Trip reports forum

I returned to Jum in November, this time staying on Luboa or North Beach, the rustic backpackers' style beach. I have a report on Luboa Hut and the beach in the "Places We Missed" section of the forum.
Jum hadn't changed - still a very laid back island with 4 very nice beach areas and about 20 bungalow places to stay, including some flashpackers and midrangers. A new high end joint was going in at the south end of Ting Ray beach.
It is possible to walk the length of the west coast by rock-hopping between the beaches. It took me less than 2 hours at an easy pace with frequent stops to shoot pix, and the rock-hopping was pretty easy under half tide. Much over this, the section between Ao Si and Ting Ray beaches becomes quite difficult. From North beach to Ting Ray takes around 20 minutes, the same from Ting Ray to A0 Si and it only takes 5 minutes to go either side of the small headland between Ao Si and the long Golden Pearl/Andman.
On Golden Pearl, my previous visit's place of accommodation, Season, still had their lovely concrete flashpacker places at the same price, new and refurbished backpacker bungalows, the food was even cheaper than Luboa Hut and the beach seemed to have built up sand-wise.
Towards the southern end of Andaman the bungalows at Joy seemed to have been refurbished. New Bungalows seemed almost deserted - it was one of the most crowded on my previous trip. There was a new bar - Go Bar - between New Bungalows and the older Paradise Bar at the southern end of the beach.
The whole island is still very relaxed - I reckon I saw fewer than 20 beach-goers on my 4 hour return journey. This was before the Bangkok airport blockade, admittedly shoulder season.