Nang Thong and Bang Niang at sunset

Khao Lak's main beaches run up the coast from Nang Thong through Bang Niang towards Pakarang Cape, with casuarina trees behind the sand and forested hills behind those. They face west across the Andaman, and that decides the session: midday light is flat and hard, and the hour before sunset is the natural slot, with the sun dropping into the sea and nothing between it and the camera. The sun sets between roughly six and seven all year, so the photographer starts about an hour before it.

What Khao Lak offers is space. On a quiet stretch the photographer can walk you a hundred metres further to clear the frame entirely, and the casuarinas give shade and a softer background than open sand. It is the easy choice for a family — wide sand with room to run, short distances, children done before bedtime — and for a proposal on an empty beach, which is simpler here than anywhere busier.

In the dry months, from about November to April, the sea is usually calm and shallow at the edge, so a couple can wade in at the end. In the monsoon, from about May to October, the surf is heavy and a red flag on the beach means no swimming, literally — the waterline belongs to the waves. Khao Lak is about an hour and a half by road from Phuket airport, so the first evening after a flight is rarely the right one.