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Attraction

Ao Pante Malacca, Koh Tarutao

The arrival bay and park headquarters on Koh Tarutao, at the mouth of a mangrove river.

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Attraction

Ao Pante Malacca, Koh Tarutao

Ao Pante Malacca is the bay on Koh Tarutao's north-west coast where boats land and where the national park headquarters, the island's only substantial accommodation and its restaurant are based. A wide beach of coarse sand runs south from the pier, with a mangrove river entering the sea at the northern end.

Behind the beach a path climbs through forest to Toe Boo cliff, a rock outcrop above the bay with a view over the whole north of the island and out to the Butang group. Longtail boats run up the river from the pier into the mangroves to Crocodile Cave, a long water-filled cavern in the limestone.

Tarutao is the main island of a marine national park on the Malaysian border, largely uninhabited and forested, and it closes to visitors during the monsoon months.

Attraction Points
  • Toe Boo Cliff — Toe Boo Cliff is the viewpoint above Ao Phante Malacca, the bay where Ko Tarutao's national park headquarters and main pier...
  • Ao Talo Wao, Koh Tarutao — The site of Tarutao's 1930s penal colony, on the island's remote east coast.