Koh Pha Ngan

Wednesday, April 13

We woke up, finished packing, and checked into the ferry dock for our morning ferry. We weren’t sure whether booking ferries through an online site called 12Go was legitimate but when we checked in we saw most of the passengers had also used this site to book. While we waited we went and got one last pancake from our favorite guy on Koh Tao. I got a Nutella with banana and Carl got the mango and coconut again (mango coconut for the win). Finally we boarded the ferry and it was about an hour ride to Koh Pha Ngan.

As soon as we disembarked there were taxi trucks waiting for us. A bunch of people were going to Haad Rin, where the Full Moon Party takes place once a month, so we piled in with them. The taxis here are trucks with metal cages on the back, on top of the truck bed. I guess the metal cage makes it safer? About a 30 minute ride later-through crazy up and down hills- they dropped us off at our hotel.

We stayed at Rin Beach Resort which is located on the western side of the peninsula and seemed mildly quieter and nicer but still close to full moon activities. We got some lunch at the restaurant that’s part of the resort. The place is more like a cafe with many coffee drinks and breakfast options. One spot on the menu said ‘food’ and offered just two things: Pad Thai and fried rice (think someone forgot the descriptor ‘Thai’, perhaps finding it redundant). So we got one of each and they were ok.

We decided to walk to the beach to see what everyone was doing. The streets were mostly deserted but there were some people playing music and spraying each other with water to celebrate Songkran.

We bought some water guns for Songkran and some fluorescent gear to prepare for Full Moon. For dinner we walked up the hill a bit to a place called Lost Paradise. We thought it was closed but as we circled back the owner came out and said he had kept all the lights off because of all the bugs. Sure enough, when he turned them back on there were swarming clouds of moths around each bulb. We ordered some cocktails and Thai food and were pleasantly surprised with how good it all was.

Thursday, April 14

We rented a motorbike for the day. We were happy we spoke with a British couple in Koh Tao that warned us not to be cheap on motorbikes and to rent the more expensive 155cc because anything less and the two of us would not make it up the incredibly steep hills. We got the bike as a cheap mode of transportation for the day, always keeping in mind how dangerous motorbikes are. It was annoying to realize how much fun the motorbike was and we tried not to think about how much we enjoyed it, continually reminding ourselves how dangerous they are.

Our first stop was at Bubba’s coffee house in Ban Tai. I can’t remember how we heard about this place but because the name is the same as our beloved cat, we had to try. They had really good coffee and western brunch, which we hadn’t had in a while so it was a treat. There was also a sleepy cat sitting in the seat next to us, very serendipitous.

We cruised up to Haad Yao beach and stopped at a dive shop to see whether anyone was going to dive Sail Rock the next few days. Just our luck, Haad Yao divers was going the next day and they had spots open so we signed up.
After we meandered down to the beach area. The sand here was soo nice and soft and it seemed like there was less trash. We found a bar that had some spots in the shade (a rare commodity on Thai beaches). We ordered some beers to pay our rent on a hammock tied to a big tree hanging over the beach and a wooden lounge chair. The ocean water here is so warm – about 86 degrees- so it wasn’t very refreshing to swim but we continually dunked ourselves in water and then sat in the shade, praying for a breeze.

After a couple hours we decided to take advantage of having the bike for the day and went to explore one of the waterfalls. The road up to Paradise waterfall was steep, and the road was falling apart, but Carl was an excellent driver and I tried not to squeal from fear too loudly. They charged 30 baht entrance to the waterfall and included a free cold bottle of water! Because water bottles cost about as much, we considered it a worthy price and went in. There’s supposed to also be a trail to a view point but the trail quickly disappeared into steep, rocky, viney terrain. Hiking in flip flops, I decided no view point was worth falling into a bush full of who knows what kinds of jungle plants and animals so we opted to stick to the pool at the base of the falls. The water in the pool was cold! Most refreshing part of the day. As we submerged ourselves we started talking with a nice German girl, exchanging travel stories and tips.

