More on Tarutao-getting there and away

It's been a rather long time since I updated this little space. Have been on a few more trips since coming back from Tarutao, from Ho Chi Minh City, Tioman to Pulau Aur. But I'll like to introduce more of Tarutao here.

Despite its relative obscurity, Tarutao is not difficult to get to, and is fast gaining popularity among European backpackers. From Hatyai, regular mini buses go to Pak Bara, the jumping off point to get to Tarutao. The bus boarding point is diagonally across the train station. Exact bus schedule can be enquired at the hotel you're staying at.

Beware though. Before we even reach the bus stop, we were approached by locals wanting to sell us bus and ferry tickets. We thought, why not. So were led to a travel agency round the corner. The travel agent tried to convince us to buy return trip tickets, including for ferry. In the end, we got our bus and ferry tickets at this first travel agent we saw (luckily not for return trip). It turn out that the travel agent option is not necessarily the cheapest and most flexible option.

Bus tickets could be bought directly at the bus stop, which is only about 20m from the travel agent (we thought it was much further away). Upon reaching Pak Bara, found that there are other ferry companies going to Tarutao at a better timing and price.

It would be good to not buy return ferry tickets too. For us, we went to Tarutao, didn't quite enjoy it as much as we want, so bought ferry tickets to bring us to Adang from there. Took longtail boat to Lipeh, didn't like it there, so went back to Adang. There was a couple we met at Tarutao, saw them at Adang a few days later, and was told that they didn''t enjoy Adang and were planning to go back to Tarutao.

The bottomline is, these little islands each have their own characteristics, suited to different tastes. So, don't bind yourself to only one of them with prepaid return ferry tickets. It's rather easy to buy tickets back to Pak Bara, either through the chalets or the park ranger.

Some of the longtail boatman can be dishonest too, though they are probably in the minority. Had an unpleasant encounter with one. Longtail boat between Adang and Lipeh is only about 50B. As there's no jetty at this 2 islands, the ferry from Tarutao drops passengers in between the 2 islands, for them to transfer via longtail boat. Always ask before getting onto the boat. As everyone was jostling to get onto the boats, we made the mistake of not confirming the price with the boatman. In the end, all the passengers on our boat were made to pay 100B each after the boat has left the ferry.

Despite the little hiccups, it was definitely worth the journey. Along the way, between Tarutao and Adang, the ferry even stopped at a charming little island for 20 minutes. It was almost a perfect beach, totally secluded with amazingly white sand and crystal clear water. hmmmm....I wouldn't mind going back to Tarutao soon.