Maphrao Island

Location 10.3919826, 99.2941519

Officially, Maphrao Island is a bird’s nest concessionary island where the nests of swiftlets are collected to make the Chinese delicacy, bird’s nest soup. The birds must be protected from undue disturbances, so visitors to the island must obtain permission from the Chumphon Provincial Office at least one week in advance.

I believe this only applies to those landing so it is still possible to arrange a trip around the Island on a wide body long tail boat operated by one of the fishermen at Hat Sai Ri Beach.

The boat trip out to the island is 10 to 15mins.

At the center of the island can be found a long sandy beach.

Other than this beach area the island has steep rock faces and is covered in trees and bushes. Try to get the boat handler to circle the island as the eastern side is worth seeing.

What is amazing to see is how the fishermen have perched their dwellings on the rocks.