Weekly #4: Feeling Like Home on Koh Phangan
In our third week of traveling around we actually didn’t travel around that much. We arrived on the ‘party island’ of Koh Phangan and stayed there for 5 nights. We really felt at home in our accommodation (The Coco Garden Resort) and on the island in general. We enjoyed scootering around, chilling at reggae bars on the beach and soaking up the relaxed vibes.
Travel Day from Khao Sok to Koh Phangan
Thursday, 23 January 2020
We really liked our stay in the Bamboo Hut Resort in Khao Sok. It was such an amazing experience to fall asleep under a clear sky full of stars, while listening to the sounds of the jungle. This morning we enjoy our breakfast (banana pancakes!) with views on the foggy mountains for one last time, before we get picked up by a mini van to travel to Koh Phangan. At the bus stop, we meet Annette and Frank again, the couple that we first met in Ao Nang, then in Khao Sok National Park and now it turned out that we will be staying in the same accommodation on Koh Phangan (Coco Garden Resort). Such a fun coincidence!
It was an interesting travel day again. Our minivan dropped us off at a travel agency in Surat Thani, where we had to wait a good hour for the next bus to the harbour. It is really interesting how these travel chains work in Thailand. This bus had no airconditioning, no fans and the worst: my window had no window cover (the first and the last time I make this mistake). Those were 60 sweaty minutes! After another three hours on the ferry (that even had a little supermarket on board!) we arrived in Koh Phangan. We got here just in time for the sunset so the first thing we did was grabbing a beer together and enjoying a beautiful sundowner on the beach. We had a ginger curry for dinner, one of our favorite dishes we got to know in Thailand so far.
Exploring Koh Phangan (North) by Scooter
Friday, 24 January 2020
There is a 7 Eleven supermarket around the corner of our accommodation so we opt for an improvised and cheap breakfast on the beach: yoghurt and musli with bananas. After breakfast we walk into the main town of Thong Sala to get our laundry done (€ 2,96 for 2 kg) and to rent a scooter (€ 13,33 for 3 days). We are armed with tips from Kais cousin so we can’t wait to explore the island! We head to the north part of the island to visit Thong Nai Pan Yai beach. The road to get there was almost too scary to really enjoy. Steep roads and sharp curves for almost 30 minutes… But it was definitely worth it! A white sand beach and clear waters were waiting for us! For sunset we drive to the Apichada view point. It was the steepest road I have ever seen so we decided to walk the last bit. The views over the green mountains were absolutely stunning and the vibes very chill!
Exploring Koh Phangan (West) by Scooter
Saturday, 25 January 2020
I couldn’t resist the avocado toast on the menu of Dots Cafe in Thong Sala. Now that I think about it, it must be one of the things I miss the most from home (at least food wise). It was also the most expensive thing I ate so far (250 Baht = € 7,41) but it was delicious and I enjoyed every bite of it! From Thong Sala we decided to discover the other part of Koh Phangan by scooter. There are quite a few beaches on the west side of the island and we decided to have a swim at Haad Salad. I loved the view from this island on a mountain that was totally covered with palm trees! We had lunch at some resort on the beach. Usually that is a little more expensive but still totally affordable. I had morning glory (this stir fried water spinach is a typical Thai dish) and it was 80 Baht (€ 2,37). We drove back to town and paused at the Freeway Bar to watch the sunset. It was such a cool hippie/reggae bar! It was made of wood, had all sorts of decorations on the walls and the live music was the icing on the cake. Back in our bungalow we bumped into Anette and Frank again and we spent the rest of the night drinking beers on the beach. This was such a great day!
Last Day of Scooter Riding in Koh Phangan
Sunday, 26 January 2020
The west coast of Koh Phangan has less mountains and steep hills so we decided to head to the west coast one more time. We visited the beaches of Haad Chao Phao, Haad Son (Secret Beach) and Haad Yao before we had to bring back our scooter. I’m glad we survived all the scooter riding in Koh Phangan! In the evening we started watching the new season of the Netflix series ‘You’. Other than what you might think, we have almost no time to watch Netflix and YouTube during our travels. Too busy with exploring, relaxing and editing photos, haha!
Relaxing Day in Koh Phangan
Monday, 27 January 2020
Today we don’t have a scooter today so we just hang around our hostel and in town. Not too bad, because we really like the chill and ‘don’t worry, be happy’ vibes on Koh Phangan. We get some iced lattes in our favorite cafe (Dots) while I work in my bullet journal and make plans for the next week. We are almost approaching 30 days in Thailand (the maximum amount of days you can stay here with a tourist visa without extension) so we have to decide on our next county to visit. We made plans to head to Koh Lipe in the south of Thailand to cross the border there to Malaysia. Exciting! I can’t believe we have been traveling now for three weeks already. Time is going by so fast! Usually this is the time we have to head back home and I don’t even feel like we have really gotten to know Thailand yet. Back in our hostel I decided to finally get a Thai oil massage (400 Baht, € 11,67 for an hour) and it was amazing. Didn’t want to leave Thailand without getting a massage!
Travel Day from Koh Phangan to Surat Thani
Tuesday, 28 January 2020
We couldn’t travel from Koh Phangan to Koh Lipe within one day without taking an overnight ferry (total travel time would be around 20 hours) so we decided to split up the trip with a stay in Surat Thani. Surat Thani is a city tourists mostly visit on transit to Koh Samui or one of the other islands as it has an airport and a train station. It wasn’t as touristy as the last destinations we visited which also means: the night market is much cooler and also cheaper! Every town has a night market but the food/cheap clothing ratio depends much on the amount of tourists. We enjoyed some great food and shakes on the market and went to bed early.
Travel Day from Surat Thani to Koh Lipe
Wednesday, 29 January 2020
Pick up time: 6:00 AM. And we have a long travel day ahead of us! The mini van drops us close to Had Yai where we take a bus to Pak Bara. From Pak Bara it is only a 90 minutes speed boat ride left to the tiny island of Koh Lipe. Every travel day surprises us and today we were surprised with free surgical face masks that were provided in the harbour. Since the news about the corona virus, you can tell that people are being more cautious with their personal hygiene, more antibacterial soap is being provided and we see more and more western tourists around us wearing face masks. We were also surprised with a quick stop on a small inhibited island. Suddenly the boat decreased speed and we hopped out of the boat in the water. “15 minutes photo break!”, the captain yelled from the front of the boat. We see the whitest sands and clearest waters we’ve ever seen! After 10 hours of travel we arrive in our bamboo huts and all we do the rest of the evening is getting an iced latte and some Pad Thai in the walking street.
