Activity Summary
Friday 7th October - Day 36
Travel (ferry) from Koh Samui to Koh Phan-gan
Horrendous downpour scoot to Mok Fa island
Saturday 8th October - Day 37
False start for bottle beach hike
Failed bottle beach hike
Haad Khom viewpoint
Domsila nature trail hike
Haad Rin beach
Saturday 9th October - Day 38
Travel to Hat Yai
Summary
Koh Phangan was a much nicer island than Koh Samui in our opinion as it was smaller, easier to drive around and as we didn’t get to experience the sunny beach vibes the hiking was fantastic. This gave us some much needed and craved blood pumping exercise. The food at the Phangan food court was great and if we had the desire to have drinks and go to the full moon party we reckon that would have been jokes. However we have spent a good amount of time Thailand and we’re feeling ready for the next country.
Hat Yai is a very small city and we saw next to nothing of it. We got as cheap a hotel as we could near the bus terminal for the morning and did nothing else here.
Accommodation
Laewan Guesthouse - 2 nights - 560THB/n/p
Perfectly comfortable place. Oddly set above a massage parlour, which we didn’t use, but was clean and the hotel were able to sort us a scooter for the island. Location wise it was a bit remote but having driven around most of the bottom of the south of the island, we couldn’t really see anywhere more appealing other than Haad Rin if we were going to rave it up at the full moon party. Food market was a 5 minute scoot down the road to Tong Sala. So worked for us.
J-2 Court - 1 night - 450THB/n/p
Clean and fairly comfortable, although the pillows were like bricks and the toilet wouldn’t stop refilling so the constant sound of running water was slightly annoying. The room door had a dead bolt on the outside which freaked Nicola to no end at the thought of someone just locking us in. However there was a balcony door and escape route so decided we didn’t need to padlock this open for our safety. Very odd.
Served it’s purpose of being so close to the bus terminal the next day.
Travel
TO
Koh Samui hotel -> [minivan] -> Pralarn pier -> [ferry] -> Tong Sala pier -> [songthaew] -> Koh Phangan hotel
FROM
Koh Phangan hotel -> [taxi] -> Tong Sala Pier -> [ferry] -> Donsak Pier -> [minivan] -> Surat Thani travel agent -> [minivan] -> Hat Yai bus terminal -> [songthaew] -> Hat Yai hotel -> [minivan] -> Maenam Pier -> [ferry] -> Tong Sala pier -> [songthaew] -> Koh Phangan hotel
Diary
The morning arrives and we are very eager beavers to be getting out of our hotel. Our ferry was at 12.30pm and to our surprise the night before when booking tickets that our transport would arrive at 10.30am citing ‘it has to go around the island’. The ferry pier was a 25 minute journey and we were the last picked up so slightly baffled when we arrived an hour and a half early but we milled around doing very little patiently. Once on the ferry it was far more chaotic. Most of the passengers seemed to be going to Koh Tao, a smaller island great for snorkelling and diving (apparently) a bit beyond Koh Phangan so they were loaded on first with us afterwards as it was only a 30 minute voyage. The most exciting part of this ferry was trying to rescue our bags from the bottom of a suitcase pile up that wasn’t particularly fun for Luke before we made our way off the ferry.
Walking down the pier we ignored the standard frantic hail of taxi drivers, one motorbike taxi even trying to barter for their services despite the large bags and clearly two of us, and arranged a group songthaew to drop us off at the hotel. 100THB per person seemed an alright deal. Once checked in Luke set off downstairs to arrange a scooter for the next few days which went off without a hitch until finding out the deposit was 5,000 THB which then took all of our cash. This was particularly annoying because we planned to be in Malaysia in a few days and this would have seen us comfortably through. Sadly it meant we had to take out another max cash withdrawal, as Thai ATMs charge £5.50 per transaction no matter how much you take out, to then likely get hit hard on the exchange over the border.
We scooted over to Tong Sala, hit up a local food market and walked around a little bit before deciding to set off to the north west part of the island. It was supposed to be a 25 minute ride which would have been very straight forward had it not started pouring and continued to pour. About half way, absolutely soaked, we had to bail into a roadside cafe as Luke could barely see, we were trickling along as a result of the rain/silt/potholes and his balls were swimming in a puddle that felt like they would never dry. Nicola got some protection by being on the back but she was largely uncomfortable as well.
