The Golden Buddha Beach Resort is a slick operation indeed. We were collected from our Phang Nga hotel at the stroke of 1030, as requested, and driven north along the west coast to a small pier where a long-tail boat took us on a one hour journey through mangrove lined waterways to the hotel on Ko Phra Thong. There we were greeted (as promised by countless five star TripAdvisor reviews) by the personable Italian manager who waded into the water, flung out his arms and said, ‘Welcome to paradise!’
The resort itself has an interesting model, though I don’t know how unique it might be. There are about thirty bungalows, each owned by a different individual. The resort as a whole is owned by a German. The owners of the bungalows can come and stay whenever they want, while the rest of the time, at least during the high season, the resort rents them out. The income is divided 50-50. So each bungalow is decorated and (to some extent) constructed according to its owner’s taste. Our bungalow is owned by an architect in Hong Kong and consists of two bedrooms, both open to the elements, with a beautifully set up terrace facing the sunset, and open air bathrooms full of plants. There is a path leading down to the beach with the warm waters of the Andaman Sea and enough waves to keep one lively. The resort is on a cape so the beach on the other, land-facing side, is one of the typical Andaman ones with very calm water and a seemingly endless slow sand slope. Even at low tide the shallow seems to go out forever. There are two small wooded islands off the beach which are reputed to have ok snorkelling that can be acceessed by kayak.
It’s all extremely competently arranged, and I can see why the five star reviews. The resort makes much of its relations with local communities, however after having read the research on the Urak Lawoi displaced on Ko Lanta (here they are Moken, another sea people) I do wonder.
Certainly the taste is exquisite, though the food is not as fine as I had hoped. It is geared towards foreign palates with almost no chilli, and portions that are laughably small. I am hardly a big eater, but I felt the piss being taken when I ordered the fried chicken with papaya salad, to find a cupful of papaya salad (fine) and a piece of fried chicken that was half a drumstick (not fine). This was my dinner allocation under the full board agreement, and felt patently nonsensical.
Tonight is a rare full moon.