Ko Pha Ngan (Thailand)

Yet again, I’m back with more gushing reviews of what I consider to be one of the most beautiful countries I have ever seen. Thailand was by far my overall favourite country in South East Asia, combining lovely people, excellent food, fantastic places, peaceful religious beliefs and a wonderful way of life that we westerners can only aspire to. Last year we took a break from work and the UK weather to languish on sunny beaches, climb volcanoes, eat ...
...well and relax – and experienced all of these. The reviews I have written around SEA are all from January – May which we found was an excellent time to travel there.

WHY VISIT KHO PHA NGAN?

Undoubtedly one of the main reasons people come to this island is the world-renowned ‘Full Moon’ Party, and this was certainly why we came here. We just wanted to see what it was all about as people kept raving about it (pun intended) ... more

Yet again, I’m back with more gushing reviews of what I consider to be one of the most beautiful countries I have ever seen. Thailand was by far my overall favourite country in South East Asia, combining lovely people, excellent food, fantastic places, peaceful religious beliefs and a wonderful way of life that we westerners can only aspire to. Last year we took a break from work and the UK weather to languish on sunny beaches, climb volcanoes, eat fried bugs (he did, I did not), ride elephants, eat well and relax – and experienced all of these. The reviews I have written around SEA are all from January – May which we found was an excellent time to travel there.

WHY VISIT KHO PHA NGAN?

Undoubtedly one of the main reasons people come to this island is the world-renowned ‘Full Moon’ Party, and this was certainly why we came here. We just wanted to see what it was all about as people kept raving about it (pun intended) - we enjoyed the experience and would recommend going at least once if you like partying ‘till dawn.

This review focuses on the Full Moon Party and Haad Rin because this is why we came, and where we spent time. I am sure other areas of the island are worth exploring for sights but we simply had no time, and didn’t have the overall impression it was as stunning as other places, so had to cut back...

BEST TIME TO GO

Overall Thailand is best visited between mid-October and mid-April but you can ‘escape’ the monsoon for a while but travelling ahead of the bad weather from April onwards. Temperatures were an average 30°C from January – April then cooler in May and no doubt subsequently wetter!

As Koh Pha Ngan is in the south of Thailand the climate is warm and drier than the north overall, but can suffer terribly when the monsoon season comes round. Access to the islands is highly restricted in the rainy season and even the locals escape to the mainland ‘terra firma’, so you won’t have much fun if you come over in a particularly nasty rainy season!

WHERE IS KHO PHA NGAN?

This little island is one of three off the south eastern ‘leg’ of Thailand – starting from top (northernmost) to bottom (southernmost) as follows:

- Koh Tao
- Koh Pha Ngan
- Koh Samui

Pha Ngan is well known for it’s Full Moon Party, Tao for it’s excellent diving and Samui as a haven for sun seekers. Pha Ngan is medium size, whereas Koh Tao is the smallest and Samui is the largest of the 3.

HOW TO GET THERE

- Get a bus from Bangkok or any other place to Surat Thani, connections are well established.
- Get a boat from Koh Tao
- Get a boat from Koh Samui

The national ferry service to the island is the cheapest but slowest, if you are able to pay more you can get private boat trips and transfers, but we couldn’t afford these.

We took the ferry from Koh Samui to Koh Pha Ngan and were dropped off near the main town of Haad Rin. If you have not yet established your hotel or where you want to go, expect lots of touts or taxi drivers who will offer you a myriad of places, prices and quality of establishment. We were in this category and got scooped into a songthaew (local bus) taking guests to a guest house on the western part of the island, far, far away. The roads are scattered with impressive pot holes and the drivers have amazingly little skill in avoiding these decade-old friends. Not only that, the steep roads you’ll come across will amaze you with their level of incline, many people we saw were on mopeds that simply couldn’t hack the climb and we saw them having to actually push their mopeds up unappetising hills in the baking heat.

