Koh Phangan was addictive, and incredibly difficult to leave, for the most part because of the number of amazing beaches and bays fringing it's shores. Every beach felt different, and I felt compelled to visit as many as I can during my six days on the island. I admit I had little else to do on the island, as most tours were prohibitively expensive, and most activities contrived and mediocre. Elephant riding??? Nah, done that. Ziplining??? Nah. 1500B for a tour which costs 700B in Krabi??? Equally, nah thanks.
Also why settle for just lazing on the beach at the hostel, when I could laze at a different beach everyday???
So having decided I would be proactively slothful, I hired a little, red scooter and headed off to discover sand, sea and beer.
I thought here it could be helpful to include a map of the island, so you could get an idea of where I am talking about. I will try to cover each beach I visited, going anticlockwise around the coast from Haad Rin.
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| Disclaimer: I do not own this map, it is the property of kohphangan.com. I am technically copying it illegally, but I make no money from this blog, and have only 15 page views per days, of which at least a third is my parents. Do not sue me, I am broke. |
Haad Rin Nai
We've already seen this beach, it was non-existent and filled with rubbish.
Haad Rin Nok (Sunset Beach)
This is another beach I talked about in my last blog, and it is fairly spectacular, if a little overdeveloped. I did not make it back here again during the day, as the road to reach it is fairly treacherous, but I did come back to this beach thrice more at night for the drinking and fire-themed entertainment, as there are few other options on the island out of season. (Also with a few beers, the road to Haad Rin seems less treacherous and more a fun challenge. Attempting it at 3am, in the rain, drunk, at 70kmph, was probably not one of my best ideas...
In case you've forgotten, here's a few pretty pictures of this beach:
Pretty!
Than Sadet
This is a particularly remote beach, and we (my travel buddies Fan Ny came along for some adventures here - more on her in the next blog) were almost unable to reach it as the access road was still being constructed. Fan Ny lost grip on her bike and it fell over in the mud, and I needed a push from locals to get over a muddy ridge.
Once we reached the beach, we understood why people persevered to reach it; it was certainly the least developed beach I had seen on the island, and it really did feel like a tropical island getaway (again, terrible road probably helped).
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| I want a cliff hut on this beach!!! |
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| It may have been easier to access this beach by boat... |
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| Woo, tropical! |
Thong Nai Pan Yai
This beaches lies at the far end of a challenging, twisting, jungle-wrapped highway through the centre of the island, but is definitely worth the thirty minute drive from the southern beaches. It is a beautiful scoop of golden sand in a bay fringed by jungle, which this picture really does not do justice (replacement phone is not such a good camera sadly, but it does).
The beach was peaceful and the sea shallow, so I could happily walk fifty metres into the sea, and the water would still only be lapping my calves. That has to be one criticism of the beaches here; their gradient is very gentle, which means it can be a long walk to reach sea deep enough to swim in. However, I didn't feel like getting that wet today, so paddling was fine for me.
The beach was fringed by bars and restaurants serving their respective chalets and hostels, and it was a perfect place to take a break, grab an iced coffee, and do some much-needed blogging.
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| This photo is much better; and the iced coffee was not bad either ;) |
Ao Chaloklam
Chaloklam beach is only a few kilometres from Thong Nai Pan, but the two bays are separated by the island's mountainous spine, and so to drive from one to the other requires a route via Thongsala. I didn't stay long on this beach, as I cut my heel open within ten minutes of getting here, and after covering it in a plaster, I couldn't do anymore paddling or walking barefoot. And without the appeal of beach walking or paddling, Ao Chaloklam had little going for it.
What I did like about this particular beach was the adorable little sailing boats that were available to hire, and which filled the bay with their bright, white sails.
Mae Haad/Koh Ma
This beach took some finding. I knew which direction I had to head in, and eventually I realised I had to take a diminutive dirt road turning through a construction site. Eventually, I pulled up by some chalets, parked my bike, and headed through the hotel to find the beach.
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| I see beach! |
The main appeal of this beach is not the beauty above-sea, but the creatures dwelling beneath the waves. Seeing as I had brought snorkelling equipment all the way from the UK, I decided I needed to justify the weight it added to my pack, and so, leaving my clothes and bag on the beach, I dived in and saw what there was to see.
