Koh Phangan Part 3: Bikes, Nights and Infantile Tykes.

Yes...we are still on Koh Phangan. Yes, I am still a fortnight behind. Yes, I am a bad excuse for a human being. Onwards!

So far on Koh Phangan, if you have keeping up on my blogging exploits, you will have read how I spent a day on a beach and partied, and then read about all of the other beaches I visited. Now you will be asking yourself whether I did anything else? Did I do a boat tour? Did I feel a need for some culture and visit a few temples? Did I decide to go ziplining or waterfall climbing?

The answer to all of those is...well...no.

Well, mostly no.

When I was writing the previous beach-ey post, I realised I was missing out parts of the narrative, and so I decided that this additional blog post was required to fill in the gaps, and give a more accurate snapshot of my island adventures.

The biggest omission was the amount of time I spent on my trusty red scooter whilst exploring this surprisingly sprawling island. An issue common to any small island is that getting anywhere takes much longer than you expect, and whilst Koh Phangan is less than 10 miles across at its widest point, it could take up to an hour to get from one side of the island to the other. There is a rudimentary public transport system, but it is overpriced, with journeys starting from 50B (£1) each way. When you can rent a scooter for 150B (£3) per day, why would you not rent one.

Well, don’t rent one if you can’t drive. There are enough bad local drivers on Phangan, they do not need any help with suicidal driving thanks.

The many side to my bike (I had to photograph it in case of any problems when I returned it, but thought I would put the photos to good use here too).

My initial journeys along the gentle western coastal roads were easy and a good introduction onto a slightly busier road system than I had attempted before.

I seem to frown in every selfie, but I am loving scootering. Promise! Travelling with one meant I could stop when I want to stop; go where I want when I want. I do not know how I really managed without one during previous travels. I am an addict!

The next day I turned my sights on the eastern jungle road, which I’d heard was much more challenging, but much more rewarding.

I first photographed a big tree, because the accompanying sign informed me that it was a famously big...big tree.

Then I followed a detour sign.

The road surface was excellent and easy to drive upon.

All jokes aside, after a few kilometres of steep dirt tracks that crawled over the foothills of the island’s central mountain, I reached the stretch of road which had been properly surfaced and finished, and that was where the fun began.

The roads twisted and undulated sinuously through vibrant primary jungle which echoed to the sounds of cicadas and monkeys. It was just a brilliant road to drive on, and when I attempted it, it was blissfully empty, allowing me to initially crawl along at 30kmph in peace. A few days later I was comfortably whistling through the jungle at 65kmph. Cheeky speeding.

The most difficult main road on the island however was the road that threaded its way into the party town of Haad Rin. It is a testament to its difficulty that I have not taken any photos on it; once I started, I just wanted to get through it as soon as possible. There are multiple, very steep inclines where if you attempt too slowly whilst carrying a passenger, your bike will not make it up. There are sharp bends on the downhill parts where you have to slow down or you will slam into the scree-filled mountain-side.

To demonstrate how brilliant challenging the road is, one night my friends Fan Ny, Molly and I decided to head to Haad Rin for a night out. Fan Ny could use a motorbike, and had rented one, but Molly did not want to rent one, and so I agreed to give her a lift into Haad Rin, and Fan Ny a lift back to the hostel. She was nervous, but for the first (flat) 10km, she grew increasingly confident and declared that riding a scooter was OK. Then the hills and bends started, and….pretty much...she did not stop screaming in my ear for about fifteen minutes, despite the fact I was travelling at 40kmph or less throughout, which Fan Ny declared (in typical German abruptness) was boringly slow.

Molly took a taxi back to the resort, and never took a lift from either of us on a motorbike again.

This is probably where I shouldn’t mention that upon returning from Haad Rin in a slightly intoxicated state, I decided it would be a good idea to race the taxi back to the hostel, resulting in me driving at 70kmph in the rain. Not my best idea, but still fairly proud of it regardless.

...

