Doug and Kerry Hudson time-out on exotic beaches I: Ko Pha Ngan, Thailand, South East Asia

World Trip >> Asia >> Thailand >> Ko Pha-Ngan

We arrived on the island of Koh Pha-Ngan after a frustrating journey from Khao Sok. We had taken a local bus to Surat Thani. Although the local buses are slow, we found them to be great fun. The locals are very friendly and happily smile away at you. All the windows and doors of the bus stay open and most buses have exceptionally loud exhausts. Given that the drivers are also very generous with their use of the hooter, local buses make for quite a noisy journey.

On this particular journey, we were dropped off at a bus station. This turned out to be the wrong station, so we had to get a taxi into town. (The taxi being a pick-up truck with benches on the back). We had asked to be dropped at the correct bus station but were taken, instead, to a dodgy looking travel agent. Our taxi man insisted that he had bought us to the right place, no matter how many times we insisted otherwise. Anyway, we grudgingly booked bus and ferry tickets to the island Koh Pha-Ngan. We met up with another german couple, Patrick and Danielle who were also headed to the same island. Later we discovered that this travel agent had seriously overcharged us, leaving us all to feel very bitter and angry.

And so we arrived on our first Thailand island. We stayed on the north side of the island at Mae Haat Bay Resort. You can find Mae Hat bay at the north west of the island, well away from the noisy partygoers who favour the opposite end of the island for the legendary Full Moon Party.

The beach was lovely and quiet, and we found good snorkelling at the coral reef around the small island, Ko Ma, just offshore. It was the first time she had snorkelled so naturally Kerry was apprehensive. We held hands as we swam out to the reef and into a silent, brightly-coloured world inhabited by strangely shaped coral, stripy fish, Christmas tree worms, bristly sea urchins, undulating anemone, and garrulous clams.

We had three leisurely days on Kho Pha-Ngan, spent swimming, snorkelling and sunbathing. Not to mention enjoying the delicious banana shakes!

As well as swimming, snorkelling and sunbathing, we also hired a moped for the day. What an experience! Doug couldn’t quite co-ordinate the steering and accelerating, and ended up crashing into a fence, with a terrified look on his face. Kerry couldn’t help laughing! Doug didn’t realise it but the owner of the fence and the owner of the moped were also watching. They were emphatically not laughing.

So Kerry ended up driving, with Doug on the back. It took quite some time to work out how changing the gears worked, and this often meant that Doug had to walk up hills to catch Kerry up!

It was another epic journey the day we left Ko Pha Ngan for Songkhla in the Muslim south of Thailand.

World Trip >> Asia >> Thailand >> Ko Pha-Ngan

Last updated: Sunday August 27, 2006