{"id":2013,"date":"2025-02-25T18:50:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T23:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/?p=2013"},"modified":"2025-02-25T18:50:07","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T23:50:07","slug":"gulf-island-getaway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/?p=2013","title":{"rendered":"Gulf Island Getaway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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As we left off last time it was unacceptable o\u2019clock in the morning and I\u2019d just risen early after struggling to get any sleep in order to catch my ride south back to Chiang Mai for a noon-ish flight south to the islands. It was still black as midnight as I trundled my bags down the deserted street to the tiny counter and parking lot that served as the \u2018bus\u2019 depot for Pai. Local dogs were everywhere by the sides of the road that morning but they are thankfully road savvy and got out of the way as we started to move. By the time I finally left town dawn was breaking very slowly and the light started to fight through the mist here and there as we hugged the top of the valley back to the pass.  This quickly became rather breathtaking as we rose completely above the mist and the sun got brighter. I wish we could have stopped to get a better photo but I contented myself taking in the view. Sadly with this driver being just as (if not more) aggressive on the curves there was little chance of catching up on any sleep anyway. We thankfully made it back to Chiang Mai on time as this time I managed to get a cab driver who somehow had never been to the airport before, got on the freeway and subsequently missed exits at least 3 times and took us on a farmland tour before I got out my phone and started turn by turn directing him to the airport. I was a very happy camper once I was finally checked in to my flight and able to get through security and sit down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As I waited in the boarding lounge I came to two realizations. One, I\u2019d made a rookie mistake and forgotten to take my hoodie out of the big bag and was thus facing glacial thai public transport AC without a coverup. Two\u2026 I\u2019d not stopped for anything to eat and as per usual for thai airports all the food in here made a north American airport markup look cheap. I decided to wait for my Bangkok layover in hopes of something more appetizing for actual food and just demolished a bag of chips I still had in my backpack as I sat shivering. Thankfully once I was on my flight despite it being all of an hour I discovered that I actually got a small meal of shrimp Pad see-euw and yogurt which was all the refuel I needed. Just as well as the wing of the airport I ended up in in Bangkok only had vending machines and the AC was turned even higher in this smaller out of the way lounge. I was flying from Bangkok to Koh Samui in the Gulf of Thailand so I was again on a smaller flight. After 4+ hours of shivering it was glorious to get out on the tarmac at Koh Samui and take an open air transport to the tiny terminal as I breathed in moist sea air. Samui is a hilariously small airport for how busy a tourist destination it has become, basically none of it is truly \u2018indoors.\u2019 Unfortunately as expected this was also the end of cheap convenient taxis\/rideshares and back to the Taxi Mafias of the southern resort areas. The airport is tucked away in a maze of side streets and it\u2019s a bit of a walk to get to anywhere that\u2019s a public street. Apparently grab (uber equivalent) used to work reasonably well except for at the airport but there have been fights and confrontations and the taxi mafia is back controlling everything. Much like Phuket I gather the government makes a token crackdown every so often then things return to the status quo once their attention is elsewhere. It\u2019s the one downside of visiting these areas as you go from Bangkok or Chiang Mai where you can cross half the city for $5 to my sub 5km trip from the airport to my one night hotel for almost $20. Once you\u2019re out of the airport you do have the option of taking the pickup truck \u2018busses\u2019 previously described but even those will try to gouge you as a visitor and you have to negotiate to get a price that again would get you 5x the distance directly to your destination in other Thai locales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My final destination was actually Koh Pha Ngan the next island north in the chain but try as I might I hadn\u2019t been able to find a Chiang Mai to Samui flight that got me there in time to catch the last ferry of the day. A friend had warned me this would likely be a problem unless I caught the direct flight but as that was $600 instead of $150 I decided to spend a night on Samui. Samui actually seems quite nice, I know people including my parents who have spent some lovely time there but I was looking to get to a slightly more relaxed vibe, do some gentle snorkeling\/beach relaxing. Last time I was in Thailand I\u2019d gone straight even further north to Koh Tao as that\u2019s the diving center for the area but I\u2019d made a strategic decision to move my diving later to a more expensive but supposedly great area on the Andaman coast. My hotel for this night was chosen for proximity to the ferry terminal while still being not bargain basement. Unfortunately I\u2019d gotten the last room and it turned out to be the one facing a very busy beachfront street with a large patio window, the seal on the both the inner and patio doors was shot and I could here conversations in the room across the hall as well… definitely not a hotel going on my recommended list despite their location. Luckily by the time I grabbed a quick dinner and a few necessities I was so wrecked from the long day and lack of sleep the night before that I passed out the moment my earplugs were in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Morning rolled around and I\u2019d chosen to take the second ferry of the day so I didn\u2019t have to race anywhere first thing which turned out to be a great decision as despite what was lacking about the room this little hotel did indeed have a great location right on the fisherman\u2019s beach. Lovely powdery white sand stretched east and west of me in a gentle bay down to large vacation homes in one direction and a giant golden buddha in the other which I knew was appropriately called \u2018Big Buddha Beach.