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East Coast: few beaches, but a fabulous bay
Some
Narrow Strips of Sand, but No Real Beaches Facing a Shallow Bay
Yet Phang Nga Bay, off Phuket's
east coast, is a very different, and equally fascinating world that has lots
of different attractions and activities to offer
Phuket s West and East coasts could hardly be
different: the west is blessed with glorious tropical beaches of world-reknown;
the East coast is mostly lined with muddy mangrove swamps. The reason is
simply. The West faces the deep, clear waters of the Andaman sea, and the
annual Southwest Monsoon which pounds the coastline with waves, the real
creators of beaches and sand. The East coast of Phuket is also the western
line of famous Phang Nga Bay, famed for the towering stone monoliths that
rise vertically from its waters. This shallow bay is protected from the open
ocean and its beach-forming wave action. At its top end several rivers bring
down large volumes of silt and nutrients that help form the mudbanks
favoured by mangroves and their associated aquatic life.
The only significant exception to these mangroves swamps is the Cape Panwa
peninsula that juts out from the island’s Southeast corner. This reaches
quite deep water and a few small, attractive beaches have formed here. See
our page called Cape Panwa – the Southeast.
Not surprisingly, there are no hotels along this coast at all, and few roads
access the water’s edge due to the swampy territory. But there are a few
fishing ports and piers along here, and one can find access to the East
coast at Sapam, where a fishing jetty lands the catch from boats in the bay.
Further north, going east from the Heroines’ monument along the ring road,
side tracks lead to Bang Rong Pier, from which boats service Koh Yao Noi,
and Ao Po, an anchorage from which many sea canoe companies set out each
morning on their canoeing day trips.
There is a pleasant drive along the very Northeast coast from Ao Po to Bang
Sai, where we find a couple of pleasant waterside restaurants to break the
journey. This is very Thai territory, and the food is entirely local –
which, in Thailand, means good. Bang Sai Seafood has English on their menu.
See our page on Things to do ON the Island / Driving Tours. Most of this
corner of the island is covered by rubber plantations, with small rubber
tappers’ houses spread all along the roads.
While the water along the coast here is not interesting, one does not have
to venture far off-shore to find pleasant beaches and clear waters. The twin
islands just off Ao Po, Naka Noi and Naka Yai (Small and Big Naka) both have
delightful beaches. Naka Noi is famous for the pearl farm established here,
Phuket’s first. Naka Yai has a few bungalows for rent.
Wherever one accesses the East coast the view invariably shows numerous
islands. These are part of the great attraction of Phang Nga Bay, and remind
us that to make the most of a stay in Phuket one should take a boat and
visit some of these islands big and small, the most beautiful part of the
Andaman region.
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