Having let the harsh rains subside for a time we set off again, only to have the rain start pelting us again but by this point we had come too far and just had to hope it would F off. Fortunately by the time we got to that part of the island it was at least not raining so we made the decision to try and scoot to a bar at the top of a viewpoint called 360 bar. This wasn’t an easy ride with the both of us, as steep and unkempt roads tried their best to wreck the tyres and stop us from getting to the top. What eventually did halt our plans was the lack of clear signage and hitting what looked like a bombed out soviet building. At this point, demoralised and light fading, we bailed and settled for a quick walk over to the Mok Fa island which is connected to the mainland by a sand spit. Wasn’t an overly energetic walk given the sorry state we were in so ran off home to dry off and then going to Tong Sala to book travel to Hat Yai and lastly Phangan night market for food.
Similarly to Koh Samui, much of the appeal of Koh Phangan centres around the beaches and party vibes. What is very different however is there is some great hiking that can be done which was exactly what Luke was gagging for; specifically a hike through a jungle to bottle beach.
His research for this walk however was incredibly limited bar the fact it would take about an hour there, knew roughly where the start point was and there’s a beach at the end. We arrived at the start point only to not know where in the hell it actually was so wondered around aimlessly for a good 30/45 minutes before eventually finding it. It was very warm walking around for the start but once in the forest, airflow turned to nil point. Both of us were absolutely dripping with sweat and there was a very good chance we could get lost on this walk. Nicola wasn’t feeling overly inspired and also quite faint so we bottled the bottle beach and turned around. There was a semi decent viewpoint called Haad Khom we spent 10 or so minutes walking up to before deciding to make our way back down to the south of the island.
We noted on our route there were some waterfalls so, not expecting much, parked up and went for a gander. This then turned into a cracking 2-3 hour hike up waterfall rock faces, alongside rivers/streams and through the forest. Nicola had read that walking shoes were needed and we certainly second this - the many travellers we passed however were not quite so prepared. The Domsila nature trail was a great loop, got us moving, sweating and had great views so completely washed away the failure of bottled beach.
We scooted over to Haad Rin beach (in the south east corner) to effectively ‘complete’ our tour of Koh Phangan and given the weather was aite we sat and had a drink on the beach for a while. The beach supposedly houses 30,000 full moon partygoer’s at its peak so we’re keen to see what it was like given we had no intention of staying longer for it.
With light fading we set off back to the Phangan market for food, handed back the scooter and chilled in the evening.
The last official full day for us in Thailand was going to be a gruelling day of travel to Hat Yai in the south before making the border crossing to Malaysia the next day. It effectively was a day of sitting on moving transport or waiting for said moving transport.
The taxi at 7.30am from the hotel was incredibly easy and had the company of a little puppy in the back who was terrified of us so we offered little interactions with it.
Once at the pier, the ticket lady then tried to charge us additional money for our big luggage which Luke quickly and effectively shut down. At no point anywhere on our trip had minivan or coach drivers resisted luggage, in fact the creative ways they stuff their vehicles is almost admirable. Next drama for the pier was trying to work out which ferry was ours, made harder by the savage rain and Luke being the hero he is stepped up to the plate and got soaked asking someone. Sadly the dock worker he did ask said we had missed our 8.30am ferry as one sailed into the distance. Momentary panic ensued, tickets checked again with clearly the right time on it and then asking someone else resolved our problems before boarding. The ferry took an age and was absolutely freezing so we actually had to put coats on for the first time.
At the pier we were the first off the boat so quickly got some fresh food but sadly chased and rushed by our minivan driver. No chill at all. Didn’t help that Luke ended up stepping on Nicola’s open toes after a coach driver pushed him in the back. Soz Nicola.
We had about an hour and half stop over at the travel agent office in Surat Thani so got some food and patiently waited around until 2pm. Our last minivan for the day was probably the most offensive drive we’ve had so far. It’s a long old way from Surat Thani to Hat Yai and it seemed the driver was paid a bonus in arriving early by the way he was driving. There was quite a lot of road works and traffic so the guy decides that the hard shoulder is just a private lane for him. His aggressive style also nearly caused many a crash and really adds evidence as to why there are so many vehicle accidents in Thailand. Nicola, headphones in and tuned into exactly what the driver was doing was not happy while Luke sat blissfully unaware writing these blogs bar drowning out the awful music blaring out of the ratchet boom box installed in the back of the van.
Once in Hat Yai we spent the best part of 5 minutes trying to explain to a local songthaew driver where our hotel was. It should go without saying that when you show them Google maps they should bloody well know where it is - London cabs may be expensive but they know where to go. The quality of knowledge is absolutely shocking.
Exhausted we settled on a local Japanese restaurant before hitting the hay.
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