Koh Mak, Thailand: One of a Thousand Islands

Welcome to Paradise

Our online booking told us we had a private beachfront cottage with full amenities to ourselves—but that doesn’t mean we weren’t quietly nervous as we walked from the club house to our home for the next three days. It’s hard to imagine even the most fickle traveler being disappointed with what this location has to offer. The cottage doesn’t have the polished feel that some may come to expect from island resorts, but the worn wooden floors and hammock on the deck gave it a homey feel that’s worth far more than the $20 USD/night sticker price.

Next stop after checking in was lunch. All of the meals on Koh Mak can be summed up in one sentence: every dish was made with seafood caught within a few kilometers, and was cooked with the milk of coconuts grown on the island. That’s really all there is to it. Every restaurant was as good as the last and it has to be tasted to be believed.

Ryan Farley / Own Work

P’Bom told us earlier that 5pm was the daily appointment for resort guests to play disc golf with him, and like clockwork, he emerged from the kitchen clothed in a sleeveless shirt with pockmarked holes on one shoulder where his heavy disc bag had worn the fabric thin. Sunset was just before 7pm, and the various coconut milk cocktails became increasingly scarce as guests walked barefoot back to their accommodations.

Karn and I took this trip during one of the slowest travel months of the year (August), but even during busier times, the island has a mere 300 permanent residents and can’t come close to housing as many visitors as the more well-known islands. P’Bom tells us that the nightlife never reaches the level of the beachfront echo of loud music and drunken hollering that seasoned beach-goers know so well. Because of its lack of celebrity, nobody that makes it to Koh Mak seems too bothered by this lack of debauchery.

Ryan Farley / Own Work