butang & tarutao

koh tarutao national marine park

 

tarutao was declared thailand’s first national park in 1972 – incorporating the neighbouring butang group in 1974. it consists of 51 islands close to the malaysian border. among its attractions, tarutao offers lots of walking trails leading to waterfalls, caves, lookouts and isolated beaches and stories of early clashes between national park rangers, pirates, fisherman and poachers are the stuff of legend:

tarutao comes from a malay word for “old, mysterious and primitive” – an apt description for this densely forested, former penal colony. In 1938, the government chose tarutao to incarcerate 500 political prisoners as it was fairly remote and infested with crocodiles. by 1946, the inmates were multinational and running their own anarchic society; some were referred to as pirates. the british army was invited to clean it up in 1946, and the penal colony was disbanded.

 

butang archipelago

the second group of islands that makes up the marine park is the furthest away from the mainland and includes koh lipe, koh adang, koh rawi and koh butang. the largest islands adang and rawi are almost completely covered with rain forest. during rainy season several waterfalls run of adang into the sea. the waters around koh lipe and it's neighbouring islands are very clear and house a wide variety of living coral and other marine life. the granite islands are blanketed by rain forest and fringed with white sand beaches similar to those found in the similan islands.

all but koh lipe are uninhabited and koh lipe as the smallest of the group offers some nice budget- and medium priced accommodations, an atmospheric beach life with nice bars and restaurants and a couple of dive centers. the snorkeling is beautiful in the shallows along the beaches!