Ko Bulon Le is a small and attractive island about three-quarters of an hour out from Pak Bara in the south Andaman. Its best-know neighbours are Ko Taratao to the south and Ko Lipe to the south-west, although they are not exactly close. Bulon was pretty laid back when I visited in March, but reports say it was very crowded at the peak of high season.
For the sake of clarity it is easiest to divide Bulon into two areas - THE BEACH AREA in the north-east, and the PANKA VILLAGE AREA over the hill to the west. Both areas have travellers’ accommodation, and The Beach Area also has a small village area.
GOOGLE EARTH has a good view of the island - at a much finer resolution than most of the Thai islands. You can see individual bungalow roofs etc - go to 6 49 north - 99 32 east
THE BEACH AREA
The ferry tends to put in at the northern facing part of the curving north-east beach opposite the popular BULONE RESORT
This place seemed to be running at 80% capacity when the rest of the island was at maybe 20%, and had its prices adjusted to reflect this. The 800baht bungalows would be 400 in most places and the 450 seafront no-bathroom joints 300 max. I didn’t get to stay in their 900 jobs - they looked exactly the same as the 800s except they were seafront. The smaller 250baht no-bathroom bungalows up the back of the resort seemed to be the only ones close to true value. This was reinforced by the fact that they were booked out during my stay.
There were no 450s available when I first arrived so I took one of the big 800 bungalows but was so disappointed with its poor value that I moved across to one of the 450 beachfronts when it became available. This was big, clean, and with water nearly lapping the piers at high tide, about as absolute beachfront as you can get.
Beach at Bulon Resort - Tezza's bungalow second from top. Beach much less eroded, gets real nice just around the corner at top. (image Bulon Resort)UPDATE JULY 09 - Just reposted their website which changed its url - noticed prices not surprisingly have gone up significantly.
Otherwise, Bulone Resort was fairly okay. The grounds are spacious although lighting could be better at night, the 3 outside bathroom blocks range from good to grotty, the restaurant is big, airy and has nice food at good prices (large beers a bit exxy at 100 but cheap BIG cups of coffee) with pretty okay service. There is internet, and the beach is a real nice white-sand job although it is suffering from erosion fairly badly. The stubs of piers next to my beachfront bungalow showed where at least one hut had already been undermined. Water is deep enough low tide for swimming without having to go out huge distances and reasonable snorkelling is available on the fringing reef drop-off further out.
THE BEACH
The erosion meant that sections of Bulone Resort’s very nice beach disappeared at high tide. But no problems because the sand continues a few hundred meters to the north east corner of the island where the change in direction has it depositing a really nice sand spit, backed by a section of treed parkland.
The beach wraps around this corner and then heads southwards for another 500meters or so. Backing the first two hundred meters is a continuation of the treed parkland, which has a designated section for camping. South of this, a soccer ground/village-green backs the beach., and beyond this are the rather extensive grounds of Pansand Resort. The beach in front of the forested and village green areas is pretty nice and non-eroded, although the Pansand section again gets skinny at higher tide levels.
The best coral is supposed to be just to the west of Bulone Resort and in front of and particularly just to the south of Pansand Resort. The latter seemed reasonably good by Thai standards to me.
PANSAND RESORT Looked pretty nice to me. Lots of bungalows of all sizes including some family sized ones in a nicely landscaped area looking much more attractive than Bulone Resort. On average the bungalows are more expensive, but they showed me a real attractive second rower which at 900 including breakfast, shot Bulone Resorts’s 800s to pieces. Reception has a map of the island if you ask real nice.
SCHOOLHOUSE BUNGALOWS are much more simple - a line of 6 traditional style bungalows with bathrooms stretching towards the beach from the village track on the southern side of the soccer field/village green between Pansand and Bulone Resort. You can see them clearly (3 with blue roofs) in the GOOGLE EARTH image. They were 250 and 300 (all attached bathrooms) in March, but booked out all the time I was there. I actually went to this place first off the boat.
