Bangkok (TAN): Looking for lesser-known destinations in Thailand not overrun by tourists? Try the Koh Jum, Ko Phayam and Ko Libong islands on Thailand’s west coast.
In an interview to Stuart McDonald, who runs the SE Asia travel website Travelfish.org, a woman who identified herself as Jennifer and has been going to Thailand regularly since the mid-1980s, said she prefers these quieter islands.
“I think (they are) very fine and friendly destinations, though it is wise to avoid high season even in these places now,” she said.
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Tourists on short trips to Thailand still rarely look beyond the capital Bangkok and the party beach towns of Pattaya and Phuket. But over the past decade, hordes of visitors, who are either returning tourists or have more time, have been visiting destinations such as Krabi, Koh Samui, apart from Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai in the north.
“In the early 1990s you could stay on some of the best beaches of Ko Samui for almost nothing,” says Jennifer. But that situation has certainly changed. Samui is now full of huge expensive resorts.
In the interview, Jennifer also slips in a line about Pai, that has, unlike many other places, not undergone the drastic change like Koh Samui.
