Raya Island Day Tour

I had heard about this day trip to Racha Yai island, and decided to do it with an outfit called Baan Raya Resort, who have a very nice resort complex on the island.

Arrived at the office at about 8:45, just as the mini-bus was bringing in the other folks....they offered coffee and juice while we were waiting for more people, then at nine off to the beach and the boat, transferred there by another bus.....

Got on this big speed boat with twin 200 hp outboards, they told us it would take 45 minutes to the island, the water was flat and it took about 35 minutes.



Pulled into a bay and it was time to go snorkeling in clear warm water, got to do that for half an hour, then we moved to another site and went again for another half hour. The crew had some bread and was throwing in crumbs and the sergeant majors were swarming, sort of exciting.....
Then, we returned to the boat and went over to this floating dock, it’s made up of plastic cubes all joined together and it’s weird...did you want to know how it feels to walk on water...just walk on this thing, it goes up and down with the wave action.

There was transport waiting for us, a wagon with bench seats, pulled by a tractor quite slowly through the resort grounds to the main resort area, past the water buffalos and a zillion fallen coconuts.

When we got to the main resort area at about 11:00, we were given an orientation of the grounds and told to go and enjoy the beach or the pool or just have a look around. The resort has it all, a Spa, bars, restaurants, dive shop, and general store and great looking bungalows, and horses...lunch was at twelve.

I went to the beach and then the pool, which was fantastic and has stunning views over the coast below. Then off to lunch, which was great. Fried fish, morning glory, spring rolls, tom yum koong with shrimp of the super king sized variety and another dish, with chicken, tomatoes, potatoes, and some sort of soup like sauce, didn’t get the name, but it was great.....really, really good food.

At one o’clock, back to our transport and off we went through the palms to the other side of the island, to Bungalow Bay, where there is an outstanding beach; you know the kind, fine white sand and lots of it. We had an hour there to mess in the sea and the surf or just sunbathe.

Then around 2:30pm, our transport took us back to the other side and the floating dock, a little more exciting to walk on this time as the wind had changed and there were bigger waves, so the dock was moving up and down quite a lot......back on the boat and off we went back to Chalong Bay.

A smooth fast ride, we were at the beach by 3:30, and the minibus was waiting to take everyone back to their hotels.

It was good, a nice day on a nice island and great food.

Recommended Tour: Easy Day Thailand's Premium Racha Island Tour 

More information about Raya Island