\u2019 As check in time wasn\u2019t until noon I grabbed my sunglass, found a beach lounger and spent a couple hours just enjoying the peaceful morning breeze with my book and a bottle of pineapple juice. Eventually it was time to be on my way to the ferry pier and I was feeling pretty recharged. My inherent cheapness meant I was walking there with my suitcase though as I was quoted 15 bucks to go what I knew was only about 1.5km, I probably could have hopped a songthaew but by the time I actually saw one I\u2019d made it halfway. In a normal city this wouldn\u2019t have been a big deal but as I believe I\u2019ve previously described the Thai people have zero restraint in completely blocking sidewalks with vehicles, merchandise, decapitating ropes and cables or just leaving unfinished unmarked roadworks. I will probably need to do some maintenance on my poor suitcases roller wheels once back home. Thankfully the ferry port itself had a bunch of shaded seating, I checked in no problem and was offered a minibus to my hotel at the other side for sub $10 which I figured was an acceptable deal (and turned out to be about half of what I\u2019d pay to get back later.) The ferry itself was a bit of a gong show though. I gather this pier only serves their Samui to Pha Ngan route and they had 3 ferries tied up at the pier. I do not understand why but they tie the one active boat up on the outside of the three all moored together while the other side of the pier is unused. They then proceed to load all passengers and their luggage through the other two ferries (one of which clearly hasn\u2019t sailed in ages) to board the last one. I\u2019m guessing the second boat is only used around the time of the full moon parties on Pha Ngan (which I am purposely avoiding) where an extra 10 thousand or so young people tend to converge on one beach on Pha Ngan. Thankfully the sailing itself was uneventful and I got to my new digs in time to check in to a delightfully isolated and quiet bungalow just off the beach, change into my swim trunks, catch happy hour at the beach bar and have a relaxing swim in the absolutely bathwater warm waves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sunset from SeaEsta Beach Bar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My Bungalow including couch\/kid’s bed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A relaxing beachfront bar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The resort itself was about a 10 minute walk from the main road (down some very dark under repair roads) and was one of a series of smallish beach resorts of varying levels of fancy. Mine had approximately 12 small beach bungalows, each with shady palms, a small terrace and sand paths to the beach. They had a small pool which I never used that seemed nice enough for days where the sea was too wild and a small restaurant that was \u2018ok\u2019 with reasonably priced drinks and decent coffee according to some germans I chatted with. To be honest, it was perfect. It definitely wasn\u2019t the prettiest beach on the island but it was calm and after the fairly hectic pace of the first half of the trip this stretch of days was all about relaxation anyway. I didn\u2019t move the rest of the day, alternating my book with a couple swims, an order of so-so pad thai from the kitchen and a couple more drinks as I watched sun set over the gulf of Thailand. The only thing that interrupted the peace was something Cicada like that came out for an hour or so after sunset and droned loudly for a bit. I closed down the bar that night and after looking at the stars for a while curled up in the comfiest bed of the trip so far and watched a movie, perfectly content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not going to lie, with a quiet comfy bed (and no roosters in earshot) for the first time in a bit I let myself sleep in a bit that first day and by the time I emerged, had a morning swim and a long hot shower it was probably pushing lunchtime. I think the most energetic non-swimming thing I did the rest of the day was go for a walk to replace my bandages for my wounded leg and grab a quick lunch. I spent most of the day alternating between swimming, reading and dozing in a hammock in the shade. There was a kiteboarding school just down the beach from my digs and it was fun watching the newbies trying as, from my limited experience with the thing, it seemed like the wind was just strong enough for it to be possible, while also making it really hard to get lift. All in all it was exactly the recharge day I needed and I\u2019d also found my hotel did laundry for a rate no worse than anywhere I\u2019d seen on the main road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next morning was absolute gorgeous, the waves had picked up a bit overnight and the gentle crashing was just loud enough to reach my room as I lazily greeted the day. I decided to be a little more energetic but I wasn\u2019t expecting to do quite as much as I ended up doing. The interior of Koh Pha Ngan is fairly rugged and on the west of the island it\u2019s a fairly narrow strip of flat land on the coast before the hills quickly climb carpeted with jungle. I vaguely had it in my head that I\u2019d go for a walk south along the beach, maybe as far as a place called \u2018Monkey Corner\u2019 that apparently had a colony of monkeys hanging out near the road. There was a fairly intense storm not long ago that caused some flooding and high waves here and while you couldn\u2019t really tell by my hotel I began to see more signs as I walked south along the beach. A number of damaged boats, piles of battered fishing nets and floats rested near the beach along one of the stream outlets and a large amount of other debris sat along the surge height for quite a ways in either direction. This section I walked along had less in the way of tourism type infrastructure so probably hasn\u2019t been a priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Some debris on the coastline.