May 28-June 16
For our long rest/recovery stay we decided on the 4th largest of Thailand’s islands – Koh Phangan – which translates to “sand island”.
We chose our 19-night accommodation based on glowing reviews on AirBNB, and a “long stay discount” bringing the cost down to about $20/night in a bungalow near the beach. We had the address, we had the name – and the songthaew drivers at the ferry had no idea where to take us. I had yet to discover the eSim card. Our driver asked some other drivers and finally said “I know, I know” and drove us, with a truck full of others just off the ferry (none too happy about the fact that they have been waiting for the driver to figure out where we need to go). He took us down a bumpy dirt road about a mile past the pier, grabbed our stuff off the top of the truck, and left. We went to reception for First Bungalows– the pictures DID NOT look like the bungalows on AirBNB. No, it was not our place. But, the owner of our place used to work at First Bungalows, so the young woman at reception called us a taxi, gave us a bottle of water each, and gave the driver directions (sense a theme here?). Our taxi came, the name of our bungalows is also the name of the owner – Beaubo (who had worked at First Villas about 5 years ago, along with a number of resorts of different “stars” from budget to 5 star), and she is a truly lovely woman.
Beaubo was not there on arrival (she was on her way back from her vacation), so “Uncle” checked us in, and arranged to have a small refrigerator brought to the room. We had to wait until 2PM to enter the room, so we went to a restaurant called Lifestyle where we had a lovely pancake and fruit smoothie for less than $6 each. (We found out later that Lifestyle is run by Beaubo’s cousin – for that matter, most of the businesses within a block of the bungalows are owned by Beaubo’s family members). Beaubo is one of those “bundle of energy” people, and that evening, drove us around to several of the Sunday night markets. We tried a few different dishes, but for dinner, we ended up at a food court/night market with permanent stalls that also had karaoke. I got up and did “I Will Survive” (John posted it on Facebook), which is one of those ubiquitous songs that everyone seems to know, no matter where you are in the world.
A couple of days later, we took Beaubo up on her offer of being a tour guide – for 500baht each we got a 6-hour whirlwind around the island tour of the many beaches and attractions. We saw the largest Bang Ya tree, fed an elephant a small basket of bananas
, visited a temple made of beer bottles,
gave an offering to those we love who have passed on, and received a blessing from a monk. We ate at “Secret Beach” – where you have to go up a very steep hill, then down the other side to a lovely beach – and a restaurant partly built as a tree house, where we enjoyed dinner enjoying the island breezes. I impressed Beaubo with my spice tolerance.
The biggest tourist attraction on the island is the Full Moon Party. Every month, 20,000+ 20-somethings crowd onto Haad Rin beach and party all night, drinking, dancing to house music and getting high. Not exactly an experience John and I are into (for that matter, I really hate tight crowds – I hate if my “personal space” is invaded, but if not just my space is encroached, but additionally, all those around me – I start getting very anxious and have visions of human stampedes) – we did the pre-party at our bungalows, and waved to the 25 other guests as they crowded into 2 songthaews and went on their way to the party. I did get the glow-in-the-dark make-up on my face (with photo evidence).
The remainder of our time here has been wonderfully mellow. We discovered a German bakery near the pier that we frequented for breakfast (some of the best bread I have ever had), and enjoyed meal after meal, long morning walks at low tide, and chatting with fellow guests. I enjoyed nature – and added several birds to my life list – common mynah birds (which are everywhere on the islands), a Malaysian Hawk Cuckoo, the greater coucal, a baby Asian Water monitor lizard, an olive-backed sunbird, and an Indochinese Roller (one of the few critters that kept still long enough to get a decent photo).
Occasionally, we’d find “perfect” shells, but with a lot of travel ahead, too fragile to carry along. So I took photos.
I have read 3 books, kept up with my Sim horses (www.simhorseracing.com), got caught up with this blog, and only managed to get a slight sunburn once (one of my shirts for the beach has a zipper, It was zipped up when I put my sunscreen on and as I walked and unzipped the top – unprotected skin met the hot Thai sun. Despite being in the early part of rainy season, so far rain rarely affected our plans, with only one day out of the 19 where the rain was constant (fingers crossed – I’m writing this before we take a ferry back to Koh Samui and straight to the airport from there for our flight to Singapore).
