Hidden Wonders - Koh Yao Noi Home Stay and Community-Based Tourism

In a world full of stress and conflict, it is no wonder that leisure time and peace of mind have become the two most valued lifestyle elements. At a small, award-winning home stay project on an idyllic island in southern Thailand, visitors from all around the world are finding both in plentiful supply.

Seeking refuge from the cut-throat intensity of a highly competitive and hectic life in the city, dozens of annual visitors, mostly from Germany, Scandinavia, Italy, UK, France and USA, are flocking to the Koh Yao Noi community-based tourism village, specifically its home stay programme, to spend a few days living a simple lifestyle amidst simple people with ordinary habits.
 
“Koh Yao is all about combining nature, local lifestyle and fresh seafood,” explains says Samroeng Rakkhet, the project co-coordinator. “This is our unique selling point. Our guests come to learn about and get involved in local lifestyle activities. They learn how to fish, make fishing equipment or batik cloth. Some of them work in the rice fields, or visit the housewife working group and learn how to make the local Muslim traditional dress.”

Home stay guests stay with local fishing families in traditional homes, providing opportunities for discussion and cultural exchange using translators of English and Thai. Sightseeing trips around Koh Yao Noi island can also be organized. Other activities available on the island include demonstrations of rubber tapping and fishing, kayaking, hiking, snorkelling and swimming.

Accessible by boat from Phuket, Krabi and Phang Nga, the island’s home stay village has gained prominence since being conferred the 2002 World Legacy Award by National Geographic Traveler. It also meets many of the UN Millennium Development Goals. It helps alleviate poverty at a grassroots level, and creates jobs for women — all in an environmentally friendly and culturally sensitive way.

The website Phuket.com describes the island thus: “Koh Yao Noi does not have any particular landmark or stunning view point. Nevertheless, while driving around, you will discover a place that has changed very little in 20 years, aside from a few more motorbikes and a new 7-Eleven. A drive around its quiet roads reveals a place of true peace and simplicity for the traveller.

“Wooden houses all along the roads, buffalos taking mud baths in the rice paddies, the cool, shaded roads passing through the many rubber plantations and the beauty of the mangrove with its trees standing in the middle of the sea are just a few of the natural charms of this simple island. The laid-back feeling of the island is contagious, time slows down and nothing seems to pressure the inhabitants who spend a lot of time chatting in small groups, and lounging in the afternoon under salas or in hammocks.”

According to Samroeng, 80 per cent of the local islanders are fishermen, 10 per cent are farmers involved in rubber and coconut plantations and another 10 per cent are in commercial business.

Between 1987 and 1992, fish stocks were facing a crisis, largely because of over-fishing caused by heavy demand for exports. The use of commercial trawlers and heavy equipment boosted the size of catches, whilst other illegal activities such as dynamiting did considerable damage. The rest of the island, too, began to suffer environmental pressure.

In 1994, the fourth generation of Koh Yao Noi people combined to set up a group to combat this trend. According to the Koh Yao Noi Community Based Tourism Ecotourism Club and the Responsible Ecological Social Tours Project (REST), “These efforts met a good measure of success. Marine species increased in number, mangrove forests recovered and sea grass was replenished. Villagers even stopped commercial trawlers from entering conservation zones.”

Encouraged by support from their visitors, the local villagers now ensure that the objectives of Koh Yao Noi Community Based Tourism Ecotourism Club are set in stone. These are to preserve and promote the lifestyle of the local fishermen, offer visitors the option of a different experience whilst helping them to understand the history of the local people, preserve the local environment and, of course, provide the local people with an alternate source of income.

“There are no nightclubs, bar beers or other forms of entertainment. These things tourists can find anywhere else,” notes Samroeng. A positive cultural impact is a tremendous fringe benefit. Samroeng says that in recent years, visitors have left with a better understanding of Muslims and Islam.