O
ne such place is Ko Payam, a kangarooshaped island bordering the Burmese maritime border on the Andaman Coast. Surrounded on all sides by turquoise waters, sand-ringed islets and coral reefs teeming with marine life, Ko Payam’s raw beauty assaults the senses. The island is also a haven for flora and fauna, and its heavily forested interior is inhabited by snakes, monkeys, wild pigs and 65 species of birds, including the magnificent hornbill. It lies 33 kilometres southwest of Ranong, the capital of the mountainous and sparsely populated province midway between the
Malaysian border and Bangkok. A rickety passenger ferry bound for Ko Payam leaves Ranong twice daily during the high season, where a few hundred tourists - a sliver of the hordes which visit the islands of Phuket and Koh Samui every year - spend their time snorkelling and sunbaking on near-deserted beaches. The journey begins along a muddy tributary that winds through a mangrove swamp before emptying into the Andaman Sea. Towering green mountains melt into the coast in the south, while the Pak Chan River, a broad estuary separating Thailand from Burma,
Looking from Ko Payam onto the Thai and Burmese mainlands. FRV Travel l 67