Eventually we got out and dried off and headed back downhill toward the night market.
The night market has rows of stalls of different street food options. We wanted to see all the options before deciding what to eat but when we saw sushi we couldn’t resist and got a few pieces to start us off. Then we perused and decided to get some barbecued pork, takoyaki (fried squid balls), chicken satay, spicy papaya salad, fried chicken, coconut pancakes (mind blowing) and we ended with some mango and sweet sticky rice. There were also some artsy stalls but we kept our focus on food that night. Finally, stuffed, we hopped back on the bike and rode back to our hotel just as the sun set.

Friday, April 15

We woke up super early to get picked up at 6am. We got in the back of the same kind of taxi truck and the driver drive us up the island to the dive shop. I think there was some miscommunication because then we waited there for over an hour for everyone else to show up before more of us piled into the truck and we drove to the pier. We met our guide, Reka, an older, small, blonde Hungarian woman. We finally got to a small pier and they had us throw our shoes into a box and climb aboard one of the two boats docked there. It was about an hour on the boat out to Sail Rock it they fed us breakfast of coffee, hard-boiled eggs, bread, and lots of fruit. As we cruised out we noticed a bunch of dive boats from Koh Tao. Sail Rock is about halfway between Koh Tao and Koh Phangan so there was a good mix of dive companies from both islands.

When we got closer Reka gave us a briefing and we learned we would be diving with two other singles: a German girl named Marriane and a German guy named Max. I warned everyone that my ears take a long time to equalize, but perhaps because we had dove a couple times recently (and I’ve been practicing equalizing!) I went down just as fast as everyone else! Immediately as we descended we saw tons of fish. On the first dive we swam counter clockwise around the rock. We saw a bunch of batfish, banner fish, butterfly fish, groupers, barracuda, nudibranchs, and a couple tiger cowrie. After the first dive they fed us a buffet Thai food lunch of green curry, rice, and fried spring rolls. They offered Coca Cola in glass bottles that really hit the spot.
On the second dive we swam clockwise and the current was strong pushing against us. I’ve never swam against a strong current for that long and I found myself getting a little out of breath, which is a weird sensation when you’re sucking air through a tube. On this dive we saw a really cute pufferfish (they are all really cute though), and a big — jellyfish. We also swam over to the chimney, which is an underwater rock formation that you can swim into, up, and out of a hole. The description sounded scarier than it was. It was about as wide as five chimneys and the holes were close together so we could swim in, enjoy being surrounded by rock and coral, and swim out. We also saw another triggerfish but it didn’t seem to mind us.

As we recovered from the second dive and prepared to head back to Koh Pha Ngan, the crew noticed that another boat was having trouble. We ended up throwing a rope to the other boat and towing them all the way back. This made the trip much slower, but it was a beautiful day out on the ocean so we really didn’t mind. Back at the pier we did the trip in reverse and rode with a bunch of people back to the shop before getting our private ride all the way back down to Haad Rin. By the time we got back it was 8pm. We went out to dinner at a place called The Best, and despite the customer service it really was the best. We had Pad See Ew and Tom Yum soup (we ordered Tom Kha which is creamier because of a coconut milk base but were happily surprised with Tom Yum which is more like sweet and sour soup).

Saturday, April 16

The day of the Full Moon Party. The true full moon was actually on the night of the 17th but when we got to the island we learned the party was on the 16th because this was the Saturday after a Thai holiday week so they were putting the party on a date when more people would be there. The timing worked out for us but I warned everyone (Carl) that the pagan gods would not be pleased with this allegiance to capitalism over the natural order of things.

Being over 30 we had to plan and prepare to spend the whole night awake on the beach and partying. First we slept in. Then we went to our resort cafe for a small breakfast sandwich and coffees. We spent a couple hours laying by the pool before we ventured to the beach to get some lunch. It was about 3pm and a lot of restaurants were preparing for the evening festivities. We got turned away from several places that said they were closed even as we looked and saw people dining and drinking in them. We ended up at a cement hovel on the beach that had fans and didn’t have loud techno music blasting in our ears. We got no name vegetable which is fried balls of mixed veggies, and some coconut soup that tasted like someone dumped a can of coconut milk onto some raw veggies. Then we wandered back and took a nap for several hours.

