Ko Tarutao Thailand National Park Beach

Islands Koh Tarutao

position behind the Sumatra peninsula as the reason why last December's tsunami, which slammed into resorts further north around Phuket, caused 'little or no damage' here. Ko Tarutao was the set in a reality TV show in 2002, which brought a lot of popularity the park still has only a few simple bungalow cluster and beach huts. Rough roads and dirt tracks link the National Park headquarters at Ao Pante on the north- west coast to four other ranger stations at Ao Sane, a favorite egg- laying site for turtles on 

the west coast, Ao Ma Kham furthersouth, and the former prison sites of Ao Talo Wao and Ao Talo Udang on the east coast.

Ko Tarutao was the choice to house political prisoners during the early 1940s. The island's perils were hyped up by the guards, who deterred the convicts from escaping with tales of shark and crocodile attacks. Very little remains of the prisons today, just some rusty relics in the visitor centre at Ao Pante, including an enormous wok, a cannon, some leg irons, and photographs of the more important political prisoners " leaders of two coup attempts from the 1930s.

Among them were So Sethaputra, the author of the first Thai-English dictionary; the grandson of King Rama VII, Sittiporn Gridagorn, who developed a new cucumber strain during his captivity and became minister for agriculture after his pardon; and Luan Sarapiwanit, who called the guards' bluff about the sharks and crocodiles, swam out to a fishing boat and escaped. He later became minister for education; imagine if Ruth Kelly had had to undergo such trials.

Supplies of anti-malarial drugs and food to the prisons dried up during the Second World War and in 1944 wardens, jailors and convicts turned to piracy, raiding ships in the Straits of Malacca. The attacks became increasingly frequent and ferocious as necessity turned to greed and the booty was smuggled to the mainland and sold.

After the war, British troops were sent in from Malaysia " then British Malaya " to root out pirates hiding in the estuaries and creeks. Little time was wasted in closing down the prisons after that, but pirate attacks continue to this day.

It was easy to imagine the prisoners' fear of Ko Tarutao's crocodiles when my girlfriend and I took a long-tail ride with a boatman named Hat up the mangrove-fringed estuary of the Pante-Malaka river to 'Crocodile Cave'. Hat was one of 15 boatmen from poor villages around Satun province selected by the National Park to spend the November-to-May dry season transferring tourists from the ferry to Ao Pante's pier at low tides.

A sea eagle took flight from a rocky islet as our long-tail boat moved up the river, and we moored near the cave mouth. Braving the rickety floating walkway by Hat's torchlight, we half expected scaly torsos and gnashing teeth at any moment. Hat's words, 'No crocodile, not for 20 year!' did little to calm our nerves as he cranked up a generator and a row of bulbs blinked into life, waking bats. The cavern walls were 

corrugated like a pipe organ, and in our guide's imaginative patter stalagmites became 'a camel' and 'an old man's head' as he led us up to our knees in cool clay.

On the way back to Ao Pante, Hat pulled the boat in by some mangrove roots, and whispered 'monkey come, monkey come!' and sure enough, a crab-eating macaque clambered tentatively through the mesh of roots and leapt on board to steal a strategically placed biscuit.

It was easy to see why Tarutao was chosen by CBS as the location for Survivor: the proximity of the fauna on the island is alarming. Cicadas in the evergreen canopy chirped as loudly and incessantly as car alarms. Wild pigs foraged under the cabins while we slept. An enormous king cobra slithered into a river bank behind Ao Jak beach on the way to Lu Du waterfall " a route that writhes in the memory for its abundance of serpent life.

The 3km trail to Lu Du starts at Ao Sane, marked out with tags tied to trees. You can easily lose the trail, so you may find yourself clambering up the river for much of the way, which can add hours to the hike. Green snakes bask on rocks and flee across the river with frightening alacrity as you approach. You reach a small waterfall with a deep pool before you get to Lu Du, which is more pleasant to swim 

in than the larger, fish- and snake-infested pool I found myself in at the end of the trail.

By the time we clambered back down from Lu Du to Ao Sane, the thought of walking the 8km road to Ao Pante was too daunting. You can camp at Ao Sane, but we flagged down a passing fisherman in a long-tail boat, who ferried us up the coast. En route, a grey inflatable speedboat passed us carrying five men in army fatigues clutching rifles.

They were park rangers patrolling for illegal trawlers and dynamite fishermen. Our humble skipper posed no threat with his nylon fishing line and battered cooking pot. But the rangers' appearance was no sham: in 1981, 10 rangers in a long-tail boat were surrounded by illegal trawlers, and came under heavy gunfire. They had to be airlifted to safety. Since then they've raised their game, and have learnt to behave like a small army.

Ever since Tarutao was declared a National Park in 1974, the rangers have fought battles on many fronts. First, it was with farmers who had moved from the mainland to cultivate rubber plantations and coconut groves. Two rangers were killed in ambushes, and the richest settler only agreed to leave once he'd clinched a handsome pay-off.

The coconut palms are still there, providing shelter to a newly built row of smart two-bedroom National Park bungalows, which visitors can rent for 2,000 baht (pounds 27) a night. Balancing tourism and conservation is now the chief  concern of the National Park. Private bungalow resorts are on Koh Lipe and Ko