MARINA RESORT is also in this Beach Area, just to the west of Bulone Resort where the path to Panka Village begins its climb over the hill. The bungalows here looked really nice with high south-sea island type thatched roofs. Built on the lower hillside, they promise some sort of view. I didn’t get a price, although travelfish, which gives the place a pretty good write-up, mentions 400 to 600.
On the opposite side of the track is another smaller bungalow operation. However I was told before my trip to Bulon that there are generators near there which go all night and are extremely noisy.
THE PANKA VILLAGE AREA
It takes about 10 minutes to walk over the moderately steep paved hillside path, where you reach the twin bays of Panka Noi and Panka Yai. The island’s main village stretches between the two bays and contains another 3 or 4 bungalow outfits, several restaurants and a number of small stores, including one run by a nice lady who bakes yummy pastries and delivers to The Beach Area each afternoon. Her shop is close to where the hill track hits the village.
This is a very relaxed area, the bays are pretty with a narrow strip of sand, although very rocky at lower tide levels.
VIEWPOINT RESORT is one of the nicer ones here. Built on a steeply sloping heavily landscaped hillside to the right of the path as you descend to the village, most bungalows have some sort of view overlooking Panka Noi Bay. There is quite a range of bungalows here and they showed me a real nice attached bathroom job for 300. A leisurely stroll to the nicest beach area between Bulone Resort and Pansand would take 15 minutes max.
You can also take a track to the SOUTH from the village and reach MANGO BAY on the opposite south coast after about 10-15 minutes pleasant walk thru mainly coconut plantations. Mango was pretty nice although no match for the north east beach, with fairly good sand and water which looked okay for swimming at low tide. Sea gypsy fishermen had their boats and a shed in one section. There is a bungalow resort up a side track to the right as you approach the bay which looked to be just the spot for people wanting somewhere right out of the way.
I also noticed another bungalow outfit about half way between the village and the bay, named JUNGLE RESORT or similar, which had about a dozen fairly new trad style bungalows to the left of the track. These were completely shut down in mid March. I hope this place had not gone broke for lack of custom - despite reports the island was crowded at the height of the season, it seems a few more visitors away from peak wouldn‘t hurt.
GETTING TO BULON LAE.
FROM THE MAINLAND Pak Bara is the departurre port. Contrary to guidebooks and Island resort websites, I found only one ferry running in March, at 1400. Which didn‘t exactly whelm me, because I’d hurried down from Ko Sukorn to get the no-longer running 1100 boat. Hanging around in hot, dusty Pak Bara which is the arsehole of the Thai coast with more spivs and wise guys than even the Byron Bay Boardriders’ debutante ball, didn‘t particularly cite my ex. Sure there are lots of restaurants, bars, internet cafes etc. and about 4000 outfits selling tickets, but the place is still a dive. Note the guys/gals selling boat and bus tickets around the gates of the pier will discount if you bargain well.
The ferry cost 300 and took about 45 minutes. It is a medium sized boat, not one of those big long tail ferries used for many islands, and could probably seat 100+. I read posts about the boat being overcrowded at the peak of high season, but on my trip there were 5 travellers and a few locals.
Pak Bara is also the most popular pier for the Tarataos and Ko Lipe and so gets a fair crowd of travellers.
If you are coming from TRANG, one of the easiest ways is to get a combined minibus/ferry tickets from the travel agents opposite the station.
Coming from Ko Sukorn, I hopped on a Trang to Satun bus in a small village called Ban Na about 30km south of Trang, got off in La Ngu, and grabbed a motorcycle taxi for the 10km or so to Pak Bara (50baht - there are also cheaper songthaews, but I was in a hurry to catch the non-existent ferry) .
From SATUN catch the same bus northwards.
From HAT YAI, minibuses arrive hourly and go right to the prier at Pak Bara.
FROM LANTA AND THE TRANG ISLANDS - a speedboat service leaves Lanta every second day (odd dated days in March 07) and drops off/picks up at Kos Ngai, Muk and Bulon Lae before going on to Lipe. I think the fare Lanta-Lipe was 950baht, but I’m not sure about shorter sections from the north. Update - in 08 it was running every day. See link below.