At one point, we were actually asked to get out of our sungthaew mid hill, get onto another truck that could handle more people, and then get back on our truck at the top of the hill. It was at this laughable moment we realised how far away we were from civilisation and that we’d need to rely on songthaews quite a lot to get around. This would also add more to daily costs but we had no real choice.

WHERE TO STAY

As we arrived close to the Full Moon time of the month, our options were therefore zilch, we learned this very quickly. We were fairly annoyed and wished we’d had an option of staying in town, but visiting near ‘Full Moon’ celebration it’s a nigh impossible feat to get a central room unless you’re very pally with one of the organisers of restaurant owners/staff.

As I mentioned, our accommodation was in the far reaches of the south-western side of Pha Ngan, 15 minutes drive away, provided not too many pot-holes were hit on the way. Our resort was a family run coconut plantation and very cheap, because of it’s location and laid back atmosphere (and service). We were just happy to have something! They offered a ‘beach’ but this was slightly muddy sand and not great for swimming as it was constantly low-tide. I get the feeling all resorts on this stretch of the island offered the same kind of beach… We loved the polished wood open air raised area they had for eating, playing games and relaxing in general. The only thing we came to not like about it was someone who insisted on playing Tracy Chapman and Bob Marley…for hours on end, looped and to this day we’re reminded of the place when we hear ‘No Woman No Cry’ or ‘Fast Car’!

We took walks on the main road and discovered some nice bars around 10 mins walk further up the road where internet connection was also available at very cheap rates. Overall though, there was little to do around the area and we were fairly bored I have to say… we took ourselves into Haad Rin on day 2 searching desperately for some central accommodation, but after hours of trailing around in the hot sun we gave up and had lunch whilst watching a film (American Pie, as I recall). This is also when we bought 2 fantastic hammocks (one blue, one purple but alas tie-dyed…) that were to travel with us for the next 2 months and that we used extensively when a hammock was (thoughtlessly) not provided at our hut. We returned brow beaten and tired and just accepted the fact that we’d be staying far away...

Our resort hosts did make a stunningly delicious BBQ on the night of the full moon party, the price of which which was all inclusive of food like grilled fish, pork steak, corn on the cob, salad, fruit and some alcohol and this was lustily enjoyed by all in the knowledge of the night to come. We sat on the white sand as the day drew to a close, relaxed in the open-air area and sat at the bar with cocktails and counted the hours.

ACTIVITIES AND WHAT TO SEE

- The ‘Full Moon Party’ is the main reason we came so we did little else apart from wait 24-48 hours for the event relaxing in hammocks, reading, shopping and eating... If inclined you can explore the rest of the island by moped, songthaew or walking – we heard that the north-eastern part was very nice so might be worth visiting if you get a chance.

The Full moon Party itself is held once a month, naturally, on full moon night. ‘Half Moon’ and ‘No Moon’ or ‘Blank Moon’ nights are also held but nowhere near as popular. The place is ‘Sunrise’ beach, one of 2 beaches at Haad Rin, and the time is from around 11:30 at night and the night only ends when you want it to end. We left our resort with a belly full of food (and drink) and were stopped on entry to Haad Rin by police doing drug searches, and this is custom with barriers set up around the town. It was fairly intimidating but over and done with in a few seconds. On arriving at ‘Sunrise’ beach, the atmosphere was electric and no one type of music stood out – it was a mixture from different bars running up and down the stretch, playing out onto the beach and into the warm night air. People were dancing indoors but mostly on the beach itself, or sitting on the sand or on chairs set up. Throughout the night fewer chairs and more masses of people appeared as space was less and less available. Some people were already really drunk when we arrived, and we had to step over many bodies in the beginning, and even more throughout the night. But by this point I’m sure we were stumbling too…

Fire entertainers were abundant and the ‘Shark’ enery drink even did a display of burning shark and elephant wire shapes which was impressive. You will have plenty of stall make-shift cocktail bars to choose from at very cheap prices (65Bhat or so, say £1) in addition to all the bars available, as well as supermarkets that are open late (one in the centre of sunrise beach which we found useful for snack attacks).

