Ko Rok Yai

This guide to Ko Rok Yai, a reef island some thirty kilometers out in the Andaman Sea, opens with a tour guide counting heads on a departing speedboat and coming up two short. It follows what the island becomes once the day-trip crowds and their boats clear out, from the reef just off the beach to the ranger station that runs both the campsite and the shallows. The rangers and the reef share the same stretch of sand, worth a look before the morning boats return.