Kata Noi Beach

This guide to Kata Noi Beach in Phuket follows Sombat Atiset, a timber merchant from Phang Nga who drove south in the early 1980s and found a crescent of sand between two jungle headlands with no road worth the name. It traces how he bought the land in 1981, broke ground two years later, and built log cabins from his own plywood factory's offcuts. Visit November to April for calm swimming, or come in May when the headlands funnel a surf break onto the northern end.