Reserving a Bungalow on Ko Adang
Ko Adang is a large, mostly unoccupied island to the north of Koh Lipe, which on the contrary, is a very small, popular island at the south of Thailand near the border with Malaysia. We wanted to visit this area of the Thailand islands as we had heard it was beautiful, but the crowds on Koh Lipe led us to search for other options, at least for part of our time here. And we found Ko Adang! Development on Ko Adang is limited to one resort (Adang Island Resort) and the National Park services, which include a visitor’s center, bungalows, campground, and one restaurant open limited hours each day. The resort was quite expensive for our budget, so we decided to try for a National Park bungalow. Booking this bungalow as a non-Thai resident proved to be much trickier than we anticipated.
Making an account on the Thailand National Park website was straightforward, as was booking the bungalow on the website. The hard part is paying for the reserved nights which you must do within 72 hours of reserving; the system gives you two options – pay at the National Park office, which is located on Satun-PakBeng (and we were not planning to go here as it is a completely different island) or pay at a Krung Thai bank or ATM via money transfer. Since option one was not feasible, we were left with option number two. The reservation system provides the routing number and your reservation code for a transfer at the bank or ATM. However, there is no Krung Thai ATM on Koh Mook, and the available ATM did allow our transfer. So, we asked around, and a woman at a tourist booth who helped us book a few other tickets/activities offered to make the transfer for us from her account since she had a Krung Thai account (and we would pay her in cash). This seemed like a good plan and we had no other alternative. She made the transfer but doing so from her account didn’t give her an option to add in our reservation code that would link the payment to our reservation. Plus, it was a Friday afternoon, so there was no one in the office for us to call and confirm our payment with. We thought we might still be okay, but unfortunately, our payment must have gotten lost in the system since our reservation was cancelled on Sunday (the day before we were supposed to arrive). Oops. The staff at our hotel, Koh Mook Sun Great Resort, were amazing and made several calls to try to sort out our reservation. When we had to leave the next morning to head to Ko Adang, we didn’t have a resolution (no one at the banks to confirm our payment), but we printed a copy of our initial reservation and payment information and hoped for the best!
Getting to Ko Adang
We had booked a Bundhaya speed boat to Koh Lipe through the same tourist booth that booked our fishing trip and helped with our Ko Adang payment. A tuk tuk picked us up from the hotel and dropped us at Farang Beach. We stopped at Ko Kraden and Ko Bulone (met two longtails off the coast to transfer people) and the trip took a little less than 2.5 hours. It was a relatively smooth ride, with one particularly choppy section due to the boat driver refusing to slow our speed as we traversed through open waters. We arrived on Pattaya Beach in Koh Lipe where we had to pay a 200 baht per person National Park fee that covers the Adang islands. It supposedly only lasts for five days at which time you are supposed to buy another, but we only paid once for our eight nights on Ko Adang and Koh Lipe. Then we walked about 15 minutes to Sunset Beach on the other side of the island. From here, we hired a longtail boat for 100 baht per person to take us to Ko Adang, an approximate 10-minute ride. We finally walked into the National Park office around 3:15 pm and the woman working at the front desk knew exactly who we were since our hotel on Koh Mook had spoken with her several times, and thanks to their efforts, everything was sorted out and we could check right in! We initially booked only three nights but ended up extending for a fourth. For the fourth night, we could pay at the National Park office, so it probably would have been a safer bet to pay there instead of dealing with the payment transfer catastrophe. Or we should have planned further ahead and utilized an appropriate ATM for the transfer.
National Park office 
View from bungalow #4
Ko Adang
We were shocked that most of the National Park bungalows on Ko Adang were vacant. We had reserved bungalow #4, which has amazing ocean views! Our first “beachfront” bungalow on the entire trip! Bungalows 1-4 and 6 have the best views, so we were happy that there weren’t many other visitors. The bungalows were sturdy, concrete structures with high ceilings and a fan (no A/C). Electricity only runs from around 6 pm to 6 am and there is no hot water. This was no problem for us. The only downside was that the beds are ROCK hard, basically like sleeping on a carpeted floor. Tolerable for a few days, especially considering the views and isolation that come with it. There is one restaurant on the island that is open from 7:30 am to 2:30 pm and then again from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm. The menu is limited, but there are enough options and variety for a few days. The prices are surprisingly reasonable given that this is the only option for visitors; dishes cost between 90 and 150 baht, a large water is 40 baht, and beers are 50 to 60 baht. Aside from the other bungalow occupants and a few groups of campers (not sure why you would camp when you can rent a bungalow for only slightly more), the island was very secluded. We absolutely loved it here!
Given the solitude, our days here were relatively low key. We rented snorkel gear from the restaurant two days of our four-day stay for 100 baht per person and snorkeled right off the beach. The snorkeling was better to the east of the restaurant, but there also some snorkeling to the south of the visitor’s center. You can also join a snorkel tour to other islands in the National Park, but we waited to do this from Koh Lipe where it was cheaper (1500 baht versus 600-700 baht).
Good snorkeling off beach south of visitor’s center 
One day we also got up early and hiked to the Koh Lipe Viewpoint. Even in the morning, it was hot. The hike isn’t that difficult, but the heat and humidity are killers. There are three viewpoints along the way; the first took us about 15 minutes to reach. There are no clearings on this stretch, but decent shade. The viewpoint itself was fine but keep going! The second viewpoint took about another 15 minutes to reach and was very nice. And then another 10 minutes to reach the third viewpoint, which is the best, for about a total of 40 minutes to the top of the hike. We saw a group of monks continuing the hike onward from viewpoint three. Someone in their group told us the hike would be another 2-3 hours to reach a waterfall, but it seemed as if women were not allowed to continue this entire way (language barrier, so not completely sure if that’s true). Regardless, we were not prepared to extend our hike and were satisfied with the viewpoints, so continued back down to the bottom. In total, it took about 1 hour and 15 minutes – some good morning exercise! The rest of our days were filled with relaxed beachfront reading, crossword puzzles, and enjoying the quiet.
Ko Adang, we love you, but after our four nights here, we were ready for some A/C, more comfortable beds, and a change in food! Off to Koh Lipe to finish out our visa in Thailand!
