Two travel bees
and our travel diary
Koh Pha-Ngan: A vacation from the vacation
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We jumped on a bus from Inle Lake and 28 hours of bus rides through Myanmar where we descended the mountains on narrow death roads, a flight back to Bangkok, a bus throughout Thailand where one bee was food poisoned, and a slow ferry later, we were standing on the white beaches of the island Koh Pha-Ngan in Thailand.
Koh Pha-Ngan is a hippie haven most known for the 30.000 people who invade the island once a month for the world famous full moon party. Shortly after, the island is left deserted and forgotten by visitors with stunning secluded beached tucked away in green bays where one can lie in the hammock and watch the tides roll in. This is also the time when we decided to visit Koh Pha-Ngan and we had the island to ourselves.
The first 10 days we lived in a bungalow on this beach on the southern side of the island. The sand was at our doorstep.
The southern side of the island is slightly more developed with lots of shops and small cafes in a rustic small town. The boat harbour seen in this picture is the only access to the island.
Our days on the quiet island would go by with lazy days on the beach.
Every day, we bought a kilo of tangerines and mandarins to eat while watching the sunset. Here Nick is explaining facts about oranges while chewing one: "the name for 'orange' didn't exist before the fruit was introduced to Europe. Before, every nuance of orange was simply called red or yellow"
Sunset seen from our beach resort.
Our local authentic Thai restaurant where we would eat lunch or dinner. Still dreaming about Fried Morning Glory! Yummy!
Thai fishing boat
After 1.5 weeks, we relocated to the northern and even more secluded part of the island with perfect beaches and crystal clear water. Since we visited during the low-season and between the Full Moon Party, we had one of the island's best beaches, Haad Salad (as seen in the picture), completely to ourselves.
The northern side of the island is more hilly and we lived in a bungalow clinging to the hillside. This is a picture from our balcony.
Thailand offers one of the world's best cuisines and we attended cooking classes to learn the secrets of authentic Thai food
63 liters of water we collected by driving back and forth to the southern part of the island during heavy rain.
Shortly after we arrived to the northern side of the island, the heavens opened and it rained for 6 days straight. After 3 days, the island was declared a disaster area with severe flooding and rivers instead of roads. The southern part of the island had significantly better grocery shopping offerings (cheaper) and in the pouring rain we rented a scooter and drove a few hours back and forth through the flooding to stack up on water and food.
Our resort beach after the rain stopped.
Thanks for following our trip!
- the travel bees
Haad Salad beach 5 min walk from the resort.