Beach life on Ko Phangan
Trip Start
Jun 19, 2008
1
7
26
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Bottle Beach II
Suncliff Resort
Rose Villa
Plaa's
Ko Phangan,
Thailand
Thursday, August 7, 2008
The only way to get to Bottle Beach is by longtail boat. The plan was to get a boat right when we got to Chalaklom, but the weather had other ideas in mind. No boats were leaving for Bottle Beach because of the rain and higher waves so we had no choice but to hunker down at Chalaklom for the night. Chalaklom is a small fishing village with not a whole lot to it. We hung out in the restaurant awhile and when the rain stopped, took a walk around the beach and town, played a terrible game of pool (on my part), drank some Chang Beer, and chatted with an Austrian family who was also planning to go to Bottle Beach
Big Buddha Beach
. Interesting to note how the taxi drivers and hotel/restaurant owners work together. Our taxi driver dropped us off directly in front of Rose Villa and said, "You wait in restaurant for boat." In the end it's all money, money, money. It's a bit overwhelming when you step off the ferry and tons of Thai people are there in front of you saying, taxi, taxi, you want place to stay, where you go, etc. etc. That's how they make a living though so you just ignore what you're not looking for and move on. I'm sure Viet Nam will be ten times worse.
The weather was fine the next day (July 28th) so we headed off (after our first day with only a cold water shower) for Bottle Beach in a small longtail boat with the 3 Austrians, another couple, our baggage, and a very large driver. We had to wade into the water a bit to get on the boat and I could tell by everyone's faces that we all thought the driver was going to capsize the boat when he got in. I am happy to report that all remained dry!
***BOTTLE BEACH***
Bottle Beach was absolutely fantastic! We loved this beach and I think it's safe to say it was our favorite beach of the trip, at least so far! Since it is only really accessible by boat, there are not too many people or resorts there. It is only recently that they even got electricity which still doesn't come on 24/7. The mood is very relaxed and chill, the people kind and friendly.
We got a bungalow for cheap right on the beach and with a hammock on the front porch, what more could you want?! Maybe a sink, flush toilet, and hot shower, but meh, the view was worth it! We spent many a lazy hour laying out on the beach, swimming in the warm, clear water, reading in the hammock, and enjoying romantic candlelight dinners at tables only a few feet from the water
On the ferry to Ko Phangan
. All of the bars there, and in Thailand in general, also play movies for free so we got to see Hancock while relaxing by the beach as well. Honestly, it doesn't get any better. We did get out of the lazy beach mode one day to hike up a rather steep side of a mountain to a viewpointOur bungalow definitely had "character." The bathroom....algae growing out of the cold water shower head, a bucket of water to pour down the toilet to flush it, wastebasket to put your used toilet paper in since the toilet can't handle it, and no sink whatsoever. A big hole in the floor right in front of the bathroom, pillows the felt like rocks and which we had to punch hard several times in order to make them a little less lumpy, but we could also see the beach just outside our window and hear the waves rolling in at night. As a whole, it was great!
Since there were not a whole lot of people around and not many places to go, faces became familiar quickly. To the Thai staff, I was known as "Hey shorty" from that song "Hey shorty, it's your birthday, we're gonna party like it's your birthday, we're gonna sip Bacardi like it's your birthday, etc." since I was American and Joe was "Slante" because he was Irish. We had some delicious pancakes with bananas and pineapple in them and I even splurged one day and got pancake with snickers which turned out to be a pancake folded around an entire snickers bar. yummy! I also had my first mango shake (mango and ice crushed up in a blender) and Joe had lemon
On the ferry
. Now we are addicted. On July 31st we decided we had to go on to the next beach, or else we would never leave. It was just that kind of place. So off we headed through a very rough back mountain road in a truck to Thong Nai Pan Noi Beach just a short ways away.
***THONG NAI PAN NOI***
This beach, or as Joe likes to refer to it as, the bad bug beach, was not all that impressive. Partly because they were busy constructing a brand new big resort and partly because we were used to the remoteness and smallness of Bottle Beach. This beach was not that big, not like Chaweng, but definitely had a lot more going on than Bottle Beach. I will say that the water was fantastic. You could walk out for ages and it still only came to your knees, no rocks, great for swimming. There were some obnoxious Americans staying across from us though (one who was apparently carrying a hatchet around with him at all times without letting it go and lots of bugs. Somehow Joe managed to get bitten 8 times in 30 seconds. I, on the other hand, did not get bitten at all here I don't think. I guess that Irish skin just tastes better! We weren't really feeling it so we stayed one night and took the water taxi to Thaan Sadet Beach on Aug. 1st.
