Ko Yao Noi (12. - 18.11.)

It was only a 45min boat ride from Phuket’s Bang Rong Pier to Yao Noi - the little sister of Yao Yai island - which are separated by just a few hundred meters.

Both islands are part of the Andaman Sea, located halfway between Phuket and Krabi. Both have sandy shores, mangroves, rubber tree plantations and fishing villages and of course piers for ferries and long-tail boats as they also experience strong tidal activity due to the shallow waters.

Speaking of sisters… Semmy and I were very excited to meet Anni who (coming from Krabi) arrived on Yao Noi shortly after us. Our Hotel - Jaiyen Eco Resort - was the perfect place for the three of us to reunite and connect after not having seen each other for a while. The hotel was located on the north western side of Yao Noi next to An Pao Beach. With having only 10 lodges and therefore room for max. 20 guests it was a great place to enjoy silence and the beautiful surrounding nature. The resort was truly ECO as was reflected by the healthy, vegetarian food selection. Also, there was no alcohol being served onsite but we knew this upfront and after having had plenty of both meat and alcohol over the past weeks we deliberately chose this “clean” lifestyle.

The only living creatures that were having a non-veggie diet were the three hotel cats: Luna, King & Fo. We immediately fell in love with these adorable cuddly cats who were living life to the fullest in their seemingly infinite eat-sleep-repeat mode (…eyes closed 90% of the time). When the animals were awake they played around and sometimes even followed us to our lodges to jump on our couch (or the bed) as if it was theirs. We were in “cat heaven”!! 😻

After 2 days of pure relaxation at the infinity pool or the lobby (during rain showers) we decided to explore the island a little bit more and rented 3 motor scooters each for <8 € for a full 24h. After a little bit of scooter training we were all pretty much on the same skill level - ready to visit Yao Noi’s beaches and attractions. It didn’t take us long to realise that the entire island could be rounded within less than 1,5 h and that there wasn’t too many things to do after all. Bear in mind that the entire Ko Yao district
(i.e. Yao Noi + Yao Yai) only has a population of approx. 18.000 people.

So, our days consisted mainly of driving around, going for a swim, having coffee, flying and taking videos with Pascal’s drone as well as going out for dinner. While we appreciated the veggie lifestyle at our hotel we realized quite quickly that things like a green Thai curry tastes even better when it is cooked with chicken or shrimps. So, on day 2 we scrapped our zero meat resolution and went back to eating and drinking whatever we felt to.

Buying alcohol was however not so easy as there were only a handful of shops that sold wine and beer due to the fact that roughly 90% of the island's population are Muslims for whom the consumption of alcohol is forbidden anyway.

As we learned from the owner of a restaurant called Rice Paddy the village elders of Yao Noi decided years ago to only allow alcohol sales on certain parts of the island. This applied to both shops and restaurants.

While there were certain shops that had a license we didn’t get a detailed explanation where they were. To us, it seemed that the western side of Yao Noi was alcohol free, while in the east you could get it. Funny fact: The only seven eleven shop on the island was located on the “wrong” side, which didn’t allow for alcohol sales. Too bad for the franchise… 😅

One night, after having had dinner at an Italian Restaurant called Luna (yes, like the cat!) we were looking for a shop to buy some Singha and Chang beer cans. Pascal was driving his scooter a few hundred meters ahead of Semmy and Anni and stopped at a small shop to check whether they were selling what we wanted. As this was not the case he came out seconds later to head back to his scooter. As he steps out of the store he sees the girls on their scooters come closer and starts waving at them. Pascal then quickly jumps on the blue scooter next to him (which surprisingly had its key already stuck in the ignition) - not realizing it’s NOT his scooter he is sitting on. Neither did the girls notice any difference and so the three of us head back on the road to continue our search. A few miles down the road we run into a liquor store where we buy our beers before returning happily to our hotel where we then spent a wonderful evening together playing cards.

The next morning at breakfast “Som O” our hotel manager approaches us laughing and explains what a mess we created: The poor guy whose scooter Pascal had stolen was forced to walk home because contrary to
the locals practice, Pascal had NOT left the key in his scooter. 🙈

The whole situation was then escalated via the island’s Facebook group in which Som O identified the thief on a mugshot that was taken by the shop’s security camera. A darling that she is she drove the stolen scooter in the morning from the hotel back to the owner exchanging what shouldn’t have been mixed up in the first place. As she showed us the photographic proof on her phone we began laughing tears. What an incredibly funny - yet embarrassing story!! 😂

PS: Pascal gave Som O some money to give to the victim as kind of compensation for his inconvenience.Read more