Well, I say dive...what i mean is I hobbled into the sea, as yet again the sea was remarkably shallow for many metres. I definitely didn't enter the sea where I should have, as I had to walk around coral and jump over languishing sea slugs before it finally became deep enough to swim and need a mask.
It was worth the effort though, as in the deeper sea, there were shoals of tropical fish, and they were remarkably unfazed by humans, as I could get remarkably close and some fish swam up to me to investigate me.
It was really beautiful, and I was just sad I was not able to capture it on camera; unfortunately my camera is not waterproof and I don't trust my waterproof bag to protect my phone.
Eventually, my tiredness outcompeted my wonder (I had no fins, and swimming with diving shoes on is surprisingly tiring), and I headed back to shore, and took shelter in a restaurant with a chocolate shake and this view for company.
Ao Srithanu
I confess that my main reason for visiting this beach was to witness the sun setting over the sea. I arrived at the right time, but sadly a cloud bank decided to ruin my fun. The sunset was still fairly special though.
Ao Hin Kong
This beach was a slightly unexpected find. I was heading back from Ao Srithanu, disappointed with the sunset, and made a wrong turn somewhere on my way home. I ended up on a path that flanked the shore of this bay, and when I glanced seawards, I saw this view, which I of course had to stop and admire (and photograph).
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| So pretty! |
Baan Tai
My hostel was located on this long, sandy, shallow beach, and so I spent a disproportionate amount of time on this beach. The sand was incredibly coarse and painful to walk on, but it still made for a pleasant place to walk at sunset, and it was decidedly cooler to walk on than the main road inland that followed the coast.
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| Not the prettiest beach on the island. |
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| Still produced some good photos ;) |
...
This has been a slightly fragmented and brief blog post, mostly because I am so far behind that I need to beat the backlog or I will have to stop. Furthermore, there is few other ways of breaking down five days of lazing on beaches except by beach, or else it would be mind-numbingly repetitive.
I hope at least some of the photos have made you jealous ;)
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| Loving that beach life :) |
DSP
Useful information:
- Motorbike rental is not for everyone, and should not be undertaken lightly, as some of the roads are dangerous and challenging. Equally, many motorbike rental companies are less than reputable, and can charge exorbitant amounts for even the tiniest stratch. Things to remember:
- Don't just choose the first rental company you can find. Ask fellow travellers, and if you trust their opinion, hostel staff. A good hostel will not recommend a disreputable rental company as it could affect their reviews.
- Photograph the bike thoroughly, focusing on the areas that would hit the ground if the bike fell on its side. A good company will tell you which areas to photograph.
- Accept that on Koh Phangan, all rental shops demand your passport as insurance. Other places you can avoid this, Koh Phangan you cannot, so save yourself the effort.
- Ask the rental shop staff to show you how the bike works, and test it before you accept it. If the throttle is too aggressive or unresponsive, ask for a different bike.
- Wear a helmet, as it is the law. It is not enforced particularly in Koh Phangan, but don't give a grumpy police man a reason to stop you.
- Don't be stupid with your bike. Yes, locals can drive along the difficult jungle roads at 80kmph, but that's because they have driven them many times before. You should not attempt to match their speed.
- Don't crash, or knock the bike over. Really simple, but if you crash, or even just lose your balance and knock the bike over, the rental staff will know and they will charge you a lot for it.
- Don't think you can cover up scratches with mud and dirt. The rental shop will clean the bike as they check it, and will feel for scratches they cannot see. I only include this as I met someone in Krabi who thought this was a great idea to hide the evidence of the crash he'd been involved in. Obviously, he was caught, and charged 6500B (£130.00)
- I rented a bike on two separate occasions from the rental company recommended by my hostel called Nuch Nung bike rental. Their main site is in Thongsala town. From the pier, facing the 7/11, turn left, and they are one of the last shops on the right before the roundabout. They charged me 150B per day, with a charge of 50B because I brought the bike back 90 minutes late on the last day.
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