Love and despair in Koh Phangan
Everything was setup for success — we booked our flight from Kuala Lumpur to Suratthani, ready to be carried away by everything Thailand has to offer. We knew we are going to love it cause we loved it before. But if you think you can plan your travel to the detail, think again.
Thailand is often described as the perfect place to start your backpacking adventure. It is pretty easy to get by, it is big and has a wide range of activities and landscapes to offer, no matter if you are looking for relax or adventure. And most of all — it is stunningly beautiful.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen more breathtaking hippie beaches, ate better food or had a better massage. Since it wasn’t the first time in the country for neither of us, we knew what to expect and I was excited to the level of jumping around once we were approaching the shore of Koh Phangan in the good old “slow ferry”.
Located between the more peaceful, developed and ‘adult-like’ Koh Samui and the tiny diving-oriented Koh Tao, Koh Phangan is known as the “party island”, home to the infamous Full Moon Party with its vodka buckets and neon shirts. This might scare off some, and I admit I reached the age where this doesn’t sound that appealing anymore but I knew there is so much more to the island that this trashy beach party.
The party and the sandwich
We both had very good memories with Koh Phangan as being very varied, welcoming, still a bit wild despite being one of the main traveller’s destinations and holding something for everybody depending on the mood.
We specifically had 2 goals in mind while targeting the island as our first destination in Thailand:
- Despite what I wrote above: a party. But! This one was different, pretty amazing and I would say, Berlin-style — the Eden Party at the Haad Yuan beach. We have both attended in the past separately, and we talked about in one of our very first conversations. You could only get there with a boat taxi from the Haad Rin beach, there were way less buckets, very good music and a view from the dancefloor like one in the million. We really wanted to go back to that special beach together and so it became a bit of a goal of the trip. Well, in that very stay we didn’t but more about that later.
- Then there was the Shambhala bungalow village, located far from the party centre, where I spent wonderful 5 days in 2013 with two friends and completely fell in love with the Thai family, the Swiss owner, two dogs and 3 cats running it. I insisted we had to stay there as there was another specific goal: this is where I tried for the first time totally fell for THE best Club Sandwich ever. I raved about it so long that Tiago had no choice and we booked the bungalows, although they weren’t the cheapest option out there (still worth it!).
And so there we were full of sentiment-fueled hopes, unpacking our 40 liters backpacks (I am so proud of carrying only hand baggage!) inside of the cutest bungalow, having a beer on a wooden porch and defining daily shifts for the hammock with a seaview. Tiago loved the Shambhala and after couple of days we even got an upgrade into a bigger one after a lengthy but charming conversation with the Swiss owner about boat trips how cold it is now in Europe.
Well, have a look yourself how beautiful this place is:
One of the best things about Thailand is food so after congratulating ourselves on the good accomodation choice we started walking towards the Night Food Market in the nearby village Thong Sala. There: another serotonin boost! Wow, the options we were presented with; grilled squid, the most freaky fruit shakes, pulled pork belly, papaya salad, pad thai…fried insects! We were overwhelmed by the variety, smells and prices and we headed home with full and happy bellies. At that time I didn’t know yet that this will be the beginning of the long “I can’t believe it tastes so good, I want to order everything” phase that lasts until now and results in estimated 2 kilos more on the hips.
The dry season that wasn’t
We slept like babies and were ready to explore the island the next morning, wasn’t there just one little detail. Suddenly, it was raining. The whole time. That’s OK, we thought, it has to pass. We can do some work, write some blogposts, read, listen to podcasts, plan the rest of our travel, all the things you normally neglect during the initial beach intoxication.
We did that but it kept raining. The mosquitos were happy and we were more and more moody (on a side note — the mosquitos are especially aggresive in Thailand, luckily we are carrying 5 different bottles of repellents inherited from friends and home, always a bit ashamed at the security control on airports as we carry more cosmetic bags than clothes).
Then my MacBook Air stopped working. Then it kept raining. Day by day we walked to the Night Market in our rain coats to have some potatoe chips and spicy thai food. In the meantime Tiago found a diving course in Koh Tao. We paid the deposit. Then I panicked as I was suddenly but deeply scared of diving.
How was I supposed to take off and clean the mask UNDER water? What if the pressure explodes my head? What if I loose everybody 10 meters under water?. I kept reading websites about overcoming fear of diving and watching YouTube videos explaining the under water techniques. My fear was raising, the rain kept falling. Days passed. The Swiss guy told us it will probably keep raining. We cancelled the diving course and decided to do it in better weather and psychological conditions (I promised to myself to work on my fears until March) and decided to go to Chiang Mai in 2 days. We booked the flight.
Take out your sunglasses
We woke up the next day. There was not one cloud and the sun was shining with all its force. Whooooot.
As you can imagine, there was no time to waste. A bit disappointed by the tricks played on us by the Gods of Travel but still incredibly boosted by the sun rays, we rented a motorbike (as in Bali, a must in Thailand!), jumped into our swimming suits ready to race around the island in a beach hopping frenzy.
Of course, our motorike broke after 10 minutes. Fine, after all we were already used to this kind of bad luck. One hour later with a new motorbike we were on the road again, exploring beach by beach and indulging in baby blue waters and soft, yellow sand. Koh Phangan, you rock! We will be back here in March, we told ourselves.
The day before departure to Chiang Mai we decided to at least have a look at the beach we promised to visit: Haad Yuan. We raced to the party center Haad Rin just to find out that the boat taxi to the beach costs a relatively insane amount of money (500 baht!) cause of the insane waves. We tried to negotiate but the guys were like stones, there was no way around it. We decided to leave it for another time (we wanted to be back anyway, right?). After jumping into the insane waves we decided to head to another island attraction: the waterfall.
The hike at the Phaeng Waterfall
The way to the Phaeng Waterfall goes through the middle of the island and is definitely an interesting route. Once arrived, we realised that although beautiful, the waterfall itself is nothing that special but many people go for a 15 minutes steep hike starting along the waterfall to reach a view point with a seemingly amazing view over the island. In mood for some workout, we decided to go.
It was pretty steep indeed but thanks to a natural rope installed in some more difficult moments, we made it to the top in quite a good shape with only a couple of heavy drops of sweat rolling down our necks. The view was great indeed and best consumed while sitting on dangerously looking rocks.
Back at the bottom, we admired a cross-generational Russian family having a joyful bath in the waterfall, had a quick bath in a natural pool ourselves and headed back right in time for a sunset in our lovely Shambhala.
At night we didn’t miss the opportunity for a swim in the darkness and promised ourselves we will be back here some day, even if just to caress the most wonderful dogs on earth.
The next morning it started raining again but we were already on the boat back to the airport reading about what Chiang Mai had to offer. Towards the sun!
Where we stayed, what we ate
Shambhala Bungalow Village — as mentioned above: a 100% recommendation, beautiful, cozy bungalows, lovely Thai family, helpful Swiss owner, dogs, cats garden, almost private beach, you will never want to leave this place (unless it is raining, of course). The food is good, too!
Panthip Night Food Market — the only option worth recommending from what we’ve tried. The market is amazing and we don’t see any reason to eat anywhere else until you are absolutely bored.
Can’t get enough? We committed to post one picture a day to Instagram.
