Unwrapped travel

If you’re looking for trackless forest and untamed wilderness, the best advice is usually to head to northern Thailand, or better yet, northern Laos. But just an hour away from Phuket, lie two islands where KFC has yet to even think of opening up its doors, where dirt roads turn unexpectedly into cow paths before being engulfed in forests of wild coconut palms and mangroves, where tourism is still an after thought, and where the clamorous din of commerce is nowhere to be heard. Welcome to the Ko Yao islands — the subject of our latest feature story.