It is difficult to think of what we are doing as anything but fun and exciting, and truth be told it is. However, it is also a lot of work and can be unpleasant and stressful. Imagine having to find a new place to stay every other night, 14 hour bus rides on bumpy roads, dodgy hotels with cold showers and tiny rooms, stinky clothes (and bodies), constantly arguing with people trying to rip you off and always being on guard for your safety. I don’t write about these things because for the most part, we have accepted, and even gotten used to them, but they are a part of our daily lives that we have been dealing with since the trip started. So after six months, we decided to give ourselves a little break, a sort of holiday away from our travels, and what better place for a vacation than a tropical beach. Luckily enough, southern Thailand is blessed with several tropical islands full of exactly what we were looking for. Based on recommendations from an Australian couple we met in India, we choose Mae Haad beach on Koh Phangan island and had a great two week holiday
Actually, the motorbike rides around the island were a highlight. Imagine cruising on winding back country roads, the wind in your hair, an unbelievably blue ocean to your left, a palm tree forest to your right, and the sun setting over a quaint fishing village in the distance, an incredibly relaxing and idyllic way to spend an hour or so. Except of course, the time Colleen almost killed me. Let me explain. To save a little money, we rented one bike for the two of us instead of one each. I would drive, and Colleen would ride on the back, Colleen being Colleen though, it wasn’t long before she wanted to have a go at driving. So after a couple of practice runs in the parking lot, off we went, her driving and me on the back. The first ten minutes of the ride were fine, so much so that I took out my camera and snapped a few pictures. The first sign of trouble came as I looked down to check out the pictures I had just taken. “Mike, Mike, we’re crashing” Colleen yelled out. The next thing I know we’re careening through the jungle and I’m ducking branches in an effort to avoid decapitation. When we finally came to a stop and I asked her what happened, Colleen responded “the road turned while I was trying to go straight”. Fair enough.
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| Mae Haad beach |
Getting to Koh Phagngan from Penang was no easy feat. 4 hour minivan ride from Penang to Hat Yai, transfer to a bus after a 3 hour wait, 5 hour bus ride from Hat Yai to Donsak, 3 hour ferry from Donsak to Thongsala on Koh Phangan Island. and finally a 30 minute ride in the back of a truck to get from Thongsala to Mae Haad. We left at 6 in the morning and arrived at 10 at night. It was all worth it when we finally got there though. The beach was beautiful, and we ended up renting a private bungalow at a resort, a simple thatched roof affair with just enough room for a bed, a bathroom and a porch. It was a little strange to be surrounded by holidaymakers (mostly Russians oddly enough) instead of backpackers, but our hut was less than 50 metres from the beach. quiet, clean, and at 17 dollars a night, it was exactly what we were looking for.
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| Dinner at Nong Nuks |
There were plenty of things to do on the island, and we did manage to do a few of them. I did some diving, and Colleen did yoga almost every day, I even joined her for a session, but we mostly just relaxed and let the days get away from us. Our big decision for the day would be where to eat dinner. We hired a motorbike (actually more of a scooter, but motorbike sounds cooler) for the two weeks we were there, so we took rides around the island to the different villages in an effort to find the best seafood tom yam, and the best view (Nong Nuks in Chaloklum won hand down).
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| Perfect for a ride |
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| SCUBA in the Gulf of Thailand |
That little bit of excitement aside, we were mostly pleasantly bored. It was like the last few months of constant activity and motion caught up to us and we went from world travellers on a mission to lazy beach bums overnight. Take the waterfall for example. There is a waterfall on Koh Phangan, easily accessible by motorbike, that, by all accounts, is as beautiful as they come. Imagine turquoise water flowing out of a cool shady jungle, perfect for a refreshing swim on an oppressively hot tropical day. The waterfall had some historical and cultural significance as well in that the area was visited by several Thai kings going back centuries, and each left some kind of royal graffiti on rock faces in the jungle around the waterfall and stream. An easily accessible, physically beautiful and culturally relevant attraction with swimming thrown in for good measure would typically make our must see list, and sure enough each day one of us would say “how about the waterfall today”. Somehow though, we always found some excuse for not going and ended up with the other beach bums just lounging around.
We met another traveller one night at a restaurant who offered her thoughts on the matter. In her opinion, you only really start travelling when you start saying no. In other words, when your mindset changes from having to see everything, to choosing things that are right for you, from checking things off a list to getting what you want out of a place. Maybe she was right, and we were finally “travelling”, or maybe we were just burned out and needed the rest, either way, we never did get to see that waterfall
However you want to look at it, we had a wonderful time in Koh Phangan. Adventure is nice, but so is surrounding yourself with beauty and relaxing. Believe it or not, it was the first place on our entire trip we were sad to leave. I guess we’ll just have to come back someday, maybe we’ll even get to see that waterfall. We’re all rested and refreshed now, and we have one week to get to Melbourne, but that’s another story…
Michael
YHA Te Anau
South Island,
New Zealand