***THAAN SADET***
We felt pretty cool getting off the water taxi at Thaan Sadet because we were the only ones who got off there. This beach was even smaller than Bottle Beach. It was very pretty, but the water was not too great for swimming
Stuck in Chalaklom
. We stayed at a crazy resort where we had to walk up over 200 stairs to get to our bungalow on the side of a cliff. This included having to practically crawl under some big rocks as part of the "path." The restaurant had excellent views and great food though and our bungalow had a superb view as well. Worth the effort...most of the time. The major downfall of our bungalow was that it was chock full of bugs, namely spiders. Big Freakin Spiders. Ginormous spiders you might say. Thanks to Joe I did not have to see the HUGE one that was in our bathroom until he had shooed it out onto the side of our place with a broom and then blocked up the hole it had come through. What a great husband! Needless to say, we were not excited about sleeping there and were constantly watching our backs for creepy crawlies. We even had to monitor the bathroom for each other while the other showered. We did make it through the night without incident, phew!Thaan Sadet is known for its magnificent "waterfalls" that apparently generations of Thai kings have come to see. We say: bullshit. We hiked our arses off up a very mountainous road with the sun beating down on us to get to these so-called waterfalls only to be sorely disappointed. The only thing we got out of that was burning calves for the next few days!
Our only night in Thaan Sadet was spent playing cards and drinking Sang Som Thai Whiskey and coke in the restaurant because a big storm came in while we were eating dinner
Bridge in Chalaklom
. It was pretty cool to watch the lightning though and we enjoyed our evening. I might mention all of the restaurants on the islands and in Bangkok are all pretty much open-air in the front, like a big deck, not four walls and one door. I really like this style, very summery and airy. We really enjoyed Thaan Sadet and found it to be very unique, but only stayed one night. On Aug. 2nd, we took the water taxi to Haad Rin.***HAAD RIN***
Our last stop on Koh Phangan was Haad Rin, the infamous party beach, home of the full-moon party. We weren't there for the full moon party, but I think I'm glad of that. There were a good number of people around anyway and it was very different from being on some of the other beaches. We actually had to look out for cars and motorbikes and choose where we wanted to eat dinner among loads of places.
We did some last tanning, though the sun was so hot we didn't last more than an hour and a half or so. I've decided that in Thailand I much prefer tanning on cloudy days! We watched a few movies in the bars, hung out on our balcony in the hammock, had a bucket on the beach, the usual beach routine. I tried red snapper one night. You had to pick your fish out of a group sitting on ice (I had no idea what a good fish looks like) and then they grill it for you. It was good, but I would have preferred if it hadn't come looking like a fish - eyes, mouth, fins and all.
Our place was great: very clean, not many bugs, fantastic balcony, and...wait for it.....a hot shower! Our first one in a week or so
On the rocks
. I don't think I've ever appreciated hot showers so much before! The bed/pillows were quite comfortable also, something we've found difficult to find here.Random sidenotes: A French woman and I had the same black flip flops. Since you leave your shoes outside of many places, ours got confused outside an internet place and she took mine. Boo to that! Hers were size 10 and didn't fit right, not to mention I didn't really feel like wearing some random French woman's flip flops so I got rid of them. Oh well.
Joe and I were walking along the beach when we came upon a group of teenage-ish looking Asian tourists. They asked us to take a picture. We thought they wanted one of their group, but they actually wanted to take a picture with us. The girls next to me put their arms around my waist so I did the same. Now somewhere out there is a picture of Joe and I and some Asians looking very chummy. It was odd, but funny. I like to think it was just because we were looking so damn fine they HAD to have a picture :)
We enjoyed our last few days of easy island beach living. We've been spoiled by all these restaurants right on the beach, makes the cafes along the streets of Paris seem awful in comparison.
We made our way from Haad Rin back to Koh Samui, stayed one night at Nathon Residence hotel near the pier and got the ferry back to the mainland on Aug 6th. Took a bus to Surrathani for our night train ride back to Bangkok. This travel went more smoothly than when we came over to the islands
Chalaklom
. It was still a whole lot of traveling, but the train had AC this time. I was actually quite chilly when we were going to sleep and had to use my sarong as well as Joe's hoody. What can I say, I'm just a warm weather kind of girl! The weather in Thailand has actually been a lot more bearable than I thought it would be. I expected stiffling heat and humidity. Although the sun is definitely stronger than at home and it has been really hot sometimes, it has also been very nice many days. Often I think it's probably worse in Richmond for the summer. We didn't get great sleep on the train, but more than last time so that helped a bit. There was a big group of Americans in our carriage this time. At one point there was an American girl in the toilet (remember, think: hole in floor) and suddenly the train lurched forward with a big jerk. We heard from the toilet, "F***! Oh my god!" Then she came out and said, "I was all ready to brace myself and then wham!" It was hilarious, but rather her than me! We arrived back in Bangkok around 6:20 am and are now getting ready to go meet Angie! We are off on another night train tomorrow to Chiang Mai!
-Christen
Comments
yum!
I think those pancakes sounded great!! Jeff says if only the snickers pancake was flash-fried, THEN it would be the most unhealthy thing he's ever heard of ;-) But with all those stairs and hikes to mythical waterfalls, i think you deserve a good breakfast-Snickers every once in a while :)