When we woke up it was dark outside. We got our full moon outfits on and wandered out to get dinner. Again a bunch of places were full. We decided to go back up the hill to Lost Paradise where we had been before. We were happy to see the place much busier than before. We got pork Laarb, which is spicy minced meat, coconut soup, and pad Thai. The Laarb wasn’t too spicy to eat and we were happy to stuff ourselves before a night out.

Then we walked down the hill, onto the beach, and into the chaos. There were SO many people. Estimates said there were 10,000 people on the beach, the most since full moon party shut down because of COVID. Every bar on the beach had their own DJ blasting music and there were cocktail bucket stands everywhere you looked. Everyone seemed brimming with joy and relieved to finally be able to party like they did before pandemic times.
We started off with an overpriced bucket that had rum, OJ, and Red Bull and was actually drinkable. We wandered up and down the beach checking out the different fire dancers and beach parties. I overpaid for someone to draw some glow in the dark hearts on my arm. We danced as we moved from bar to bar but we found we actually liked the weird hippie trance part of the beach best. The music was weird but there was fewer people and cool glow in the dark sculptures. We got a couple more cocktail buckets and then switched to beers. We saw some people standing by themselves in the ocean and wondered what they were doing. We realized that all the bathrooms in the area required a fee to use, so many people were using the free natural bathroom. We hopped in the ocean a couple times, also to cool off from the heat.

All of a sudden at 2:20am the music shut off. After all our preparations I was sad the music didn’t go until dawn but in retrospect it was a good thing it stopped when it did. We wandered back to the narrow streets to find some late night snacks before heading home. We found some shawarma burritos that hit the spot. Then we wandered back to the hotel.

Sunday, April 17

We woke up around noon but the world was a terrible, trashy place. We went back to sleep and eventually in the afternoon set out to find something to eat. We went to the first restaurant nearest our hotel, called BT’s, and got fried rice and Pad Thai. It was fine. I probably wouldn’t have balked at an old fried shoe with ketchup on it. We limped back to the hotel and somehow went to sleep at 7 and slept through the whole night.

Monday, April 18

We booked an all day tour to Ang Thong National Park which is a collection of islands to the west of Koh Pha Ngan. Apparently there was a big storm coming in and the forecast said 100% chance of rain on Monday at 11am but supposed to by sunny in the afternoon. We took our chances, and at 8am the driver for the tour showed up at our hotel to pick us up. As we waited for another passenger, the rain started. By the time she got in the truck at 815 it was pouring. The other truck taxis had cages that fit onto the back snugly, with no space between the roof of the truck cab and the cage. Of course, this truck on this rainy day had a wide gap so as we cruised along all the rain water came in and smacked us in the face. We put our rain jackets on and were soaked by the time we reached the pier.

We got out and checked in before boarding an old old wooden ship. No really, the ship was all wood and looked like something Jack Sparrow would’ve traded in. We were lucky to nab some dry seats in the bottom, covered deck, and were surprised by the amount of people that had gone to sit on benches above deck. The crew informed us that, because of the storm, we’d be taking the slow boat and it would take 2 hours (rather than 45 min) to reach the park. They served us breakfast of pineapple, watermelon, granola, cookies and coffee.

We took off and all peered around nervously at the dark, choppy water. The sea was angry that day my friends. We heard the grumblings of thunder and it seemed to be getting louder. Lighting flashed in the distance, seemingly ever closer. I guessed it was because the full moon partiers had partied on the wrong day and the celestial gods were angry. It seemed a little crazy to be venturing out to remote islands in the middle of a tropical thunderstorm, but we knew the forecast predicted sunny skies in the afternoon.

