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Published on February 16, 2008

Koh Racha Yai is a dream destination, an escape from the real world. Its sands are brilliant white and its seas true turquoise. The natural beauty invigorates its visitors  you may be forced to reassess your priorities in life.

My first dive at Racha Yai is my first in two years. I haven't been near the sea in all that time. As we head out to the dive site in Bungalow Bay I spot beginners taking lessons in the shallows just off Batok Beach.

Tok,our dive master from Racha Seamaster Divers, tells us the water where we'll be descending by rope is about eight to 10 metres deep.

It's about now that I realise how much I've missed the sea, and once I'm in the water the coral reef and its marine life seem like old friends. It's like a reunion.

Thereare many reef balls scattered around  "artificial reef modules" placed here since the tsunami to form new habitats. I spot a fat moray eel that's happily taken up residence, and a lionfish that never wants to leave.

There's a shoal of colourful parrotfish, a silly-looking boxfish swimming alone, and two little filefish picking for food at a leisurely pace. A few cuttlefish glide past while a small stingray lazes peacefully on the seabed. A lobster hides in staghorn coral, not far from a school of anemones.

If you care to view a manmade underwater sculpture park, go to Siam Bay on the north of the island. It's Phuket's newest dive site, featuring models of Thai yak demons, traditional decorative arches, a sala, two elephants and a giant pearl oyster.

Our little array at Koh Racha Yai makes me think this is an ideal dive site, though, thanks to the natural protection it has in the bay.

Tok says there are no big reefs beyond the bay, just submarine cliffs. He'd seen a pair of manta rays there last year, and leopard sharks have been glimpsed at the nearby sister island of Koh Racha Noi.

Racha Noi remains rugged and uninhabited, and its waters are well suited to intermediate and advanced divers.

There are just the two Racha islands  some still call them the Raya isles  23 kilometres off Phuket. Tok explains that, before the divers arrived, they used to be nothing more than stopovers for sailors. They're still a touch point for the Phuket regatta crews.

Koh Racha Yai is now a good diving destination year round, even during the rainy season, when the wind churns up the waters off the east shore but leaves the sheltered sites to the west unruffled.

Racha Yai has been developed to cater for the demands of its new visitors. Only the west of the island remains untouched jungle.

The most dramatic hotel on the island so far is called the Racha, a Singaporean-owned luxury property tagged a Hot New Resort in 2004 by the readers of Conde Nast Traveller magazine.

The Racha controls the whole stretch of Batok Bay, and its stylish white architecture is a lure for day-trippers. Gerard Tan, the hotel's Singaporean manager, says a lot of couples on a quest for relaxation are attracted to the island.

The 20-year-old Raya Resort is on the hillside above the bay.

Europeans usually flock to the island from December to March, followed by tourists from South Korea. Average occupancy at the hotels tops 80 per cent, and many are fully booked at times. 

I find it is easy enough to walk or cycle around the island's ring of pathways. On one side of Batok Bay is the small Ter Bay, and if you climb the hill on the other side you discover Siam Bay, where Phuket investors have plans to build a new hotel.

Kon kareBay has another small hideaway beach, and Ban Raya, another decent hotel. The setting is pretty enough to forget the world beyond these shores.

At all four bays, life is simple: people walk the short distance to watch the sunset and the sunrise, climb a little hill to the next bay, take a quick boat ride to a dive site, or just relax in bed. It makes them wish the rest of the world were as small and idyllic as this.

Story by Vipasai Niyamabha