These references to late night motorbike trips to Haad Rin link nicely into my other major activity; partying. I feel I was being fairly responsible in that I went out on only four nights out of six. This was partly because on the other two my hostel was screening some fairly decent movies, and watching movies is infinitely cheaper than drinking alcohol. But still, on four nights, I found myself enjoying a beer or two (or ten) on Haad Rin Nok Nai. I just don’t think the feeling of enjoying an ice cold beer on a beach, under the starry sky, whilst watching the thunderstorms war over nearby Koh Samui island, can be beaten.

My first night you know about already, as it was included in Koh Phangan part 1. The next night, I ended up heading out with a local guy, confusingly called Guy, back to Haad Rin.

Do I ever take a good photo when drunk???

Here’s where the ‘infantile tyke’ part of my title comes from, because that one night out with him caused so much drama, and has reinforced my convictions that I would rather go drinking with westerners than I would locals.

Guy initially seemed friendly and perfectly fine. He gave me a lift to Haad Rin, and we spent the evening in a few different beach bars, and it was a laugh. We met a few of his friends, danced on the beach, I was groped by an Argentinian (another example of the mindset of ‘hey, you’re on that gay app Grindr, therefore it is acceptable to touch you whenever I want’...NO IT F@*@**G ISN’T!), and we headed back to Baan Tai. It was a good evening, and we ended up kissing before I went back to my hostel. It was nice.

The next day, and I get this barrage of messages from him, wanting me to come to his bar, and come see him, and come kiss him again, and come to his bar, and come see him. I had already made plans to rent a motorbike, and did not want the money I’d paid to rent it to go to waste. I explained this to him, and he seemed put off, but said OK. I also spent the following day being pestered by his messages, and equally I made my excuses and spent the day on my scooter. He invited me out that evening, and I said I was not sure if I felt up to it, so he should just go out without me, and I’ll let him know if I head out.

I ended up staying in the hostel, watching movies, and then fell asleep in a hammock. I wake up in the morning (in my bed, I migrated at midnight) to these angry-drunk texts saying he knows what kind of person I am, and that I am messing him around. I wake up to this, roll my eyes, and go back to sleep. However, that afternoon, I head to his bar (with its very, very nice attached pool), apologise (mostly so I can use said pool) and agree to see him that night.

That night, I head out with Fan Ny and Molly, and we have a great time on the beach enjoying the fire shows, shisha, and cheap cocktails.

I am glad that this photo was equally bad for everyone ;)

Guy says he is coming just to see me, as he has no money, and we wait for him. Eventually at 11.30, he says he is in the club which you have to pay for (he presumably got in free), which we did not want to go to. We instead danced on the beach, Molly (who was increasingly intoxicated) attempts quite successfully fire skipping, and we are generally having a great night. By around 01:00am, Molly was increasingly looking worse for wear, having been matching her drinks to mine (we were sharing buckets), so we make her eat a pancake to help her sober up, and end up sat outside the club, and Guy finally decides to see us, and looks increasingly petulant as he realises we are more concerned about Molly than we are excited to party with him. We decide that Molly needs to go home, and Fan Ny and I feel bad continuing to party without her, so we follow her taxi back on our mopeds.

Cue the angry drunk texts from Guy at 03:00am once more, followed by an unfriending on Facebook.

I realise that this has been a very long-winded story, but I feel I needed to tell it, as I spent much of my time on the island being annoyed by his antics. It is not as though he is even that young; he is 30. He should have the emotional maturity to realise that you cannot have a relationship with a foreigner who only plans to spend a handful of days in anyone place, and whose priority is to see the island and get a suntan rather than babysit an immature local.

I just needed to get that story off my chest!

Aside from parties, scooters and drama, I must admit not a lot happened. There was just a lot of napping, snoozing and hammock time going on.

My favourite place on the island.

The view from the hammock.

That pretty much sums up everything that went on whilst I stayed on Koh Phangan. Next up is the similarly-named but radically-different island of Koh Phayam.

DSP

PS: I forgot to include this in the main body of the blog, but we also frequented the brilliant night market in Thongsala town.

Ko Phangan Part 2: Blue seas, golden beaches, green island.

