Boat trip to Koh Gai (Chicken Island)

First and foremost, Koh Gai which is directly translated to Chicken Island, has nothing to do with the fowl living on the island (or lack thereof), but more to do with the physical characteristics of the island. I am pretty sure that anyone can and will agree that the island is aptly named based on the following photo I shot today while taking the boat around the far side of the island.

From just the right angle, the pillar rising over the side of the island looks exactly like a roosting bird.  I tried to walk over to the base of it at low tide, but had to give up after reaching a few impassable places and slipping and rendering my foot a bloody mess. 

That being said, the island is beautiful, but I do have some advice for anyone thinking of going there.  

Skip the tours and skip the short-time boat trips.  Find a boat, charter it for the day, and enjoy going when and where you want.  You can charter a boat for the day for about $60 and then leave at a much earlier time than the other tourists.  

Leaving early is VERY important.  The island gets insanely crowded, and honestly that pretty much ruins the experience.  You want to make sure you leave the various ports around the area by about 7:30am, and then reach the island a few hours before the main rush of tourists.  The silence and beauty of the place is very obvious at this point.  After about 10am, the island is crawling with tourists of all sorts.  

The best thing about Koh Gai is that it actually does have food and bathrooms on the island.  I would say that it is important to bring some toilet paper, and the park entrance fee is a bit steep at a price of 400 baht, but they do make a pretty good plate of chicken fried rice.  

Of course I had to order chicken fried rice on Chicken Island, which I am pretty sure does not have a single chicken on the entire landmass.

The area was beautiful, and for some reason it was just flooded with butterflies.  I tried to take a lot of photos of them, but they were pretty good at avoiding me.  I did manage to snap a photo of this one in the bathroom.  

The best part of chartering a boat is that you can just request that the boat driver take you around to the different islands to just enjoy the views.

I have never been a fan of just lounging around on an island, but I have to admit, I found a pretty good place to rest my feet today.

Should you find yourself in Krabi in need of a good boat captain who has a home port in Krabi town, give this phone number a call.  I would highly recommend him.  

"Just" - +66 - 087 - 269 - 8927