Ko Pha Ngan

Just spent the most relaxing three nights on the island of Ko Pha Ngan - the Thai island famous for its Full Moon parties. Unfortunately or fortunately (depending on what your opinion is on raves), the next one isn't until early July, so no partying for us.

Travelling to the island took 14 hours, but what a luxurious journey it was! We got a local bus from the bus station in Bangkok, as opposed to one of the tourist ones (as ranted about in Sam's previous post), and it was heavenly. Loads of snacks, so much leg room and huge, plush reclining seats. All amazing, until the idiot in the seat in front of you decides as soon as he gets on the bus that it's time for bed (it's 8pm) and pushes his seat right back into your lap without even glancing round to acknowledge what he was about to do...

The bus took us to the port of Donsak, from where we took a ferry out to Ko Pha Ngan. On arrival, we got a really uncomfortable taxi over to Thong Nai Pan Yai, a stunning beach on the north east side of the island. Then the beach bungalow hunt began...

There are a number of resorts spotted along the beach in this area, all offering beach-side bungalows with sea views. However, what Sam fails to recognise is that they aren't 'all the same'. The quality of bungalow differs massively from one to the next and details like bed linen, curtains, decoration, hammock or no hammock, etc. all matter. And so we spent a good 45 minutes or so trudging along the beach in the blistering midday heat looking for our idyllic beachfront bungalow, or at least my view of what this should be. This ended with us finding the most beautiful place on the bay (we stayed at The Longtail Beach Resort (http://www.longtailbeachresort.com/) and it was amazing - I am definitely going to write them a glowing review on Trip Advisor), but left us desperately trying not to lose it with each other (too much heat and too much fuss, do not a happy Sam make).  


Here we spent three nights doing nothing more than just lazing on the beach, eating lots of incredible Thai curries and salads and drinking cold beer and gin and tonics on our bungalow verandah. We also dragged our weary selves to a bar at 1.45am to watch the England/Italy match and what a waste of time that was. 


All in all, would highly recommend Ko Pha Ngan to anyone. Next stop Krabi and then Phuket for more beach time.