From Apply Now,
Your Guide to Asia Travel.
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You say want to go to Asia. Good choice. Plenty of exotic destinations. Safe, exotic destinations. Warm and friendly people. A land filled with history and culture. Great food. And usually not too hard on the pocketbook.

A beach, you say? Yes, there are plenty. You can sun yourself on the shores of Bali Hai, on Tioman Island where the movie South Pacific was filmed. Or if you want a more recent movie, like maybe Leonardo DiCaprio's The Beach, you can sit on the sand in Thailand's Phi Phi Islands. The Philippines offers several spots: the white sands of Boracay, the untouched beaches of Palawan, or the sands of Cebu. And there are the old hippie beaches of Goa, in India. I could go on...

Okay wait. Did you say, "in the buff?" Al naturale? As in "nude?" That's more difficult. But it is possible.

Mainstream society in Asia generally takes a more conservative view of the human body than does Western and European culture. Many locations have had a difficult time over the past few decades just learning to accept the bikini. Stretching out in the sand in the altogether is simply intolerable in those societies -- and technically illegal.

The scattered exceptions have a few things in common. First, they are places where Western tourists have a long history. The locals have come to accept the fact that Swedes and Finns, Australians and Americans are likely to wear much less on the beach than they could ever imaging for themselves. Second (and perhaps more importantly) the few beaches where complete nudity (or even topless sunbathing) takes place are usually isolated spots where locals seldom go. Third, it is not a question of a stretch of beach being designated as a nude beach; tourists go to these few beaches because they can get away with going nude, not because it is encouraged (or even legal).

That said, one such place is Koh Phangan - an island in the Gulf of Thailand about 12 miles north of Koh Samui. Koh Phangan is not the most exciting place in the world. The main past time on the island is watching the coconuts grow. The island's economy depends on the sell of coconuts.

The main attraction to Koh Phangan is the monthly Full Moon Party that draw between seven thousand and ten thousand participants each month. A schedule of Full Moon Parties is available online through the end of 2004. The parties run dusk-to-dawn and including music and dancing, jugglers and fire-eaters, alcohol and (of course) swimming. The parties have been taking place every full moon now for about 10 years.

Leela Beach on Koh Phangan is evidently too small to make the maps. But it is close to Had Rin (sometimes "Hat Rin") Beach. The 70 bungalows on Leela Beach occupy some 15 acres of land, which, according to management's webpage, "assures privacy." Is it legal to go nude there? Certainly not. It's not legal anyplace in Thailand. Does it matter? Evidently not. Several reports list it as the "de facto" nude beach. It's isolated enough that the locals either don't know or don't care. And nudity is at least tolerated.

Thailand may be infamous for its sex industry. But the general public is far more modest than you'd imagine if you've never been there. In this one little corner of the country, though, tourists seem to have found a strip of sand that they've turned into one of Asia's few nude beaches.

Don't forget your sun block...