TO AND FROM KO LIPE - the ferry between Bulon and Lipe was not running in March and had not for some time. To go back to Pak Bara, wait around and out to Lipe would waste much of a day and cost 600+. So I jumped on the SPD Lipe/Lanta speedboat, which took a bit over an hour and cost 500. Note the ride can be a bit bumpy if the sea is choppy, particularly if you sit in the bow section.
You can get tickets from reception at Pansand Resort. But BE CAREFUL where you wait to be picked up. Reception told me to wait on the beach in front of the village green, which I did. But I heard the boat come in around the corner of the spit, just east of the Bulone Resort, which required a 400m sprint along the beach with bags to get it before it left!
I reckon the best place to wait is on the apex of the spit where you can see both sections of the curved beach - there are plenty of trees there for shade.
Note the boat was 40 minutes overdue, not surprising on rougher days or if it had lots of drop-offs/pick-ups in tide-tricky places.
The speedboat returns from Lipe the next day (even dated days last high season), on its way to Lanta.
UPDATE LATE NOV 07 - from Nov 18 Tigerline has been running ferries from Lanta to Lipe, via the pier at Hat Yao south of Trang. This ferry (not a speedboat) goes on to Langkawi. Details can be seen on their website
The ferry also calls in to places like Muk and Ngai - and Laoliang if needed according to Zach who runs an adventure place there. There is no mention of Bulon, but I bet it would call in if required.
At the time of writing Lanta-Lipe was 1400 baht - 4.5 hours. Trang Yao-Lipe 650. Lipe-Langkawi 950.
I have details of how to get to the Hat Yao pier on my Ko Libong thread.
MY BULONE RESORT BUNGALOWS.
The 800 baht bungalow was big enough to fit another single mattress if needed + 3 people‘s gear without being squeezy. It was clean, had some simple furniture, plenty of shelves, good lights for reading inside, comfortable queen size bed, a broom, permanent clothes lines, sink + plug + good mirror + soap dispenser + good water pressure in the bathroom. But the toilet was squat (doesn’t worry me but freaks quite a few people), there was no toilet paper supplied, no blanket for the bed which had a flawed mozzie net, no comp water, no rubbish bin inside except the toilet paper bin, one window curtain was missing, the light on the balcony was hopeless for reading, the area under the balcony failed the no ciggy butts-no plastic ring pulls test, there was no hammock but a pair of discoloured plastic chairs made in 1975. I’m used to paying around 400 max for places like this.
The 450 seaside outside toilet bungalow I moved to was better, but still more like 300 worth to me. Although what price do you put on absolute seafront? I reckon +50. Nah, +100. Okay, so the bungalows were more like 350 to me.
These were pretty spacious, although not as big as the 800s. There was still enough room for an extra mattress with a bit of a squeeze. My bungalow was spotless, had the same big comfy bed as the 800, a big mirror, some shelves, a broom, and a fabulous veranda overlooking the beach and the islands to the north and north-east. At high tide the water was within jumping distance of the balcony. The next bungalow’s piers were had water going under them.
But there was no fan, no towel, no toilet paper, no comp water, no top-sheet, no blanket, no hammock, no stays on the windows, no balcony light. The outside bathroom blocks ranged from grotty to ok. The nearest one’s water was turned off soon after I arrived to stop the free use of a group of Thai campers who set up near the spit, meaning a 200m walk to an alternative block thru grounds not well lit in parts at night.
Overpriced? Well economic rationalists will disagree. Overpriced products don’t sell. All the 450s (some were 500b) were occupied every night. About 40% of the 800s were vacant, but we are talking March.
All the 900 seaside-with-bathroom bungalows seemed occupied, as were the 250 back row smaller outside bathrooms jobs.
Note the updated website shows the 800s and 900s now 1200 and the 450-500s - 600. Crikey!
If you have any questions, please ask them in THE FORUM rather than below. I don't get a chance to check all threads daily, but unless I'm travelling I'll try to monitor THE FORUM regularly.