Oh dear, I can't keep having these days off from blogging. So far behind now. Right, I've put Scissor Sisters on; I MEAN business. Onwards!


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.

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).

I want a cliff hut on this beach!!!

It may have been easier to access this beach by boat...

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.

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.

I see beach!

Lying just offshore was the small Koh Ma, which is connected to the main island by a sandy, meandering causeway, that made for some pretty pictures. What is it about beach causeways that have such an appeal for tourists. I've seen so many of them, yet I still want to see more...

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).

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.

Not the prettiest beach on the island. 

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 ;)

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.

Ko Phangan Part 1: No moon, no crowds, no worries.

There comes points in a long-term travel trip where you feel you need to take time out and just relax for a few days. While travelling is somewhat like a holiday, it involves far more effort, sweat and poor nights of sleep, especially in South East Asia.

I had spent the last few days in Bangkok doing little other than eating, drinking and shopping. But the capital is a tiring place. Sure, my hostel was peaceful and friendly, with free tea and powerful AC. But the moment you walk onto the main street there are taxis and people and food stalls and tuk-tuks and dogs and motorbikes. It is tiring, despite being tirelessly enthralling.

The very busy street outside my hostel.

I needed some beach time, and eventually I decided to go to Koh Phangan, the second largest island in the Koh Samui archipelago which sits just off the coast in the Gulf of Thailand. It has beautiful, golden beaches; warm, crystal-clear seas; swathes of pristine tropical jungle; and a developed but not overdeveloped tourist infrastructure. It looked and sounded incredible.

Koh Phangan is a little bigger than this tiny island, and has a few more amenities too ;) 

However, the island’s primary attraction for many is the infamous, (lunar-)monthly, hedonistic Full Moon parties, when up to 20,000 young people congregate on Haad Rin Nok (Sunrise Beach) for an all-night party of cheap buckets (of alcohol), freely-available drugs, and dangerous fire games, stopping only when the sun rises over the sea the following morning.

Whilst I could understand the appeal of Full Moon, I would not have been able to tolerate the hyper-inflated prices, and so I was glad that I arrived three days after the full moon. The island felt distinctly quiet, but there were ample people to befriend over a beer.  

The parties kept going.

The island turned out to be so addictively fun that I stayed six nights, though with views like this, I am amazed I did not stay longer.

One more amazing day travelling, one more beach, one more (alcoholic) drink...

To reach the island, I had to take an overnight train journey from Bangkok to Surat Thani, the nearest major city to the islands. I still find sleeper trains so much fun: they're novel; more comfortable then buses; and save on accommodation costs. What's not to like?

I do need to decide to go to sleep on them earlier than I do, as my stop is invariably at some insultingly-early time in the morning. This time, my train was scheduled to arrive in Surat Thani at 06:38, and my alarm set for 06:15, yet I was still up at 01:00 reading. It was a rough morning, not helped by the coach assistant waking everyone up at 05:30, despite the fact that the train was delayed by an hour...

I feel my face says it all when I woke up that morning.


From trains to buses to boats, I disembarked from the train and had only thirty minutes to wolf down some breakfast (Pad Thai, of course) before I was frogmarched onto a bus for an hour's journey to the pier. From there it was a ninety minute boat ride, via Koh Samui, to Koh Phangan.

My sleep-deprived disgruntlement was soon however sent to the back of my thoughts as I stood in the fresh air, squinting through the strong sunlight at the scenery surrounding the boat. Just to warn you, it was all very blue, and no amount of editing can make it any less overwhelmingly blue.

I could not understand why nearly everyone else was sat inside the catamaran, thereby depriving themselves of these amazing views.


Eventually the boat docked in Thongsala, the main town on Koh Phangan. I dodged swiftly past the cloud of touts offered overpriced taxi rides to the beach resorts, and walked down the long pier where I found sensible drivers offering half the price I'd previously been quoted. There was also a 7/11 just off the pier, which made me exceedingly happy, as I could grab some cold water and a steaming hot bao before the sorgnthaew ride.

