Ao Play Laem belongs to that category of wonderful places who are under your nose, remaining undetected. And you can get here within three minutes after unloading from the ferry in Tong Sale.
But people are designed so that they are not always ready for the fact that happiness can be obtained here so easily. Therefore, 99% of tourists with wide-open eyes and cards fly past this secret (for the hustle) places. But it is here that you will find the mix of the most main things for a beach holiday: shelter stones, fine sand, azure sea, palm trees over the water and – sunsets. But the beach is not without comments.
The content of the article
- 1 Description of the beach
- 2 Entry into the water, depth and waves
- 3 Sun beds and shade
- 4 Beach Photos
- 5 Infrastructure
- 6 Houses and hotels on the beach
- 7 How to find a beach
- 8 beach map
Contents
Beach description
Plai Laem is located at the foot of a low wooded hill, separating Tong Sala and Ao Hin Kong. Thanks to such a geography, the beach is completely invisible from the side of the road, has a very winding and an interesting coastline, about 1.2 km long.
At the very beginning of the beach to go down to the sea is quite problematic because of the steepness of the slope, but from the middle and farther north, without not the steepest hill becomes more gentle. Here already appear good concrete paths leading directly to the beach. At its core Play Lam on Phangan is not a continuous strip of sand, but a series small coves separated by mangroves or rocks.
Entry, depth and waves
Ao Play Lam is perfect for a beach holiday without any special claims for a full swim. The bottom is shallow, and to the depth you will have to cut from 200 to 400 meters towards the horizon, and this not all. The first hundred meters will be clean and soft, and the following 100-200 are slippery, overgrown with seashells stones. In general, walk there barefoot – very fraught.
This is his only drawback. Otherwise we have here: clean sandy bottom along the coast, huge beaches are scattered around the beach boulders and stones, behind which you can hide from strangers eye.
The sand is fine and greyish yellow, with no extra impurities. Good weather the beach looks like a picture on the screen saver. During tide the beach disappears the entire length, and the sea comes close to rocks, shore and artificial barriers.
Sun beds and shade
At Ao Play Lam there is no specialized rolling center, and all chaise lounges stand on the territories of rare hotels. The whole beach is basically looks wildly, and the beds for him – rather the exception than norm. During low tide loungers can be put on the sand closer to the water, but within the shade of the trees.
The main shadow here is of natural origin, from palm trees and mangroves, this kind of bulk here. If you walk along coast, sometimes you have to wade straight through the mangroves, under which, if desired, you can quite comfortably settle for a while low tide.
Beach photo
View to the left in the direction of Tong Sala, which is not visible from behind the cape.
The water is slightly muddy and visible stones under water. Rainy season, start low tide, the second half of the day.
The view to the right, because of the mangroves is not visible the rest of the beach of Ao Play Laem
The shore behind the beach is all overgrown with greens of various sizes.
If you walk along the shore, it’s not before the beginning of the low tide and not in slates
In some places have to go through the thickets of mangroves
Here I filmed the sequel to Ao Play Lam, after exiting thickets
In approximation, it is clear that the coast is generally deaf, to go to I didn’t want to end
Infrastructure
On Ao Play Laeme, most infrastructure facilities are located between the sea and the main road, and for the most part they refer to those resorts and hotels that are built on the first line.
In fact, this is a small hotel village, where there is almost no private sector, and all services and amenities tourists receive at the place accommodation. The building is very rare, a lot of wastelands, almost none shops, only a few private tai-shops.
From local attractions – Amsterdam Bar, which located up the slope and considered a cult bar and a viewpoint in the west of Phangan. Nearby there is a lesser known and more behind the scenes. Top Rock Bar.
All the main shops and banks, restaurants and rentals are located in three minutes south of Thong Sale.
Houses and hotels on the beach
As I said above, mostly housing on Ao Play Lame is represented by hotels and guesthouses. On the hill behind the road there is several private villas with excellent views of the Gulf of Siam, Samui and Andaman Marina Park.
More than half of the resorts have high visitor ratings, so what is where to roam when choosing a place. In my opinion, has meaning to settle on Ao Play Lame only if the sea you like to watch and walk, but prefer to swim the pool.
Due to the unpopularity of the beach there are always few people, but under sideways Tong Sala, great views and lots of cozy places on the beach. Here are three options that I considered for myself in my recent trip:
- Glass cottage
- The green palm
- Sea Scene Resort
Hotels in Play Lame →
Be sure (and I insist) check for discounts or special offers on the excellent Roomguru service. He is fast and easy will show you discounts in all existing reservation systems. AT the same Asia, for example, there are lots of offers on Agoda.com, which much more interesting than on exactly the same hotels in Booking.com.
For the lazy, here are the direct links to the hotels listed above:
- Glass cottage
- The green palm
- Sea Scene Resort
How to find the beach
The main thing is not to accelerate much, moving away from Tong Sala in westward. Literally in five minutes of the trip you will already in place. As a guide, I would recommend looking out in the direction of motion a metal structure of the type such as RF hang road signs.
Metal U-shaped arch with a banner along the entire length, overlooked so difficult. Near this arch any turn to the left will lead to the sea. I went down the footpath at the very beginning. Ao Play Lam walked about a hundred meters along the shore and returned to the road at the new resort Ban Jaidee Resort.
Hiking trail from the main road. On the lover.
Access to the sea from Glass Cottage and Baan Jaidee Resort
View from the beach to the side of Glass Cottage and Baan Jaidee Resort
Beach map
Life hacking 1 – how to buy a good insurance
Choosing insurance is now unrealistically difficult, therefore, to help everyone travelers, I make a rating. To do this, constantly monitor forums, I study insurance contracts and use insurance by myself.
Insurance Rating
Life hacking 2 – how to find a hotel 20% cheaper
First, choose a hotel on Booking. They have a good base offers, but the prices are NOT the best! The same hotel is often possible find 20% cheaper in other systems through the RoomGuru service.
Discount hotels
