After Ko Tao, we took an express boat to Ko Phangan about 3 hours south of Ko Toa. It was such a peaceful relaxing experience. We were able to grab a seat outside in front of the boat. Alan and I were both worried about the boat ride because of his puking problems on the last boat ride but this time it was just fine. The water was smooth, hardly felt any waves and the view on the boat was a sight. We also saw a little of Ko Samui (the 3rd island in the area) since we had to drop off passengers there. I loved getting sun and relaxing on the boat, I think it was first time I truly relaxed – plus I had a great night of sleep.
When we arrived in Ko Phangan, the pier area with really dirty and nasty. My intial reaction was that I didn’t want to stay very long. Like most ports tons of people trying to give you a taxi ride or sell you a place to stay. We walked over to the boat information office to see when we could get the next boat to Surat Thani, since our plan was to stay only one night just so we could break up the boat rides for Alan. A women with a lot of brochures walks up to us and starts telling us about different resorts where we can stay for 400 Baht (which was really cheap). We saw on the brochure that there was a free taxi to one of the resorts which would get us to the area of the island where most of the resorts are located. I was still really skeptical of this place because the women suggested it. As we waited for the free taxi, I suggested we just get our own motor bike (scooter) and head up to the resort just in case we need to find another resort. Alan gets us a scooter, all the women that were near the bike shop were saying "You Crazy to take Luggage, wait for Taxi", but again we head out with 2 people, 2 bags, 2 backpacks and purse on a scooter. As we take off down the street on the scooter with our luggage, the six women were standing in row starting at us. I turned and waved and they all waved back with a few still shaking their heads.
We arrived at the resort, and a German man greets us. He asks us what we are looking for in price, and I say “Cheap!”, as soon as the words came out of my mouth I was not happy with myself, I think it was the skeptism I had about the entire island. Alan quickly says “less expensive”, the German looks disgusted with us and takes us to the bungalow. It was clean and right on the water – we were both thinking – we hit a jackpot!!! We put our luggage in the bungalow and then walked out to watch the sunset, the place felt like we were the only ones there…so quite.
We have dinner in the resort, Alan orders spicy, spicy squid…all the ladies are laughing at him, asking are you sure? I had a coconut juice, and of course my ginger tea. We head to bed and I had one of the best night sleeps since we started the trip, which was great cause my cold is really bothering me.
We decided this place was our time to relax so we planned to stay two nights. I woke up and did some yoga in an open hut overlooking the water, and Alan had a Thai massage. After breakfast, we mediated in the same hut I did my yoga. We also laid around in the sun and Alan snorkled. We enjoyed our second night as well, but realized it was not the paradise we thought… The German man – who also did the travel coordinations was really rude (not to just us), and bungalow had a lot of ants too. Yucky!! But the first night was very relaxing!!!
Our ride back to the port was nice, riding up and down the hills with the fabulous view of the ocean. The taxi guy for the resort took our bags to the main travel office near the port, where we rented to the scooter. We then hung out by the pier and did some yoga until we realized we were at the wrong pier…but we were early (again…surprisingly) so we had enough time to jump on the boat to Surat Thani then off to Koh Sok National Park.