I already approve of this island!

Ready to go, I headed onwards to Haad Rin along a fairly horrendous road that seemed to have found every single hill possible between the two towns. Pulling into the town, the minivan stopped outside a school, and the driver pointed to an alleyway which I should walk along. Bemused, but aware that the town was far from large, I followed his directions, and a few minutes found myself in the centre of Haad Rin. 

No moon, no crowds, no people at all.

As you can see, the town was dead. Most of the hostels and bars were closed, or the staff were nowhere to be found. I walked down this road anxiously looking around. Would there be anyway open for me to stay at???


As it turns out, I needn't have worried. The main reason for the resort's desolation was that it was only 11:00am, which for a party town like Haad Rin is the equivalent of 05:00am. I eventually found a hostel where I could get a private single room (no dorms available, annoying!) for 350B. Resigned to a mediocre room in a mediocre hostel, I agreed, if only so after eighteen hours of travelling I could take a shower! 


Refreshed I went in search of the original attraction of this part of the island; Haad Rin Nok or Sunrise Beach.

This could have been the most beautiful beach I've ever set foot on, if it wasn't for what was just out of shot.

Sadly, despite the beach's potential, it has been severely overdeveloped with shops, stalls and ugly concrete hotels tumbling onto the beach.

This 7/11 isn't quite what it seems. Note the logo if you can; it is a pachydermic impostor. 

However, I still found the beach appealing, perhaps because in spite of the development and the influx of travellers its handles each month (the Full Moon party is held on this beach), it was still striking beautiful, and remained one of my favourite beaches on the island despite some fierce competition, which I will cover in the next post.

I need to include a token 'row on boats on Thai beach photo'. ;)

After I had paddled from one end to the other, and had a brief swim out as far as the swimming area allowed, I went in search of the town's other beach, Haad Rin Nai (Sunrise Beach), which ran along the other shore on the peninsula which the resort straddles.


I was not particularly impressed.

I headed back to the pretty beach.

En route, I took the opportunity to explore the small town of Haad Rin, Despite being crammed full of bucket-stalls, neon-vest-stores, and western-style-restauarants, the town had a scruffy charm to it. I also relished a chance to eat cuisines other than Thai or burger, and found myself some fairly authentic hummus and falafel (authentic as in it tastes like what I buy from Tescos). I did feel bad for not buying local food, but it is difficult to find local food in Haad Rin, as a sizeable minority of the residents, if not the majority, are economic migrants from Myanmar and Nepal. So a lot of the 'Thai' food on offer is not being cooked by Thai people. Basically, I am justifying my guilty, Middle-Eastern-style meal.

7/11s are everywhere on this island.

Nom nom! 

I wiled away the remainder of the day in the sea or napping on the beach (which even in the sun was cooler than my room), and then when night fell I went in search of food and people. Hostel was as empty as it was hot....

I found a restaurant perched overlooking the beach called the Rock which served decent Pad Thai but not-so-decent garlic bread, so I passed my evening admiring the view and bemoaning the lack of people around.

At 10:00pm I had given up and headed back to my room, but decided it was too early for sleep so I grabbed my Chromebook and set out for the beach, thinking I could sit somewhere with a beer and some shisha, and blog for an hour or two in a beautiful setting.

My view from where I was sat on the beach.

Unbeknownst to me, I had again been pre-emptive in dismissing this town. By around 10:30pm the beach bar I was at was full, and shortly after fire breathing started up at the next beach along. More and more people were congregating on the beach, and the atmosphere was getting lively. I befriended a Quebecois Canadian, had a few more beers, and then headed onto the bar with the fire shows.


The next thing I remember is attempting fire limbo.

Thankfully my poor senses of co-ordination and balance knocked me out well before the flaming limbo pole was anywhere near injuring me. But I continued drinking and cheering on the Canadian guy who remained in the running, and shared in his commiserations when he came second to a teenage girl who obviously had no spine or bones at all.


By this point, I was fairly drunk, so I wandered off to return my laptop to my room and fetch some 7/11 toasties, but I got a little confused apparently, as I fetched the toasties first, and then fell asleep eating them in my room.