At one point a guy came downstairs and said there were people upstairs voting to turn around. He asked everyone what they thought. Two European families were very adamant to not turn around, pointing to their fancy weather forecasting apps. The guy left but came back a few minutes later with a very scared looking girlfriend. They had put life jackets on and were visibly frightened. The guy told everyone that the crew was pushing rain water off the deck. He seemed to think this was evidence the boat was sinking and he urged everyone to change their minds about turning around. Carl and I didn’t know what to think. We would’ve accepted either fate but we just watched as the groups passionately argued. Finally the girl with the life jacket seemed to be crying and the European families tried to reassure her everything was going to be ok. Seconds later the rain stopped and the sky got brighter, as if the gods wanted to reassure her too. As the sea calmed, the couple did too. They ended up finding a seat right in front of us and we talked with them. They were from Amsterdam and introduced themselves as Nicoletta, a belly dancer, and Amadeus, a DJ. Turns out Nicoletta had experienced a near-sinking boat experience in Indonesia and she was still traumatized.
After a long ride we started approaching big rocky islands.

The boat stopped between two islands and we were told we could swim and snorkel around for an hour. The water was shallow and although most of the coral seemed dead it was amazing how many fish we saw. We saw tons of Sargent major fish, a few parrotfish, needle nose fish, banner fish, and a long nose butterfly fish. We even saw a puffer fish and it was as cute as they come. When we climbed back on board they had lunch waiting for us. They served green curry with rice and fried chicken strips. It was really good, and Carl even went back for seconds.

On the next stop we got out and took smaller boats to the beach. They gave us kayaks and we kayaked along the rocky bluffs along to the next beach. The sun was starting to come out and we could see how turquoise the water was. The ocean has eroded the cliffs at the base allowing us to kayak right up underneath the rocks.

At the next beach we got out and followed signs up ‘steps’ (a ladder) to a viewpoint of Emerald Lake. The lake is saltwater, formed as the mountains rose from plate tectonics and the seawater ate away at limestone. The lake was a deep green color and looked sooo inviting to jump in. Unfortunately (but probably for the best) we weren’t allowed to swim in it. Instead, as everyone climbed back down the stairs (ladder) everyone ran into the warm ocean and sat there until the tour guide told us it was time to go.

Finally they packed us into tiny boats again and took us back to the old old wooden ship. We cruised on the boat for a short time before getting to the next beach. Again they unloaded everyone into smaller boats to go ashore. This beach offered camping, a restaurant, a hike to a view point and some caves. The guide showed us where the view point trail was and wished us luck. The hike was only 500 meters (.3 miles) but it was straight up a stone staircase covered in vines and the air was so humid it felt like we were breathing in fire. We went for it and had to take a few breaks to huff and puff. Luckily, given the beach tour we were on it was totally socially acceptable to be hiking in just a swim suit. As we dripped with sweat it looked like we’d just jumped out of the pool. Toward the top the steps became steeper and less maintained. Finally, we made it, and were rewarded by 360 views of tropical island paradise. Standing up there and peering down on the Sandy beaches and turquoise water, it was hard to remember how ugly and gray the day had started.

We descended the trail and were thinking about going for a swim but we ran into our Dutch friends. They said they were going to look for the caves. Ever down for an adventure, Carl and I could not not follow them. The signs said 280 meters to the cave but the path quickly became treacherous. It was very steep and there were no steps, just thick ropes that you could hold onto with all your body weight. I don’t think the Dutch couple wanted such a hike so they decided to turn back. Carl and I could not turn around, we had to know what lay ahead. We asked our friends to hold the boat for us, in case we were late returning. This was said as a joke but it ended up being a serious concern.
Carl and I trail bashed our way upward, the trail only got worse from there. We kept seeing signs for the cave entrance so we pushed on. Finally we came to a big open cave with large openings. The advertised cave was actually behind this one, but it was so dark and we were out of time so we turned around. We admired the giant stalagmites in the big open cave and then started crawling back down as fast as we could.

I could hear boats in the distance and I sensed they were boats from our tour. Sure enough as soon as we got out of the jungle and onto the beach, we saw a boat leaving. Luckily there was still a whole other boat of passengers boarding, so the timing worked perfectly. We saw our Dutch friends and they said they were starting to worry about us but that they had been prepared to tell the boat to wait for us. Lucky we had them!
Back aboard they served us simple but good tuna sandwiches and we pushed off back toward Koh Pha Ngan. Because the weather was still miraculously nice we decided to sit upstairs. We watched the sun go down over the islands as we made the slow journey back.