Most of you old hands probably know about this but just in case I thought I would issue a warning

On Sunday we took our Golden Retriever up to Nai Thon for a bit of a runaround. The place was deserted but very beautiful.

First thing I noticed were the undercurrents – just walking into the sea up to me knees it felt like the beach was being pulled out from under my feet.

Second thing, we came back covered from head to toe in insect bites – much worse than mosquito bites. My GF doesn’t know the name of these insects in English but they are found on beaches near jungles. I’ll spare you the details but we are both going to see a doctor today.

Incidentally, the previous day we were on Bang Tao beach which was relatively free of these perils.

So please be careful on Nai Thon!

Hi ade100,

It's always good to see a reminder regarding swimming at Nai Thon in the low-season. Every year there seems to a be at least one fatality.

I wonder if the bugs that bit you were sand flies, these nasty little blighters can leave many people in a lot of pain, and there are even those who seem to be very allergic to sand fly bites and after scratching do further damage wth infection problems.

Instant application of Tiger Balm has helped me in the past.

My OH got bitten to pieces by sandflies in Langkawi once. They didn't touch me which is very odd as I'm the one who gets all the mosquito bites. One of the locals recommended we put suntan oil on as, they said, that sandflies don't like it. Never got to try it out so cannot say if it works or not.

sorry wrong post