We tried several bars depending on our mood and settled for a bar on the central-northern part of the beach at around 5am, where we danced and then sat down to relax. For the sunrise we simply walked a few gentle steps down to the water edge and watched the unfolding purple-mauve-orange-blood red sky spectacle unfold before us with the cool sand between our toes. There was a peaceful silence as we all sat blinking at the new dawn and even though some people were too drunk and hungover to care, quite a few were sober and awake enough to stay up and watch the orange fireball emerge. We all knew it was a one-off experience - some even stripped to bathe naked as the sun slinkily made it’s way past the horizon. This was the only disgusting bit about the whole thing, not the skinny-dipping, but the, er, quality of the seawater after a night of party-goers was never going to be awarded a blue flag by any stretch of the imagination…

- Snorkelling and diving are popular on all 3 of the islands but I have always had the feeling that Pha Ngan is not the best of the 3. As a result, we tried it on Koh Tao instead and enjoyed it a great deal.

- Sun, sea and sand – For those of us who love the sun, Sunrise and Sunset beach offer the usual beach facilities we came to know and love in Thailand: sunbeds, bars, cold drinks, hawkers passing by with goods, ice-creams, drinks, henna tattoos, food, snacks, supermarkets, blue sea and hot temperatures. So get the sun tan lotion ready and spend your days lazing and working on the tan!

- For shopping Haad Rin is the place to be – it’s the main town and lies between the two renowned beaches - Sunrise and Sunset Beach. The central street running parallel to the beach is where you’ll find clothing, beauty treatments, restaurants, bars, supermarkets and similar stores. It’s quite quaint but still nice to walk round, although this won’t take you long. We bought hammocks here, second hand books and had meals. Be warned ladies – if you are looking for a leg wax this is NOT the place to do it! I endured 1 hour of complete torture at the hands of a lady who had never heard of ‘warm’ wax and as such simply used cold, and sparingly I might add (in a ‘dragging’ motion…). I have yet to experience child labour but now have an idea of the pain involved! Understandably, I now never complain when in my local beauticians she uses warm wax and takes a total of 10 minutes…

- Haad Rin also offers an exceptional nightlife as the range of food and atmosphere will suit all tastes. You can spend your nights here drinking, eating, watching movies, chilling out on the beach and generally relax. In the day time you can suntan, read, shop and also… relax.

COSTS

You can easily spend £10 a day per person here (we were on a budget), but you could spend £25 oh so much easier... there are cocktails, pizzas, pastas, souvenirs, ice-creams, beers, hammocks and much more to feast your wallet on

Food will cost you around £3.50 per person for a pasta meal and coke, whereas something nicer will set you back £6 or so, depending if you are a lover of cocktails and repeat beer orders... Acommodation was around £6 for both of us in a basic hut with shower AND hammock (350Bhat), so £3 each per night. I'd pay that for the hammock alone!

NEGATIVE POINTS

My only negative points are that we didn’t find that the area we stayed in was as nice as other islands, with little scenery and not much to do. Probably our fault I know, we should have looked into it more and booked something in advance.

Also, the amount of rubbish the morning after Full Moon is pretty indescribable and doesn’t get cleaned up during the night from what I saw, nor are any bins provided (in the numbers required anyway). Even worse is the amount of people (read men) who relieve themselves in the sea all night long so facilities should definitely be provided for this. Innocent people bathe in this water the next day and yes, I know most of it will have ‘washed away’ but… yuk.

SUMMARY

For the Full Moon Party I’d say it’s worth coming here at least once for the experience, but can’t comment on the rest of what the island has to offer. We did not hear many people talk about it and our guide book didn’t say much either apart from the party aspect. I am sure that like it’s two sister islands the snorkelling and diving are probably good so might be worth a go.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the review and comments/questions are welcome – our next destination was Koh Tao (see upcoming separate review amongst other South East Asia reviews…)
 

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