Two perfect days

I think this photo of me in the resort pool says it all!

Our trip south for our stay at Barefoot Heaven Hill resort began at the Hua Hin train station around sunset when our overnight sleeper train arrived to pick us up. This in itself is an adventure which I would highly recommend if you want a taste of the real Thailand! The next morning found us in Trang where we breakfasted on a kind of fruitcake for which the town is famous and rented a motorcycle for the one hour trip to Heaven Hill Resort located in the seaside village of Had Yao. 

.This is a view of the grounds and the camping area
A spectacular view off to the north.
Breakfast with Khun Poo . . .our kind host! Lovely meal and conversation.

From her gracious welcome on, Khun Poo was an amazing host! She and her housekeeper even helped us put up our tent and throughout our stay treated us like family. Suffice it to say that the site is gorgeous with spectacular views all around, P’Poo and her staff could not have been more friendly and accommodating and our stay was totally worth the long train trip down and back. We spent a lot of time enjoying the pool!

My intrepid companion enjoying the pool.
Looking at the cliffs. Fascinating as they changed with the light as the day went on.
Outdoor shower built into a tree!

We were fascinated by this shower built into tree. The whole resort has a very natural and calm atmosphere focused on nature. . .despite the rather utilitarian buildings. The dining area is especially nice for relaxing and enjoying the views in every direction . . .obviously only possible if you are actually on a hill as this resort is. You get to watch the sunrise and the sunset from the pool deck. The hill where the resort is built is a perfect spot and if Had Yao village had been your typical Buddhist village, this is where the temple would have been built.  

Another view of the pool and the limestone cliffs beyond.
My favorite view of the Heaven Hill Resort. I love the light and the trees in this.
We enjoyed tooling around the little village at the base of the “Hill” and had a lovely day trip over to Koh Libong . . .with our motorcycle lifted into the longtail boat and tied down for the trip.

 

Part 2 The beach

A naturist exploring the Garden of Eden

It is a beach within walking distance of Heaven Hill. . .deserted, stunningly beautiful and hard to reach. There appear to be two ways to walk to it, neither of them easy. We came to it from the east from a small, undeveloped tourist area called Had Yao. It’s a very laid-back, casual kind of place no umbrellas or beach chairs or roving venders of dubious fried chicken in sight. The little family restaurants are friendly places and the food is good. The place we rented the kayak is Seaview.

A view of Had Yao village coming in by boat.

We knew it was there behind this great rocky monolith and our first attempt was to swim or walk around it. Not possible we found, as the tide was too high and swimming around with our belongings didn’t seem to be a great idea so we rented a kayak and reached it easily.  It seems that you can walk around the rocks when the tide is low. We explored the coast past the beach to see what was there. Evidently you can access the beach from the other side as well, passing a series of smaller beaches and inlets. From the other side it appears that you start with a wide, sunny piney beach. Being naked we didn’t explore further. 

The beach looking north. I want to call this Eden Beach although whatever garden there is . .is of the natural kind.

The beach is 95% in its natural, pristine state. Amazingly it is clean with no other sign of human life except in the odd corners where the highest tide has reached. Except for the occasional passing longtail ferry boat the beach is peaceful and timeless. This makes it unique and special. It certainly rates as the best naturist beach we have even been on and our time there will never be forgotten. Indeed, only the opportunity to share it with naturist friends would have added to the pleasure. (OK  . . .and maybe a picnic or BBQ.)

The limestone rock formations are amazing and worth the visit on their own.
The beach looking south from about the same spot as the previous shot.

The beach is just down the hill from Barefoot Heaven Hill Resort. We had it all to ourselves for two glorious mornings. It is . . .that wonder of wonders . . .a shady beach because of the huge rock formations. (We arent fans of tanning.) We were joined by a fellow naturist on the first day. We didnt meet him as he seemed to want privacy. On the second morning, as we were deciding to leave and the sun was rolling around, a tour boat drove up and disgorged a bevy of well dressed tourists for a beach BBQ. This made naturism impossible of course, so we were out of there in ten minutes. This “nude beach” is like every beach in Thailand . . . “nude” if there are no others around. 

Standing in the water. Only sign of civilisation is the boat moored in the distance.
My companion, “bigbillgrill” enjoying the water.
A shot of the view from the beach.
Bigbillgrill relaxing with our rented kayak. We did some snorkeling here.
A posed photo on a rock.
Wading out for a swim.
Final view of the hills around 'Eden beach'

This beach certainly deserves being ranked as a number one naturist beach! Surrounded by massive limestone rock formations, some of them fantastic in size and shape, it is pristine and unbelievably clean which, considering the state of the surrounding village is nothing short of a miracle. It has both sun and shade, lots of small caves and inlets nearby to explore. . .it is just hard to imagine any more perfect spot in which to spend a leisurely naked morning enjoying nature as we were meant to. 

 

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Responses

  1. Looks like ‘Heaven’ is very apt given the natural landscape whcib can be seen.. Would love to be there one day..

  2. Very good narrative. I was there a week after you. Disaporn from Barefeet led the way and in total there were 5 of us enjoying the beach nude.
    The next day Disaporn drove us to another beach further past this one where 6 of us went swimming. We had to go past rocks on the sea bed to swim which were sore but it was well worth it.
    This area is very beautiful and doesn’t seem to be very developed so it’s natural beauty is I’m spoiled.

  3. It is amazingly unspoiled and beautiful. I found the village area somewhat unkempt, even along the main road and around the beach village there is trash and litter to be found. . .but the “nude” beaches . . .wow!

  4. Thank you John for this report, we are impatient to discover this charming place next year.
    We had planned to stay there this year in early April but we had to cancel due to confinement in France.