Thalay Waen, the Separated Sea

Researched PickJust turn up

A sandbar that surfaces between three islands off Ao Nang as the tide drops, and disappears again a few hours later.

Thalay Waen, the Separated Sea — The sandbar between Ko Kai and Ko Tup, Krabi. Photo by kallerna, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What we checked, 18 September 2026

Checked on 18 September 2026. The fee scoping is the point of this page: the 400 baht figure repeated across tour sites and blogs for Thalay Waen is the Phi Phi islands rate, and the department's table does not apply it here. The provincial and departmental pages describing the sandbar itself both refuse automated requests, so no tide table or access rule is published here, and no coordinate is given because we could not verify one for a feature that moves. We have not been.

Verified via. The Department of National Parks' published fee table, read on 18 September 2026, lists Hat Noppharat Thara - Mu Ko Phi Phi at 200 baht for a foreign adult in the general zone and 400 baht only in the zone covering Phi Phi Don, Phi Phi Le and Bamboo Island.

Admission

The sandbar is inside Hat Noppharat Thara - Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park, and the department's own fee table gives 200 baht for a foreign adult and 100 for a child in the general zone, which is the zone this sits in. The widely quoted 400 baht applies only to Phi Phi Don, Phi Phi Le and Bamboo Island. Boat operators commonly collect the fee on top of the trip price, and some include it.

Thalay Waen is a strip of sand that joins three small islands off Ao Nang, Ko Kai, Ko Tup and Ko Mor, when the tide is low enough. The name translates as the separated or parted sea, and the appeal is walking out on it with water on both sides. At high tide there is nothing there at all.

The fee, and the factor-of-two error everyone repeats. This is inside Hat Noppharat Thara - Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park, and the department’s own table gives two rates for that park: 200 baht for a foreign adult generally, and 400 baht in the zone that covers Phi Phi Don, Phi Phi Le and Bamboo Island. Thalay Waen is not in that zone. Tour sites quote 400 for it constantly. The published rate is 200.

Timing is the whole thing. The sandbar is a tidal feature, so a trip sold as visiting it is only visiting it if the schedule matches the tide on your day. Four-island and seven-island trips from Ao Nang both stop here, and whether you get the walk depends on the hour you arrive rather than on what you paid.

What we could not get. A tide table from any authority, an access rule, or a coordinate we would stand behind for a feature that appears and disappears. The provincial page for the site and the department’s pages both refuse automated requests, so this listing carries the fee, the geography and the caveat, and nothing invented around them.

What we have not done. Stood on it.

Best for

Walking between islands on a strip of sand, if the tide is doing the right thing

Skip if

Your boat trip is timed for anything other than the low tide. Without it, there is nothing to see

Thalay Waen, the Separated Sea

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