal taxi), access to the more secluded areas is readily available (as mentioned in our Pattaya post).

But enough of these dry details! Let's dive right in.

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Our story begins when...
Tiger and Bird awoke early - too early, really - but just in time to see the sun begin to rise above the horizon, glistening rays of light dancing blissfully across the ocean waters. They were looking forward to a leisurely Saturday, having checked into one of the resorts near Pattaya beach for the long weekend, as the regular weekend plus one vacation day is typically referred to in Thailand. After washing up and partaking of a sumptuous Western breakfast, Tiger and Bird decided they wanted to have some fun on a white sand beach, a beach similar to those found on Koh Samet.

Outside of several semi-private beaches, the mainland didn't offer anything like this nearby, so Bird suggested taking the ferry over for a day at Koh Larn. But on this particular morning, the dark, ominous clouds of the rainy season had begun to gather along the horizon.

"It might rain" Tiger countered, walking over to the window and peeking out at the sky.
"Sanook!" Bird replied, simply, with the Thai word for fun. Tiger glanced over at her with a slight smile, before giving in. He had previously learned the fruitlessness of extended argument with a Thai woman - or, any woman for that matter - who has her heart set on something. Besides, after a short downpour, the rain usually did subside for the remainder of the day. Some clouds would be nice too, helping shield beachgoers from the scorching midday sun.

Bird was already packing up what was needed. Swimsuit, sun block, goggles, towel, quick change of clothes - yes, everything now was ready, Tiger reasoned, going through a mental checklist as he zipped up the gym bag. It was time to go!
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How to reach Koh Larn
Walking. The South Pattaya Pier (also called Bali Hai Pier) is accessed by continuing south along Walking Street for about 1km while following the shoreline. Many signs indicate where the pier is located. Regular ferries leave for Koh Larn on the hour, and sometimes on the half-hour.
Driving. Parking is available nearby through the municipal parking lot. Note that this parking garage fills up FAST! Another large area at the base of the hill - about 500m from the pier - can be found by continuing along the frontage road towards the lighthouse. Here, locals collect about ฿100 ($3 US) in exchange for parking for the day.

After breakfast and packing, we drove to the pier, arriving at the municipal parking building (to the right of the main pier building seen in Photo 1, below) shortly before 10am. The queue - line, if you're from the USA - was already long and the building was looking quite full. Rather than spend thirty minutes waiting for a parking spot in the municipal building, we left the queue and drove over to a large, dirt area at the base of the hill below the big "Pattaya City" sign, and joined the hundreds of cars and trucks parked in that area (the parked cars can be vaguely seen in Photo 4). The locals charged a small ฿100 fee for the day.

From here, we walked a short half kilometer (0.3 mile) to Bali Hai Pier, buying roundtrip tickets on the pier before boarding a ferry (see tourists boarding a Koh Larn ferry in Photo 2, below). Another ferry can be seen anchored in the harbor in Photo 3, as seen looking northwards from Bali Hai Pier. Soon after our arrival, the ferry embarked on our short voyage.

That cloud cover we mentioned earlier? The skies had grown more ominous. Now dark streaks could be seen over Koh Larn - indicating heavy rain - but the storm had yet to reach Pattaya. A crisp sea breeze helped take the edge off of the heat. It wasn't cold, but comfortably cool. The sun quickly disappeared as the clouds advanced. Ocean conditions were fairly normal as our ferry left Pattaya (see the photo below; the structure on the left is the concrete breaker protecting some anchored ships in the harbor). Everyone was in high spirits. Most of the tourists on our ship were from mainland China, and Tiger enjoyed picking up bits and pieces of the conversation around him on the way over.

Clouds gathering over Koh Larn island as the ferry leaves Pattaya

Passing by the small island of Koh Khrok on the way to Koh Larn

The rain missed us! The clouds began to dissipate, moving northwards, and leaving us to intermittent periods of cloudiness and sunshine for the remainder of our forty minute journey. This ferry was taking us to Tawaen Pier, a small beach town on the far side of Koh Larn. This slightly longer trip brought us near the two small islands of Koh Khrok and Koh Sak.

Koh Khrok (see the photo above) appears to be a rocky, privately-held island with one lone sandy beach. Koh Sak is more commercial, with more beaches and lodgings available for an overnight stay (see Photo 1 and 2, below). This latter island appeared to be popular with a number of Russian tourists.

We disembarked the ferry at Tawaen Pier, which is located adjacent to the beautiful, clear waters off of the white sands of Tawaen Beach (see the photo below). Here a small town - really a collection of restaurants, shops, and motels - line the beach and offer their wares to the crowds of visitors milling around. Most tourists were from Asia - primarily China - and remained in the shade to avoid the heat of the midday sun (the exception were the tour boat crowds stopping by small resorts- see the main photo for this post at Sang Wan Beach). Tiger can confirm that the water is quite warm and appeared clean. While he does not recommend swimming around Pattaya, he will recommend swimming in the ocean around the western shores of Koh Larn!

Tawaen Beach on Koh Larn

Tiger and Bird spent a short time walking around the town (see Photo 1, below), grabbing iced coffees and coconut smoothies to counter the intense heat, before heading into the water. We were hardly the only ones! Most Westerners were also taking in the sun on the beach or in the ocean, with many families also enjoying the experience (see Photo 2). While we don't necessarily mind crowds, after a few hours we decided to seek out some of the more secluded of the eight or so beaches on the island. At the base of the hill near the pier, we found the songtaews (in this case, green pickup trucks that have been outfitted with benches and are used as taxis). Bird negotiated a reasonable rate with one driver - about ฿40pp - and off we went to Nual Beach at the southern tip of the island (see Photo 3). The trip took us inland, where we found brick or cobblestone roads leading between mostly grassy, open spaces, occasionally punctuated with houses or establishments of the locals.

Nual Beach is a sandy beach surrounding by rocky outcroppings surrounding a rocky bay (see the photo below). The resorts here offer the usual beach chairs and umbrellas and have local restaurants with decent (not necessarily good or bad) island fare. Tiger and Bird went for fruit smoothies (always "wan noi", or not very sweet, since the fruits themselves tend to be sweet already!) and decided to walk away from the beach, following a small trail to a rocky point that overlooked the bay. Here, we enjoyed a short rest, enjoying the view and looking for small fish and sea urchins while swimming around the bay.

Resort on the peaceful Nual Beach on Koh Larn

The visitor mix appeared to be about half Western and the other half Thai, since the bay afforded a decent amount of both sun and shade (see Photo 1 below). Where we settled down turned out to be very popular with young Thai teenagers and college students, with groups of them occasionally moving through the area for a better vantage point of the ocean or for better backgrounds for their photographs. As the afternoon progressed, some tourists began taking jetskis for a joyride around the mouth of the bay (see Photo 2) and further out into the ocean (see Photo 3).

As evening began to approach, Tiger and Bird packed up and negotiated with another songtaew to take them to the main town situated around Harbour Island Pier (also known as "Na Baan Pier"), which faces the mainland. Here, small, dusty roads are lined with numerous hostels, motels, restaurants, and shops (see the photo below). At this point, some cloud cover was beginning to return to the island, so we checked our return tickets with the ferry schedule. Finding we had a few minutes before departure, we bought some "guy-yang" (grilled chicken) and sticky rice from the local market to hold us over until our dinner in Pattaya.

Main town near Na Baan Pier

Finally, as the day began drawing to a close, Tiger and Bird hopped on one of the last ferries from the island for the return trip to Pattaya. The day had been just a leisurely and relaxing as they had hoped, and Koh Larn had proven to be the perfect "quick" tropical island retreat.