Ranong The Hot Spring Town of Thailand
Ranong The Hot Spring Town of Thailand
When you talk about hot spring, you might think of places like Taiwan, Korea or Japan. However, do you there is a hot spring town in Thailand? The name of the town is called Ranong and it is located in Southern Thailand.
Where is Ranong?
Ranong is located near the south of Myanmar, east of Surat Thani and north of Khao Lak and Phang Nga. The best way to get there is to fly to Surat Thani (via AirAsia from Kuala Lumpur) and self drive to Khao Lak for around 90 minutes.
What is in Ranong?
Since it is located near southern Myanmar, there are a number of ‘new’ and unexplored islands of Myanmar recently opened for tourists.
For Malaysians, you can obtain border pass (without VISA) to get there (if not mistaken) and there is also an island famous for its underground casinos. You can take a boat from Ranong to the islands of Myanmar. There are also luxury island tours arranged by my friend’s tour company called Love Andaman.
In Ranong, the main attraction is the hot spring and there are private hot spring pools and there also private hot spring pools in some hotels. If you plan to stay in a hot spring hotel, please check properly with the hotel before you book.
There are also temples, lakes and also beautiful natural landscape of Ranong you can venture. Another beauty of Ranong is it is not that commercialised. You can see many Westerners but the numbers are not that high and it is not as busy as places like Phuket or Koh Samui.
Most of the food and accommodation prices in Ranong is still reasonable compare to other tourist towns. It is better if you can self drive around Ranong and you can easily rent a car in Surat Thani airport.
If you never been to Ranong, you can consider visiting this town one day. It is recommended to visit Ranong at from November to May but do check the weather forecast before you visit as the weather is a bit cranky for the past few years. Climate change is real.