...


The following morning I woke up with cheese and ham stuck to my forehead, and distinctly felt worse for wear. It didn't help that my room was roasting hot. Even showering I was sweating, so I had to drag the fan into the bathroom, and have it pointed at me on full in order to cool off a little.


I had decided the previous night to check out of my hostel. I needed to find people to socialise with, and every hostel in Haad Rin had been emptied after Full Moon as people moved onto other islands or to cheaper, better beaches on Koh Phangan. I decided to emulate the latter, and checked out of my hostel, before heading off to vegetate and sit out my hangover (why do I mix beer and spirits? Dear Lord, why???) back at the Rock restaurant.

It is hard to feel grumpy when you have this view.

Feeling better, I headed off by taxi to a hostel I had found on Baan Tai beach, which stretches along the southern coast of Koh Phangan. I was of course ripped off by the taxi again, because I again paid in advance. NEVER BELIEVE THEM WHEN THEY SAY YOU HAVE TO PAY MORE BECAUSE THERE ARE ENOUGH PASSENGERS. You inevitably subsidise the fares of locals who get on just around the corner.


So annoying!


The sorgnthaew dropped me off on the side of the main road, and the driver directed me down this side road.

After several wrong turns, I found my hostel, and the beach it looked out on. It might have not been quite as postcard perfect as the previous one, but my hostel sat on the beach, and there were actual people staying in the hostel aside from me. Perfect!

The beach just steps from my new hostel, At Beach Bed & Bar.

DSP




Useful Information:

• Getting to Koh Phangan:
• Ferries run to Koh Phangan from two mainland cities: Chumphon and Surat Thani. Chumphon is further north and therefore closer to Bangkok, but further from Koh Phangan than Surat Thani is. Prices are roughly the same from each port, though Surat Thani may be a little cheaper. 
• I chose to go via Surat Thani as the sleeper train times were more convenient and matched up better with ferry departures.
• My 13h sleeper train (AC, top bunk) cost 678B (£13.16) direct from the station.
• The day ferries and speedboats to Koh Phangan depart from Donsak, an hour's bus ride from the train station in Surat Thani.
• The Lomprayah catamaran takes 90 minutes to reach Koh Phangan from Donsak, with a stop on Koh Samui.
• To Koh Phangan, the ferry costs 550B (£11.00) and is obviously overpriced. To return to the mainland from Koh Phangan costs 650B (£13.00).
• Getting around Koh Phangan:
• Sorgnthaew open-seat taxis are easily found along the main routes east and north.
• Drivers meeting you at the pier demand inflated prices. Instead, walk past them and down the pier to the island. Behind the island 'station' there are sorgnthaew waiting which offer reasonable prices.
• Expect to pay around 100B (£2) for a transfer to the southern or western beach resorts. Baan Tai should be reachable for 50B. For north/east resorts, expect to pay more, especially if travelling alone to a less popular beach.
• Some of the beaches are not accessible by road, so water taxis (small longtail boats) serve them instead. Take a sorgnthaew to the nearest beach, and then ask at the beach.
• Be wary of drivers charging you more because there are not enough occupants, but then once you have paid extra, driving around the corner and filling up their vehicle with local passengers. Avoid this by not paying in advance.
• Accommodation:
• My next blog will cover most of the resorts on the island in more detail. I chose (mistakenly) to base myself in Haad Rin, which out of Full Moon season is dead and accommodation empty.
• I (over)paid 350B for a single room with fan at Same Same Guesthouse, which was stiflingly hot and unpleasant.
• Food and Drink:
• Local street food is not available in Haad Rin, so you're restricted to restaurants which push up costs. However, outside of Full Moon season, there's a fair amount of competition which makes prices competitive. I had falafel, hummus, pita and a mango shake for 100B which is reasonable.
• Watch out for 7/11s which have inflated prices all over the island but they are especially high in Haad Rin.
• Alcohol is fairly cheap with lethal buckets costing only 150B, and beers start at around 80B.