What most tourists experience on Ko Larn Island.

First, there are two ways to get there.   The first, and this seems to be the one in most favor by many if not most Korean tourists, is to take a speedboat.  Just take a walk down Beach Road and you will see small armies of Koreans each one of them following their fearless leader into shallow water to speedboats that will whisk them off to Ko Larn for something like 1500 baht.  It takes just 15 to 20 minutes to arrive at whichever beach their fearless leaders choose to take them which is more often than not, Ta Waen Beach.  I keep forgetting the name of this beach so I usually wind up calling it China Beach simply because the name Ta Waen is so much like the name of that much larger island off the China Mainland.  Now don't get me wrong, Ta Waen Beach is a terrific beach in its own right.  It's the largest of Ko Larn's six beaches.  There's a lot of shops here which the other beaches don't have and it has by far the largest selection of restaurants.   It even has its own designated swimming area which his enclosed by buoys that are cabled together to form a large rectangle to keep the boats and wave runners from decapitating the swimmers.  This puts it as a pure swimming area heads and shoulders above such well regarded places as Ko Samet.

Most tourists on Ta Waen are Asian although there are still a large number of Westerners who come here as well.  And that's about as far as the South Koreans will ever get who are guided in lockstep by their fearless leaders who from what I can detect don't seem to know much about anything.  So moving up the evolutionary ladder is Samae Beach.  Ta Waen Beach is approximately 750 meters long whereas Samae Beach at 300 meters is much smaller and much more importantly is far quieter.  Samae is a favorite of Western tourists.   One can also find many discriminating Thais here but very few Koreans or Chinese.   One won't find any shops here or at least not just yet.   But there's a perimeter of buoys just like Ta Waen's for the swimmers that extends approximately 150 meters out into the Gulf.  At either place one can swim laps.   The only differences between swimming laps on Ko Larn and swimming pools is 1. Each time a swimmer makes a round trip he covers over 300 meters, 2. The water is probably cleaner, 3.  It's salt water, 4.  One has to contend with waves so it's much more fun, and 5. The scenery is much better.  One can eat here on the beach as well at either one of the many tables dotting Samae or while lying in one of the beach chairs by purchasing it from a simple menu provided by the attendants.   Both Ta Waen and Samae provide Wave Runners for hire.   I recommend getting one for forty-five minutes to an hour to navigate around the entire Island.Samae brings up another popular way to get to Ko Larn Island and that's by ferry.  Most Westerners choose this route.   There is a ferry that leaves the Bali Hai pier nearly every hour starting at 8:00 a.m.  I'm not sure this is accurate but here's a ferry schedule.  Normally I don't take the ferry direct to Ta Waen Beach, instead I go to main pier on the side of the island that is nearest to Pattaya for reasons I'll get into later.  According to this schedule the ferry ride has recently been raised from 20 baht to 30.   At either price it's a bargain.  The ferry takes just forty minutes to the main pier.  The typical tourist then gets off the ferry, walks about two hundred meters to his left, and then piles onto a baht bus along with many other typical tourists.   The baht bus then takes the typical tourist up the very steep hill that dominates Ko Larn and then it heads downhill to take its passengers to either Ta Waen or Samae Beach.  All of this is very easy.  Just get a baht bus or motorbike taxi to take you to the Bali Hai pier and get on the ferry.   When one wants to return to Pattaya just be sure to get on a taxi in plenty of time if you have gone to Samae Beach in order to make the last ferry ride to Pattaya at 6:30 or if you are at Ta Waen Beach be sure to get on the 4:00 ferry direct to Pattaya or as you would on Samae get on a baht taxi early enough that you can make the last ferry from the main pier at Naban.

And so ends phase two of the evolutionary trail to Ko Larn Island except there are still four remaining beaches to experience.   These are Thong Lang Beach, Sang Wan Beach, Thien Beach, and Nual Beach.  I'm not sure about how good or bad the baht bus service is to these remaining beaches other than to say that I've never seen a baht bus taxi ever pull into or out of Nual Beach.   Nual Beach is on the South side of the island far away from all the other beaches.   It's the quietest of all the beaches and it provides by far the best snorkeling.  So if you are one of the typical tourists I've described so far you are just plain out of luck---that is, unless you go to phase three of the evolutionary ladder of Ko Larn tourists.

The Phase Three Ko Larn Tourist

The first thing I've noticed about the phase three Ko Larn tourist is there's very few of them.  That's because most tourists can't think for themselves, especially the Koreans.  They don't seem to be able to see well either.   The first step towards reaching this highest rung of the evolutionary ladder of Ko Larn tourists is to keep your eyes open.  Okay, now that we have that straight, simply open your eyes as soon as you get off the ferry at Naban pier.   Follow the other passengers until you see a small horde of hawkers just before you exit the pier.  Here you will find a group of motorbikes.  Rent one for the entire day.  Pay no more than 300 baht.  I pay 250 after first being asked to pay 300.  I recommend that you insist on getting an automatic.  So far I've always rented Honda Air Blades, which although it has been replaced by Honda's latest and greatest, is still an excellent little bike that I'm sure you will enjoy very much on Ko Larn Island.