Nakamanda : Thailand’s Best Hotel for Sunsets

Vacation (noun): doing nothing and not feeling the least bit guilty about it.

Some people treat a vacation like summer camp, cramming in activities, reservations and bookings. That’s a “trip,” people. Not a vacation.

The only activity I want to arrange on a “vacation” is me, staring at the floor, through that hole in a massage table.

If you want to simply stare at the sky or lounge by the sea for a few days, you need Nakamanda––one hour by plane from Bangkok.

Our vacation actually began one mile away, with a booking at the Dusit Thani.

We are normally not “Dusit” people, but we got it (for free!) thanks to some extraneous air miles that were about to expire. In that sense, it was fabulous.

It was what we kind of expected. The pool was full of babies, stuffed into plastic, floating flamingos. The mini bar beers were $7 per can, so we bought ours at the 7-Eleven. Mugs of Nescafe in hand, fuzzy slippers on feet … we were content reading our books in bathrobes in our free room.

We’d been to Krabi before, and thus, we weren’t interested in the normal activities of kayaking or snorkeling, exploring the jungles by motorbike or watching some fire show on the sand. We were on “vacation.”

The drinks are cheap in Krabi. The accommodations sometimes even cheaper. Tiny jungle bars sprout like loveable weeds, and you’ll find more than one backpacker whose parents are tacking up missing person signs in Minnesota. 

Back to us …

our parents knew where we were. We are also too old to “run away.” Sigh.

We slurped the last of our Tiki drinks and agreed it was best to walk them off down the beach. We then met a kitten and basically began following it.

NOTE: Have you met the two of us? We’d follow a kitten off a cliff.

Chris named the Krabi kitten Neil Armstrong … because it had white paws like little space boots and the landscape had suddenly gotten very extraterrestrial. Instead of smooth sand, it was littered with hundreds of rocks.

Neil navigated the shoreline around the outcrop, hopping over boulders and shaking the sand and water off his paws every few feet. We followed.

The tide rose around the rocks in separated pools, trapping tiny crabs and creating mirrors of clouds and pink sky. Fishermen had anchored a few longtail boats just off an adjoining small island. They pulled in their nets. The scene was dreamy.

Neil Armstrong sat down on a rock. We looked up. And … there was Nakamanda.

Serene, white villas for only $120/night. A large swimming pool with stone fountains. Careful landscaping, beautiful statues and an open-air restaurant. (Images here).

It directly faced the rocky, moon beach and the little island with the longtail boats.

Assured of a spa and fast WiFi, we moved hotels. I decided to camp out and work on my own novel for an extra four days after the first night.

One of my favorite things about Nakamanda was the drama of the sunsets. In 10 years of traveling Southeast Asia, this was the best I’ve ever seen.

Nakamanda gives lower rates to return visitors, and I’m certainly going back. I’d imagine they have a lot of return visitors. I’d imagine this place and Neil Armstrong will both get a mention in the Acknowledgements if I ever finish that novel. I got a two solid chapters written here.