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The view from the lunch stop<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Monkeys!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Overall Koh Pha Ngan feels much less touristy than Samui. There are still a ton of tourist focused businesses of course but the hotels tend to be smaller bungalow type operations (on this part of the island at least, I understand there are some larger resorts on the northeast corner) and it tends to be overall a bunch of small businesses vs. the kind of giant restaurants etc you see in Phuket. Eventually I reached a more rugged section of coast that precluded beach walking and turned to walk up to the main road. I\u2019d worn my walking sandals due to the beach walking and if you know my terrible feet you know that doesn\u2019t usually go well for me for long distance walking but I guess that\u2019s another side benefit of the weight loss as I managed a ton of walking without any real ill effects other than mild soreness which was fantastic. It\u2019s a good thing too as the road quickly turned into a couple hundred foot climb over a saddle pass into the next bay\u2026 then a second longer, steeper climb to actually reach the area of monkey corner. Monkey corner turned out to be pretty low key, genuinely just a small section of road on the point with a small monkey colony hanging out near the road and a bunch of signs not to feed them. They were adorable but not particularly active. One imagines that despite the sign they probably do quite well for handouts by staying near the road and looking cute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By this point I\u2019d walked halfway to the southern tip of the island and the area where the Full Moon Party takes place which was supposed to be quite pretty when it isn\u2019t overrun with 10,000 drunks so I kept walking until the rising heat (roughly 35C that day) and the sun directly overhead made a lunch stop sound like a good idea. I was still fairly high up in the hill crossing so finding a place with a view didn\u2019t take much work. As I was now in the south it was time to start enjoying some Massaman as it\u2019s almost universally better the further south you go as it\u2019s \u2018muslim\u2019 curry and the Thai muslim areas are closer to the border with Malaysia. The meal wasn\u2019t bad\u2026 the view was better as the restaurant more or less overhung the cliff and looked down through jungle to the sparkling turquoise waters far below. I lingered longer than I\u2019d originally planned with a nice fan blowing across my face and a mix of view and a good book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d been able to see my ultimate destination from the restaurant as well and kept walking south passing an odd mix of abandoned (covid casualty?) sparsely sited hotels, a few guest houses that seemed more or less deserted and parking lots for various party nights other than the big shebang. While the big party on the beach is the night of the full moon or immediately adjacent the week surrounding it also tends to have large dance parties that run until dawn at other locations, some deep in the jungle, some on other stretches of beach and they often include internationally known DJs running the show. Getting a hotel on this part of the island at that time usually requires a minimum stay so not surprising there are other parties going after those dollars. I was here a solid week and a half before the big day though and things were much less crowded, especially further out from the Haad Rin beach itself. Things became much busier as I reached the actual beach area itself which I found surprisingly small after the various images I\u2019d seen of it online during trip planning over the years. It\u2019s a pretty little cove with lovely white sand that they must do an excellent job of cleaning after the parties. The waves were crashing harder on this side of the island and there was actually a red flag up for swimming that no one was paying attention to. It was in fact quite busy with swimmers and sunbathers I just cannot fathom it being packed with a rock concert\u2019s worth of people\u2026 it sounds like my personal hell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This very elaborate hotel seemed abandoned<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Full Moon Party neon etc, also some extra lunar new year stuff leftover<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Haad Rin Beach<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve discussed this in travelogues before but man\u2026 why when you\u2019re travelling is there always that one 80 year old dude on the beach. He\u2019s in really good shape for his age and he knows it and he feels the need to just stand there at the front of the beach\u2026 always wearing a speedo\u2026 he was once well muscled but he\u2019s quite old now it\u2019s more like oiled sinew\u2026 he\u2019s ALWAYS tanned so deeply and for so long that his skin has the texture of a really worn out Barcalounger which combined with his low bodyfat makes him honestly just look like some sort of beef jerky golem. He\u2019ll always be in your gaze as you\u2019re trying to quietly look out to sea\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ended up spending the afternoon there enjoying the sand, walking in the waves a bit and generally just continuing the relaxation tour. I hadn\u2019t yet decided if I was walking back or hopping a red truck but in the end I started walking back but when I paused for a drink of water at the base of the first hill some woman asked me if I needed a ride and mentioned some large sum of money. I laughed and shook my head and continued walking but a moment later she called out again and a young woman on her scooter had stopped and asked where I was going, I told her and she told me to hop on. I wasn\u2019t going to say no but I will admit that wasn\u2019t my favourite motorcycle ride ever as the rolling hills on her underpowered scooter made the uphill bits slow and the downhill bits feel like an exercise in trust in her brakes that I wasn\u2019t sure I was on board with. When she dropped me back at my hotel corner I gladly offered her what I knew the red truck cost would have been and she turned me down with a smile and gave me a wai. I returned the gesture and said goodbye and felt great about the world for a few minutes. I was (unsurprisingly) pooped at this point as even with the ride I\u2019d done about an 8km hike in +35 weather so I went for another swim and enjoyed another happy hour sunset off the west coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Indeed!