Koh Jum is for sure a lot more touristy than it was years ago but the island is still not crowded. Although it is very close to Krabi, only a few people come here during their stay in Thailand.
The island consists of two areas. Koh Jum is the western part of the island with sandy beaches, restaurants and bunglows for rent.
Koh Pu is the northern and Muslim part of the island which has no sandy beaches but mangrove trees growing in the mud flats of the sea and therefore there are many crabs (Koh Pu means crab island). At low tide there are many fishermen walking through the mud and collecting crabs – there are soooo many crabs!
Getting to Koh Jum is both – easy and adventurous. It is easy because of its proximity to Krabi, Koh Lanta and Koh Phi Phi. The big tourist ferry from Krabi to Koh Lanta can drop you on its way at Koh Jum and it departs twice a day. But – there is no pier on the coast line of Koh Jum where the ferry passes-by. Therefore the local longtail boats meet the ferry on the open water to exchange goods and tourists. They interloop all longtail boats and fix them on the side of the ferry so that the tourists can go on and off the big boat. Your luggage will be handed over/thrown from one boat to the other. Once you and your luggage have reached the longtail boat of your hotel (most of the hotels have own longtail boats to pick-up their customer), the knots between the boats are removed and you will finally approach the island. Sometimes your boat waits appr. 25 minutes on the sea to drop off other tourists leaving the island, so they wait for the next ferry going the other direction. In case you haven’t booked your accommodation in advance, you can join one of the hotel longtail boats and eventually pay them the transfer to the coast line.
Before you start your trip to Koh Jum, there are a few things to consider:
* there are NO ATMs on the island. Really – not one single ATM. Make sure to bring enough money and ask your resort in advance whether they accept credit card or cash only
* there is no 7/11 on Koh Jum. But there are a few small local shops where you can buy food, drinks (except alcohol) and SMS cigarettes
* as Koh Jum is a Muslim island, alcohol is only available in restaurants and hotels, not in the local shops
* Koh Jum is no party island. Right after sunset and at night time it can get quite calm there.
* There is no clinic or pharmacy on the island so you better have some basic medicine with you
I guess this is all in contrasts to many other islands in Thailand. May be this “lack” of known infrastructure is the reason why the island is not crowded with tourists. I can’t think of another reason because Koh Jum is really beautiful. There is a big mountain in the northern part of the island with a viewpoint on top of it. The streets on Koh Jum are mainly dirt roads – but not just normal dirt roads. Sometimes they look more like a motocross adventure trail and you might reach your limit of scooter driving skills on some of them 🙂
When leaving the island at the end of our stay, we heard about a second option of transport mean: there is a small pier in Koh Pu which is the local’s choice for commuting. You can get to the main land with big longtail boats leaving several times per day. This is even more adventurouse than the open water tourist exchange which we experienced on our arrival. People where quite surprised when we joined them on the local’s boat.The boat was compeletely full when we left Koh Jum with everything on it that you can think of: people going to work to the main land, old people, woman with children, luggage, scooter, chicken, fresh fish, laundry from the hotels and resorts which is cleaned in Krabi, etc. Incredible that the boat could carry this loud of people and things!
What we liked most was the calm and relaxed atmosphere. The people are very friendly and the nature is astonishing. There are no big resorts disturbing the view. As many other islands in the region of Krabi, there are many Muslim people living on Koh Jum. Therefore you should make sure to dress appropriately when exploring the island. I have seen a sign in a small local village saying: please no bikini in the village. Well, there is a story to every sign and I can only image how often this happened so that local’s made the effort to paint that sign …
