Contents
Overview
If you are searching for tranquility and empty beaches or you want just to relax and do nothing and you are not a fan of clubs and touristic crowds - then Koh Jum island is what you need.
There is nothing to do there except of swimming, laying on the beach, watching sunsets and forget about all the troubles in the world. It seems time stops there. With the only one paved road and several small shops and cafes it gives you the real feeling of discoverer.
First of all, let’s agree on the name. Ko Jum and Ko Pu are two names for one island, with that difference that Ko Jum is used for southern part, while Ko Pu for northern one. I will refer here to Ko Jum as for the whole island.
How to get there
There are not many options, but two:
1. Take a speedboat from Krabi town
This is probably the easiest and the most common way to get to Koh Jum. It is available only in high season from November to April.
You should take a speedboat from pier in Krabi town. The ferry then will make a stop in front of Koh Jum, from where longtail boat of your hotel or taxi boats will get you to the shore of the island.
Price is 400 Bhat per person. Tickets are available on pier or in travel agencies in Krabi town.
2. Take a longtail boat from Leam Kruat pier
Either you want to go to Koh Jum in low season or you want to take you scooter with you or you just want to feel the taste of adventures, you will probably choose this option.
Small fishing village Leam Kruat (GPS: 7.889917, 99.027538) lies in 40 km from Krabi town and has nothing to do. There are several “cafes” where you can take a bite (rice with something) and several small shops.
There are two piers from where boats are sailing to Koh Jum. One is long pier under the green arch, timetable is fluid, boats depart whenever they want, price both for person and for scooter is 100 Baht.
Another piers are on the left, you will see the timetable of the departures there. Prices here are a little bit lower, the same for person (100 Baht), but 50 Baht for scooter.
Timetables of the boats:
Boats from Leam Kruat pier to Koh Jum
09:00, 10:00, 11:30, 13:00, 14:30, 16:00, 17:30, 18:15
Boats time from Koh Jum to Leam Kruat:
06:30, 07:15, 07:35, 07:55, 08:10, 13:30, 14:30, 16:00
Get around
There is nothing to do on the Koh Jum except of sunbathing and swimming. All the beaches are identical and a lot of people just relaxing in their bungalows and nearby beaches. However if you want to discover the island as we did, there are some options.
There is one paved road across the island from pier to pier. It displayed on the map above as white road. We wanted to make a “circle” around the island and took a ride on the dirt road, that was rather adventurous. Road is rather poor (don’t go there on rain!), it goes up and down all the time with quite big holes. I was afraid we would stick there forever if something break down.
However it was a great experience and nice travel. We were so lucky that we are living in the “Season bungalows” as there is a good road there, more cafes and civilization. That places along the dirt road on the left seems quite wild without any possibility to go somewhere else.
We took our scooter from mainland, but you can rent the scooter on the island (price is 300 Baht per day, we saw several places on the island). There is no petrol station, but there are many places where petrol is sold in the bottle along with small “automatic” stations that sold 91 and 95 petrol.
There is ‘taxi’ on the island - looks like scooter with a small cabin - tuk tuk, but we didn’t ask for the price. However we saw quite many tourists using it.
Beaches
First of all don’t expect offshore snorkeling and crystal blue water on Koh Jum. We have visited all beaches there and I can say - all beaches are almost identical. There is no snorkelling anywhere, sand is nice and water is not very clear.
Golden Pearl Beach: we liked it the most. With its wide strip of sand, marvelous views over Pu mountain and islands scattered in the sea it has very lovely and relaxing atmosphere.
North Beach: it is almost the same, but there is no views over mountain
Our experience
We spent 4 nice days on Koh Jum and liked it a lot. We get there with our own scooter from Leam Kruat pier. Don’t know if it was a good decision, but with our own scooter we discovered the whole island and what we can say that our resort “Season bungalows” was the best.
First of all we have beach in two steps from the bungalow (unlike for example “Oonlee bungalows” where all the houses are scattered on the hill and to reach the sea you should overcome many stairs first down and then up).
Our beach (known as Golden Pearl beach) was the best among others - there is a nice view on the Pu mountain, beach is wide and the whole atmosphere is more lovely.
Price for our bungalow was quite low (14$ for the night in bungalow without AC and water heater). However, there are more expensive spacious bungalows with AC and water heater.
Bungalows are located in developed part of the island - there are other restaurants and shops nearby that you could easily reach by foot.
There is very nice restaurant in Season Bungalows - with sea view and quite cheap tasty food (in comparison with prices on Koh Lanta and other restaurants around the island). Pad thai costs 60 Baht, curries - from 70 baht, plain rice - 20 baht, musli - 50 baht, big bottle of beer - 100 baht.
We took a ride to the small village on the south of Ko Jum - Baan Ko Jum, where mostly the local people live. There are several restaurants (but prices were higher than in the restaurant in Season Bungalow, so we didn’t give them a try). souvenir shop and small shops with everything you might need.
We also visited village on the north Baan Ko Pu where only local people live without any tourists. I feel not very comfortable there, but there is nothing to do so we just took a look and came back.
We went to Koh Lanta after Ko Jum and I want to say that I like Ko Jum more for its tranquility and less tourists. However you may become boring there if staying for a long period of time.