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Hard to imagine 10k people partying here til dawn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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A bad photo of phenomenal wiener schnitzel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While randomly browsing google maps of my hotel area I\u2019d noticed a German restaurant with 5star reviews just up the main road from my hotel. I\u2019d already decided to have a break from Thai food for that night\u2019s dinner and had initially been tempted by the Russian place listing pelmeni but given my less than charitable feelings towards Russia at the moment and the reviews for this Chinchilla Restaurant I decided to go for schnitzel. This was the correct choice. The restaurant itself was a narrow roadside stall with four or five tables that seemed to be run by a German dude and his Thai partner. I got a delicious slab of schnitzel, a green salad and a healthy portion of German potato salad for I think about twelve bucks all in. It was phenomenal and one of the best schnitzels I\u2019ve had outside of my platonic ideal from Austria. Full of meat I eventually stumbled back to the hotel and lay reading in a hammock on the beach until my yawns overtook me and I headed to bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sadly the next morning it was already time to leave the island. Unfortunately the night before I\u2019d found out that my laundry hadn\u2019t been finished and though I was told she\u2019d get them to do it first thing I still had visions of having to pack a bunch of wet or dirty clothes but to my relief by the time I was ready to check out there was a washed and pressed pile of t-shirts and undies ready to go and tight enough that I could just quickly pound them into the bag and hop a cab. I had a flight to catch to Phuket in order to head up the Andaman coast and unfortunately the later ferry would have been cutting it pretty fine to the airport so I had to hop the morning one which again gave me time to kill on Samui. Thankfully the ferry terminal had cheap luggage storage so I just left the big bag there and took a walk past the big buddha and over to Choeng Mon beach where my parents had stayed on their interrupted by COVID voyage in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choeng Mon was yet another flavour of beach for this trip, a combination of more families (I hadn\u2019t really seen any younger kids on Pha Ngan) and more retiree age folks. The sand was lovely and there were a few more large and\/or pricey resorts nearby interspersed with smaller beachfront places. It was a much more \u2018mexico-like\u2019 vibe with vendors coming by regularly and the various resorts jealously guarding their various stretches of beach. It was a beautiful spot but I definitely preferred the more laid back vibe I\u2019d had. I again just spent a couple hours on the beach until rising hunger sent me back up to the main road to a place that had looked delicious where I snagged a curry and a beer before making my way back to the ferry then on to the airport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samui airport was even odder outbound however as after checking in  (and waiting to make sure they don\u2019t flag your bag as needing inspection) you then have to hike a fair ways to another terminal \u2018building\u2019 to actually go through security and leave. I was fairly early so I actually stopped partway at a lounge that was basically a small garden strewn with beanbags where you could relax and watch planes landing\/taking off. Unfortunately my flight luck ran out for this one and I was delayed over an hour and a half, never really got an explanation as to why but I felt bad given this was the one time this trip I\u2019d pre-arranged an airport transfer as I was going to a smaller town about an hour to an hour and a half north of Phuket airport itself and I assumed the poor guy was stuck waiting for me. I\u2019m not actually sure he was though or it was just a service, I tried to ask but neither he nor the people at my eventual destination spoke much English. It definitely gets the award as the wildest cab of the trip with quite the party\/arabian nights atmosphere when I first got in then sparkling multicoloured stars once we were actually moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Choeng Mon Beach (the resort on that island across the sandbar looks nice)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The nicest airport lounge ever….<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Prince Ali! Fabulous He!…<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Khao Lak and a whole bunch of diving was next but I\u2019ll leave that for the next and probably final post. I don\u2019t expect it\u2019ll take as long to get this one up, I\u2019ve just been slammed since getting back to Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As we left off last time it was unacceptable o\u2019clock in the morning and I\u2019d just risen early after struggling to get any sleep in order to catch my ride south back to Chiang Mai for a noon-ish flight south to the islands. It was still black as midnight as I trundled my bags down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[185,247,184],"class_list":["post-2013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-travel","tag-food","tag-thailand-2025","tag-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3qtCo-wt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2035,"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013\/revisions\/2035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cheatingbulldogs.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}